Wednesday 14 April 2010

almost certainly


















A year ago today, on April 14th 2009, my dear friend and colleague Rod Wright died, at the age of just 51.

Rod was a deeply thoughtful, kind and generous man to me. He taught me a great deal and at a critical time in my life supported and encouraged me to do things I knew in my heart were the right things to do, but without him, I'm not sure if I would have done them.

So to Rod - thank you.

And to his family, Judy, Billy and Kitty - much love and power to your elbows.

One of the things Rod and I did together was a series of podcasts on dialogue. Here's the one on the key skill of Navigating.

And here's a transcript of our last few words together in that podcast.
At the time I never imagined they would have quite such a profound meaning for me:

Rod: Dialogues don’t happen in isolation. They’re part of sequences. So by closing one conversation properly, you’re setting up the next one.

Karl: The end of one journey is the beginning of the next.

Rod: And I’m afraid... Is this the end of ours? Is this the end of our journey?

Karl: It is I’m afraid. For now...

Rod: For now.

Karl: How was this for you?

Rod: It was a good journey. Thank you.

Karl: Thank you. Shall we have another one soon?

Rod: I think we almost certainly will.


2 comments:

  1. thank you for acknowledging someone you cared for in such a lovely way for others. we know people through their kindness. so often we are not present to the kindness of others. in loving this man, it lets us love you and lets others love others

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  2. Dear Rod
    Such a generous mentor to us kids at BST-BDDP and then when we grew up a bit(!) at TBWA.
    You are sorely missed my friend but still very much around.
    Thank you. And thank you Karl form sharing Rod with us. Again.

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