Archive File: The Asset Inventory

There was a season when this Building believed it had lost everything.

At least, that is what the first inventory report indicated.

The numbers appeared convincing.

Career: Gone.
Health: Gone.
Financial Security: Gone.
Mobility: Under Investigation.
Future Plans: Indefinitely Delayed.

Executive Council reviewed the report in complete silence.

No department questioned the accounting.

After all, the Building had just sustained catastrophic structural damage.

Of course the losses were real.

They were.

What no one realized was that the inventory itself had been incomplete.

The report counted only what had been lost.

It failed to record the assets that could not be deposited into a bank account.

At the time, no department understood that those overlooked assets would eventually become the Building’s greatest source of wealth.

Research Department was later assigned to conduct a second inventory.

The original report had been prepared during an active crisis.

Research Department considered this an understandable, though significant, accounting error.

Buildings experiencing catastrophic damage often become remarkably efficient at counting losses.

The Department therefore authorized a complete audit.

Knowledge remained.

Experience remained.

Curiosity remained.

The Building still possessed an unusual ability to solve problems, even while operating from a wheelchair.

Relationships remained.

Not every connection had disappeared.

Not every friendship had been lost.

Even the Building’s ability to encourage other people had somehow survived the collapse.

Research Department found this particularly difficult to explain.

Despite reporting severe financial deficits, the Building continued distributing valuable resources.

Sometimes those resources appeared as conversations.

Sometimes they appeared as ideas.

Sometimes they appeared as hope.

Research Department was forced to conclude that generosity had never been stored in the Building’s bank account.

This finding required Revenue Department to reopen several previously closed asset files.