Thomas P.M. Barnett

Dateline: the US Airways flight back from Phoenix to Providence, 30 March

Rushing back to make a client meeting in Providence. As soon as I touch down I will rush to the headquarters of the United Way of Rhode Island to lead a workshop of their senior leaders. Barnett Consulting is vetting its final report on the philanthropic communityís response to the Station Nightclub Fire disaster of February 2003. I will brief the group on our findings from a series of lengthy focus groups with key participants over the past several weeks. My partner (sub-contractor Bradd Hayes) and I will likewise lead the group through a series of rank-ordering exercises that explore our recommendations for future actionóor how the United Way helps prepare the philanthropic and service provider communities for the ìnext oneî (whatever that turns out to be).

The effort at doing a ìlessons learnedî has been fascinating, allowing me to resurrect many of the concepts and models we developed for disaster planning regarding Y2K. Everything old is new again.

Other things on my plate:

Editing the Esquire article with Mark Warren. We are approaching deadline. I gave Mark 4k and he wanted 2.5, so heís slimming it down. Then there is the question of an illustration they want to run with the piece: Thomas Nast-like, Mark assures me. Mark also wants me to write a new intro. One I have is something a lot of people could have written, he says, knowing how that criticism always burns my ass to no end. I will accept this challenge and look forward to Markís edit, which is always brilliant. I may be the only writer in history who loves his editors so.

Editing the Washington Post Outlook piece with assistant editor Zofia Smardz. She calls yesterday to say she has the piece and thinks itís great. Iím told not to expect too much in changes, and expect little creative struggle with her because she basically ordered up the piece from a list of topics we sent her in advance, and I feel like I basically delivered what she asked for, doing it hopefully in such a way as to both promote my book and my ideas while simultaneously giving the reader something valuable and timely in and of itself.

Then thereís the most important writing and editing assignment of the week: Iíve been asked by my Mom to deliver the eulogy at my Dadís funeral. In addition to the usual sermon by the priest, she wants me to speak on behalf of our collective family. I am deeply honored by this request, and immediately ping both her and my eldest siblings for lists of what ground I need to cover. To say I am nervous about this ìpresentationî is a gross understatement. It will be one of the hardest speeches I will ever deliver. Five minutes at Immaculate Conception, but a lifetime of love and sacrifice to capture.

Despite all this, I canít help being my Fatherís son and spending most of the flights back reading a slew of newspapers from the past two days (USA Today, NYT, WSJ). Here are the stories I canít help but blog.