RESERVIST MAGAZINE FROM THE EDITOR RESERVIST Celebrating Our 68th Year! Volume LXVIII � Issue 3 • 2021 reserve.uscg.mil/magazine [email protected] MAGAZINE Anastasia M. Devlin Editor Chris S. Rose Creative Director COMMAND Adm. Karl L. Schultz Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. James M. Kelly Acting, Assistant Commandant for Reserve Capt. Alexander C. Foos Chief, Office of Reserve Policy and Requirements Integration Cmdr. Katy Coombs Chief, Reserve Policy and Strategic Communications Division I just heard a great story, which I found on a favorite blog, 5amJoel.com. “Two buckets lived in a village. The buckets carried water every day from the river to the people. One bucket was old, worn, and cracked, and lost half its water by the time it reached the destination. It felt terrible not fulfilling its sole purpose. The newer bucket (without cracks) told the older bucket to look behind at the trail they walked each day—the water dripping from the older bucket had watered a beautiful path of flowers.” In this time, when I’m so anxious to get back to normal, sometimes I lament how slowly things are moving. But as excited as I am for my children to get back to school, I have to remind myself that we’ve been given the unbelievably valuable gift of time together—time we may not have had otherwise. One of my sons, Andy, told me he was going to be sad not to be able to be home with me this upcoming school year, compared to the past year and a half. I realized I would be sad about that, too. Getting to see my sons in the morning, to make breakfast with them, to have those random discussions about money and video games and life… to debate wildly ridiculous "would-you- rather" type of questions—it's all been a pretty significant tick in the “pros” column. Similarly, the pandemic has provided opportunities for us to get creative, sometimes CONTACT INFORMATION [email protected] Commandant (CG-R55) Attn: Editor, Reservist 2703 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., SE (Stop-7721) Washington, DC 20593-7721 http://reserve.uscg.mil FB: @uscoastguardreserve Twitter: @uscgreserve #uscgr RESERVIST (COMDTPUB 1001.29) is published by the Assistant Commandant for Reserve, U.S. Coast Guard. It is intended for information only and is not authority for official action. Views and opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the Department of Homeland Security or Coast Guard. The editor reserves the right to select and edit all materials for publication. We continue to strive for perfection, yet unattained. painfully, but there have been definite benefits. I see how reservists are gathering in groups online and through social media to work through problems, create systems, and crowdsource solutions. The technology and opportunity was there, but a catalyst was necessary. I don't cover enough of these in the magazine—photos of people working at computers will never be as cool as people working on boats! But these success stories are out there. Things we weren't looking for as we're lamenting how the pandemic affected our normal lives. Our buckets aren't broken. They're just working in different ways than we intended. As the magazine's art director, Mr. Chris Rose, likes to joke, "That's not a design flaw, it's a feature." In our eagerness to get back to the old ways—to "normalcy"—let's not totally abandon the goodness that came from the opportunity to find creative solutions. “…precisely the thing you thought made you broken was the exact same thing which made you so powerful. What you thought was your greatest flaw was exactly what I needed to make our world a more beautiful place.” — “The Broken Bucket,” by Rabbi Jason Rosenberg Anastasia Devlin Editor-in-Chief
