Concentric Circles

Disclaimer: Take this post as you would a bland bite of food: with a grain of salt, por favor. And remember, even a Cosby-sweater wearing clown can be profound. Or not.

As our own motley group stood along the damp edges of Tarlogie Springs listening to Andy MacDonald speak, I couldn’t help but focus on the rain. Its droplets further contributed to the pristine and crucial source of Glenmorangie’s bespoke scotches, but more than that, their concentric circles are what gave me the inspiration for this post.

Throughout the course of our ambitious program, all of us (except for Uby) will endeavor to answer the following question: what’s the point of the AMCA? And, though this may seem brash, I think I found the answer as I considered the collective concentric circles.

First off, they are all essentially the same. They all have a point of origin (their center) and a path (their rippling lines). Our center? It could be our common interest in “the industry” or even the academy itself. Our path and our rippling lines? Perhaps they represent our knowledge because think about what those lines do: they overlap complementarily and they move outward, just as we hope our influence does.

On the surface of the spring, there cannot be just one set of concentric circles; a raindrop does not fall alone nor does it exist alone. And we should be no different. Our reliance upon each other is crucial. Connecting to, learning from, and growing with one another in the context of education and progression – now that’s the point of the AMCA. Or at least, that’s what it is to me.

And thus concludes what happens when one person spends too much time contemplating concentric circles.