PAUL:	This whole multi-skilling 
project has caught me going in 
the out door.

Back in the good old 
university days, I was a 
generalist.  Jeez, I must have 
gotten credits from every 
faculty in the place and under 
an array of pseudonyms that 
has stood me in good stead the 
rest of my professional life. 

If my academic record was laid 
out, what is it I would be 
qualified to do ?  Neo-post-
structural theoretical nuclear 
bio-scubaism (criticism) 
(Nuclear literature) 
(Theoretical phys ed)(Medieval 
proto iatrogenics).  With a 
double minor in Phys Ed and 
Latin.

Or nothing, as my dad used to 
say.

Then as I ... matured, I  
turned into a specifist.  
Through a process of trial and 
error - mostly error - I honed 
what skills I had, focused my 
energies, my protoplasm, my 
kwa ... I centred myself in a 
Zen exercise that saw me kick 
bad habits and assume good 
ones.

I became uni-skilled.  
Consciously.  Because I zeroed 
in on the elemental, the grand 
unified theory of personality.  
I cleared my mind and my being 
of the clutter, the ephemera, 
the trivia, the nonsense, the 
unrequired ... I don’t need to 
know how to print a book or 
edit a documentary so’s I can 
host a radio show.

Far from it.  Sometimes the 
less you know, the better.  
This is one of those times.

So why should it be required 
that I have facility with the 
Krupps-Funkenscheit studio 
gear ?  And then what ?  Will 
they make me shovel coal at 
the transmitter site ?  Read 
the weather ?  Drive the BCN 
Mobile ?

Just what is next ?

As never before, the future 
holds all the cards.

What is it that they’re going 
to do with people like me who 
are uni-skilled, the engineer 
with great ears but a lisp, 
the human resources whiz who’s 
tone deaf, the crack news 
reader who is essentially a 
savant with absolutely no 
other human abilities ?  What 
are we going to be doing in 
the big new world of BCN 
multi-skilling ?

Cleaning toilets ?  Licking 
stamps ?  Night janitor ?

As my zen master would say, 
“That is precisely the 
answer.”


Page 3 of 3	PAULITORIAL - SHOW # 17