Here’s a story that I’ve been thinking about lately, something that happened to me about…20 years ago. Nothing gory or spectacular, just a subtle thing. A conversation I had with a former boss, something that most people would have forgotten. I still think about the implications of that conversation.

This particular boss seemed like a pretty amiable sort of person. Younger Baby Boomer, very creative, middle-class upbringing, had a family of his own, and shared many of the same common cultural touchstones as our peers.

One day we were talking, and I said something like, “you have to do something that feels right for your soul.” Well, this apparently stopped the conversation dead—he just stopped and looked at me with confusion and disgust. “What did you say?”