Has anyone seen my friend George?

While George Carlin’s most famous routine was about the seven words you couldn’t say on television, his enduring legacy was for inverting the language we used every day. He insisted that we get in the plane, not on it. He wondered if flight attendants were speaking English. And, he declared that the planet is fine, it’s the people who are…well, insert one the forbidden words here.

George Carlin died on Sunday at the age of 71 as probably the most influential and revered comic of the 20^th century. From his first appearances on the Ed Sullivan show, during what he called “eight or nine years of what essentially were the extended 1950’s” he gave his audience no choice but to listen, if for no other reason than to wonder what he would say next. After growing a beard and a reputation for squashing taboo for sport, Carlin landed in such historic places as the first episode of Saturday Night Live (1975) and the United States Supreme Court. Such was the pioneer he was…by his own admission finding the lines just to deliberately cross them; over and over again.

Carlin’s art, and it is art, was weaving a coarse quilt of anti-bullshit so tightly that none could penetrate, even that which we generate from the inside. No one was safe: eight presidents, the media, athletes and Tippy the farting dog were all favorite targets of maybe this last of pure situational comics. See, George didn’t need a funny story to make you laugh. He instead held that which you held sacred and without humor up to his light and spun it until you snorted in spite of yourself.

In his later years, George turned more cynical and less funny, progressing to a point that some would call just plain angry. But he never lost the edge that separated real from pure mockery, and his knack was spreading that as wide as possible to cultivate the obscure humor in what to the untrained and unanointed looked like just dirt.

His career spanned five decades and included 11 feature films and three bestselling books in addition to his countless albums, discs and TV specials. He will be most remembered; however for his riotous stage shows which usually sold all their seats, but left people on the floor in tears.

George Carlin lamented on stage in 1973 “Jeez, I hope I don’t die. By the way, you’re all going to die. Didn’t mean to remind you, but it is on your schedule” He went further to speculate on the afterlife, saying dying “should be sorta fun..the next big adventure. We’re going to find out where we’re gonna go” I am certain George is somewhere surrounded by people who cannot stop laughing.

For seven words you can and will say anywhere from now on, try these:

George, we are going to miss you.

BENDING THE LIGHT

Webster’s defines a prism as “a medium that distorts, slants or colors whatever is viewed through it.” Anyone who has ever held one knows that ordinary white light passed through a prism will break into the individual colors of the spectrum. Depending on how you hold it in the light, the color bands will be wide or narrow, fuzzy or distinct. At more acute angles to the source, the colors are crisper, more defined. But hold it obtusely and the lines of transitions become blurred.

Perspective is like the colors from a prism—the closer you are to a problem, the clearer and more narrow the lines of thought issuing towards the solution. But each step away makes it less defined; more subtle and open to interpretation. Or misinterpretation. Or freaking out.

There is no entry in Webster’s for “freaking out”, as much as our culture does it. We freak out about love (Does she want me?). About money (Is this enough?). About work (Am I good enough?). About the unknown. My definition of freaking out is the complete loss of rational thought about a single event based on a single, often skewed perspective. Whatever it’s about, it is usually groundless, almost always unwarranted and doesn’t make anything any better. Unless, of course, it helps you find perspective.

High handed as I may sound, I am not immune to the occasional bout of freak out. Lately, I’ve worried if I’m really good enough to do the things I’ve been entrusted to do, or if I’ll even make it far enough to prove that I am. Seems like the times when you least need a horror story about an experience you’re preparing to have, someone sends you theirs. Recently, I heard a story about someone else’s journey through the place I’m getting ready to go that made Freddy Kruger sound like the Easter Bunny. I took from this tale the knowledge that the totality of my dream rests on a knife’s edge and is beyond my control. Well, when the story was over, the freak out began. It seemed that the culmination of my career could be undone with the wrong word or a single failed test, and I slowly began losing it. I was in the process of unraveling to my newest friend when she quite forcefully said “Stop it.” Her tone was enough to give me pause, and she continued.

She told me a story of a friend of hers who had a dream not unlike mine with the same sort of conditional testing before he was allowed to begin. During this quest, she said, it was found that he had a serious medical problem for which the solution was life-changing surgery. Here I am convinced that the worst possible thing would be to not get my job, and this poor guy went for weeks wondering if he would even survive.

That’s where I got it, and the bent light was straight once again.

Our lives are driven, governed even, by a succession of triumphs and failures; the triumphs fleeting and the failures potentially devastating. As we move closer to the sources of our happiness, the lines between success and defeat become sharp as the knife on whose blade our illusions of that happiness rest. But, moving away, far enough away to see the big picture, we can appreciate the subtleties or our achievement enough to appreciate the degrees of accomplishment where true joy lives. Often, whatever is as bad as you can imagine in this moment was only the front door to someone else’s walk through hell, yet they survived, and so will you.

By the way, the guy—my unexpected source of perspective—did just fine. He’s gone on to live a wonderful life full of good friends and family. As was his desire, his destiny, and his life.

Too many times we distort our own light, trying to filter it too narrowly through skewed notions of what our happiness is. It is only when we step back and allow the lines between joy and despair to fade that in the spaces between we find where life is really lived.

A bittersweet week comes before me. I have three more days at work before I take about 10 days off in preparation for starting the new job. On the one hand, I’m so excited (and anxious) about the adventure I’m looking forward to, but I really do hate leaving where I am. It’s not fear of the unknown or some weird reverse of the “grass-is-greener” adage at all, but really…I’m just going to miss what I am doing and the people I work with. We’ve done so much good together in the past year that walking away now almost feels like leaving a story incomplete.

After the last goodbye on Wednesday, I’m headed to the beach for a few days to do nothing. At least, that’s my plan. Really looking forward to a little downtime before beginning the next chapter.

Do good things with the week to come, learn something new and be safe.

Eyes Wide Open

Probably the most common reasons that endeavors great or small end in failure is not our inability to achieve the goal, but rather the unwillingness to set a reasonable goal in the first place. Had man tried to land the very first airplane on the moon, we likely would still be trying to find our way there. Instead, we first learned to fly, moving in delicate baby steps towards the Sea of Tranquility. Life is about the same small steps, each representing a single attainable goal in a series of small victories on the way to the prize of your choosing. With so much in life today marked as disposable, we have been lulled by savvy marketing into the belief that anything is worth trying, and equally worth throwing away if you don’t figure it out on the first try.

Two of our greatest challenges come to mind when I think of attainable goals and the utter failure of man to recognize them: marriage and careers.

After we’d been married about two years, my wife asked me “Did you ever think you’d be this happy?”

Quite directly, I said “Yes. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have done it” Comparatively speaking, I waited a long time to get married, mostly because I knew I wouldn’t have been any good at it beforehand. I’ve loved and been loved by some amazing women, but I was never willing to put someone ahead of my dreams for myself and they were never willing to come in second. With my wife, the timing and our place in each other’s lives was perfect, and there was no doubt we belonged together. But we made that choice as informed, experienced adults; not starry-eyed kids in a fantasy or just tired of being alone. Marriage is a fairy tale, but it’s also a job. A big, rewarding and often tough job; not for the weak and not for everyone. There is an oft-quoted statistic that says over half of all U.S. marriages end in divorce. This number is based on faulty account and is misleading (the actual figure is closer to 41% as of 2005). One number that is true and shockingly large: 60% of all marriages that do end in divorce do so within the first 10 years. (HURLEY, 2005) Clear evidence that lots of couples don’t pay attention to the signs and advice given them along the way…a true lover’s leap.

And then there’s the other kind of job…work. Your career. As most faithful readers know, I will soon set out on my next professional adventure and while I’m a little nervous, I know clearly what I’m getting myself into. One of my younger friends said to me the other day “You’re going to be flying again?”

I said yes.

“That is so cool”

While I’d have to agree with him, the path I’ve chosen is about so much more, and the road to get here has been rough and rocky, littered with bad decisions and unheeded advice. Nonetheless, it has gotten me to the same place as a lot of people: a dream. Dreams; however, come in the night but must be realized in daylight, where they often fall short of everyone’s hopes. So many, too many, set their sights on their “dream job” having no idea what it really is or the foggiest notion of how to do it. These are the same people that often find themselves unhappy in careers they never intended and with no direction of escape. They are the saddest of all.

Whether it is of love or money, it is imperative to believe that you can achieve anything. Our nation was built by hands that believed they had no limits. But those hands belonged to men and women who also had no aversion to hard work and no illusions how much it would take to make their nocturnal dreams into waking reality.

Dream; but dream of what could, and will, be real.

The news broke to the world on Monday of my impending departure from my current job and the new adventure that waits before me. I find I’m so excited I can barely hold a thought in my head, yet I’m still a little anxious to pull up my professional stakes yet again. But I can say, unequivocally, that the friends and colleagues I’ve come to know in the last year are some of the best, and their absence in my daily life will be remarkable. You guys rock, and I’ll miss you.

Do good things with the week to come, learn something new and be safe.

BREAKING NEWS
Original Post Date: 6/9/08

It is with a twinge of regret that I announce that I am stepping down as the Clinical Affairs Officer to accept a position at EastCare. My last official day will June 25, but I have agreed that I will remain in a part-time, interim capacity until a successor can be chosen.

I want to thank each member of my current work family for the opportunity to serve with you to build our service into one of the premier EMS systems in the state.

All of my contact information will remain the same for the time being, so please do not hesitate to contact me if I can help you in any way.

Doing good work...
Original Post Date: 6/8/08

We all have something around the house we need to get done. Painting, mowing, cleaning…it's always something. Even at work it seems like there is always something to do that contributed indirectly to the success of the business. Lately, my work project has been people. To be specific, facilitating the professional development of new employees.

Not long ago, we hired the folks I talked about last week and, through the orientation process, it became clear that some fundamental part of their education was, well…missing. Through little fault of their own, they lacked some very basic knowledge without which we could not reasonably allow them to practice.

Long story short, we chose to remediate them. It was a labor-intensive process for all of us that went very well and, after a few weeks, one of them looked at me with surprising candor and said "I've figured it out. I'm your project, aren't I?"

She had me. Cold.

I started to give her the company line about everybody being equally important to me, but it was a lie and she would know it. Instead, I said "Would you have a problem with that?" She said she wouldn't and we went on about our business, but it got me wondering if that is the best way to train people.

Projects, mentoring, nurturing…whatever. It's all about focusing disproportionate effort towards a smaller group of people. Is it right? Absolutely. It's necessary.

Like I said, some of the employees in any career will be missing parts of the skill set needed to do what they have to do. As an administrator, you can either throw those people away or you can accept that they will require more of your time than others. You can then decide whether or not you will ask the same of them. That's the other side of this coin…they have to want it. Fortunately my project did indeed want to get better, and has. The point is, by taking time to help someone improve themselves, everybody gets something. We keep our technician, they keep their job and the patients get good care. Win-win-win.

But what about when you're the project? This happened to me recently and I must say it felt strange to be on the other side of the desk. To be someone's project can be rather daunting if, for no other reason than finding yourself in the shadow of someone else's hope for you. Mentors not only teach; they advocate, usually with vigor. There is a tremendous responsibility for the student or new employee or whoever to excel and give their best because your biggest fan has gone to bat for you and assured someone that you would. It's not as much pressure as it is approval…the stamp that says "You promised and I delivered." Your mentor's job may not be at stake, but a piece of their credibility is certainly in your supposedly-capable hands.
So, when you find someone at work who is struggling and you decide to help, remember that they should be grateful.

So should you.

This week has been fantastic! It's been like my own little summer music festival. Monday was the Eagles, then the Moody Blues on Tuesday. Outstanding! They were part of the Grand Opening Celebration of Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach. If you were there, you know the park is great; the shows were incredible; even if the venue itself sucked just a little. Their amphitheater is far too small to hold the kind of acts they have in mind. I did not; however, allow their poor planning to detract from my enjoyment of the shows.

Then on Thursday, my lovely bride calls and asks the dumbest question since why did the chicken cross the road: "Do you want to go see Jimmy Buffett this weekend?"

Duh.

After assuring her the answer to that question is always "yes", she told me that she had lucked into some tickets for the sold out show this weekend. That is how I found myself on the lawn at Walnut Creek with 35,000 of my closest friends swaying back and forth to "Southern Cross" instead of cleaning house. My wife rocks!

On a sad note, news broke this morning of the third air medical crash in less than a month. This one was in Texas, and like the one in Wisconsin in early May, was fatal. As brothers and sisters in the business, keep the families and colleagues of these fallen protectors in your prayers as they sort through what remains after the ultimate sacrifice. But, as medical professionals, remember to use the utmost discretion and thought when using air medical resources. Like us all, they take supreme risks every day when called; so be judicious when asking them to take those risks for you.

You can view and sign the condolence book here.

Do good things with the week to come, learn something new and be safe.

...late than never...
Original Post Date: 6/1/08

From a very early age, I knew what I wanted to do with my life. When I was nine years old, there was a wreck in front of my house. Nothing serious, but all the emergency folks showed up just the same. When the ambulance cam, I asked my dad what they did. He told me they care for the injured and take them to the hospital. They got out of their truck with the dazzling red light carrying bright orange bags and boxes full of, well…I didn't know. But whatever it was, it had to be as cool as the truck and the clothes and I was hooked. On that day, by the side of the road 25 years ago I made my career choice. And, since, I have harbored a certain amount of mistrust for anyone who had not felt as strongly as me for as long. Most of the great paramedics I have known told similar tales of a very early commitment to paramedicine. Therefore, in my mind, folks for whom EMS was any less than a lifelong obsession were party crashers; intent on eating the food that we long-timers paid for and leaving us to clean up the mess.

Turns out I may have been a little hasty.

While the needs of our business continue to grow, the labor force available to us is steadily shrinking. This inverted math forces administrators to cultivate trainable employees from rather non-traditional soil such as vocational reassignment centers and retraining programs. These are perfectly competent, usually intelligent people who have zero knowledge of emergency care and often choose EMS as a career option through a process of elimination. This is known in some educational circles as the "zero to hero" approach to EMS training and staffing. To educators, it presents a unique challenge wholly unlike teaching those who have genuine passion for the business. On the one hand, you don't have to worry about untraining bad behavior or correcting bad care habits because they enter the program with no habits at all. But on the other hand, there is a real risk of turning out a "cookbook" technician with a wealth of classroom knowledge and no experience. So where is the balance? I believe it is in the hands of the end-user of this new manpower—the personnel-strapped agencies.

I've recently had the opportunity to work with several brand new paramedics who, for whatever reason, did not immediately grasp the basic principles of their newly bestowed responsibility. They struggled with ideas and concepts so basic that I wondered if they and we had not all made serious mistakes by indulging their fledgling EMS aspirations. It was while sitting with one of these new medics, she on the cusp of tears, that I grew up. At that second, looking into the face of somebody who just didn't get it, I got over it, got over myself and realized that she just didn't get it YET. In that moment, I knew that the only thing standing between her and a bright EMS career or a life in the food service industry was somebody that gave a damn one way or the other. Folks like her don't need a free ride, they don't need attitude, the just need a push. And a map. And a flashlight.

For me, EMS was..is a passion. For them, it's the next thing in a life that I can barely guess at. They have passions of their own that they can share if we will let them. And we need to let them, because we need them. Badly.

It's not important that they haven't wanted to do it for 25 years. What matters is that they want to do it today.

Next: Projects.

Nice relaxing week coming up for me. Heading out on Monday to catch the Eagles in Myrtle Beach. We debated for a while about making this trip, but we had to ask ourselves…how many more chances will we have to see these guys? What are they, like 80?

In sports, the Cubs have just completed an undefeated homestand, have won seven games in a row and, are you sitting, have the best record in baseball, baby! Yeah, it's only June, but as a friend pointed out to me yesterday, they've got steam and are rolling healthy and strong towards the All-Star break.

If you have to manage, teach or live with anyone born between the years 1980 and 1997, I highly recommend an article in Newsweek titled "The Dumbest Generation? Don't Be Dumb." Interesting reading and discussion for they Generation Y'er that you know…if you can get them to put down the iPod long enough to read it.

Do good things with the week to come, learn something new and be safe.

Singin’ to me in my sleep...
Original Post Date: 5/25/08

To dismiss the importance of music in the history of mankind is to be the guy that believes this American Idol thing will never catch on. Or maybe those folks that wrote the bible really missed the mark with their "joyful noise". Music is everywhere, including my ears right this second, and it punctuates everything we do, whether we notice or not. Most of us sang along in preschool and bible school, fell in love or fell to our knees to just the right melody at just the right moment. Some danced all night, others danced in the rain, still more wish it would rain down; but we all know a song that opened a door or pushed down the wall between who we want the world to see and the reality of our soul.

Just about anyone who spends a measurable amount of time in my life gets a song attached to them. Many get more than one, like my Cookie. Other's songs change as their role in my own story changes. This is how I remember my friends at their best, and how best I capture the moment in time when I knew that someone was going to be important in my life. And, I suspect, I'm not alone. Sure, every couple has "their song", but I think so does every union, no matter how simple.

But what about every career? Just about anything that evokes or involves emotion has been romanticized in song. So where, you ask, are al the EMS songs? Few jobs are capable of producing such a complex range of feeling in a matter of seconds as the boredom and terror associated with playing chicken with death. Then, ask again, where are the EMS tunes?

Friends, they surround us.

Hollywood doesn't write a lot about ambulances or paramedics for plenty of reasons, but the biggest is that no one really cares. Honesty, EMS work is interesting chiefly to EMS people, and there aren't enough of us to sell a whole lot of CD's. (I must confess when I first wrote this, that said "records", as in vinyl….I am so old) What the big shots do write about; however, is raw feelings – love, pain and guts, and EMS is full of all three. The soul of EMS is not in the ambulance, it's in the EMT's heart on his first call. It's in the paramedic's bloodshot eyes at 4am on her 20th call in 20 hours. It's holding a new baby, it's holding a dead one. Nobody does emotion like a medic, and our songs are out there waiting to be sung.

For your homework this week, find all of the following songs, or even one, play it and think. Of your worst call, your best day. The day you fell apart in a pool of tears and blood and came out whole at the bottom. Whatever day that made you feel like you couldn't win or couldn't be stopped. Maybe you'll find meaning or peace, maybe not. Whatever you find, take comfort knowing that the right song will find you.

The List:
Turn the Page (Seger): "Out there in the spotlight, you're a million miles away. Every ounce of energy you try to give away."

Good Run of Bad Luck (Clint Black): "Gambled on a third time, fool'll tell you it's a charm"

Better Life (3 Doors Down): I'm about to see just how far I can fly, surely you're gonna break my fall"

The Space Between (Dave Matthews Band): "The space between the tears we cry is the laughter that keeps us comin' back for more"

Long Day (Matchbox 20): "Reach down your hand in your pocket, pull out some hope for me"

Wild Ones (Waylon Jennings)" Straight outta nowhere, and a little bit out of our minds"

Fire and Rain (James Taylor): I've seen fire and I've seen rain. I've seen sunny days that I thought would never end."

We Can be Heroes (David Bowie or The Wallflowers): "We can be heroes, for just one day"

Just About Right (Blackhawk): "Your shiniest day might come in the middle of the night, that's just about right"

There are a thousand more. Go find yours.

My trip to the River was incredible. Spectacular weather, good fishing and food that doesn't end. Ever. Nothing major happened, but that is after all sort of the point. I see my family so irregularly these days that the idea of doing it on purpose is no longer foreign to me. Probably something to do with getting older, too.

Speaking of getting older, just had a birthday. Thanks for all the well-wishes!

Big story in Newsweek about the rescue and recovery effort in China after a series of earthquakes and aftershocks. The article opens with a two-page photo of a soldier carrying a toddler from the wreckage on his back, the anguish on his face unmistakable.

I was reminded then of Oklahoma City and the fireman carrying the baby from the rubble of the Murrah Building in 1995. Not only the victims of this disaster need our thoughts and prayers, but also those tasked with restoring order to chaos. Those folks over there may pray to a different god than ours, but I bet they're both listening.

And finally, Hillary, if you 're reading this, let me give you some advice...
STOP IT!

Do good things with the week to come, and thanks for reading.