Thank You. Thank You -- I continue to receive notes from many of you, based on my past couple postings, offering your concern and often carrying the phrase "If there's anything I can do..." It would be nice if there was anything to be done. That said, I may as well break down the barrier between my personal and business life that I've tried to maintain in my weblogs. That border is apparently very porous, and it's probably better to share the reality than to let the imagination of friends be bothered by unstated worries.

My father was hospitalized several weeks ago with what turned out to be a heavily damaged gall bladder and surrounding infection. It snuck up on him because symptoms were masked by the steroids he's been on for a chronic and incurable problem he has been bravely dealing with for a few years now -- pulmonary fibrosis. Even without this latest situation, he's been facing a likely very uncomfortable resolution of the fibrosis probably within the next year. Dad's a strong and resilient man, considering his condition and his 79 years, having unconsciously come through the operation, a stint on a respirator, septic shock from the gall bladder, a post-operative seizure, and near pneumonia in just the past few weeks, all exacerbated by his compromised lungs, which is making it difficult to reconcile what his body is apparently striving for with what we know are his wishes regarding quality of life.

As you know, my business writings are full of references to issues about clarity of goals, dilemmas, and uncertainty. Those concepts surely are the theme of my family's life right now. Again, thank you all for your thoughts and your support. They've meant a lot. [Frank Patrick's Focused Performance Blog]

8:26:44 PM    

And people wonder why even liberals like me are seriously considering as an option charter schools and privatized education and (god forbid) religious education? Not that religious educaton would be better at this particular issue, but SOMETHING, ANYTHING EXCEPT THE STUPIDITY OF PUBLIC EDUCATION??? We've all been there. We've all had stupid teachers and endured stupid curricula and been subject to stupid administrations ...IS THERE SOMETHING BETTER AND WHERE DO WE GO TO SIGN UP???

Morons in the News: School punishes 7-year-old for talking about his family. A 7-year-old was overheard talking about his family by a teacher, and was subsequently sent to the principals office. [Morons Dot Org]

8:23:43 PM