It's a wonderful life

I just noticed Brian Dear’s comment on one of Pete or Cecil’s posts (I only get the email notification if I wrote the post) and it reminded me that one interesting thing about pulling together my own network for this book and asking people for help and relying on people who make a commitment to do something, from participating in a conversation to writing something to reviewing things, etc., all of that is strengthening my relationships with people, and sometimes lately I’ve felt a bit like George Bailey at the end of It’s a Wonderful Life who underestimated his impact on other people and the resilience of his web of relationships but now sees people coming out of the woodwork to help.
My other favorite metaphor for this form of collaboration is the Tom Sawyer whitewashing the fence story.