Tsunami Anniversary Trek: T-Minus 1 Day

"The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones." — John Maynard Keynes (economist 1883-1946) (via Creativity at Work)

"Each moment is fresh. Our mind imposes the past on it. Each moment is fresh because it arises from the Nothing [or you could look at it as the field of potential]...until, that is, your mind says otherwise." - paraphrasing my teacher's words at a November evening satsang

"Rather, individuals, organizations and the community at-large are all asking: How might I completely recreate my own life, while simultaneously recreating my entire community from the ground up?" - "After Katrina: Creativity's Role in Trauma and Growth", Creative Education Foundation's General Manager's message

Re-creation and regeneration. One major theme in my return and intentions with this citizen journalism project. Many people ask me why am I going when there's a tragedy right in our backyard. Or rather than storytelling I ought to be doing something more constructive - like banging a hammer and constructing homes.

Without any doubt I feel that these tsunami stories are the richest and most complex in my lifetime - and the bond I have as a fellow survivor helps in the telling. There are lessons here to be shared for Katrina, for Rita, for Stan, for Pakistan, for what's next. 

Even for your business and for your life.

Knowing that post-traumatic growth was a possibility sustained me in the first few days, weeks, and months after the tsunami. Although surrounded by media that magnifies post-traumatic stress disorder, it was my pyschologist sister, my meditation instructor, the physical therapist who specializes in head injuries and trauma in my running group, and the reverend at church who called me at home and various individuals that held out the possibility that this could be a gateway to a richer life, not simply a return to 'what I had'.

It took roughly eight months to fully see the fruit that flowered as a result of the wisdom in their words.

In a comment by William on Robert Scoble's blog where Charles Handy, a founder of the London Business School, and his storytelling is praised (btw, Scoble has great links to Ernie the Attorney's posts from his Katrina-ravaged home yesterday plus a nice mention of this tsunamianniversary.com project):

Thanks so much for sharing with us the wisdom of Charles Handy, I found this quote of his: “It is a time for new imaginings, of windows opening even if some doors close. We need not stumble backwards into the future, casting longing glances at what used to be; we can turn round and face a new reality. It is after all a safer posture if you want to keep moving”

I would like to apply the relevance to this quote to the news today regarding the announcement by Mayor Ray Nagin that New Orleans will have the nations first wireless internet service, Overcoming Hurricane Katrina and opposition from cable television and telephone companies. Kudos to Mayor Nagin and the visionary team for new imaginings and having the guts of “not stumbling backwards into the future, casting longing glances at what use to be; but turning round and facing a new reality”.

In emergencies and disasters, I agree with Stowe Boyd's advocating: "Push hard for municipal/local wifi in every location." That's one checkmark in the grand field of potential and possibility. What might we envision next?

Bonus: I quoted Handy in first week of my resurrected blogging as he underscores the essential philosophy of my blog (this blog is actually my second, not first) back in February 2004. Besides Drucker, Handy is another of my business heroes/sheroes:

In Africa, they say there are two hungers, the lesser hunger and the greater hunger. The lesser hunger is for the things that sustain life, the goods and services, and the money to pay for them, which we all need. The greater hunger is for an answer to the question "why?", for some understanding of what that life is for. - Charles Handy, Hungry Spirit, Beyond Capitalism: A Quest for Purpose in the Modern World

p.s. Check out Creative Education Foundation's blog, Applied Imagination.

In Creative Education Foundation's "After Katrina: Creativity's Role in Trauma and Growth" by Steven Dahlberg, Steven shares these resources:

• Posttraumatic Growth: A New Perspective on Psychotraumatology
  By Richard G. Tedeschi, Ph.D., and Lawrence Calhoun, Ph.D. in Psychiatric Times, April 2004
• Managing Traumatic Stress: After Hurricane Katrina
  From the American Psychological Association
• Pathways to Posttraumatic Growth
  Paul T. P. Wong, Ph.D., Trinity Western University
• Natural Disaster: Devasting Effects of Hurricane Katrina - Post-Traumatic Stress and Mental Health Information
  National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

photos and p.p.s: New Orleans art makes a comeback in Katrina fridges (via Alan Gutierrez). I've only selected two above; check their gallery out. (And Alan Gutierrez did fantastic Katrina volunteer work around Think New Orleans. Check out his "People, Circles, and Syndicated Feeds": "A circle, of people, based around, a school, a church, a neighborhood, a cafe, bar, or restaraunt." I like circles. Sound a little like my research and social media concepts around 'salons'.