A Familiar Mountain Named Streetsense

As autumn lingers and winter waits in the wings with its icy breath, I find myself pondering time again. The trees in the hardwood forest outside my office window are still leafy, but they are late-fall dun and backdropped by a slate-grey sky. All too soon, the branches will reach up bare and stark. The seminal guide for street-smart EMTs and paramedics, Streetsense: Communication, Safety and Control will be released soon in a refreshed 4th edition from JEMS Books and Videos. Here inside, it’s time at last (after three months of preliminaries) to start over again on my first book, Streetsense: Communication, Safety and Control, initially published in 1985. The digital version has arrived from the publisher, research is underway to update the 1996 edition, and my personal life is being reined in to focus on generating the words of a fourth edition. I wonder how many times I’ll look out my window in coming months. I ponder how the trees outside will be leafing out, green again, when the manuscript deadline of May 15 rolls around. I have wrestled with my feelings about writing Streetsense yet again. A poll on social media last spring was overwhelmingly supportive of an update—so encouraging! So why the hesitancy? Finally, I realized that it feels a lot like approaching the flanks of a familiar mountain, one I’ve climbed many times before. This is a very different adventure than facing a brand new mountain. Again? Really? I’ve climbed enough actual mountains to know the...
Source: JEMS Administration and Leadership - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Columns Top Story Exclusive Articles Administration and Leadership Source Type: news