So no kidding, there we were, a day away from a family vacation to Paris, France for the long Thanksgiving weekend. We were going to stay at the Novotel in downtown Paris and were planning to get the kids to the pool shortly after arrival then I received my COVID-19 Test results … COVID Detected.
A week earlier I attended a planning conference in Grafenwöhr, Germany and several of the attendees tested positive prior to their departure. Knowing colleagues who have been vaccinated also tested positive, I did the responsible thing and got a COVID PCR test shortly after returning from my work trip. The trip was cancelled, luckily Claudia picked up a turkey at the grocery store prior to us learning the results because our son, Dominic, was adamant about having turkey for Thanksgiving. On the down side, the hotel refused to give us a refund or voucher, that’s fine, it just cost us that much to learn we should never stay at that establishment down the road.
Dynamic Re-task
We spent the better part of Thanksgiving Day going through the five phases of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance. After processing it all we went into the rapid decision-making synchronization process, and after an abbreviated mission analysis we were able to develop a feasible, acceptable, suitable, and complete. Yes, I left out distinguishable, but we only war-gamed one course of action. Sorry for the operational speak, but we were doing crisis action planning. We let the games commence on Black Friday, and we acted like Bill Murray in Groundhog’s Day and took a mulligan to salvage Thanksgiving for our family.
No plan of operations reaches with any certainty beyond the first encounter with the enemy’s main force.” ~Helmuth von Moltke, Prussian Military Commander
Susan Ratcliffe (2016). Oxford Essential Quotes 4th Edition. Oxford University Press
Claudia took command and control of the kitchen and I took responsibility of cleaning, ambience, and did my best to ensure our kids didn’t die of boredom being in quarantine for the holiday. We wore the table out with board games, the television was a great ally, and a garage can be a garage, or a kids playland with the right attitude and creative minds. I will not lie, this was a hard pill to swallow with all things considered. Claudia and I are vaccinated, and we had to pull Dominic from school due to CDC guidelines and local policy. However, we met the mark with our Thanksgiving Day do-over and the evening ended with statements of it being the best Thanksgiving Day ever from Dominic and Brianna. No one is immune to life’s antidotes, but it’s all in how you handle the audibles that counts. One thing my deployments have taught me is home is where your family is and being together is all that matters.
Collateral Goodness
It has been an interesting challenge digressing back to telework and homeschooling. Just because my son is home from school doesn’t mean he would be able to watch his tablet all day and just because I’m at home doesn’t mean there isn’t a demand from the office I have to meet each day. Additionally, to be fair to everyone whose cheese was moved, Claudia had to adjust to her routine being over-turned because the serenity of working from home was encroached on by a displaced employee and student. True love is being able to cohabitate with your family for prolonged periods of time and refraining from physical violence to settle disputes after the first couple of days.
Life is not a PG feel-good movie. Real life often ends badly. Literature tries to document this reality, while showing us it is still possible for us to endure nobly.” ~Matthew Quick, The Sliver Linings Playbook
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2915346-the-silver-linings-playbook
It’s not lost on us that many people have lost way more during the COVID-19 pandemic than a family vacation, and I do not want to be insensitive to the many individuals and families that have lost loved ones. My family and I were asymptomatic for the most part. We had mild Flu-like symptoms, but nothing beyond an uncomfortable night’s sleep or pre-fever temperature. We were thankful for our health, being together, and our ability to turn a bad situation into an amazing family event.
Rolling for Resiliency
One outlier in our family isolation power routine was our ability to train at our gym, Vuong Doan Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, in Hofheim am Taunus, Germany. There is no forgiveness for passing any sort of virus, or skin disease, to your training partners on the mats. To keep our games sharp, Claudia and I, continued to train on the mats at our home gym and keep the kids getting after it as well. Resilience is a super power, and for me, grappling and other combat sports is the best way to achieve it.
After a few years of Brazilian Jiu-jitsu training the so-called ‘jiu-jitsu spiral’ is what’s keeping me sane and it isn’t the first time it has saved my life.” Joshua David Stein
Joshua David Stein (2020). “Getting My Ass Kicked in Jiu-Jitsu Helped My Mental Health”. Men’s Health. https://www.menshealth.com/trending-news/a32083463/brazilian-jiu-jitsu-training-mental-health/
On a positive note, I finally figured out how to solve the Rubrik’s Cube you see as the featured image. Oh, and I’m finally free from isolation and have returned to the mats at Vuong Doan BJJ. Today I got my but kicked all over the mats during a two-hour training session. I even think I dislocated my finger, actually I’m pretty sure I did. However, the feeling of euphoria I get after surviving another training session motivates me to come back for more and continue my journey. Progress is the addiction and mastery is the goal. It is an unattainable goal, but it’s the path of the gentle art that brings happiness and joy to me and the ones I love. Until next time friends. One team, one family! ~Doc