Dear Rotarians and Friends,
When my second daughter, Allie, was born 20 years ago, this maple tree (right) appeared in our yard. We had a lot of other trees, but they grew so close together that there were few side branches. I remembered the maple tree my father planted when my brothers and I were babies that became my favorite climbing tree and hoped that this tree would become that for Allie.
There is one low branch on the tree that dips close to the ground and can be tough to mow around but is the best branch for gaining access to the rest of the tree. I wanted to keep the branch but lift it up a little for ease of mowing so I thought if I tied a string around one end and climbed up another 10 feet with the other end, I could lift it enough to clear a mowing path. Climbing the tree was not as easy as I thought, but I managed to get the string over a higher branch through a combination of climbing and tying the string to a stick and throwing it over. Unfortunately, the string broke when I tightened it and I slipped from my climbing position and twisted my ankle a little when I fell into the junction where the 4 branches come together.
I walked away from the tree shaking my head and muttering to myself about what a ridiculous idea that had been and looked up to see my oldest daughter, Sarah, shaking her head and asking me what I was doing. I explained my failed attempt to raise the height of the branch and when she offered to help, I asked her to help me with an alternate strategy by finding a sturdy, fallen branch in the woods around our house to prop up the one on the maple “climbing” tree. We found one quickly and she lifted the branch of the maple tree while I propped it up with the found branch (center).
This experience made me think of a home repair Sarah asked me to do a few weeks ago. One of the sinks in the bathroom she and Allie share was draining slowly, and she wanted help fixing it. I thought the best way to solve the problem would be to disassemble the sink trap and see if anything was lodged in there. She wanted to help, but I wanted to test out my idea before bringing her in just in case I was wrong and I made any mistakes while I was testing out my plumbing skills. It took a few attempts, but I was able to find and fix the problem. I never did bring Sarah in to help because I was so worried about her witnessing potential failures that I kept the experience to myself.
This all made me think about my life and work and how much I have learned from personal and professional failures. There is a great Walt Disney movie on the subject called “Meet the Robinsons”. In the movie, the Robinson family celebrates failures with excitement and encouragement, using phrases like “You failed! And it was awesome!” I love that and need to remember that and have fun with it, rather than worrying about hiding my failures. Some of the best stories my children tell come from wild ideas and adventures we have shared that turned out differently from how I expected.
I have a fish and frog pond I built in the yard when Allie was 4 that has a slow leak after one of our favorite dog friends took a swim a couple of years ago. I tried finding and fixing the leak several times with no success, so I am going to empty it out, replace the liner and rebuild it, fixing other weaknesses from flaws in the original design along the way. It will be another one of those trial-and-error projects that will be great when it is done but will probably have a few failures along the way. I had planned to do this privately but in the spirit of celebrating failures and allowing my daughters to learn from both my mistakes and ways of responding when the unexpected happens, I will instead invite them to join me.
At work, I have been thinking a lot about success and failure too, as related to mRNA vaccines. The vaccines were developed faster than any in history and were very effective in protecting people from the most serious strains of COVID-19 during the pandemic. These vaccines are highly adaptable to other strains and pathogens and are relatively safe for use in protecting people from severe diseases with few side effects. There are some limitations that prevent them being more useful though.
- There is a risk of myocarditis in young males after the second dose. While many people recover fully, it can lead to chronic heart problems and eventual heart failure.
- mRNA vaccines require two doses, which is not ideal in a disease outbreak. It would be better to have a vaccine that was effective in a single dose.
- More data are needed, but it seems as though protection might only last for about 6 months. It would be better to have protection that was durable for at least two years, and a lifetime would be even better.
- The vaccines are not thermostable, so they need to be stored at -70°C. That is not too hard in high income countries and regions like the US, Europe, and Japan, but most of the population of the world does not have access to -70°C storage.
I think most companies developing mRNA vaccines will attempt to resolve these issues privately with the hope of gaining a competitive advantage if they come up with solutions first. I wonder what might happen if companies could work together on solutions though, with the opportunity to celebrate successes and failures, and if that would accelerate availability of even better vaccines for existing diseases and future pandemics.
What great failures have you learned from?
In Rotary
Kate
President