Last night I wrote a dispatch, and after I realized I had not written about what I’d wanted to write about. Today I want to write about the same thing. What I write about and what I want to write about are often inextricably linked.

Last night I again struggled with the ordering of material in the final few chapters. Then it occurred to me, be consistent. Go with a linear chronology throughout. Now with this in mind, the order of events is going to be – my injury, Foraker Group governance training, Foraker group executive director training, Lisa Murkowski’s visit, Foraker Group summit. I am going to have to expand on my thoughts about Lisa Murkowski’s visit – I acknowledge in this particular chapter that I’m a writer by handing her a copy of the Wheels on Ice book.

During the Foraker Group summit (in which she was a speaker), I write about feeling about feeling conflicted – I am wearing the hats of a writer and of an executive director. I move on to conclude in the Center for the Book chapter that writers are readers.

I’m going to have to delete quite a bit of material. And in the chapter on partnering, I’m going to have to again focus on my chronology, and rather than have this be a chapter that’s a cumulative recollection, I’m going to have to stay true to the chronology and put my examples in their proper places.

I wrote out by hand my senior center chapter. I did not type it up. Rather, I decided that I will type it into the document tomorrow morning. I also compiled a numerical chapter outline with the intention of determining how long each chapter is. The end chapters are needing a lot of work. After I work a bit more on this, I am going to have Pete print up the entire document. Then I will go through it, chapter by chapter, and make sure that it makes sense.

If I don’t write, I don’t think about what I’m writing.

I still wish that I could find a writer’s retreat and go someplace for two weeks – a place with a bed and a cabin and maybe communal breakfasts and dinners, with lunch being a communal option.

Now this place could have partially qualified for this because Pete was gone for a week. But the book project is a distraction. I need to be able to put it aside. Usually, when I envision something, it comes to be. This though, may be a stretch.

The book, the Ted Talk, both are going to give this project much needed national recognition. I just have to keep thinking big, which actually is a lot of fun. And yes, we will eventually own the hotel. Or a consortium will own it, freeing us from legal obligations and headaches. Or someone will give us a huge sum of money, say 5 million dollars – and say, this will get you started.

Next: 211. 8/7/25: The Way it Should Be