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On a clear evening in spring, I sat in front of my monitor and watched the responses to one mind-boggling e-mail. The clouds rising over San Fernando Hospital seemed to be trying to decide whether to hide the departure of my day or to allow the gauntlet of feelings in full view. The sun and the clouds, interacting, created great washes of color towards San Miguelito. My senses were aroused, my emotions became involved, and the feeling of infinite self-smallness surrounded me. There was no secrecy...no connection..only details resting in the vision of unity at work.
It was during a domino afternoon in early-April. I was sitting next to Carmen thinking that before she handed me the business cards I had to consider how this exercise would affect others. I knew this type of scenario is as welcome as learning that you won't get your Economic Incentive Rebate. I wished I could ask someone if the plan would fall like fig cookies did the last time I tried to figure out how in the heck the Veterans Administration rates bilateral hearing loss. Perhaps, Carmen could had told me, flip a coin and let it fall either way. I sensed she didn't know what I was thinking. She handed me the cards, and from there on the project began to fold. Although it wasn't as near as other scenarios I prepared before, as I looked at the faces of my colleagues, it felt I was making an outfit from the clothes I already possessed. But it didn't mean to be one more battle staff exercise or just a social experiment. This one had the risk of changing the outcome without my deliberate intervention, as some creatures ponder but won't talk. Here, I believe, lies the greatest strength of necessity; An engagement to enjoy the delights of letting our imagination dwell on how well or how poorly we lay the wire of change in our veteran society.
Libby and I had previously agreed it was time to move on. The vision of creating real-life scenarios was quite challenging; one more time to seek lab rats. In this one, we must had allow everyone to pass us in the highway to step up to the plate of other avenues in grand fashion. The next exercise would be adjusted to a more sugary event with less collateral damage; some sort of silver-wedding with a new communications network, as a start. It meant to stand at the end of the line and let others butt in to show who is player and who lets it roll to the outfield. But how would I stick to being able to learn and memorize a task for next week instead of today? By now, everyone's curiosity and their guard were up. Even the blind man took a glance at the card. Mostly I remember he asked me if I thought Santa Carolina wine was fair, and I said it usually is if my canteen is free. Then, as he prepared to leave, he asked if I knew how to figure the rating for Glaucoma. Yes, I answered. There's a physician at Hospital America who've done well at Houston. He left leaving me mystified as to his anxiety as I sensed he did read the telephone number in the card, because he paraphrased it back to me.
The placebo effect in the Panama veteran society is well documented. You give us a sugar pill and we believe it is a powerful medication, we feel better. This experiment was born out the story of the old man who walked by the school yard every morning. The kids got used to call him Frankenstein, and he didn't like it a bit. One day, he made a deal with them. If you holler Frankenstein, I will give you, each, a dime. They all agreed, but after two weeks he stopped paying them. The kids got so upset they never pronounced Frankenstein again... Clearly, beliefs can be self-fulfilling. Since I had made up my mind to move on, then the best place to begin was to believe the scenario would achieve its goals.
You have undoubtedly seen famous people visualizing their next move. How about the referee that when under trial for alleged fixing of games, he also revealed the NBA ordered the 2002 series extended to seven games, in the same fashion? Certainly, it's all in the image! My real dream when helping veterans, was that all willing to be assisted would want to participate in being leaders as deeply ingrained in their heads by experience.
Watch my words. Our brains are listening. Unity will survive. We all maintain a running calendar of the interior and the wolves outside our perimeter. When our inner voices hint at negative things, it takes a terrible toll on our veteran energy and enthusiasm. The ball is now at the core's court. How would you enlist others to achieve unity? Who will benefit from your effort? When you encourage others to comprehend the scenario, does it make you accountable for change you can count on? Only you have the answer to these questions. Then, it's true the life cycle of any veteran society can be divided in distinct stages. A stage of dilemma is not so bad, just the difficulty of balancing stability and transition to prove no one is indispensable...and by the way, the issue of the wine was also part of the exercise. It aided to develop a protected attitude where it hurts the most; spending ten cents-worth in wisdom-towards-unity. Whenever there's ability to read the fine print of predatory tactics, I surely honor the metaphorical value of expressing what we most value in predatory defense. The blind is still great at sensing fine wine that no longer intimidates boldness. Fill me up when the wolves leave the wire...
To Juan Morgan; another great mentor of mine!
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Open to the UNIVERSE now and beyond
Cuidese...que de los buenos quedamos pocos...
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Torpedero de Batey Boricua
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