It's unavoidable that you unconsciously absorb your workplace's jargon. Eight or more hours a day, the same people all talking in the same code. Inevitable. It's a part of the office (or wherever the location is: factory floor, workshop, studio) we all take home with us. We don't just take that, there's more; there's the gossip, the bitchiness, the scandal, the grievance. But that's really shortlived, you tell the story, seek solace or agreement, whatever, that's it. Done.

Jargon is different, at least it is for me. It seeps in, it stays. I don't consciously recycle what I've used or heard...well maybe if it's a real humdinger, then it's odds on I will. Perhaps it's just because I like words. I don't know, let's just say, there's probably more receptive ground for these words to take root than there is for others.

Recently, I heard some one in a meeting talk about "Agents of change". God only knows what the context was, I've long forgotten. The term has n't though. It lives and breathes as effectively in the private world as in the business world.

It's the term I use for those people who brush against in you in life, and without them knowing it, they change you forever. Something catalytic happens. A fuse is lit. They turn thoughts around, lives around in some cases. Clearer, sharper vision on things. I don't know what Dan Brown has in mind with his novel "Angels and Demons". I've not read it, the likelihood is I won't, nevertheless the title carries weight, and extending it beyond the literal, then there are Angels who help share the burden of life, the people we talk to, swap confidences, look for reassurance; the Demons, there the ones who provoke, who challenge us - go on, try it.

Yet neither transform; it's either guidance or stimulation, and that's it. In my experience, it's only these rare people, and they've no idea they carry this power, the agents of change, that truly change lives. There is nothing magical, or supernatural, they've no "gift". But somehow, you're changed after they bump into. Reawakened. I've only encountered a handful, and that's all it's been, of this rarest of creatures. I'm in their debt, they've turned me around