Dear Shane,
I hope you don’t mind me using your first name (name not changed) and I’m probably in trouble if you do but I’m going to use it anyway.
You connected with me here on several occasions and then came to visit us on several more.
I chatted to you this week and we talked about subjects ranging from heartrate variability to athlete development and dental business among other things in such a short time.
You passed this blog to other people in another country which is perhaps the greatest compliment I could ever get and I’m genuinely sorry (as I always am with everybody these days) that I couldn’t spend any more time.
Just after you left us on Thursday, we hosted an ITI study club in the practice with my friend and colleague, Nish Yadev, who is also the study club director for Nottingham beside me.
Because of the way life is and everything that we’re trying to achieve I couldn’t be at that study club because I chose to coach a boy’s football team instead (really can’t be in two places at once).
The study club was live from Ukraine presented by Vitaly Pchelnik who last week hosted a conference in his city with an auxiliary lecture theatre in an underground car park in case the air raid sirens went off so that he could continue the conference uninterrupted.
Perhaps a thousand people logged in to watch that lecture last night to hear stories from Ukraine but mostly stories of dentistry that still happens in Ukraine.
The reason that I mention the ITI study club after you left was because I really hope your visits to meet us have confirmed what you thought when you first exchanged conversations with me around these pages.
Last week I had some difficult decisions to make related to work and I made them, but I then received a message from my friend and colleague, Angela, quoting Cicero from around 50 BC with the moto “Esse Quam Videri” – to be rather than to seem.
Recently I found myself catapulted (by my own design) into a world that seems more than it is.
Shane, I really hope your visits to see us feels like we are more than we seem. I certainly felt that about you in our conversations and I’m very grateful for your connection, your contribution and your help.
See you soon!
Blog Post Number - 3262