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President's Letter:
Sticking Together
Carol Caunter
Carol Caunter, ICFA president for 2003-2004, who has 12 years of experience in the cemetery and funeral profession following 12 years of experience in the financial services industry, works for Tobias Funeral Home in Dayton, Ohio. She can be reached at carolcaunter@hotmail.com.
When I was in Memphis attending the International Cemetery and Funeral Association University, we experienced a "weather event"-100 mph winds, rain and hail. The storm hit at 7 a.m. on Tuesday. It knocked out power to our hotel and over 300,000 residences and businesses. Called an "equal opportunity storm," it affected all of Memphis in some way. The damage was extensive. Those of us attending ICFAU all banded together with our glow sticks and candles and made the best of a bad situation. We were fortunate; while without air conditioning, we did have running water. Many city residents were not so lucky. Three weeks later, some of them were still without power.
Shortly thereafter, I was one of the many who experienced the blackout that hit the Northeast, affecting 50 million people, including 5 million in Toronto. Once again, people rallied together, directing traffic, helping their neighbors-even ones they hardly knew. All in all, people coped. And, just about everyone was "nice" about it.
In this world where events beyond our control affect our day-to-day lives, cause us to change direction or challenge our thinking, I share with you this quote from Robert Fulghum's best selling book "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten":
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt someone.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life-learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and work every day some.
Take a nap every afternoon.
When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
Be aware of wonder. Remember the seed in the Styrofoam cup. The roots go down and plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup-they all die. So do we.
And remember the Dick and Jane books and the first word you learned-the biggest word of all-LOOK.
Everything you need to know is there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic
sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living. Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would all be if we all-the whole world-had cookies and milk about 3 o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back were they found them and to clean up their own mess. And it is still true, no matter how old you are-when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.
Business issues, alternative distribution channels, the potential for federal regulation, changing consumer preferences, etc., are going to continue to affect our profession. For ICFA members, that means it is more and more important for all of us to just "hold hands and stick together." Remember, consumers don't break us into defined segments-we do. A family is just trying to plan a funeral. They are just trying to say goodbye.
Copyright ICFA 2003
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