For someone who loves words and writing, it is humbling to be completely lost for them in face of such devastation and tragedy.
Our quiet little Christchurch slice of life has been turned asunder as God leaned on the smite button like you press harder on the remote when the batteries are flat.
It’s probably fair to say, when surveying the scale of loss and damage, that most people asked, “Well, where do we go from here?”
Not a bad question and one we’re broaching in our cover story. My take is that we need to take John Kirwan’s advice for dealing with depression. “When it all hits the fan, you go back to the plan”.
The key here is turning to ‘the’ plan — a singular entity. Not various ideas, blueprints and incarnations of a multitude of great visions, but a single plan for the future of our city.
Collect concepts, merge them with what pragmatically and logistically needs to be emplaced and then create a single blueprint to rebuild from in terms of what goes where and why. It’s the only way we’re going to build something better than that which has been destroyed.
A fair portion of this publication was compiled before that ill-fated day of February 22. Included is much discussion about the future businesses looked forward to after the September 4 quake.
Much of these plans now need redrafting, but essentially the task remains the same; it’s now just that much more difficult.
Regarding future plans, we also look at options for businesses impacted by the quake and whether a quick decision to move away from the affected area is really such a good idea. This relates to how the disruption of Christchurch’s business activity has impacted the entire South Island, another subject we’ve included.
Obviously we’ve all been impacted one way or another, some more than others and for those who have suffered tragic loss and displacement, our thoughts are with you.
While we pick ourselves up off the canvas and get on with getting on, much of everyone’s focus is on the physical aspects of dealing with this disaster. But what about the lingering mental hangover? It’s another reasonable question and again one we seek to answer in the story Mind over matter.
This is perhaps the most vital aspect any and all of us need to be aware of, as the task ahead is daunting enough in itself without the people, us, tasked with seeing it through, losing our focus, confidence and belief in what we’re really capable of.
For now our actions are firmly entrenched in the present and what physically needs to be done, but perhaps our minds should be firmly set on the future, as that is something we’re completely re-writing for ourselves right now.
