Don't let reality ruin your day.  That might get some people through, but the members who show up for your meetings this fall are looking for a lot more.  Contacts, to be sure, reconnecting people in a support group to survive the giant sucking sound of the U.S. economy, but also context, a larger historical perspective with a light at the end of the tunnel.

Last week, a few speakers at The Vine provided that counterpoint.  Ric Burns, documentary noir brother of Ken, served up incredible images of New York City in 1972 that looked more like History Channel footage of a bombed-out Dresden.  New York was bankrupt and literally abandoned when then president Jerry Ford blew them off.  Burns distilled New York's DNA to its historical roots in soul-less commerce and then, in an aside casually tossed off, mentioned the secret to its resurrection: immigration.  The sobering reflection was a stark reminder of our resilience.

Of course, to be honest, another doom and gloom speaker, an economic historian, was a disaster, dishing up data to define the scale of our current situation without providing any insight to help find our way out.  Okay, in response to a sole, brave question, she did offer up a dazzling synthesis of Charles Dickens' Bleak House, noting how far we have traveled in the last hundred years, but I am not exaggerating when I reveal that our muse created a black hole late in the day, absorbing all light and oxygen in the room. We moved on, but it was a challenge.

Now, a week later, I am grateful for the highs and lows engineered into the event.  We were better for being tempered by reality, yet never surrendering to it.  Your members are your allies, and more than capable of hearing the truth, the good and bad, better prepared to start over. 

What's the alternative?

Originally posted @ Ann Oliveri