RAFT 2.0

Let's suppose I fell asleep in a RAFT presentation, or for whatever reason, all I could remember is those 4 letters--anyway, last night we were sitting around talking about debriefing and we came up with our very own anti-raft, retro-raft, or shall we just say we were bereft? R: Retreat. When facing transitions or chaos, split while you still can. There is a reason why people don't run backwards--you can get out of there a lot faster if you face the nearest exit and put one foot in front of another as fast as possible. If you can't run, crawl. A: Avoid problems. Have you ever had take a lesson from the turtle or the ladybug. Pull into your shell and minimize the damage. Processing, goodbyes, reflection--they all involve pain and the letter p is not in raft. That would be rapt or trap or pfat--skip the sudoku and the word puzzles and head straight for the comics. Start with F minus. F: Forget about it. No, this does not stand for Flee. That was R. Forget about it. "Take it like a man." Bury your feelings--it's your first step in containing the damage. Focus on...video games, tv, facebook, exercise, music, whatever it takes to get your mind out of the present. Fantasize. If you still can't forget, spiritualize. The scripture says, "God will provide a way of escape." T: Take your time in the transition. Chaos is the new order. Don't jump out of the frying pan and into the fire. Just walk around the edge of the pan, out the handle, and swing on the little ring at the end if there is one, or tuck your feet in the hole and hang over backward and enjoy the breeze. Who knows, you may have more fun now than ever before--you're actually not supposed to fit in at this moment! Besides, isn't this your greatest expertise? Milk it for all it's worth. I wrote this first on mkplanet.com, where internationals fit and locals wonder what they're missing.