Vincent Phipps, Down But Not Out

This is a post dedicated to Vincent Phipps, a fantastic person (and personality) who just bowled me over at the last yearly conference my employer held. He had a little “breakout” session of his own, which attracted a huge crowd due to his prowess.

After professing his brilliance to the bossman, my employer has decided to give him a signature slot for next year, in front of the entire conference assembly. Definitely a realm where he should succeed.

But some terrible news hit me this morning when we were discussing speakers for next years conference. “Oh, Vincent Phipps?” the bossman said in the staff meeting, “He broke his neck.”

“WHAT?!”

“Bad car wreck,” he says. “I’m sure he’ll be fine.” He moved on, but it was all I could think about.

So I’m freaking out thinking the guy will be a wheelchair or something, a fact I still haven’t disproven. I was forwarded an email that said Vincent plans on going back to work on November 7th, so you gotta hand it to the man—he takes none of this lying down.

Somewhere in that last sentence could be the most terrible unintentional metaphor ever.

So with this post will come an email of my own to Mr. Phipps, who lives and works in nearby Chattanooga, TN. His website needs a blog (don’t they all?), but still has some great information on the arts and Vincent’s efforts in those areas, specifically poetry. He has some of his own poetry up for the reading, as well as his own poetry group.

With that said, I wish you the best of luck in recovering Vincent, and if you need anything, you now know where to find me.

I’m way beyond the gavel and the laws of man
Still living in the palm of the grace of your hand