Big Business is a book about taking a chance, even by accident, and how that can initiate a journey beyond imagination. Mary Blu, 35 years old, tall and raw-boned, lives with Belinda, her pretty sister who lives in a world of fantasy. Their parents have just died. Mary who cares about everybody but herself lives a hesitant life, afraid of making mistakes. One morning entering her house after returning from her graveyard shift at a nursing home, Belinda jumps at her, waving a brochure about a New Age Conference at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Belinda who doesn't leave the house anymore desperately begs her sister to attend. Mary finally gives in because after all she is supposed to take care of her sister. Thus starts Mary's adventure with all its possibilities, dangers and final idiosyncratic triumph.
Gerry Huerth is a 75 year old person who has creatively responded to being an outsider and in that process has learned to be an effective advocate for people who face the challenges of working with systems that may not be responsive to their hopes and needs. Fifty years ago he was an early member of FREE, the first Gay and Lesbian college organization in this country.He also worked as an RN in many healthcare systems. These nursing experiences include psychiatric nursing, working with drug addicted mothers and infants in Harlem New York, volunteering for The Farm Workers Union in California, being on the board of a very early hospice in Maine, volunteering to do massage for people with AIDS, and collaborating to create a personal care service for people with mental illness living in the community. He also worked in a community college as an adjunct instructor teaching and empowering students who faced challenges to academic learning such as racism, poverty, violence and alternate learning styles. In that context he helped to create a Nonviolent Communication Task Force, a college Pow Wow, a Community Organizing Course, Student Leadership Initiatives and served as faculty advisor for The Queer Student Organization.
