OK, this time I mean it. I'm calm. I know I said I was before, and there was this flair up, but this time, I really think I'm OK.

I mean, it's not like they're doing this to personally persecute us. It's their strategy, and that's how they keep the wheels turning. It's worked before and it will work again. There's probably a lineup of small, struggling companies that would *love* to be wooed by BigCo. If it was such a bad thing, why did we celebrate when EyeWire was bought? Has any one of us conscientious objectors given up our stock options because the company was evil?

Uhh huh. Thought so. Me neither.

Yah, we did it better. Yah, they're gonna screw it up. It's like making sandcastles, kids. People enjoyed what we did, we all had fun, made heaps of creative folk happy and learned an immeasureable amount, but now it's time for the waves to do their work.

Tell people about what you helped make. Tell people that you had the time of your life doing it, too. Tell them that you couldn't wait to get to the office to work on it, that the challenges and inspirations and frustrations and failures that it brought about hand-jived with your creativity until new ways of making things better came forth. Tell them your colleagues were unique, thought-provoking and sometimes mentally exhausting to work with. Tell them that every one of the friends that you invited (yes, invited) to your office used "cool" or "funky" to refer to the environment, and even the feel of the office was invigorating. Taking pictures never do it justice, either - just hold the image, the sensation of what it was, dear to your heart.

Use the warmth of that memory to keep you going while you look for a new place (or to shield you as you put away the mess that remains at that old place). Time will be kind to the memories of those you sparred with. Spread some of that uniqueness that was our company (because you are the company) to all the places that you end up visiting.

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Jeez, listen to me. I think I gotta learn to lighten up a little.