Organisations & Rivers

My friend comparing organisations to rivers raised an introspective brow, but it took it’s time. It was one of those moments where your ears agreed and the head nodded to indicate it was all on board with the analogy too, but the forward motion woke the brain up from its slumber – dreaming of running through fields made of biscuits, probably. Quickly the mouth was thrown into action ‘erm . . . how?’ 

I wanted to be on-board, that’s the thing. I wanted to nod earnestly like a sagistic Rabbi, agreeing that the crop-rotations in Southern Armenia would indeed cast a macro-economic shadow over the entire region. Or something. Working in corporate offices usually opens you up to these lines every day, most of which wash over you but seem reasonable enough at the time.  
- ‘Life is like a box of chocolates’ someone will spout, to which my brain has scampered into action, like a dozing mouse pumped full of enough adrenaline to start a fight with a buffalo.  
- ‘You mean the box looks nice and glossy and the chocolates appear different, but are generally bland and the best ones are stolen first leaving only bloody coffee, and everyone knows I hate coffee, so I then mistakenly go for caramel which is actually coffee and half spit the thing out because it’s bitter and stinks, and then I have to wash my mouth out and get a toothbrush or trowel to scrape the taste off . . . is that what you mean?’ 

Indubitably, it is not quite what they mean. So, eyes agog and ears agog as well because they didn’t want to feel left out, I let my friend continue.  
​

‘Well you can’t hold back the river. No matter how you try, that river will just keep flowing. Sometimes you float along with it, sometimes you can rally against it, but the river will keep flowing on regardless. The best you can do is go along with it, floating with it, and occasionally try to guide it or divert it assist what you think is important, but ultimately the river will keep on flowing’. 

So there you go. Although . . . you can, with some artistic license, say that about pretty much anything. Life is like toilet paper: at the start it seems so long like you’ll never reach the end, full of strength and optimism, and as the day rolls on by the paper lessens and lessens, and with barely a whimper, you’re left with nothing but your pants down your ankles, with fond memories of when you had lots and lots of paper, and now you’re begging for just one more. And no one gives a sheet. 
Still, organisations - just like a river.  

Image references:
http://concert-japan.eu/spip.php?article29
​https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_roll_holder