"Home again, Home again, Jiggedy-Jig..."

A spinner takes a mass of wool and makes it come together into an organized yarn of useful thread. A knitter binds that thread into a useful garment that fends off the cold.

Tonight, I'm hip-to-hip with my father in the kitchen of my parents' house. We're cleaning up after an awesome dinner my mom put together. I can think of no better way to spend my last night in the USA after my awesome experience at the EMSToday Conference and the amazing meetups provided by Zoll, Chronicles of EMS and First Responder Network TV.

Mom put on a fantastic feast and Dad & I are doing are doing our duty to clean up the aftermath. We be talkin'... We talk about politics. We talk about race. We talk about women and, ultimately, we talk about music. We both love the blues and the popular music that has evolved out of the blues. He likes Bonnie Raitt and Eric Clapton. Me? I like 'em too, but I do see the DIRECT connection between the blues and Led Zepplin, the Black Keys, or, even, the Beatles.

"Sheesh, maddog! When are you going to talk about EMS? We didn't sign up for some discussion on popular music in the USA and the UK in the 20th century!"

Well, here's where it folds together:

Robert Plant and Jimmy Page didn't set out to be one of the greatest bands of the 20th century. They originally just got together to listen to some old recordings of American blues artists that were pressed onto vinyl and shipped to the UK. From this collaboration came the awesomeness that was (and still is) Led Zepplin. (If you ever doubt that connection, please listen to the Levee Song, Dazed and Confused, I Can't Quit You, Baby and just about everything else they've done  --- wikipedia link HERE)

After meeting many of my blogging professional colleagues this week (and a poet!), I'm beginning to realize that none of us set out on our own personal journey to be superstars. We just became 'medics to fill a need in our community or to advance our careers or to keep us busy or to follow our fate-given calling. Whatever the reason, we came to here, now. We are paramedics. We are internet users. We are attuned to convenient, prescient and useful collaboration.

And, as such, we are bloggers. Somehow, doing that (blogging), we become better medics. As bloggers, we gain different insight into our day-to-day work. Thus, as medics, we become better bloggers. We know we are not alone.

We all take all these disparate threads of our experiences, con-ed, seminars, advice of colleagues, websites and medical journals and we try to spin and weave something that resembles a competent practice that, under the right circumstances, can save a life or two. That's all we ask for.

But, wow, we often feel like we are the only ones holding back the tide of death and misery. How many times have each of us felt alone? I do it all the time. Every time that loneliness has cut me deep, my fingers dance on the keyboard. I tell you (the collective 'you') about it and that, in itself, fends off the lonely.

Thank you all for reminding me that I am not alone.

I say to the rest of you out there: You are not alone!

Ask the question!

Vent your rage!

Share your funny!

Say It! Ask it! Do it!

"...Do. Or do not. There is no try. ..."

I used to tell my students, "Go forth. Do great things." I can think of no better advice to my newly (re)discovered community of blogging EMS providers.

I thank you all from the very bottom of my living, breathing and creative soul.

--maddog