It’s hot here today, the kind of hot that makes waking up difficult, and chores even more difficult – luckily we had some visitors today who brought some good company and a new batch of delicious cold gazpacho! Sylvia was carted off for another visit with her hubby and Tess and Steve took a much needed break during the day to take care of a million personal things – and to try and sort out a way for Steve to get back up to Ontario (if anyone knows anyone who is headed north, let us know. We’re looking for ride shares or cheap bus/plane tickets). I have been busy updating the nurses station (will take a picture of this very helpful improvement to the house and post it on my Flickr site later), and I am pleased to announce that we are slowly checking things off the list (although as soon as a space is made on the whiteboard, another thing takes it’s place!). So, as Joe mentioned, we are trying to organize ourselves so that in the coming weeks and months it will be easier for folks who want to help to know what needs to be done. We have divided the work into groupings as follows:
1. Housekeeping: This covers the daily/weekly chore list of things to do around the home including, but not limited to things like laundry, dishes, trash, vacuuming, general clutter management, meal preparation, grocery shopping, fish and animal care, and most importantly yard maintainence (this may be where some help would be appreciated). Ted has done an amazing job watering the flowers and garden everyday, but there is still a lot of stuff that might be good for people to sign up for. Here is the list:
Weeding/flower maintainence (deadheading, etc)
Lawnmowing (this needs to be done once a week – let’s say every Thursday, since Steve just did it yesterday)
Lawn watering (with the sprinkler that seems to have vanished – this obviously requires not much work after all the sprinklers are in place – but currently we have none). If anyone has extra sprinklers that we could borrow that would be amazing – and if anyone has passion around setting this up/helping us find some sprinklers, we can make a chart here at the house that has info about when they need to be turned on, so anyone who is visiting can just turn the hose on, then turn it off. Simple. I think my father said (since the grass is rapidly dying) that once a day for 20 minutes should do it for now.
Then, coming in October we will need to start thinking about winterizing the property, which is going to be a lot of work – but we can deal with that later.
Another thing that we will need to start thinking about sooner than later is getting the house ready for another patient – which will require some more furniture moving/organization including bringing down the other twin bed from upstairs, or taking Diane up on her offer of the extra queen bed that she and her husband have. Either way, there will need to be some more clutter removal and heavy lifting (maybe taking some of you up on your storage offers) that will need to happen soon (in the next 2 weeks it looks like).
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2. Patient Advocacy: This includes things like:
Precription filling/picking up
Appointment making/rides to appointments
Calls to MSH HR and BCBSMA to figure out when paid benefits from their health insurance starts to stop (VNA), and possibly what other types of services are included in their coverage (accupuncture/alternative healing/massage therapy etc ???)
Nutrition – we need to begin to think about what the best type of food is during the recovery time – my guess is that they are going to need to eat certain types of food more than others so that tey are getting the right nutrients/vitamins in their systems (especially since they are not moving around much). I think we’d rather have them eating spinach, for example, instead of taking vitamins/pills for Iron defficiency (I don’t know a thing about this stuff).
Occupational Therapy/Physical Therapy (knowledge of what the people who come here to do with them do, and what we can do to keep Axel and Sylvia working towards goals set by the O/T and P/T folks when they are not here)
Therapy – this comes in the guise of ‘professional’ therapy with Paul, but also includes therapy with friends. There is going to be a real need to talk through a lot of what has happened, and Paul has already been a great asset, but talking to friends is very important too. When they are ready, a nice quiet afternoon sitting by the ocean and listening might be a nice gift that any of you can offer.
Other advice (medical, emotional, etc) Some of you have already offered this, and we may take you up on this soon. Joe, for instance, has a lot of experience to share in going through crisis – and in fact this helpful list was brought to life with his help). This is a bit of a vague area, but as we all know, knowledge sharing is good. I’ll leave it at that for now.
In the interest of not making this a 90 page entry, I’ll move on to category 3.
3. Counseling/Coaching This has already been addressed a bit, but the whole moving forward piece is going to be quite important. We have included Career Counseling and Transition Managemet in this category. How do we move forward, what affect will all this have on our careers/schooling. What pieces of our lives do we pick up and resume and what parts of our lives need adjusting. This event has been and will continue to be a life changing event, so how do we deal with this/what are the implications of all this? I think this will get tied into the Therapy piece, but this may also be another set of conversations that needs to happen at some point. I know that my mother has been already a bit overwhelmed by people asking her when she is going to come to work, and if she can do this project and that – and it’s just too early. This recovery is going to take a long time, and any rushing forward to get into the old swing of things just isn’t a good idea right now.
4. Caregiver Support This is a category that many of you have already helped out in, which includes:
Respite for Tessa, Steve, Sita, Jim and anyone else who comes to stay to look after Axel and Sylvia and take care of the house. We all need a break sometimes, and if people want to come and spend the night sometime, or take over for the day, or drive mum/dad to appointment – that would be great. Just call and let us know when you want to come (or we will post dates that need to be filled – which I will begin doing after I post this long novel of an entry). This also includes Filling in for me when I’m off working. I currently have some work coming up in Dallas and will be gone from the eve of August 20 (Monday I think) until midnight on August 25 (Saturday?). Tessa and Steve will still be here, and Jim will be here (but probably working during the day – we still have to sort out where (some of you should expect a phone call next week)) – but we will probably need some extra help that week. Please let us know when/if you are available to come for the day/night. I also have accepted some work in Shanghai for September. As many of you know, Tessa and Steve will be gone as of August 31st. She has to start school again in London, Ontario shortly thereafter. So, I will in general be needing a lot more help after that, but I will be gone for about a week (the week of the 17th I think? The dates aren’t nailed down quite yet) in September and will need someone/various folks to take turns spending the night/day. It is very possible that my mother’s sister from Holland may be coming to visit suring this time, but nothing is ironed out yet.
Moving on…
5.) Finances We have already had a lot of help from Andrew & Katie Blair in setting up an account @ Manchester Savings Bank where people can donate money if they feel like it. Please understand that this is in no way being asked of you, but Andrew made a point that, for some people, this may be something they want to do. This has already been a big help, but I’m not sure how many people are aware of this, etc – so some communication about this might be nice. (Note – my parents are very open with their finances and are willing to talk about this, so don’t feel that you need to beat around the bush if you want to talk about finances with them – although I think at this point my father isn’t quite ready/doesn’t need to start thinking about this aspect yet). The main thing in this category is that we need to seek the advice of an accountant. (I have yet to get in touch with the one my family uses – this is on the to do list).
Better systems of bill paying – managing account balances, dealing with receipts etc…this is really a management job…
Fundraising (Joe’s logo idea comes into play here…) The account at Cape Ann Savings is really wonderful, but we thought there might be some more (fun) ways to get some cash flow into the house – like a nice dinner outside here at the house, or a raffle for a weekend/week (at a later date) staying here in the house and kayaking/enjoying the beach with homemade meals (kind of like a B&B idea)…haven’t really thought this one through, but there might be something fun that we can do, that everyone in this community can take part in if they want. These are ramblings at this point, and my fingers are tiring…
6. FUN! What you’ve all been waiting for…
we will need some monotony breaking!
This includes:
Movies
Game night
Spa/Massage treatment at home
etc…I’m sure you can think of more…
So – there is is. This is the result of some early brainstorming with Joe. Obviously, a lot of this is stuff Tess and Steve and Jim and I will take care of – there is no expectation that anyone is going to come and empty the commode every morning, or to pay our bills for us, but I wanted to share this list with all of you so you understand what’s going on here – in the interest of keeping this whole recovery process transparent – and because I am sure there is stuff on the list that I assume we have to do ourselves that someone may say ‘hey, I can do that!’ and then take a big load off our shoulders. One thing that is currently on the ‘Top of Mind’ board at the nursing station is to create a comprehensive list of names/numbers of people who are available to come stay for the day/night/bring food, etc. We are going to make a book that we can leave on the table, so it is easy to sort through and call people. It would be nice to have some sense as well what the best day to call would be (things like ‘sunday’s no good, Wednesday is best for me…etc’).
Ummm. I’m sick of writing – this was enough for today. I will make Tessa write an update about the folks and how they are doing. Check out the flickr site for some more folks – Annie is going to send me a nice photo of mum & dad at Shaugnessey today, and you should really check out the pirate photos from yesterday if you haven’t already. Tessa and I got him some props at the Pirate Museum in Salem.
Love,
Sita
sita@klompje.com
tessamagnuson@gmail.com
I can’t help making comparisons between the before and the after (the crash). I used to wake up at 5 AM. Axel used to comment on how instantly I turned ‘on’ in the morning, my brain springing into action, my body swinging itself out of bed, all in nanoseconds. Now it feels as if I slowly swim to the surface of awareness. With each inch that I get closer, I am getting also more conscious of the 1000 little aches as the body wakes up. Sometimes it takes me 30 minutes to wake up like that.
Yesterday Axel’s therapist Paul showed up, on Sita’s request. We sat outside looking at the Cove slowly filling in with the tide and I talked, cried, discovered while Paul mostly listened and from time to time pointed out things that I had overlooked. Such as, that in time of crisis or hardship (not really having experienced any trauma like this in my life), the first person I’d turn to is always the person who is my very best friend, Axel. Yet in these last 3 weeks he was the one person I had not spent even a second alone with. We could not hold each other; we couldn’t even talk privately as our two best sides matched up with his ear that could not hear. Try to have an intimate conversation when you have to communicate by shouting, with all sorts of caretakers and random hospital roommates around you.
When I asked Paul about the billing for this conversation he smiled and said, did you not read the conditions in my brochure? It says that for people who survived a plain crash I don’t send a bill. Thanks Paul, it was a most wonderful conversation.
Then came Jono, President of MSH, who discovered not only this most beautiful part of the world but also that the big stone house across the cover is the house of his college mate George Putnam III. We chatted while the Cove continued to fill up. Jono is no stranger to getting phone calls after work hours about staff and plane crashes, but luckily this one ended well. He has been cheering the three of us on from that fateful Saturday when he showed up in the hospital and he can only see progress. Thanks Jono for coming all the way to see me; I know time is precious to you and I deeply appreciate your gift of time and attention.
After a quick visit from the VNA nurse, who will discharge me next week as I return to my usual care provider in Manchester Tessa took me to see Axel. This was going to be the private visit while Joe and Sita and Tessa had lunch and their last powwow before Joe headed back to San Diego. Axel and I sat in our wheelchairs facing each other. It is a bit awkward, you can’t hold each other, or snuggle up with breastplates, plaster casts and fingers that don’t work on their own but we touched, held hands and cried a bit and then the private moment was over as doctors and therapist filed in and succeeded each other in quick succession with a focus on the needs of the body, rather than the mind. Nevertheless, all the things they talked about are very important to us, such as, will the nerve damage be for good or temporarily and how can we avoid a trip to Worcester.
After all, we had had our few moment together alone. We are changed now in that we are grateful for small mercies and our needs are simple. Just being together is a treat.
In the evening Sarah and Elena from work showed up with a delicious chicken/salmon salad, including wine for the girls and strawberries and cream, plus office stories and greetings from everyone.
Funny, only a month I was trying to lose some excess weight and now everyone is cheering me on (“mangi, mangi, mangi!”). Much emphasis on my GI system and the need to get those pounds back on. By the way, the news from the GI front is good, even though it is a battlefield of chemicals vying for victory, the white team putting the system to sleep and the yellow team rousing it to do its noisy and messy work. Yellow is slightly ahead!
It was a good day. Special thanks to our dear friends Carol and Chris from Seatttle/DC who provided for ongoing massage support for the caretakers just when we wondered how we could get that to continue. We are immensely grateful. The universe is providing to us with such abundance that it fills us with awe.
It is Thursday morning. Joe is leaving today, a piece of reality that I ignored until I saw him getting that ramp in yesterday without taking a break – as there was no break to spare. Then it hit me. Joe has been getting us through the transition from immediate disaster relief to project management and helping the girls organize (for) this unimagined new life for the next couple of months. They hadn’t expected to care for their parents just yet.
Joe, I don’t know how to thank you for what you have brought, value definitely, some levity, your understanding of networks and how to help them focus and provide value, tons of expertise in calamity management and an endless supply of love and patience. We are humbled by your selflessness and hate to see you go. Have a wonderful trip to Europe with Rita. We know you will follow us via this site. Thanks.
Ann Buxbaum came for a visit in the morning and helped me shower at the neighbors and after that we just sat and talked and gossiped in the way we have for nearly 20 years at MSH. She brought a sushi lunch which we ate outside. Later Abigail Axelrod, a massage therapist from Gloucester showed up and gave Sita and Tessa a badly needed yoga massage, to get their muscles to relax and some of that tension out. She will come back once a week to work with them.
My physical therapist showed up and discharged me after checking my use of the ramp and showing some more exercises. There is not much he can do with me until my cast comes off. I used the walker to hop from the sitting area in the yard to the bathroom inside and back, which is probably why I was completely exhausted by the time Tessa took off for Salem. I had planned to go with her but did not have the energy. I heard about Axel’s good progress from all those who saw him.
I successfully transferred my care from Worcester to local specialists and care givers and so I am pleased that I don’t have to make that trip again. We are still working on Axel who has been called in for a follow up in Worcester but we are making sure this is not going to happen and find him a spine doctor and other specialists locally with the help of Shaughnessy and our own family doctor.
Sometime in the morning a box with moldy stuff arrived from the FAA. An eerie sight: it contained our personal effects from the plane: Axel’s backpack and notebook, his camera, my cell phone, my flight bag and some clothes. I had given up on those and had already ordered a new cell phone. The camera contained the pictures from our day’s outing. It’s good that we don’t know our future. We all look so happy and are having such a good time! I will ask Sita to post these pictures on her Flickr site.
A rough night, waking up a lot, dreams which much movement, which had to do with having to get back to work and being driven by a boy scout on vacation who is having a fun time and not in the least concerned with me getting back to work. Alison, I did read your email and Skype and have not responded because I don’t know what to say, too overwhelmed by the questions and the realization that I am out of commission for awhile. Call me and ask me one question at a time and I will try to answer.
I cried, Birgit, when I read your posting in the guestbook this morning. Thank you so much (it was a good cry, of the blessed kind). Thanks to everyone for your continuing prayers and support and your writings in the guestbook, it is the first thing that I read in the morning and it props me up and gets me through those long early morning hours when the house and the world are so still.
8/1/07 Joe Sterling
Lobster Cove Office of Calamity Management, outgoing coordinator
Relief #8 – Axel’s neck brace came off today, and his head stayed on. He was in good spirits and continues to get worked out by his therapists. He’s down to one assistant to get in and out of bed, and has been seen walking the hall with a walker and wearing pants (alas, ladies, no more drafty hospital gowns for our dapper friend). I gather he enjoyed a shower today with a nurse, instead of the in bed wash-up. All things considered, it’s been a remarkable week.
I can report two developments on the home front and one wacky idea.
It’s so crazy it just might work!
1) Ramping up. A wheelchair ramp graces the front door of Magnuson Manor. It’s 4 feet wide and 16 feet long with an easy incline. It has a gray painted no-slip surface and green guardrails. Sita’s boyfriend Jim’s father, Mark, is a journeyman woodworker who visited today. Before finding Sylvia in blissful repose under the trees in the backyard, Mark spotted the ramp. “What’s that? You hired somebody to build a ramp and didn’t call me first…” Sylvia’s explanation that a visitor built it helped us all avert one of those embarrassing who-can-give-the-most conflicts. Since I am leaving tomorrow, I asked Mark if he would survey my amateur carpentry and please make it better. Crisis quelled, construction baton passed.
2) Calamity Management. Sita, Tessa, and I took some minutes today to make up the lists of to-do’s I mentioned in my last post. Though we’re not ready to post those yet, there is good progress. The most exciting byproduct is the new “Nurses Station” that now fills one wall in the entry foyer of Magnuson Manor. Sita has created a wall of marker boards, calendars, lists of to-do’s, and pouches for medical bills and the all-important receipts. Before long, whoever gets up that ramp and over the threshold – be they milkman, paperboy, FedEx delivery stud-muffin, or eager friend – will know what needs to be done. They will sign up for a task, or tour of duty on a “LoCo OCM” team, just because it will be fun to write their name on a wall in someone else’s house! Stay tuned for more LoCo OCM project management tools coming to a web site near you.
3) The Crazy Idea. What is the LoCo OCM? Lobster Cove Office of Calamity Management. Doesn’t roll of the tongue like NYPD or CSI, but you get the idea. How do we know who is LoCo OCM? I thought you’d never ask.
Strong networks always have ways of identifying their members at a glance. Secret handshakes are very James Bond. Eye patches work but have bad side effects. These days a globally recognized brand is the way to go. So, first thing this morning we started work on a logo that we’re sure will soon grace T-shirts worldwide. The current design is sort of a mash-up of a heart with airplane wings and lobster claws, and bearing the LoCo OCM label inside. We’re considering, regional subtitles under the logo to reveal from which OCM station you hail: Brussels, Boston, Beverly, Kabul, Kansas, Kenya… How this logo of flying lobster love will benefit the Magnuson cause locally, we’re not sure yet.
Did I mention that this mark of community solidarity can be applied to coffee mugs, tote bags, bumper stickers, hats, and baby clothes? I’m looking into http://www.CafePress.com who provides a wonderful online service that will put your art on anything on demand and handles the online sales to boot. LoCo logo swag would provide another vehicle for friends and family to help offset the incoming medical bills and other expenses. In exchange, our network will be identifiable all over the world. If you would buy a LoCo mug or T-shirt to help the cause let us know.
Tomorrow evening I get on a plane home to sunny San Diego. As my friend, Michael Kauffman, taught me almost 20 years ago, “The key to helping an organization achieve accelerated results is to show up and add value.” I did my best this week to do so.
The baton is up for grabs.
Cheers,
Joe Sterling
619-659-1234 Joe@SterlingInsights.com
Some moments I get a glimpse of this abyss or precipice. I shuffle close by, thinking I am ready to peak in and then I can’t, my brain wills my mind’s eye away. It is the abyss ‘of alternative outcomes.’ Why do I want to go there if we accomplished the most desirable of all outcomes is a mystery, but something is tugging at me.
There are a series of before/after images that play themselves out like a film: Axel and me putting our gear into the car that fateful Saturday, all excited about a new flying adventure. The departure from Beverly, the glorious day that was shining over Essex and neighboring counties. I think off the first trip in which I shuttled Morsi, Neveen and Ahmad from Gardner to Montagu, then flying back with Ahmad to pick Joan and Axel up. Everyone snapping pictures like crazy. It was such a wonderful day, I felt confident in the plane and if there was any hesitance on the side of Joan, Morsi and the kids, they were quickly able to enjoy the view from the sky. We had a great picnic at the Turner’s Falls airfield.
And then comes the part I want to rewind and do over. The part where I want to take the pilot error out. The part that changed everything (EVERYTHING). Images of us ‘stuck in the mud’ – how long it took for me to come to that momentous and most frightening realization: that we should/could have died in that crash, or one or two of us could have; how I screwed up and dragged our own and Joan’s family into this – and then trying to figure out what this ‘this’ is: a nightmare? An endless series of blessings? A costly mistake that will suck us all dry? An incredible burden placed on people I love so much? A series of pains (in the neck, in the gut, in the belly, in the ribs, in the arms, feet, hips, etc.)? A gigantic mess-up of Axel’s school and career plans, Joan and Morsi’s summer plans, Ahmad and Neveen’s dream trip to the US, etc.
The crash site, in my mind still has a yellow police ribbon around it which says ‘don’t go there.’ Part of me complies and another part is trying to sneak past it when no one is looking.
I’m much too exhausted to write much today about our fantastic trip to Worcester, but I did post some really lovely photos of my mum’s blistered and yellow foot which saw the light of day (flourescent lighting counts I think) for the first time in two weeks today. She got a real cast put on by a nice guy from Ghana. We decided to go with the blue cast, although I was really hoping she’d pick the american flag/camo cast – i thought it would be appropriate for the paintball outing i have scheduled for next week.
I learned some things today which I will share with you all. 1a). Don’t ever drive a car anywhere near the pike/128/boston/north shore/290 etc… between the hours of 7am and 6pm. It’s just awful. 1b). Especially not on 3 hours of sleep. 2a). Coffee and Oatmeal are good for constipation. 2b). Coffee can protect you from skin cancer (and will make trolls dance out of your faucets? come on…). 3) Hospital turkey is not good. 4). Wouburn is a pain and the drivers there are awful.
Anyway – go check out mum’s lovely foot on my flickr site(don’t look while you’re eating dinner).
later, friends!
s.
I can’t believe I wrote ‘contraception’ rather than ‘contraption.’ thanks for pointing that out Ann; clearly, we can’t help ourselves after so many years of editing and working in the field of reproductive health, the fingers typing the word on their own ignoring signals from the brain that another word was wanted.
Sita and I left at 7:15 AM for Worcester this morning and returned 11 hours later. We are both exhausted. It was an ordeal that I would like to spare Axel and Joan. Tomorrow we are going to find local orthopedes for myself and Axel in and around Beverly so that no one ever has to do this again.
My last stitches were taken out. Sita will probably be able to show for some time the imprint of my nails as I dug deep into her palms during the removal of my knee stitches (both sides). These stitches were left in for a full two weeks because of the placing of the scars. After two weeks the skin had almost completely healed over the stitches. The doctor was pleased. Now it’s just a matter of vitamin E and staying out of the sun. The belly incision has also healed well, much better than the scar of one of the young nurses at the fourth floor of UMMC who had had a similarly near fatal accident (in a car) some 13 years ago and offered good counsel and a view of her badly scarred belly.
I got a new cast, much lighter and fashionable. We had many choices: Hazard Orange, Neon Green, Barney Purple, OSHA Yellow, something that looks like the uniform of nursing aides (pastel hearts and happy faces), soccer balls, and Camouflage without or without the American flag. Sita and agreed immediately on Denim Blue to match my eyes. The cast maker was from Accra and we had a nice time talking about Ghana. He’s the first one who told me that he is going back to help his people. All the other West Africans we met at UMMC (mostly from Ghana and some from Nigeria) had no plans of returning to their broken health systems.
7/31/07 Joe here.
A gem from yesterday:
Sylvia: “Axel, do you have internet connection here?”
Axel: “Internet? Around here a good BM is a real accomplishment. We don’t do Internet.”
The Axel update: Davis Optometry in Beverly gladly rehabilitated Axel’s crash-proof glasses. He is seeing the world clearly once again through his current prescription thus recovering one more bit of personal power. Rehab Road now includes more moves more times per day. Axel is sitting up in his wheel chair and moving around more – still with the tortoise shell and neck brace. The sling is off the left arm, and a new splint adorns his left wrist to keep it extended. Trios of pretty young therapists have been observed prodding him around the deck. He has opted for practicing using one eye at a time, rather than wearing the pirate patch. Alas, all fashion fads come to the end of their run.
Today I was asked if Axel was my father. I’ll just leave it at that.
From the Lobster Cove Office of Calamity Management:
(LoCo CalMan for acronym lovers)
Calamities, like everything else, have a life cycle. As Sylvia alluded to in her post, this family and attending networks (you and I) have moved beyond the “Disaster Phase”. We are all now in the middle of what I call the “Clean-up Phase” – the stretch when everything gets stabilized and the dust settles. At this point we’re beginning to get a sense of what the next few months are going to look like. The prognosis for everyone’s injuries is becoming clearer, and fortunately good news is emerging daily. Stitches are coming out, bruises are fading away, and some household routines are rebooting.
At the same time, the adrenaline supply has run out, and long days of care giving, driving to and fro, and shouldering other’s routines of daily living plus new routines of home nursing are exacting their price from everyone. Sita and Tessa are making life/work adjustments and considering options for the next quarter or two. Medical bills are starting to arrive daily.
Soon, probably upon Axel’s return home in about two weeks (if we’re lucky), we will enter the “Recovery Phase.” This is the relatively longer and less dramatic stretch of Rehab Road. Each of these phases has a different personality. The tone and content of our Journal entries and your Guestbook entries reflect the transitions.
In the Recovery Phase we’ll move from patient management to project management. The vision: returning the Magnuson-Vriesendorp family to its robust and resilient state – better than before. This takes patience and persistence on everyone’s part.
In the next day or two we’ll be developing checklists of household actions that recur every day, every week, and every month, plus special appointments – all of which must get covered somehow. The goal of these lists is three-fold:
1) Provide whoever is supporting the household on a given day a quick reference for what needs to be done – this helps keep the house running smoothly. Crossed off items give everyone something to celebrate.
2) Make it easier for Sylvia and Axel to stay focused on healing rather than domestic engineering – this will be important as they begin to feel the pressure to take up the yolk of work life when they should be resting/healing. Recover as fast as sensible but no faster.
3) Make it easy for all of us to a) see what needs to be done, and b) step up to do it. With checklists, those of you who have time and energy to contribute can arrange to cover specific tasks on specific days or weeks (some tasks are local, some will be remote). This helps spread the love more evenly over the coming months. Flowers are nice, hours are nicer.
We’re looking into online tools to make it easy for this global network to continue to focus until the job is done – that being restoration of this family to full productivity. None of use can afford to have such important players off the field for long.
A reflection: It appears to me that networks of people periodically need something to focus upon, to flex their collective muscles, and to realize their network’s power for good. It’s an arduous task to act as that focal point in a global network exercise like this, but Axel and Sylvia are doing it with grace. The exciting thing is that once a network discovers itself, that it can coordinate and move resources, there’s no end to what it can accomplish. It’s important to participate because it might be your turn to play focal point next time.
Let’s see how quickly we can restore the Magnuson-Vriesendorp extended household to “better than new” robustness and resilience. It makes us all stronger. After which there should be one hell of a party!
“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower
“It ain’t over till it’s over.” – Yoggi Berra
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