The lives of Children and the conscience of a Nation.
Jonathan Kozol, 1995.
I read this book in October of this year.A colleague at work gave it to me with a few others she thought I might like.
This book was written 14 years ago and I would pray that things are different, but I have experienced too much of this world to truly believe that.
The writer spent weeks in Mott Haven, a poor neighborhood in the South Bronx focusing the children.Kozol points to systemic discrimination, hopelessness, limited economic opportunities and cutbacks to social services as cause of this crisis.
Read this, it isn’t fun, butREAD THISBOOK.Then get involved.If you don’t know where to start try
random acts of [luhv] – you can find them on FaceBook.
Yesterday as I was helping my mom eat her breakfast, she grabbed the banana and started to peel it.I asked if she needed my help, since I usually do this for her and she said no and then proceeded to peel it open from the bottom.I almost took it from her and told her that she had to do it from the top but I stopped myself.
As I am approaching my 54th birthday, I like to tell people, “I am not old, just more experienced”.So after thinking about it here is a short list of some of my experiences.
I have:
Climbed to the top of an active volcano
Water-skied on the Mississippi river
Snowmobiled across the ice on Lake Huron.
A member of the crew in a sailboat race.
Competed and won a national baton competition.
Built a 25ft snow sculpture in -40 degree F weather.
Installed garage door openers.
Rode a bicycle 200 miles in 23hrs
Stood on the east and west shores of both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans
Swam in 4 of the 5 Great Lakes.
Visited 48 of the 50 United States
Been in 2 hurricanes, a couple of earthquakes, several tornadoes and a flood
Camped overnight in a hand made snow cave.
Made sandwiches for Ray Charles and breakfast for the rock group UB40
All that and I have never peeled a banana from the bottom, what about you?
We are sitting here in the office watching one of the Founders of the company going through all the offices/cabinets and throwing stuff away.Stuff that way once very important and had to be held onto now that he is leaving just doesn’t have the value it once did.
He is leaving because he was sort of pushed out and is trying not to be too cynical.He gave his 2 week notice, but basically was shut out on the day he told them and is just trying to kill time now.
I sit here and think about what it must feel like for him, something that he devoted so much time and effort to, time he sacrificed his family for and now both his wife and his company are leaving him.As he looks for something to do, anything, continues to look at the remnants of the last few years and loads trash can after trash can.
I for one have a tendency to hold on to important papers thinking they might be needed.I struggle to get rid of something that still works even though I’m not using it and never will again.But my true prayer is that I never hold on to things and forget where the true worth is; Jesus, my husband, my family and my friends.
I have heard this term used more than once in my engineering career, especially when ever a problem came up in a project.But I also think we try and use this creed when working with people that don’t exactly match our expectation or perception of how someone should act.We always think that life will be somewhat easier if everyone we interact with fit into the proper “shape” of the board of life.
In any given situation statistics will tell you that people will fit into a bell curve or the 80/20 distribution.Eighty percent of the people will fall in the middle, with 10% about and 10% below the mean.So what do we do with the 20%? We try and force them to conform and fit in with the 80%. My husband is always telling me about the time when he was real young and they had him do a test and sure enough he pounded the square peg into the round hole.No one could deny that he made it fit, but they also could never use that peg or that test piece again.
Often I find myself in that 20% group.I belong, but I’m just unique enough that no one really knows what to do with me or how best to use that uniqueness.I have come to celebrate my difference and accept the fact that I am an enigma to so many.I have tried to conform and act like others and it just doesn’t work, at least not for very long.
We all have unique quirks and characteristics and I Thank God for them.It would be a dull world if everyone was like me.
Imagine life is a game in which you are juggling five balls.The balls are called work, family, health, friends, and integrity.And you’re keeping all of them in the air.But one day you finally come to understand that work is a rubber ball.If you drip it, it will bounce back.The other four balls – family, health, friends, integrity --- are made of glass.If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, nicked, perhaps even shattered.And once you truly understand the lesson of the five balls, you will have the beginnings of balance in your life.1
I read this quote a few weeks ago while on vacation.I have been guilty of making my job more important than it should be in my life.Thinking that if I wasn’t there or if I didn’t do something how would the company stay afloat.I mean REALLY, I’m just a person who happens to work and those companies survived before I joined their ranks and are still around after I left.
I remember how it felt when I was laid off a few years ago.It wasn’t for performance, proven by the fact that I received notice of a pay raise on the same day that they announced I would be laid off, gotta love big companies, at least my severance package was calculated on the new higher salary.I had to do some real soul searching to make sure I didn’t place my own personal worth in the fact that I was working and had a good job.
Last week while I was on a business trip to Dallas, the company I am currently working for had 2 significant events, 1st they was reduction of workforce (lay off) of +25 people and then 2 days later there was a hostile takeover of the company by an investment firm.WOW.
This week the new Company President was in our remote office with the 6 of us that work in Bellevue.It was a strange and stressful week.Would our positions be eliminated?Would they close the office?
The questions still go unanswered, but I know I no longer place my worth in my job.I like my job and will always work doing something but i the ball of work drops, it is made of rubber and it will bounce back.I have to stay focused on the other ones for now.
Matthew 6:26-27
1Susanne’s Diary for Nicholas, James Patterson, 2001.
I received a text message this morning from a friend asking if I was ready for a vacation.I reply back, “No, I am glad to be back to the routine.We have figured out how to vacation.”
How many vacations have all of us taken and didn’t want to miss out on anything and wanted to make sure we got our “monies worth”.We schedule and plan and rush form one activity to the next.Setting the alarm each night to meet a schedule on vacations seems to be wrong on so many levels.We come back from our time away exhausted.
Last week my husband and I took our annual “vacation”.He has a limited number of vacation days and we tend to do a couple of weekend getaways each year, but we purpose to take a vacation each year.A vacation to us is about spending time together while getting refreshed and restored.
Now don’t get me wrong we still take what we call “working vacations” where we go with a purpose and a project to be completed.But these are becoming less frequent.Is that age or wisdom?
So how do we vacation?We stumbled on this formula by accident, but it has served us very well the last few years.We decide what part of the country we would like to explore, usually around something from the Civil War because that is one of Kyle’s passions.(Side bar – for all of you home schoolers, if you want someone to speak about the Civil War, I know this guy).We get a rental car, guide book and a map and we take off.Our only schedule for the entire vacation is when to be at the airport to leave and to return.Everything in between is left up in the air and we decide as we go.We don’t use a GPS because we might miss something and I am pretty good with a map.We don’t pre-book hotels, we just decide we are ready for the night and find one that looks good preferring one that has a hot tub/spa.
By doing this we take the structure out of our way too over scheduled lives for a few days.We spend quality time without distractions while in the car driving.We get as much rest as we want for a change sleeping in, going to bed early, and relaxing when we just want to relax.
Vacation - leisure time away from work devoted to rest or pleasure.
An elderly woman being accompanied by her daughter who is just a younger version of the first are sitting towards the front.There is the family traveling with 3 small children.A couple of young mothers one whose child sleeps quietly the others does not want to sit in one place.A college student is busy reading a text book while the business man is sleeping while the movie playing goes unwatched.
We all sit on the same airplane headed to the same destination, at least on this flight.We all get on for different reasons, some visiting family, some returning home, so going on vacation, all different reasons but a common destination.
As I sit and work on my laptop while my husband naps next to me I think about how being on this airplane is a small version of life.At different stages or “legs” of our travel we are doing life together.We spend time with people and then for various reasons we lose contact with people that we were once close to.Our travel companions though life will change, but we must chose to travel with the right people and along the right path.
After 3+hours we arrive at our destination and all of us get off of the plane.Some are done and will return to their homes, some will rush off to catch another flight, some like us are just moving onto a different mode of transportation to continue our trip.
Fowl Words
