INAUGURAL BLOG POST: This weekend I attended the Colorado Independent Publishers Association annual College—the annual brain dump, er, conference. Saturday’s closing session, by distant past President Kenn Amdahl, titled My Obsession Your Obsession, was brilliant. A melange/collage of thought and expression, Kenn spoke over/while playing guitar, resurrecting and interpreting 200 year old unearthed Irish folk songs while unfolding his theme: authors’ works emanate from their obsession; everyone has obsessions; connecting requires bridging obsessions.
Kenn brilliantly asserted that we authors (and I’ll include speakers) fail to communicate our essential mission because we haven’t figured out how to express our obsession. Worst case alternative is we prattle on about our books and work. That the obsession behind our presence is likely unconscious.
Thank you Kenn! I awoke at 4:30am; my subconscious, having been set to work, had produced:
My obsession is Getting it Right When Getting it Wrong Hurts Too Much.
That’s what lays behind and supports Notes from the Waiting Room: Managing a Loved One’s End of Life Hospitalization, The Option to Die in PEACE (Patient Ethical Alternative Care Elective), and How to Effectively Settle the Family Estate. My authorship, speaking, and reform activities.
Crucibles are valuable places, all the more so when we understand that they are. I describe terminal hospitalization as a crucible we slam into. Trouble with this crucible is that it’s among the roughest, and it’s damn near impossible to extract one’s patient-family once in it. It’s very hard to make right decisions there, because there’s so much to know, so little time, likely zero guidance, and virtually none of us has done the advance work (I do *not* mean advance planning, although that could, and ought, be a component).
So this is the obsession that animates my thinking, writing, speaking, and reform efforts. Getting it Right When Getting it Wrong Hurts Too Much.