Life and Island Times June 26 2016 – Loose Ends
Endings are always more important than beginnings. If you flop at a project’s beginning, you may always put it aside, come back later and finish it off. Or you could abandon it as fruitless and move forward.
But if the ending fails, then . . .
Creating perfect or at least acceptable endings is not easy, but it boils down to one essential objective – the feeling of satisfaction. How does one do that? The answers are manifold.
Marlow was not fond of loose ends. He always had various projects that were at various stages of completion. On the big ones, he considered not tying off all of the loose ends and settling a sense of improvement from where he started. This had worked for him for over four decades in work and at play. An 80% solution was better than none at all.
This had become a trap, since, as he aged, he had begun settling for 70%, then 50% and finally four years ago 20% solutions. These 20%ers had nearly killed him.
Since then, he rediscovered a desire for closure as big things became more and more important. Finding the appropriate balance for which details had to be tied off and those that could be left to dangle tantalizingly before those who would take over for him on this or that project became the key.
Marlow is about to tie up several projects’ loose ends.
The first one is the recovery of the American Legion Post’s missing $50,000. Tying this one up did not require the magic ingredient of originality, just a four month-long, mind numbing slog through thousands of pages of insurance policies, invoices, bank account statements, checks, and spreadsheets with an insurance company risk service firm and forensic accountants.
He did this on his slowly failing laptop via emails and over the phone with these entities. No one knew that he was doing this. All of them thought the Post had no insurance coverage for such a loss. The theives accused him in February that not having such coverage was a criminal failing of his. In response, he nurtured their ignorance.
The thieves finally found out about what he had been doing earlier this month, when the insurance company told them in USPS certified letters that they had been implicated in the missing monies. They became apoplectic. At the mid June Executive Committee meeting, the thieves’ proxies accused Marlow of going to the police. He stifled a laugh and pointed out that the letters said otherwise and he had filed an insurance claim.
Several said the Post had no such coverage. Marlow corrected them repeatedly telling them that the post had had such for at least a decade. He offered them copies of the policy to read. There were no takers.
Changing tack, they demanded that he should have gotten their prior approval for this. As they sputtered, their beards became flecked with spittle.
He rejoined by telling them that he did not need their approval to do so, a finance officer’s fiduciary duties being what they are. As they thrashed about, he asked them the binary question: do you want the $50,000 back., yes or no?
Their response was silence.
Lastly the thieves’ proxies announced to the assemblage that the thieves intended to sue Marlow and the Post. Marlow smiled demurely and said that he would see them in court. None knew that the Post’s insurance policy would pay Marlow’s and the Post’s legal costs.
The last loose end with this recovery project will be the filing this week of a police report with the State Attorney Office and providing them the forensic accountants’ forty page report. With the SAO file number, the insurance company will pay the $50,000 in substantiated losses to the Post.
Testifying at the ensuing American Legion Post administrative and State of Florida criminal trials will tie up the two remaining loose ends.
Copyright © 2016 From My Isle Seat