Day 22427

There are six people who work in my office suite. Five of them have offices with doors and furniture and such. Then there is me. My desk sits in the corner on the opposite side of the building in a cluster of eight cubicles.

I have no door and anyone can walk up and start talking to me without so much as a knock. I sit here by choice, even though there are three empty offices that are free for my taking. The trouble with that is that none of those three spaces has a window to the outside world.

I’m not sure how anyone else feels about this, but I’ve spent too much of my life sitting in an artificially lit room slaving away for the man. When I say too much time, I think that chronometer will tell you that I spent three years without at least a window to look out of. They were hellish years, I tell you.

In the nearly 50 years I have been gainfully employed, I have had to accomplish my duties in a variety of environments. My first job at the Skelly gas station in Eunice, New Mexico required me to be outdoors much of the time, filling gas tanks and checking oil levels. From there, I worked at a convenience store in which I fondly remember the Saturday morning sunlight coming in through the window-fronted building. If I was helping my father in his contracting business, it was usually outdoors digging a ditch or threading pipe on the back of his work truck.

In the military, I spent a lot of time in mechanical rooms, which, by their nature, are usually dirty and dark, but somehow comforting. From there, I worked in HVAC, so I was always outdoors.

Then I entered the wonderful world of office work. Even then, I usually found myself near a window. At my newspaper job, my bosses hated me so much that they moved me to a desk that was as far away from anyone in my own department. It was a favor in disguise as I was sat next to a giant window in which I could easily observe the bunnies playing in the grass and the birds searching for seeds.

Then, I ended up in a new office building in which I was issued an office with no windows, and then moved to another office in the same state. It goes without saying that these environments fed into a depression that was difficult to overcome. I had decided that wherever my desk was located, I would do everything I could to have a window.

Despite numerous attempts to get me to move, I have remained near the light. Currently, my work station looks out to the “courtyard” at the front of the office building. The building itself is called Sycamore Plaza, so you can probably tell that the main feature are sycamore trees, but there also are tall elms.

My window faces to the east and the morning sun filters through the green leaves on the trees. The view also includes a Walmart and everything that implies. Not ideal, but at least I get a good look at the homeless folks who stop by our little shaded courtyard to shoot up or take a cowboy bath with a bottle of water. Red-breasted robins search for worms in the morning in our little grass lawn. There’s also a pair of roadrunners that will come by my window every now and then. During the winter – when the trees are bare of foliage – hundreds of crows will pick through the trees looking for seeds and places to stash any food they may collect.

During those months, I will keep a supply of unsalted peanuts at my desk for a lunchtime snack for my crow friends.

There are some drawback to my window. Because we are on the ground floor, anyone can look in at me just as easily as I can look at them. From about 9 a.m. until 10:30, the angle of the sun is such than I get a glare on my computer screens. I’m also closest to the front door and am the one who has to sign for packages that are delivered, as well as answer other knocks on the door.

I’ll take the drawbacks, though, because my soul needs to see sunlight. I need to know the world exists beyond the walls I sit within. I like the idea that I can turn my head and see that the fireworks vendor is setting up a tent in the Walmart parking lot. I like the trees, I like the grass. I like the sunlight causing a glare on my computer screens.

Please, please, please don’t expect me to sit in an office, closed off even further from the world, illuminated by blue light LED lamps. It’s just not for me.