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“Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all.
Thousands of little kids, and nobody’s around – nobody big, I mean – except me.
And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff.
What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff – I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them.
That’s all I do all day.
I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be.”
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J.D. Salinger (The Catcher in the Rye)
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So.
I have noted earlier on my site I loved the book “Catcher in the Rye”.
And many argue it’s out of touch with today’s world.
I say they are silly <if not wrong>.
This quote from Catcher in the Rye is one of my favorites as proof.
For is not every parent a catcher in the rye?
Is not every teacher a catcher in the rye?
Is not every good business leader a catcher in the rye?
Some of us choose to be the catcher.
Some of us, like me, love the responsibility and embraces being a catcher in the rye in business.
Sure.
A little part of me dies a little when I miss someone who mistakenly goes off the edge of that crazy cliff.
But, on the other hand, I become a better person for everyone I get to steer clear of the crazy cliff.
There are some of us who don’t really sign up to be the catcher and yet are put in that role.
Many parents are that way.
Not because they didn’t want to be but rather before you have a child it’s a little difficult to understand that crazy cliff is always there and you always have to keep at least a little eye on it.
That is one reason I respect great parents.
And then teachers.
Some begin a career as a teacher because they just love to teach. But as time goes on they realize a part of their responsibility is to watch those in the fields of rye to insure those who wander to close to the cliff that they at least know someone is paying attention <and parents should recognize that teachers fulfill that role sometimes>.
And then there are business leaders who go, go go.
Always forward focused.
And yet, over time, they realize to be the best leader a part of their role is to see the crazy cliff and catch people before they go over.
Ok.
Maybe I’m nuts for seeing all this in the catcher in the rye but that is what I see.
And maybe that’s why I loved the book even when I was young.
A part of me wanted to be the catcher in the rye.
I am sure some guidance counselor would have had me put in some institution if I had answered “be a catcher in the rye” when asked “so what do you want to be.”
But.
Now that I am here, i.e., no longer that young?
Being the catcher in the rye may be the best job in the world.