bignoseduglyguy

There was a very interesting programme on Radio 4 this morning but, as is always the way with these things, I was driving around doing errands so I only caught snatches of it. Thank goodness, then, for BBC Radio’s Listen Again service, which gives folks like me a second chance to listen to a programme via the web for a couple days after the broadcast. In my case, it was a 30 minute documentary called ‘Unsung Heroes’, which records and feelings of the ham radio volunteers in and around New York, who made a quiet but essential contribution to the 9/11 emergency response. Having learned a fair amount about amateur radio whilst on holiday, I was interested to learn of the part these volunteers played in helping in the aftermath of the attacks. Should you wish to hear the same programme – and have Real player – simply click here for a streamed version.

In some way, the barely comprehensible emormity of the tragedy that has descended upon the community of Beslan in North Ossetia has served as a cathartic coda to what has been a difficult week. At the start of the week, I learned that my good friend and colleague Bert is desperately and, it would seem, terminally ill.

In the days since, little of my normal work routine has seemed important and my mind is unerringly drawn back to thinking of my friend. Whilst words rarely capture feelings fully or adequately express emotion, the scores of messages posted by colleagues to a forum set up by Bert’s friends and family have a simple and appropriate eloquence. They are eloquent in their portrayal of a true and decent human being, a man who has a commodity that is rare in these modern times – nobility.

Yet amongst all the head shaking and swallowing back of lumps in the throat, there have been tiny moments of gladness and connection. For me, they were like the first grateful breath after waking from a bad dream or the the first glimpse of purple heather on a fire-ravaged moor. The very process of contacting folks around the globe to relay the awful news brought me back into contact with two treasured friends I had let slip from my life. Both have been an inspiration to me in different ways and have helped bring me to particular places in my life – professionally and personally. Crystal is among the most inspirational people I have met and it was perhaps fitting that a simple Google search for her name led me to a coaching website through which I was able to contact her. Papa is a charming and humourous man who has borne almost overwhelming personal tragedy himself this year and yet found more within his heart to reach out to our mutual friend.

Along with a small group of others, these three good people came into my life in the most ordinary way when we all were chosen to represent our respective regions in a new initiative at work. Some connection was made during the two weeks we spent together in Atlanta that joins us, where ever we are and what ever we do. It is only now, with the benefit of hindsight and in the shadow of sadness, that I am able to appreciate the true serendipity that brought such wonderful, selfless and like-minded people into my life.

I’ll leave you with a picture and a thought. The picture is of some, but by no means all, of the folks who made up that serendipitous mix – we may be spread across the globe and separated by much but we are always bonded by the happy moments we made for each other.

Papa – Monica – Jane – Colin – self – Bert – Oscar

The thought is this: cherish every connection and relationship, no matter how fleeting or trivial it might seem, for you may only discover too late that it means so much more than you first thought.

…a member of your team sends you the following email – and signs it.

Once upon a time, in a nice little forest, there lived an orphaned bunny and an orphaned snake. By a surprising coincidence, both were blind from birth.

One day, the bunny was hopping through the forest, and the snake was slithering through the forest, when the bunny tripped over the snake and fell down. This, of course, knocked the snake about quite a bit. “Oh, my,” said the bunny, “I’m terribly sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I’ve been blind since birth, so, I can’t see where I’m going. In fact, since I’m also an orphan, I don’t even know what I am.”

“It’s quite ok,” replied the snake. “Actually, my story is as yours. I too have been blind since birth, and also never knew my mother. Tell you what, maybe I could slither all over you, and work out what you are so at least you’ll have that going for you.”

“Oh, that would be wonderful” replied the bunny. So the snake slithered all over the bunny, and said, “Well, you’re covered with soft fur, you have really long ears, your nose twitches, and you have a soft cottony tail. I’d say that you must be a bunny rabbit.”

“Oh, thank you, thank you,” cried the bunny, in obvious excitement. The bunny suggested to the snake, “Maybe I could feel you all over with my paw, and help you the same way that you’ve helped me.”

So the bunny felt the snake all over, and remarked, “Well, you’re smooth and slippery, and you have a forked tongue, no backbone and no balls. I’d say you must be either a team leader, supervisor or possibly someone in senior management.”

– sigh –

Kevin Smith is making a sequel to Clerks. All the faces will be back according to the blurb. Jason in L.A. who gave me the heads up* via IM this morning is praying that Smith doesn’t succumb to casting Ben ‘ex Mr. Lopez’ Affleck like most of his output since the original.

*This in itself was ironic seeing as he read it in the online version of my usual UK newspaper.