The Iron Door
In downtown Toronto, the impressive Canada Life Building stands along University Avenue, one of the most traditional roads of the city. Built in 1929, this Beaux-Arts masterpiece houses Great West Life; one of the largest and most respected insurance companies in Canada.
Both the building and the company are for Canadians true testaments of permanence and endurance. And if we were to categorize life by longevity and authority; it would be difficult to find stronger symbols in the whole country.
About ten years ago, say between 2010-2012, I would often visit this building to sit down with my clients. The massive size of the main doors, the intricate details on the ceiling vaults and the detailed checkered floors along the halls, easily conveyed quite a religious experience.
People dressed impeccably, casually speeding through from meeting to meeting, would also give us all a comforting sense of belonging and purpose.
Back then I would suit up as well, you know, to deliver my pristine presentations and promising reports. Back then I worked for a software firm traveling across the country… I had these amazing suits, skinny ties, and killer shoes.
It is not with a fair amount of melancholy that I write this quick story since I did become close to a few of the people there. In particular one lovely lady, she was in her mid 50s; poised, attentive and competent… we would regularly work together on projects across Canada, we made such a great team.
You see, we all have inflection points; and while most of them appear to us product of own inner struggles and some of them are triggered by those close to us, sometimes our inflection points come from the most unexpected people. I owe her an important one.
One naughty pinky finger hitting a domino in a slightly different angle, setting what with time, would become a new and fantastic trajectory, the one I am so very grateful for, the one I am living today with every sense.
She did so, inadvertently, during the last time we met. It was the briefest of our meetings, not even a real meeting, we just run into each other at the reception desk, had a few words, wish each other a great weekend and parted ways.
It was summer, a sunny Friday and we were all in a good mood, the work week was closing and everyone in the Toronto office was preparing to leave. I was waiting a document for someone before I could catch my flight back to Montreal. I remember the CEO was behind me wearing the most spectacular suit I’ve ever seen; marine-blue with thin-white stripes, a dark-brown belt and shoes combo and dark-green socks. She walks in quickly…
-Hello Alberto, how are you? ready for the weekend?
She said excited and then added; any cool plans?
-Hey! -I replied happy to see her- for sure, what a long week! You know… some bbq, pool & friends back in Montreal… might even have time to work a bit on my sculpting.
She looked at my as if I was a puppy and said something that changed my life. I remember walking out of the building a few minutes later and taking off my tie, it was choking me, I never put on another one again. Ever since, as the years went by, I slowly started replacing my suit by a wannabe Indiana Jones leather jacket and the shoes by Rambo-type boots in what is now my apocalypse-ready attire.
You know what she said? It terrified me. She said:
Don’t worry! Once you retire, you’ll have plenty of time to sculpt anyway.
Enjoy the weekend!
And she left as fast as she came by.
Seconds after, like in a movie, the gent I was waiting for showed-up and handed me the bunch of papers I was waiting for.
I was looking at him smiling, nodding but I was not there anymore, he started talking about his weekend… he had entered a pie contest, he and his wife would bake pies over the weekend.
I begun to play with the neck of my shirt, it felt a bit tight, I turned around and the green socks were staring back at me. My mouth dried up, I begun to breathe faster but managed to mumble…
Cool, what type of cakes?
The ceiling vaults felt then like French catacombs, the checkered floor became a confined chessboard and I realized that big door was made of iron, why so big, why so heavy.
Any type of cake Alberto. You should try it out. Is a lot of fun. See you next month?
For sure, happy weekend!
And the thing is, I never went back.
Canada Life Building, Toronto.