Page 33 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 93, No. 1 Fall 2012

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The Instant Survivor:
Right Ways to Respond
When Things Go Wrong
by Jim Moorhead ’72
Greenleaf Book Group
Press, 108 pages, $19.95
Reviewed by Michael Matros
In his book about getting on with your
life after crises, large and small, JimMoor-
head ’72 suggests using his advice “like a
road map that will show you how to avoid
becoming crisis ‘roadkill’ on life’s highway.”
The Instant Survivor is a textbook de-
signed to provide the kinds of easy-to-
assimilate advice that Moorhead says he
found lacking in bookstores’ self-help
aisles. Short, broken into consistent sub-
sections chapter by chapter (“Instant
Survivor alerts,” “manager tips,” boxed
summaries), the book is highly readable
and, just as important, easy for reference
when you need some advice or a kick in
the pants (don’t hide; refer to your per-
sonal brand; where’s that vulnerability
audit you were supposed to write?).
You may be happily between crises and
think you know how to surf the hard times
pretty well, but there will be value here
in-depth portrayal of these relationships
is especially captivating.
From observer to narrator, West comes
to Habbaniyah and Iraqi Battalion 3/3-1
as a casualty replacement on the advis-
ing team. He brings a distinct Marine
Corps attitude toward counterinsur-
gency operations and makes pointed
observations about the shortcomings
of the advisors’ support. West seizes
his opportunity to make change when
he assumes command of the advisors
and their mission. His narrative of the
challenges of command in a “highly
kinetic environment” is excellent.
From a more humanistic perspective,
West intersperses tales of one of the
most difficult jobs an Iraqi soldier can
fill: combat interpreter. The importance
of interpreters to the relationships be-
tween American advisors and Iraqi
Battalion 3/3-1 is not treated lightly
by West. He is so personally moved by
their plight that he sponsors one “terp”
with a special immigration visa to the
United States.
While West reasonably questions
American military advising efforts in
post-war Iraq, he thoroughly appreci-
ates the importance of the partnership
between the militaries of both countries.
of deep time and rediscovery of family on
Columbus Day at a high-stakes gambling
casino, rising in resurrection over the star-
lit bones of a once-vanquished Pequot
Indian Tribe.
The Pink Nectar Café
James Bishop Jr. ’54
This is a non-fiction
assemblage of tales and
mysteries in the South-
west of today. After a career
in journalism, government
and film, the author believed he could
separate fact from fiction. After two
decades in the Southwest, roaming
rocks 20,000 years old in thunder, light-
ning, and rain, he was no longer so sure.
Years spent with scientists, Indians, and
old-time cowboys in red-rock-rim
country and beyond caused him to won-
der why people think they have all the
answers, when the questions are the
challenge. These stories are linked
together by mystery, causing one to
wonder: What is truth? When is fiction
the truth?
Here’s Your
Revolution (CD)
Loss of Eden:
Ayesha Adamo ’97
and David Deau
This debut EP from
Loss of Eden (including Samantha
“Ayesha” Adamo ’97), combines an easy
pop rock folk sound reminiscent of 1970s
and the Eagles, America, and the Car-
penters with a 21st-century freshness.
Rich in lyrics written by Adamo and
Deau and layered with guitars and vocals,
this album brings an organic feel back to
popular music.
Double Agent
Michelle Chan Brown ’99
While revealing the poet’s
pet obsession – the com-
forts and dangers of
community – this poetry
collection covers multiple
continents and shades of uncertainty.
As the narrative roves across a range
On the Shelf . . . of territories, including embassies, sub-
divisions, cottages, islands, and compounds
both real and imagined, it explores the
concept of borders: how they materialize
in the personal and the political spheres,
and how they relate to physical and
psychological security. The poems dem-
onstrate how the poetic self can move,
sometimes queasily and sometimes bom-
bastically, through such boundaries.
As It Is on Earth
Peter M. Wheelwright ’67
Four centuries after the
Reformation Pilgrims
sailed up the down-flow-
ing watersheds of New
England, Taylor Thatcher,
irreverent scion of a fallen family of
Maine Puritans, is still caught in the
turbulence. In his errant attempts to
escape from history, the young college
professor is further unsettled by his
growing attraction to an Israeli student.
The landscapes, rivers, and tidal estuaries
of Old New England and the Mayan Yucatan
are casualties of history in Thatcher’s story
even for the most battle-tested, in part
through good storytelling. What makes the
book so readable is the wealth of Moor-
head’s personal stories, along with dozens
of interviews of survivors, some familiar
(NPR’s Diane Rehm) and others less so
(Sherry Watkins, the Enron employee who
naively alerted her bosses to the company’s
deceptive practices). Moorhead’s research
is up to date; his description of baseball
manager Terry Francona’s career extends
through his controversial departure from
the Red Sox in 2011. Among non-survivors
(i.e., those who strayed from good advice)
is disgraced Senator John Edwards, who
repeatedly lied about his immoral behavior.
The book presents a four-step process
for instant survival, with a number of
short chapters detailing an action plan.
“A crisis gives you a free pass to be self-
ish,” Moorhead tells us. “If we don’t act
selfishly in a crisis we prolong our prob-
lems, and the result is that we lose and
the people who depend on us lose as well.”
There may be little in The Instant Sur-
vivor that will strike the reader as novel,
but Moorhead’s purpose is not to reveal
rare wisdom. Rather he compiles, in short
chapters and intriguing stories, a workable
plan of what to do when you really don’t
know what to do.