3:48 PM

THE COUNTDOWN IS OVER. He is home!

I just got off the phone with Rich. He called from the plane. They just touched down. All is right with the world at this very moment. Rich is back in the United States. Thank you, God.

0:00.00

59. . .58. . .57. . .56

55. . .54. . .53. . . With every second that passes, Rich is getting closer and closer to home and closer and closer to me. Wow. Someone earlier today said that to me. . . and it really hit me. It was then that I realized-- but more like realized in my heart-- that Rich is RIGHT NOW, this very second on a plane that is flying west and is heading to the US. RIGHT NOW!

My heart lept. My eyes started to water. YES, we have waited so long. And now, right now the countdown to his return home means soooo much more. We are no longer counting days. We are counting hours, minutes, and seconds. Because every second that goes by is a second closer to having Rich home.

52. . . 51. . .50. . .49. . .

Sharing the magic of Seafarer

Camp Seafarer has always been a special place for me. I've spent over 15 summers at this camp in North Carolina and as a result it is really my second home. It is a place where I feel complete, alive, safe, and challenged to be a better person. Camp and all of my experiences at camp have molded me to be the person I am today and the person I strive to be tomorrow. And really, for the past 15 years it has been my haven. The place that I escape. The place that is mine and as a result I am very cautious to share. Oh sure, I have invited friends and family to visit me at camp, I share with them the DVDs, pictures, and stories from camp. But going there and actually immersing oneself in the world that is camp, I have chosen (99% of the time) to do it alone.

But this past weekend marked a very cool experience for me. I was able to welcome my niece, Kira, my sister, my brother-in law, and my second niece, Grace into the seafarer family. Together, we dropped Kira off to experience camp for her self as a first session camper. I am thrilled that Kira is going to camp. I can think of nothing more positive and rewarding for her than this experience. Yet I am also a bit nervous as the camp session starts, because I want terribly for the camp magic to deliver on its promise and to shape her into the young girl that she can be. I want her to love camp as much as I do. I want camp to look out for her and take care of her and know just how special she is.

I think she will do just fine at camp. She will eat up the activities, the fun, and the independence that camp can bring. She will make new friends, learn about herself, and dig deep to keep a positive attitude and to try her best in everything she does.

I have to trust the magic and let camp do its thing. It worked on me and hundreds. . . thousands. . .of other girls. No, she may not be a life long camper like me, But then again, she could be.

As Cornell Turns

Well what do you know. . . a little bit of scoop and eyebrow raising at Cornell. The big news this weekend was that our university President of 2 years is up and gone as of June 30th. He resigned. Right in the middle of Reunion Weekend during his state of the union address to all the 600+ alumni in the audience who had no clue that this was coming. Not so sure if the president's tactic was an "in your face" maneuver or something that was required of him. But the reason the president cited for his resignation was a difference in opinion on strategy between he and the Board of Trustees that cannot be rectified. Hmmmm.

Of course there is all kinds of speculation on campus. All kinds of water cooler talk. "I heard that there was tension between Inge and he", "I bet it is because of his wife" to even the comment that, "its because he is Jewish!" It seems as if gossip and rumor has taken on a new level at Cornell. Now, politics goes higher than just the petty stuff at the division and department level, there are seeds of a scandal at the highest place. ooooh, the intrigue.

But what amazes me at an Organizational Development level is the affect that this news has on the staff, the university's dynamic and our future direction. Because no one is really talking other than the standard "because of differences" the masses are left to speculate on their own, and given the fact that it is summer and there is very little else to focus our energy's on, we are left to gossip and gossip and gossip. I wish someone would lay it all out on the table so we can actually focus on the business at hand.

People are worried on what kind of impact something like this will have at an institution like Cornell. What will this do to our image? Well, I tell you, if this is all we focus on and gossip, gossip, gossip, we have destroyed our own image. . . not the president's act of resigning. Cornell is still Cornell. We have a legacy, we have a history. Trust the institution and it will prevail. An act of a simple resignation will not destroy this place. It is only if we linger in it and dwell that it can have the most damage.

It is also interesting to note the fear that an institution has when it loses its leader. Good or bad, we lost our champion, our director, our man in charge. What’s going to happen? What will happen to the two years we spent moving in this direction under the president's leadership? Will we change? Will we lose our momentum? Well, yes and no. Of course we can expect some directional change, of course some of our energies will be spent finding a new leader. But Cornell still plugs along in its institutional calendar.

Change hits people on an emotional level. It has been interesting to watch the last few days unfold and how people cope. The next year ahead will be an interesting one to say the least in the soap opera that is Cornell.