Growth Dynamics Get Down

Another short message today as I have had two of my favorite people connect with me and catch up.

Well, we have all been dealing with this pandemic situation for about 50 days now, and I know we are all going crazy with the varying degrees of self-isolation. It does suck, and it is OK to go ahead and admit it. There is nothing like being free to go where you want to go when you want to go, and most of us never realized it until we could not exercise that freedom. But here we all are, still existing in this state of uncertainty and not knowing when the world will be less scary or intimidating.

At times, my tendency to be impulsive has brought me exciting surprises. I have stumbled across great restaurants or roadside wonders that I couldn't have planned to find. I just turned a corner, continued down the road and was rewarded with a gem of an experience. Sometimes the opposite has happened, resulting in wasted time or a totally, useless purchase ending up in my closet or garage. When I look at those misbegotten objects, I shake my head and wonder what I must have been thinking when I decided to grab that dust collector. No plan or goal, just an illogical decision, the list would be embarrassing if I ever wrote it out and shared with people.

I missed it yesterday, and I am fine with it.

I apologize right off the bat for jumping on the Star Wars date connection here. Those movies have been a true modern phenomenon, but I am not one of the ardent faithful of the series. Today it just seems an easy connection to take that play on words and tie it into this 7-week ritual. Again, sorry…

Yesterday the East Coast was battered by a huge wind and rain event. Starting about noon here outside of Philadelphia, the weather turned violent. Winds blew in excess of 50 miles an hour, throwing porch furniture and anything unsecured across the landscape. Soon after that started the rains came in buckets. It was the proverbial cats and dogs type of rain with sheets of water blasting my windows at my office and at home later. Inevitably when this happens, we lose power. The family was forced to call for take-out dinner and there was no TV to watch and the internet disappeared. You would have thought it was like 1990 or something!

I knew it was coming, but I did not know when it would actually arrive. Yes, I went back to the office today because working in my bedroom was not cutting it for one more day. My mind had been kicking the idea around for about a week, but I wanted to be a good citizen and remain “lock down” compliant. Finally, I just needed to grab my keys, start the truck and go to work back where it feels normal to go to work.

The Covid-19 shut down has led us into uncharted territory in quite a few areas, and perhaps the most noticeable is the Education Experiment we have thrown at our teachers and their students. Many of us have ringside seats to this process, and I do not know if it is going as anyone hoped. If you are one of the parents that is actively engaged in this homeschooling delivery you have my utmost respect for your patience and persistence.

Today was a special day for me and a special group of people. I was part of a BACK TO WORK meeting conducted over ZOOM that welcomed the entire sales force back at one of my clients. I called it a BACK TO SCHOOL event because they sell school supplies and their faces looked like they were a bunch of kids seeing their classmates for the first time after summer vacation. Big smiles and howdy dos appeared to be the order of the day for everyone involved. It was special to see a positive moment during some tough times for many of us.

OK, the days are all running together, and frankly I am struggling to get a real sense of momentum in much of anything lately. No, this is not a plea to open up businesses all over and let everyone out of their houses. We will get there, and I am on board with slower rather than faster on those decisions. I am just getting a case of cabin fever at this point. My attempt to remedy the situation was to get outside and tramp in the woods and weeds at Stroud Preserve, a local gem of a park.