All:
Huge thanks for keeping that comments section growing. That’s what makes this community great — interaction and passion for the Saab brand.
Swade and I have spoken about this before — sometimes this whole blogger thing is a grind. It’s a grind because there are long stretches where good news is hard to come by and frustrations are high. It’s a grind because there are only so many minutes in the day and usually writing takes a lot more time that you ever thought it would. And, it’s a grind because you open up your thoughts, opinions and your feelings (at times) in a forum where there are many, many people that will find fault with your work. Or with each other, or with anything that you hold sacred.
I’ll be the first to admit that my level of tolerance for these droughts of happy news, time wasted and small criticisms is lower and lower as I age. That’s one reason that I’ve not been as active here over the last three-four months: I’ve grown weary of the angst that is the Saab situation now. I want this thing to be done. It’s not likely to be truly over for many more months. Even after a suitor is selected, there are the legal reviews, bankers to be paid, governments to be placated and people to be fired (unfortunately). I really want to hear solid, joyful words from Trollhattan. Good people kept. Plants busy building safe cars. Engineers turbocharging something that’s a joy to drive. Even the new 9-5, which should be an uplift somehow is anticlimactic to me under the pall of forced divorce.
One of the recurring challenges of sitting in this seat is the number of verbal barbs that come your way each day. It is genuinely a mountain of criticism a grain at a time. Swade is much better suited to deal with this than I am, generally, but even he has his limits. Toward the tail end of a post this very week, he opines: “why is every one busting my balls today”? Indeed. In reality it’s nearly everyday, he simply doesn’t complain much.
I’ve not been the perfect model of this behavior, especially in the last 48 hours or so, but I ask all of you to realize that this time in the history of our brand is emotionally charged and that has consequences. We’ll all have more capacity to think and to Saab if we don’t have to examine everything with the microscope of hindsight. Particularly if the facts are peripheral to the story, go with it and embrace the portion that you agree with. Who knows, you might even want to Google something to check it first or gain new insights on something that you thought you knew. Just a thought.
Thanks for reading, and comment forth!!
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