I’m not a complete stranger to the world of investment banking. Morgan Grenfell
sent me to Dublin for a while in ’85 to test a new system they’d commissioned. More recently, some time in the Nineties, I visited the London headquarters of Lehman Brothers, I can’t recall what for, but had to wait in their reception area for half an hour. It was splendid in a modern style, hushed, air-conditioned, a palace of sparkling pink granite, like a minimalist Taj Mahal. But for all its message of timeless solidity, none of this impressed.
I was drawn to the centre-piece. Other lobbies have grand flower-arrangements. Lehman Brothers had a small jungle overhanging a pond, like a botanical garden with fewer species. You’d expect lizards, butterflies and crocodiles to be in there somewhere, or Stanley seeking out Livingstone. Still, none of this impressed.
If you looked carefully, you could see a tall man tending the greenery, his long hair tied back with a bandana. There were hoses and watering-cans discreetly stashed in the undergrowth, but the man was not watering. He was unhurriedly cleaning a Peepal tree, leaf by leaf. This species of banyan, ficus religiosa, is famous as the Bodhi Tree, under which Siddartha Gautama had vowed to sit until he found the Truth.
a wayfarer’s notes 
Can I get credit for being risky?
Why do the victimizers get bailed?
To compound fracture victims?
LikeLike
B4d, I hope you are not expecting me to attempt answers.
LikeLike
When the best answer is a question I seem to admit the imbalance I could actualize.
Could actualization be the most satisfying truth?
LikeLike
Do you always answer a question with a question?
LikeLike
I am reminded of the end of the film “The Big Lobowski”.
The cowboy who sits at the bar in the bowling alley speaks to the camera, referring to “the Dude”.
“The Dude abides. I don’t know about you but I take comfort in that. It’s good knowin’ he’s out there. The Dude. Takin’ ‘er easy for all us sinners.”
LikeLike
The Dharma Bum gardener surely would've done a better job running Lehman than these folks did.
LikeLike
Indeed Charles. I have added The Big Lebowski to my list of DVDs to hire.
You may be right Marc but in any case I think the dude in Lehman's little jungle will survive better than the others, whose skills are useless outside the strange world of trading peculiar derivatives.
LikeLike
Perhaps they should have employed a lot more dharma bums! Just think, enlightened derivatives…
Arrived here via a black box.
LikeLike
Thanks Charles, have seen the Big Lobowski and see what you mean. thanks so much for the recommendation. And your quote! It is inspirational. Let us, you and I, aspire to the perfection-in-living of the Dude!
Marc & AbVan/Aty: yes, there should be more such dharma bums in business, or—if they sound too devotional for your taste (as they are for mine) more Dudes. Then our financial systems might have resilience.
LikeLike