Transparency

You know those papers whose titles make you think Hey - that's right up my alley; should be a good thing to read, but after a paragraph you discover your thoughts have wandered to a parallel universe and you actually don't remember what the paper is about.

So you start reading again. And again. Eventually I come to think that surely it cannot be that bad. If only I take it slow, I'll understand. So I start reading again, paying particular attention to every word, one word at a time. Then you figure out that even the first sentence is totally incomprehensible; not because of the language, mind you: whether it were written in English, Flemish or Japanese - it would be just as easy to understand.

After digging through things for a while longer, fear and a faint feeling of sickness and disgust then either make that I ask someone else to translate some things to normal language, or make me decide I've had enough of it - and leave it be.


The reason I'm writing this at present, is because I've just been registered as an employee of West Virginia University (WVU). As part of that, I got myself some homework: a pile of paper (trust me, it's heavy) on "Employee benefits". Because, as the accompanying letter explains it: "The Employee Benefit program at the University is a significant portion of your overall compensation, and we urge you to review it carefully." That's the last thing I understood. I think the documents talk about retirement funds, health care, life and other insurances and quite possibly some more things, but often I don't even understand the meaning of the full title of the documents provided. This, somehow, reminds me of Mozart.

As many of you may know, for all his genius and employment, Mozart died a poor man - beautifully portrayed in the movie Amadeus. (Those who haven't seen that movie, should. I'm far from a Mozart fan, but that movie _is_ good.) The reason Mozart died a poor man, I couldn't ever really grasp, until maybe today: he didn't know how to handle his money. Browsing through the brochures and papers, I get the urge to treat it as a paper: to hell with it - what bad could come of it if I just ignored all this? I'm not retiring - I don't need insurance, I won't get ill and if I did, do you really think I'd take the time to figure out how to get things properly reimbursed?

Now I guess Mozart's problem was a bit different: I'm not about to lose my money in throwing more parties than I can financially bear (you all know me far too well in that respect), but I guess neglecting things like retirement and health cover might come back to bite you when you least need it.


To be fair, I should mention we're not left to our own devices: there'll be a meeting (class?) in a week or so, where all will be explained. All? Let's hope so. Thinking about that meeting, I know one question I'll ask: Could you please explain this to me - like I was a five year old. If they ask what to explain; what exactly it is that I don't understand, I might just reply what we used to reply in our Latin classes of high school: I don't understand any of it.