I'm just a call away

Kia ora my friends,

The terror and disbelief has hit a new crescendo. I spend a lot of time thinking about what I'm doing and what difference I'm really making, if any. I laugh about the line on the back of my book "Hope is a shovel and will give you blisters" - because these hands, e hoa mā, have no callouses. I don't even ride my bike without gloves.

But metaphors do work that literal language cannot.

I was at Mokena Reedy's tangi two weeks ago and the night before the hākari, there was hui for the ringawera. It was brief, clear, and slick. I was assigned three tasks by cousin Ani, chief cook. I would be in charge of the sandwiches, the stuffing, and the gravy. No questions were asked. When Ani dismissed us to our various posts I approached her, tentatively, sheepishly, and said: 'should I make the sandwiches now, or first thing in the morning?'

Ani, five-foot nothing and fiery blonde, stopped in her Red Bands half way to the chiller and looked at me with as much patience as she could muster. Then she said the words all of us need to hear from time to time, words she has no doubt delivered hundreds of times:

"That's a 'you' problem from start to finish."