Quote of the Day: weather

I might post more later if I have time, but here is a very appropriate quote as we in NH are getting conflicting reports about the storm this week:

The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it.   Patrick Young.

Most of my students are looking forward to classing being cancelled on Wednesday; even if they are, we'll still have choir practice. I figure they'll be going stir crazy by 6 pm anyway!

Sunday Quotes

This might become a regular Sunday feature, unless I hear something really good at Mass. Anyway, here are today's offerings:

  "There is a meaning in every journey that is unknown to the traveler."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  "Problems arise in that one has to find a balance between

   what people need from you and what you need for yourself."

          Jessye Norman

Thanks to Dr. Mardy for compiling these. You can subscribe to her mailings by sending a blank email to this address. This is one of the best quote sites I've found.

Have a wonderful week!

less argument, more learning

    A student in class yesterday reacted very strongly against something she had read in one of our textbooks. Rather than react to her objection, I simply let it be, and even admitted that "there are others who have made the same complaints about the author's writing."
    Only a couple of hours later, that same student posted to our discussion board that "Noticing a bit of a pattern here, I'm realizing I have my work cut out for me this semester in trying to open myself up to accept the material in this course..."
   Would she have reached that point if I had argued with her in class? I doubt it.
    
   Now don't go thinking that I am "The Enlightened One Who Knows How Everything Works, Particularly in times of Disagreement." I just got lucky! I'm very proud of the student, nonetheless. And gave myself a pat on the back! humbly, of course.

Breaking through doubt.

I just finished reading a pile of letters that my creativity students wrote for me. A few of them said that they were skeptical or doubtful about the course since it is so different from other "traditional" courses thye have taken. But each of them laid aside whatever hesitation or objections they had and plunged on right ahead.

And guess what happened? Each one of them discovered that the material in the course is both valuable and helpful. Their personal experience was able to help them put their doubts to rest. Good for them!

It is so common that our thoughts about a thing prevent us from being open to learning or benefitting from what is new or different. The students laid aside their thoughts and were rewarded by seeing a whole new world.

I pray that our politicians will learn to do the same.

Uplifting story of the day

Posted at NPR.org.  I found it posted on Facebook by one of my students.

Julio Diaz has a daily routine. Every night, the 31-year-old social worker ends his hour-long subway commute to the Bronx one stop early, just so he can eat at his favorite diner.But one night last month, as Diaz stepped off the No. 6 train and onto a nearly empty platform, his evening took an unexpected turn.

He was walking toward the stairs when a teenage boy approached and pulled out a knife. "He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, 'Here you go,'" Diaz says.

As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, "Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you're going to be robbing people for the rest of the night, you might as well take my coat to keep you warm."

The would-be robber looked at his would-be victim, "like what's going on here?" Diaz says. "He asked me, 'Why are you doing this?'"

Diaz replied: "If you're willing to risk your freedom for a few dollars, then I guess you must really need the money. I mean, all I wanted to do was get dinner and if you really want to join me ... hey, you're more than welcome.

"You know, I just felt maybe he really needs help," Diaz says. Diaz says he and the teen went into the diner and sat in a booth.

"The manager comes by, the dishwashers come by, the waiters come by to say hi," Diaz says. "The kid was like, 'You know everybody here. Do you own this place?'"

"No, I just eat here a lot," Diaz says he told the teen. "He says, 'But you're even nice to the dishwasher.'" Diaz replied, "Well, haven't you been taught you should be nice to everybody?"

"Yea, but I didn't think people actually behaved that way," the teen said.Diaz asked him what he wanted out of life. "He just had almost a sad face," Diaz says.

The teen couldn't answer Diaz — or he didn't want to. When the bill arrived, Diaz told the teen, "Look, I guess you're going to have to pay for this bill 'cause you have my money and I can't pay for this. So if you give me my wallet back, I'll gladly treat you."

The teen "didn't even think about it" and returned the wallet, Diaz says. "I gave him $20 ... I figure maybe it'll help him. I don't know." Diaz says he asked for something in return — the teen's knife — "and he gave it to me."

Produced for Morning Edition by Michael Garofalo.

Jesus would approve: If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.  And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.  If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. (Matthew 5:39-41)

Knowing and understanding

There is difference between knowing about something and understanding something.

Do you understand the difference?
Can you use words to explain the difference between the two?
If you can't put it into words, does that mean that there something wrong with your understanding?  --or is it because there is something inadequate about expressing certain things in words?

Here are some other questions to consider (if you're in the mood):

• How many learning experiences have you had that were aimed solely at having you  know about something?
• How many courses or classes led you to a deeper understanding of a thing?
• How were you tested? Where was the emphasis?

Someone once suggested that we try to imagine if the goal of teaching students about the animal world was that they would love animals more as well as understand them better?

IMHO: "Standardized testing" undermines the most important goals of education. If teachers are forced to "teach to the test," then there is little opportunity for young students to understand the things they study. 

What do you think?

Saint of the Day

Saint Francis de Sales (1567-1622) offers simple wisdom that speaks to anyone looking for inner peace and serenity.

Be who you are and be that well.

Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself.

True progress quietly and persistently moves along without notice.

Have patience with all things, but, first of all with yourself.

Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.

Those who love to be feared fear to be loved.

Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.

Chuckle of the day

from my witty brother:

‎1. Go to Google Maps, and click on Get Directions.
2. Write USA as your start point.
3. Write Japan as your destination.
4. Go to the 31st point on your route...........

Have a nice day!

Who's out of who's mind?

From today's Gospel at Mass:

His (Jesus) family tried to seize him to take him away, because they said "he is out of his mind." (Mark 3, 21)

So many great thinkers and teachers, inventors and artists and individuals who try to lead us to a new way of seeing the world are scorned, ridiculed, even condemned by the Church. Creativity takes courage because it often brings us rejection and ridicule.

So they say,  "He is out of his mind."

I would answer: "No: he is out of your mind. What he says or does is so much larger than what you can wrap your mind around and that is why it makes you uncomfortable, and why you would like to remove him from the picture."

There is an implicit assumption at work here: If it can fit within the small area of your mind with all its limitations and lack of understanding, then it is nonsense or craziness. But could it be possible that the one you reject or scorn is inviting you to expand your mind, to accommodate what you never would have accepted or understood  in the past?"

Words, a poem

Would words were cars . . .

When they went out of control, I could put a brake on them,

lest they run over some innocent person

standing by the side of the road.

Listening, really listening . . .

St. Benedict in the snow

I took advantage of the "snow day" today to read some of the correspondance from my students, and to work on my revision of a "novel" I wrote 10 years ago. My creativity students have been urging me to get back to it, and finally the moment has arrived!

A student wrote to me:

I found that I learn a lot more about people the more I let them talk uninterrupted. I could almost see the thoughts forming on their faces. I also found that people who I thought were far on the left or far on the right side of the political spectrum surprised me the more they talked, everyone tends to lean one way or another but the more they talked the further to the middle they seemed to get.

The student goes on to wonder whether the failure to listen is at the root of so much polarization and argumentativeness in political discourse and on some of the talk shows. What do you think?

We MUST create

This from a book I've just started. Interesting theory . . . that I happen to agree with...imho 

Creativity is often misapprehended as a purely artistic or intellectual inclination . . . but working with your creative energy is as essential to your health and overall well-being as breathing and eating. Creative energy is a basic survival instinct; it motivates us to become part of society, to become productive, bring things to life, and to distinguish ourselves from others by what we make, the crafts we pursue, the skills we develop in business or in cultivating friendships, the entrepreneurial ideas we conceive, the problems we resolve, and the children or communities we birth and nurture. Yet many people have creative ideas and yearnings that they do not pursue out of a fear of financial failure or embarrassment, or because they are reluctant to step outside of their normal way of life and change it.     Caroline Myss, Invisible acts of Power: Channeling Grace in Your everyday Life, quoted in Stimulated, p. 6-7

How we view things makes all the difference

   This may have happened to you as well: yesterday, because of the snowstorm, a lot of events got cancelled. One of those events was the first meeting of my Creativity Course. Dismay, dissapointment, and dammit!s ensued, to say the least. And if that wasn't frustrating enough, I suddenly realized that the cancellation screwed up my whole timetable for introducing the course. Dammit again!
   Fortunately, I didn't stay in that space. It gradually dawned on me that I was facing a new creative challenge--not of my own making, of course, but rather something that psychologist Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced "chick-sent-me-high") would call a "presented problem" (Creativity, p. 95).The challenge was this: How do I revise my plans to introduce the course given the new time constraint?
   "Presented problems" are not always welcome; but once they show up, the offer an opportunity to practice some creative and resourceful thinking.

   The point is that once I stopped stamping my feet and pouting like a 5-year-old and started playing with the new challenge, the disappointment was forgotten and the juices began flowing once again. Has this ever happened to you? And by the way, it also helped that I rewarded myself by making a nice cup of hot chocolate!

The High Road and the Low Road--part 3 of a series

   From my morning reading (The Ways of God, attributed to St. Thomas Aquinas). The main point is that while God is constant and unchangeable, we mortals are always inconstant, Quoting from the book:

. . . how inconstant we are in holy meditations, in lawful affections, in steadfastness of conscience, and in a right will. Ah, how suddenly we pass from good to bad, from hope to groundless fear, and from fear to hope, from joy to unreasonable grief and from sadness to vain joy, fro silence to loquiaciousness, from gravity to trifling, from charity to rancor or to envy, from fervor to tepidity, from humility to vainglory or to pride, frum gentleness to anger, and from joy and spiritual love to carnal love and pleasure. 

   For some odd reason, I find all this to be consoling and comforting. "Yes, that's what I'm like. Yes, that's what all humans are like. I see that I'm not alone. What a relief!" Meanwhile God is constant in his patience and forebearance.
   I couldn't help thinking of St. Paul when he lamented that "I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do." And I often remind myself that he is a SAINT.

   We are all complex human beings. We need to embrace the paradox and make peace with it if we are ever to grow. And we have to allow the same thing for others. IMHO.

Opinons, Part One of a series (maybe)

We'll keep this simple today, even though I'm probably only saying what you already know. What I really want to say to start off is that opinions are not facts. Just because we think it is so does not mean it is so.
A lot of people don't seem to realize this. And most of us get so sucked into someone else's opinion, that we make it our own without taking a careful look at it and finding out for ourselves. This happens especially when we listen to loud-mouthed pundits, talk show hosts and would-be politicians. Be careful.

OK, this got more complex than I thought it would be. And, of course, these are only my opinions. Make up your own mind about what I'm saying.

Smart Phone Idiocy

     So there I was yesterday in Boston, walking down the stairs to the T platform (red line), when I saw that the train was already at the station discharging passengers. If I hurried I could make it. So I tried. But there was a young guy in front of me who was walking very slowly and tentatively down the stairs and I couldn't get past him. Why was he walking slowly, you might ask? Because he was  reading.something.on.his.smart.phone!!!! and was oblivious to what was going on around him, not even noticing that the train was there just within reach if he would only pick up the pace.
     At least he wasn't driving a car at 70 mph. Those damn phones can be dangerous.
     I missed the train, by the way. Had to wait another 15 minutes. Thank God the train operator wasn't looking at his smart phone or he might have missed the station.

Creativity Blocker (This will probably be a series)

The damn computer. As useful and marvelous it can be, it also gives rise to so many distractions that it derails our creativity, productivity, focus, and ... (you fill in the blank). Case in point: While eating lunch, I had an inspiration for a book I'm working on, and fortunately, I immediately jotted it down in my little "idea book" which I always carry with me for just these moments.
     As soon as lunch was over, I ran over to my laptop so I could get working on the idea. But first, dammit, I had to check my e-mail. Three of the e-mails were about things that could have waited until the end of the weekend--nonetheless, I proceeded to take care of the things that were in the email. Result: momentum lost. Thank God I wrote the idea down before getting to the computer, otherwise that may have been lost as well.

Life is a mystery. Faith is a mystery.

I just finished Frank Schaeffer's "Patience with God," which I highly recommend to anyone who wants to know more about the "new atheists" and also about fundamentalist/evangelicals. I would especially recommend you give the book to someone you might know who is considering becoming a "born again" Christian, or who tells you you are going to hell because you're a Catholic.

This a conclusion to a chapter on the mystery of life, and that life is not based merely on facts or certainties:

It's only regarding unimportant stuff, such as buying major appliances, that we can go online and found out the 'facts.' When it comes to the person we spend our lives with, or having babies, or careers we end up killing ourselves for, or life-altering snap judgments like volunteering for military service, let alone the friends we meet and make and keep, we shoot the rapids, take our chances, and improvise. We learn as we do, not as we think about doing. . . .  And that is true about how faith in God is too. The truth is also that we either experience God or we don't. And just as in a marriage, once we have experienced God, we either choose to work to maintain that relationship or let it fade. In that sense we can choose to believe, just as on days when I'd rather be sleeping with another woman, I choose to stay married. (p. 169-170)

The loss of civility

I read the opinion columns of a local and a regional newspaper today and felt like I had to take a shower after reading them. Nasty, nasty, nasty. On both sides: liberal/conservative. My question is this: Why is it necessary fo so many people to disdain, disrespect, scorn or even hate somone who disagrees with them?

Taking the High Road (part 2 of a series)

More about making creative decisions to "take the high road:" IMHO, we need to know ourselves well in order to make the kinds of distinctions and decisions that have an impact on the quality of our lives. For example:

• What are the activities, endeavors, hobbies,ways of thinking, conversations, etc., that get you on the high road. (We might also want to call this the "top line." Or else, give it a name that makes sense to you.)
• What are the distractions that keep us from engaging in top line living, thinking or doing?

Once we have a clearer picture (things never get totally clear, do they?), then we can begin asking ourselves more questions, such as

• Who inspires, encourages, becomes a part of our top line living? 
• Who are the people who serve to keep us stuck on the bottom, or who lead us to the bottom?

Knowing this can help us to opt for the higher way of living.  IMHO, of course.

Check your facts:

Here's some wisdom from Sherlock Holmes (A Scandal in Bohemia):

It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.

I sure wish some of our politicians, pundits, talk show hosts or sections of political parties would act on this advice.

You can't give what you don't have

Today is the memorial of St. Gregory of Nyssa. Here's a quote for the day:

Peace is indeed the greatest of the joy-giving things; and this He wishes each of us to have in such a measure as to keep it not only for himself, but to be able to dispense from the overflow of his abundance also to others. . . . Hence the Lord wants you first to be yourself filled with the blessings of peace, and then to communicate it to those who have need of it.

Try this:  Just for a short time, close your eyes and relax. Pay attention to your breath as it moves in and out of your body. As you inhale, inhale peace; as you exhale, exhale whatever is in you that is not peace.

Creative decisions

   A student writes: Creativity is not only expressed through art and music; it is seen through your daily actions and the decisions you make.  Something to think about.


   When I have a choice to make between x and y, which of the two expresses my "higher self"? Am I free to decide to "take the high road"? Hmmm... which shall it be--watching television or working on my hobby? sending that angry email or not?  I'm sure you can come up with a few of your own choices and decisions?
   Should I end this post now or continue squeezing out a few more lines?

1/5/11 About Prayer

Sometimes, in the life of faith it is the simple things that matter. The other day I had to deal with a frustrating situation that I didn't know how to deal with.

Early this morning I was sitting in my recliner reading when my thoughts again turned to the unresolved situation. I found myself staring at an icon known as "Jesus the Teacher" and asked him, "What should I do about this matter?" Ninety minutes later, I had an idea about a possible solution, acted on it, and everything was settled simply and easily. "Thank you, Lord. Thank you especially for reminding me to ask for help."