AC_1965_Web

71 AN T I OC H CO L L E G E C L A S S O F 19 6 5 5 0 t h A N N I V E R S A R Y B O O K A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z H E I L I G jagged glass. In Mexico, the internal fissures of my psychological immaturities caught up with my academic life; and there my life began again, as a recovering “nice Jewish boy.” My re- covery would lead me on a largely unguided tour of New Age frontiers of experience: Gestalt therapy, re- birthing, primal therapy, the Insight, est and est 6-day training, the 40-day Arica training, life in an Arica house, and 10 years immersed in the mys- terious wisdom of Siddha Yoga with its astonishing teacher, Baba Muktananada. In Mexico, I entered a period of “darkening,” learning to live less and less like a white guy American. I spent time haggling in the markets, buying a broken-down VW that only knew how to get from one repair shop to the next while I negotiated its return in my broken Spanish. I taught English at a local college; gained Mexican friends, even wound up one afternoon in a meeting of revolutionaries. Cuernavaca’s full moons were inescapable, a mile closer than I was used to.With all of it,I found I was able to solve the environment by treating the men like men, the women like women, and everyone like a human being. It was only when I reentered the United States that I experienced deep culture shock. After a year in Mexico,America felt like a vast, cold maze; I felt like an immigrant, baffled and alone. Mexico had been danger- ous,but it was emotionally human, at human scale. I could make my way there with my humanity as my map and compass.America felt like a de- humanized culture. People seemed subjugated, crushed by an economy that ran like a machine and treated them as parts. Through a contact, I got a job as assistant to the provost of the Massachusetts state college system. I attended meetings of the board of trustees as these high-powered per- sonalities floundered through one is- sue after another, hiring consultants so they could avoid making deci- sions as long as possible.After a few years of this, I convinced the provost to let me start a project to get long- term support from the Carnegie Foundation. I planned it with the presidents of the system’s 11 col- leges, then wrote it up into a pro- posal and defended it to Carnegie’s staff. From over 300 proposals na- tionwide, ours became the only sys- tem-wide project Carnegie chose to support. Then a consulting assignment brought me to theWashington, D.C., area and I’ve lived here since.After a daughter was born and a book proj- ect didn’t pan out, I soldToyotas and Mercedes for a while. It has been the most useful job I’ve ever had, since I had to communicate with any- one who walked through the door. Then I ran a career counseling cen- ter in Columbia, Md. After that, for half a year I lived on unemployment checks, working on a screenplay. When the checks ended, I put on my blue suit and visited management recruiters.Two offered me jobs, but the operation where I signed on was poorly run and soon I was looking for a job myself. I found one running the downtownWashington office of what was then the largest resume firm in the country. It was like the Wendy’s of the resume world—over 225 one-person offices dotted na- tionwide. After I doubled his busi- ness in the D.C. office, the owner re- warded me by opening a competing office six blocks away.When my bill- ings fell off, we parted ways. A psy- chic friend advised me to put an ad in the Post and I went into business for myself, working from my apart- ment. I did well. In 1993 the “peace dividend” was having its brief life and the military was being drawn down by 20–25%.When DoD posted an RFP for a résumé service to open in the Pentagon, dozens of résumé firms applied. For whatever reason—I’d fought with the Selective Service System dur ing Vietnam—DoD granted me a lease and I spent 14 years running my practice on the Pentagon concourse, next to Bank of America. I hired other writers. My world began including colonels and generals.Then in 2007, the Pentagon renovation reached the concourse and smaller businesses like mine were asked to vacate. Since then I’ve run my practice from home. Along the way, I began writing applica- tions for Senior Executive Service positions, the brass ring of federal service.This pays quite well and has become 70% of my practice.Helping people build their careers has done wonders for mine. In my victories for humanity de- partment, I’ve corresponded with every Democratic presidential can- didate since Jimmy Carter, contribut- ing ideas and white papers. During the 2008 campaign an op-ed of mine on language, race and politics was featured prominently in the Baltimore Sun’s Memorial Day edition. During the 2012 campaign, I developed a speech for the White House outlin- ing an economic development strat- egy that would expand Job Corps by a factor of 10 to offer an alternative to the 12 million projected school dropouts by 2020. Through several contacts, I got it filtered in to the White House.My idea was that,with its 85% success rate in getting its graduates hired, growing Job Corps 10-fold would result in a $4 trillion ROI in lives revived, value and dol- lars generated and money saved by not having to imprison another gen- eration of young Americans. I was told my speech was judged “too strong” by the White House chief of staff and was not given. [Well,Heilig, whaddya expect—a medal and pa- rade?] One of my more useful victo- ries for humanity occurred serv- ing a woman who had been a toi- let cleaner in the Pentagon for 15 years, working at the lowest possi-