Home Safe!

Received an email today from Katayoon, the coach of the Iranian paddling team from previous posts. Sounds like they made it back to Iran safe and sound.

Yay!

Skye

Around this time last year I was in Scotland, on the Isle of Skye.

If I was in more of a poetic mood, I could probably come up with the right words to describe how much I love Skye and its people. I have said in the past that if I make it to heaven, it will be just like Skye. I think about it every day, and can't wait to return. Tomorrow, next week...whenever. If I turn up missing one day, and if you want to find me, you should check there first.

When work and life become difficult, and the city and the heat and the commute and the pressure start to grate on my nerves, just knowing that the sheep are meandering down the one-lane road to Dunvegan and that the hot marmalade pudding is on the stove at the Three Chimneys is enough to pull me through another day.

Another place that brings me a great deal of joy, where I am headed this weekend, is Western New York where my father's family lives. This will be my first visit since the passing of my Uncle Chuck last October 1. The family is gathering for a memorial golf tournament, and I know it will be a bitersweet reunion. I am very excited to see my family, but know that Uncle Chuck's absence will be a difficult adjustment. I miss him so much.

Of one Essence is the human race,
Thusly has Creation put the Base;
One Limb impacted is sufficient,
For all Others to feel the Mace.
—Saadi

Humbled

So, I'm up for an award. Well, maybe not up for it yet, but under the kind of consideration a check for $199 and a well prepared submission will get you.

Next time you try to sit down and summarize the last 10 years of your career, let me know how it goes. I found it extremely difficult because it required the kind of self-promotional thinking and writing that normally makes me squirm. I discovered that I really don't like trying to convince anyone that I deserve to be recognized for my work.

Something positive did come out of this process, though. I am reminded of how truly extraordinary my company and my clients are. I am reminded of how much I adore the National Press Club and everything I do there. And I am humbled by those who offered to write letters of recommendation encouraging the review committee to consider me for the award. Regardless of what happens, I have already won.

Team SCI

In my rush to tell you about my new friends from Iran, I failed to mention that some my friends here at SCI were courageous enough to hop in a raft with me and paddle down the new whitewater course at the Adventure Sports Center International in McHenry, MD. We represented our company well in the first-ever ASCI Corporate Raft Race, placing 6th out of 12 rafts (a level of mediocrity to which we are not accustomed). It is worth mentioning, however, the top 3 boats in the race were manned by Olympic-caliber paddlers. So they don't count, really.

Congratulations Team SCI for a heroic performance.

2 Years?!?

Wow -- I can't believe it's been more than two years since my last post. If you have been waiting for new material, which I sincerely doubt, I apologize for the delay and promise to try to do a better job in the future.

Today was a remarkable day. I will start at the end, as that is the part that prompted this post, and hopefully will inspire me continue writing, if not for you, for my own creative exercise. I spent time this evening with a new friend, Bob, whose schedule is more demanding than my own, yet somehow he finds time to share his thoughts with the world in blog form. So Bob -- you have unwittingly driven me to get back in the game, to pick up the laptop and write something other than email messages. Thanks. I think.

Bob and I have crossed paths accidentally once or twice by virtue of doing what we do for a living and sharing a strange compulsion for getting up early on chilly Sunday mornings in the fall and attempting to hit and throw a softball. We have developed what I think is the beginning of a great friendship, for which I am grateful. Bob is a damn good conversationalist, which is perhaps more important than all of the other notable things he has done in his life. Anyone who can sip a glass of good bourbon, smoke a B&H and talk for hours is pretty fucking awesome in my book.

The evening with Bob was preceded by an afternoon with four of the bravest, most beautiful and inspiring women I have ever met. They are from Iran, and they have changed my life. Katayoon, her daughter Roxana, and Shadi and Kimya, came to the United States from Iran to become masters at whitewater paddling, all in the hopes of becoming their country's first female whitewater paddling team to compete in the Olympics.

I am incredibly proud to know these women. Today, as we shared lunch and lovely conversation, I fought back tears at the thought of the meaning and impact of their journey to the United States, and the possibilities that lie ahead of them. I will think about these girls every day, and hope their dreams come true.

The experiences of this day have been humbling. I am reminded that life continues to provide wonderful opportunities to connect with other human beings, from around the world to across the street. Nothing I have achieved has come close to what my Iranian friends and Bob have done in their lives, but they serve as worthy models of what achievements are possible.

Thank you, friends.