Moving from the old to the potentially new as New Year’s Eve approaches, I am reminded, for some reason, of lessons learned in my early years of college teaching. I feel the urge to share some of them, so here goes.
- Don’t turn your back on the class when you write on the blackboard. The students will giggle as they watch you wiggle.
- Don’t gesture with your middle finger.
- Wait until class is over to scratch your nose.
- Don’t cause your class optical and other stress by moving unnecessarily. Save your dancing moves for appropriate occasions. i.e., every move and motion should have a purpose
- If you don’t know the answer to the student’s question, don’t fake it. Pretending to be an encyclopedia makes you look foolish, and teaches the irrational lesson that the student is deficient if he or she isn’t perfect.
- Use the question as a teaching opportunity. Offer to look up the answer before the next class, or, better yet, ask the class to do it.
- Maybe most important. When preparing and presenting your class presentation, focus on what the class will gain from it, not how smart or competent you will look.
- Same goes for preparing tests and assigning papers.
- Apply all these rules to individual therapy, unless you really feel that thumbing your nose or gesturing with your middle finger will provoke some kind of useful reaction.
Oh, another lesson to apply to the new year: If the class (or the client session) was a disaster, remember Annie. There’s always tomorrow, and it’s only a day away.
Happy anticipation of 2013.
It’s because these days have been active — pleasantly so.
For those of you whose primary celebration day was December 25, I hope it was a time of friendship, family, joy, celebration, something different from the usual schedule, or, at least, comfort.
For everyone, I wish all those things for now and the new year.
And I did get my cards sent off in time, presents wrapped, given, and unwrapped, enjoyed minimal exposure to the news, and expect I’ll be back on some kind of schedule after the beginning of the year.
I THOUGHT I WAS BACK. WELL, MAYBE I AM
I’m afraid I’ve neglected my blog friends, and even some of my more tangible ones. I can explain. I have been suffering situation-induced ADD. I mean, I go to my work space and waver from one, “This is the most urgent,” to another, “This is even more urgent,” to another “But this has to be done right now.” Situation induced? Yes.
As I reported earlier, I enjoyed a fabulous cruise to Australia/New Zealand. I don’t know how it could have been more wonderful. Even the fact that I was out of e-mail and cell-phone contact, while frustrating, contributed to a relaxed sense of not being bombarded by the problems of the world. I still recall the experience with pleasurable warmth. (which is needed here in cold Minnesota, even if we are having below-record temperatures.)
But – and here’s the ADD explanation. I arrived home after a flight of some 13.5 hours plus another three or so from LA to Minneapolis. Anticipating that I’d be unable to sleep on the plane, I completely charged up my new MacBook Air intending to spend the time editing Mrs. Job for the new publisher. (I hope it will have a new title.) Well, the MacBook Air is sort of mine. In less than a year it will be all mine, once I finish paying off the credit card in time to avoid interest charges.
Anyway, I was the only workaholic on the long flight. While everyone else leaned back in the dark, at least pretending to be asleep, I worked on the editing until my MacBook Air ran out of juice about two hours before landing. And no, I still didn’t fall asleep those last two hours.
On top of it, I had a coughing cold, which I knew I would get when one of the men on an excursion the day before the end of the cruise kept coughing his cold into his hands. And then, of course, I had the traditional jet lag. But that caused no major problems, until I got to work on my computers and accepted the aid of a very nice tech support person.
What did I do with his help? I migrated all the stuff from my old computer onto my new MacBolk Air. It ran for 8 hours, and when it was done, the old material had completely taken over my new one. Even the trash was from the old computer. All the money records I had kept on the trip, and all the photos, and “Mrs. Job” were just plain gone.
I tried, I mean I really tried to sleep that night. Reminding myself of what other people have lost didn’t help at all.
The next two days I spent with a series of really nice and helpful technical supervisors, and, joy of joy! my photos were recovered, though without any of the editing I had done originally, and with labels missing. So, my project over Christmas break will be to do that all over again. But at least they aren’t totally lost.
It’s interesting, actually, that most of the photos are dated a day before they happened. i.e., they’re dated U.S. time which is behind New Zealand time. But I can deal with that.
As for the financial records, much of it was permanently lost, so I had to restore them based on the credit card statements.
But, it is all done, I think! My cough is gone. I have “Mrs. Job” and my photos, three of which I’ll be attaching to this entry.
Now to get to winding up Christmas duties – gifts, cards, etc.
Again, my apologies to those I’ve neglected. Not only bloggers, but facebook folk, and others who have sent me nice e-mails and other messages to which I have not responded. Even local friends who haven’t seen me because I’ve been holed up working on these issues.
Oh yea, even my own body. I haven’t done any exercise since I returned, except for going up and down my own stairs to get stuff.
I hope you’ll forgive me. I hope my body will too.
And now, a few
(1) Mona at Murray’s sheep farm Akaroa, New Zealand.
(2) View from almost the top of Mt. Victoria, Wellington, New Zealand (almost the top. I managed to overcome my fear of heights to a minimal degree.)
(3) Admiral Byrd memorial, Mt. Victoria.
The trip to Australia and New Zealand was fabulous. Getting myself, my life, and my computer back together since I returned is another story. But I’m here now, just before getting myself some dinner, to post one photo as proof. Beautiful Chinese Gardens in Sydney.
More words and photos will follow.
My friend was outed the other day as a Democrat. “Really?” a man nearby reacted, “But I thought you were a Christian.” Yes. He really believes that Democrats are not Christians. Wow! Is my reaction.
And I’m a Democrat BECAUSE I strive to be a follower of Jesus (who, remember, was a practicing Jew.) Unlike that man, I don’t assume that all members of any political party think alike. I know many Republicans who choose that party because they feel they have a home there for their Christian beliefs, just as I feel the Democratic Party supports more of mine. So why am I a Democrat? (except when I vote for a Reublican.)
I think that with the Democrats I have a better chance for freedom to follow my beliefs without government interference. I do understand that there are those who see things differently – who are sure that a true believer would want to impose the “right” religion by way of government action. You know what? I think they have their right to believe that. That’s why we have discussions, debates, and even elections.
I choose the side of the Democrats, though, because I believe I have a moral/ religious home there. I’ll vote for life every time. That’s right: I’m pro-life; therefore I’m pro-choice. I believe all life is valuable – not just the life of the newly implanted fertilized ovum. In fact, I have a hard time understanding the belief that God somehow loves that embryo so much that it would be worth it to sacrifice the life of the woman He once thought so valuable when she was in the form of an embryo. And have no doubt. A woman’s body is not an inactive box. Pregnancy is a hazard. I’ll stop myself from the rant I want to start about the complexities of pregnancies and choices.
By the way, pro-choice does not mean pro-abortion. I prefer the Democratic position of supporting options for women to gain access to reproductive information and pregnancy prevention. For poor women, that means I’m in favor of supporting Planned Parenthood whose function is to promote the life of both mother and child through prenatal care and health maintenance.
I’m in favor of life for physicians who practice perfectly legal abortions.
Oh, and even if they were illegal, because I am opposed to the death penalty, I’m still in favor of life. I could rant about that too.
I’m opposed to locking people away in privately owned prisons where each inmate represents a profit. I’m in favor of doing all possible to encourage the productive life of those who are or have been inmates.
I believe in an education that encourages creativity, not only for those who can afford it, but for those in poverty whose schools and families need help.
I believe in recognizing the humanity and value of all immigrants.
I’m opposed to war as anything but a very last resort for solving problems.
I believe in maintaining the life of the earth – even the universe — and the scientists who study its health.
I favor an atmosphere that encourages forgiveness and help with forgiveness. Oh, not making excuses for wrongdoing. I said I try to be a follower of Jesus. I don’t believe he ever said, “Oh, don’t worry about it. Just do what feels right to you.” I think he was more likely to say “Go and sin no more.” He was big, I believe, on promoting justice for all, rich or poor, even Samaritans.
OK, there’s more. It seems to me his list of what to do to attain the Kingdom was not to follow a whole bunch of rules. Wasn’t it more like “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself?” See the lessons of Job
Well, anyway. That’s why I feel more at home as a Democrat. And I get it. Not all Republicans identify as Christian and not all Democrats are non-Christians. I like it that way (These days I rarely use the word Christian, now that it’s been so politicized.). There’s room for all of us under the big umbrella that is the United States that brought my parents here as immigrants. That includes Sikhs, Muslims, Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Unitarians, Roman Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Hindu, atheists, agnostics, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists … I know, the list isn’t complete. That’s the point. That’s the America I love.
A bow to the words of the hymn, “As for me and my house; we will serve the Lord.” Please click on this link. manufactured demand
I recently posted a review of Aarathi Prasad’s book, “Like a virgin.” Here are the first two paragraphs. I hope you’ll choose to take the time to read the rest of what I said about it.
“For everyone who believes that “one man, one woman” is a simple statement, I wish there were a requirement to read the first sections of this book. For everyone who thinks that pregnancy is nothing but a woman carrying a fetus around in her abdomen for nine months, I wish there were a requirement to read this book.
I confess I would not pass a test on its contents. Maybe the very fact that it is laden with complicated, detailed, though fascinating information has something to do with the fact that I am the first to write a review. Nonetheless, I think reading, or at least scanning, it would profit anyone who has an opinion about sex, whether it applies to choices on the abortion issue or attitudes about homosexuality, or even just why we do it. If nothing else, it would force one to be aware of the complexities of fetal development, pregnancy, childbirth, and gender determination. Knowledge has taken us way beyond dichotomous thinking.”
He called me Auntie, I called him Uncle Joe. There was no logical reason for it, given that he was my former husband’s brother-in-law. But Uncle Joe he was.
Being in the process of reading “Atlas Shrugged” was the stimulus for my remembering Joe. You don’t need to have read Ayn Rand’s works, though, for this to make sense. I just want to point out how creative and essential Joe was, and how unlikely it would be that anyone would recognize him, either financially or through reputation, for what he did.
Joe earned his living as a school custodian. I’ll admit, before I understood his job, I thought it was pretty insignificant. Not the heralded creativity of those who obtain patents and money for their inventions of new things or ideas. He would certainly not be recognized by those who think the contributions of the mind outrank physical labor.
No, janitors don’t just wash floors and clean up messes after careless students. Daily Joe was met with the challenge of something not functioning properly. Heating and air conditioning breakdowns, electrical failures, plumbing problems, structural damage, animal invasions – I can’t name all the problems. And that’s just the point. Whatever the event, it was his job to diagnose and repair, to apply his creative skills to arrive at the most efficient solution. He kept the school running.
In the meantime, he served, as so many custodians do, as unofficial counselor to troubled students.
I confess, I have joyfully engaged in an occupation where the mind was paramount. That’s why I so fear falling on my head which contains my most important working parts. But I am unwilling to join those who belittle folks like Uncle Joe. We are all of potential value. We are all served if we appreciate and encourage what others have to offer. That includes the young man of limited ability who greets us as we enter the concert hall. Maybe that’s why, in the 60s, I identified with those who opposed elitism.
So, here’s to the memory of Uncle Joe.
I’m in the middle of reading Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged.” I wish I had someone — or many — right here with me to discuss it. In that light, I couldn’t help appreciating this article in my e-mail this morning. Long, but oh so thoughtful, and thought provoking. See what Congressman John Lewis has to say.
Opposed to gay marriage? A good way to familiarize yourself with the arguments you’ll face.
Supportive of gay marriage? A good way to develop your arguments.
With humor, reason, knowledge, and clarity, John Corvino presents the case for same-sex marriage. There are several segments. I recommend you hang in there to watch all of them
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