Sylvia's Journal

I have pushed the news of our move to Kabul out via the status and mood feature on facebook, Plaxo, LinkedIn, Twitter and Skype. I don’t think I have to make any other announcements. The reactions are streaming in from my well connected circle of friends. They are mostly positive, with a few people wondering why we would want to exchange the most beautiful place in the world for one that is ugly with poverty, agression, greed and destruction.

Axel and I travelled all over Afghanistan some 30 years ago and know that behind that ugliness is a beautiful country with wonderful people and a fascinating history that goes way back into the deep past. If you don’t believe that Afghanistan is beautiful, check out Safi Airways internet site which tries to attract visitors to ‘Adventure in Afghanistan’ with a slideshow of some of its most breathtaking sites. We are lucky that we have seen those all these years ago and have at least the memories even if we cannot go there this time.

Leaving the MSH mothership, after nearly 22 years, is a complex undertaking. There is equipment to be exchanged for equipment bought under another billing code; there is my home office to be dismantled, while I will need it until the day I get on the plane. This include the DSL line, my office home phone, printer, fax and computer. There is a change in health insurance and a physical that needs to be scheduled, and then there are the things that I need to handover to colleagues, old and new. Sometimes my head is spinning, because I am also still a full time employee with my current job description and assignments, like the trip to Ethiopia next week and the ongoing coaching of teams around the world.

It was with considerable delight that I interrupted my ‘vacation-only-in-name’ to meet with Louise yesterday in Cambridge for lunch. Over chili and mussels with fries we explored our respective fields, more energy fields than professional disciplines, and found considerable overlap in the shape, intent and motivation of our work.

We also, of course, discovered we have connections to the same people, not many, but they form important nodes in our worldwide network of social changers. If displayed graphically, they would now be bold or double-circled. Aside from people we also have connections to places, like Ethiopia and South Africa. And so we exchanged websites and names of other people and groups that are trying to accomplish the same things and, no doubt, contain more connections, new and old. The encounter was just pregnant with possibilities!

After lunch I accompanied Louise to her apartment. We walked past small row houses and tiny urban gardens and through a lovely park. I could tell that the park was the result of the same kind of energy we have in common and that we help to unleash in groups. I could imagine that at some point this park had been ugly and attracted someone with a vision, who could see through the ugliness and saw a small paradise and then got others on board. And now that vision has been realized!

Louise gave me a signed copy of her book Undoing Silence that encourages ordinary people to write compellingly for social change. That’s what she does. Thanks Chuck for making the connection!