Ebb and Flow

East Biloxi MS

October 6, 2005 12:30

You've heard them. Cliches that have no meaning.

Things like "Life is a series of ebbs and flows", "Good follows bad", "It's always darkest before the dawn". Yada, Yada, Yada.

But we know better don't we, We know that they are just a bunch of sayings to keep people's spirits up. They are not true. Are they? Today's events may make you rethink that view!

We were on cloud nine, we had just finished a big job and were heading to lunch. But more importantly we were going to see Donnie Osmond. “Donnie, Donnie, Donnie” the chant rose from the back seat as I drove to Compassion Central for lunch. It was afterall the main reason we awke this morning, the main reason we were in Biloxi at all. Lunch with Donnie. It doesn't get any better than that. I hope I can get a seat.

As we got there, something was not right. The crowd was smaller expected and even smaller than it had been the day before.

“Mmm, I wonder why?”--I pondered the possible explanations:

a. Donnie Osmond is not the draw that some would like to think.
b. The weekend was over and people had gone back to work.
c. It was too late in the day for the big lunch rush.
d. They were serving hot dogs and beans
e. Donnie was not there.
f. All of the above

The correct answer is F. All of the above.

NO WAY! No one answered it correctly. I mean most people could understand the choices "b" through "e", but choice A is so ludicrous as to be just silly. Maybe I better go back and check the key.

But alas, we survived.

True our psyche was battered to the degree that not even MREs and the cute puppy who was playing by our table could lift our spirits. No Donnie. NOOOOOOOO!!!!

But as saying goes: "it is always darkest before the dawn." And today the saying was actually true.

Following the Donnie Debacle we rebounded with the best afternoon we have had there as the Handson volunteers (no longer just the interior team, but the entire organization came together in a way that could become a standard for synergy in many large corporations.

I will post more about the rest of the afternoon later (look for an essay on walls tumbling) but the short and so so sweet version what happened is that the team leaders led and all of the volunteers pulled together (with even some home owners) to get more done in a single afternoon than many organizations could pull off in a week.

I do not know the final count, but I know that we gutted a house (the initial job) and then by relying on communication across groups and by splitting the groups and recombining them, and much help from one of the family’s we were supposed to be helping, Handson got about 12 EXTRA people out of dangerous homes and into FEMA trailers in the next three days.

Wow.

As Ben reported at the meeting later that night back at Handson “it was just an amazing afternoon.” Or to me about the Bona people: "today alone made your flight down. That was really something. They were great!"

But I cannot stress enough, he could have said the same to anyone that was out in the field today. The overall team was just that good.

And to think that it all came after the crushing events news that Donnie was not there.

Maybe it really is darkest before the dawn.