Many of you have likely seen Purl, the new short film by Pixar about a ball of yarn who is the lone “other” working at BRO Capital. The story follows Purl as she adapts to fit in with her colleagues, doing everything she can to be less Purl and more Bro.
Then one day another ball of yarn arrives, and with this arrival comes a moment of reckoning. Will Purl help the new ball of yarn, risking all she’s gained, and reminding herself of all she’s lost?
The story has a happy ending, and not just for the balls of yarn, but for everyone. Other folks who are neither Bros nor Yarns arrive. The Bros are happier, the team is thriving, and surely their investors are benefiting too.
But I have a little secret. At the moment of decision, when the elevator doors were about to close, my first thought was, oh no, Purl’s going to leave that new ball of yarn. And my second thought was, well, that newbie needs to toughen up.
Things run deep.
Long after we think we’ve adjusted – and hopefully improved – there’s a root still underground, just waiting to sprout. As Faulkner said, “the past is never dead. It’s not even past.”
Dear friends, if an unwelcome root starts sprouting for us this week, before we cut it back, I hope we take the time to examine it, to see where it came from, to see if it might be dug out a little more completely.
And to all of my colleagues who have been Purls to me, both men and women, leaping off elevators at those crucial moments —
thank you.