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"democratic society must, in consistency w/ its ideal, allow for intellectual freedom and the play of diverse gifts and interests in educ"JD 5 hours ago
"The conception of education as a social process and function has no definite meaning until we define the kind of society we have in mind"JD 1 day ago
Should Books for Asia be sending what we deem to be a good children’s book to a school in Thailand? It was a twitter post by Nicholas Kristof, a reporter for the NY Times, that put me on to this. Regular readers (all three of you) may wonder why I would ask such a silly question. I have written here before promoting fiction for children, and how a well written children’s story can be beneficial to us all. Books rank as one of the best possible material gifts one can give in my opinion. Further, literacy is a keystone to success within North American culture. Thus, I too wonder a bit at my question. Yet, what if we considered things a bit more deeply? Maybe you should watch the video first.
Some questions you might have asked: Is the happiness of these children dependent upon stories from North America? Do these children not dream already? In many ways these stories are nonsensical – what kind of ideas do they put into children’s heads? Why should your favourite book from a shortlist of five be the one that gets sent to this school? Shouldn’t the culture, community, and teacher select the book?
Just asking. The video is well put together. I kind of like nonsensical ideas sometimes. I am going to vote for a book. You’ll have to decide if you are. I like the song. Do you have the answers to these questions? My answers are just more questions. Except, I like books.
I smile, without melancholy, knowing the best is not even there. Instead, I have taken it with me. Hoping that we all do, and looking forward to the future. It is the memories, not the place, which are important.
We’ve been favoured with seven days of September prior to Labour Day this year, yet here it is once again: The Eve of Tuesday. For many of us we sit at the cusp of beginnings, changes, and adventures at this time of year. As a result, and as I’ve mentioned before (and before), it seems a natural, and pertinent, time for a little reflection. Maybe not too much mind you, but just a little. We’ve pulled off a lot these past twelve months, and it’s interesting to think that many of the adventures of the preceding 52 weeks were set in motion, at least in some small way, during the days following Labour Day. Travel, relationships, sports, employment, school, and other adventures were all set-in motion a year ago. If you think back, can you recall any that made your past year special, challenging, or meaningful?
This type of post has become a bit of a repetitive annual affair, but some things deserve emphasis, especially as many of us have faced recent adventures and challenges. As the summer closes out, we look back upon the season that is often filled with play, travel, and other adventures. Others look back on goals completed, or milestones reached in the past season, and the past year. The start of September, the change of the season, allows us to realize just how much we have accomplished recently – most of it with each other. It’s also exciting to think that in the next few days and weeks the seeds will likely be planted for the adventures to come, or the near future will provide the setting, people, or tools to allow recently started adventures to come to fruition. As I sneak back into town, on the brink of The Tuesday, I find this long weekend has served as a reminder that it is our relationships that will be our most powerful ally – even if some are our greatest challenges – in the year to come after Labour Day.
As I sit and see today’s sun fade across the water and into the west, I smile when I think of what we will accomplish in these days after Labour Day – the new adventures to come, and so many of them still unknown. I am fortunate and thankful to have amazing friends that will be there in the adventures and challenges. Thus, the usual call goes out at this time of year. Be ready to help those who are lost in their challenges of the next 12 months. Yet, also be ready to turn to friends when you are lost or challenged – it will come, and not always in the form expected. However, that’s exciting, and if we didn’t open the door to the excitement of success and setbacks, then joy wouldn’t be able to come in. Be ready, be open, be friendly, and be a friend to your friends.
I might not be around these interweb parts so much this coming season, so two things. (1) Go to a Terry Fox run on Sunday. (2) I’ll wish you all the best now, and suggest that I might return with more regularity at some point. I’ll never be too far though, and for those of you who know where to reach me, please never hesitate to drop a line or give a ring. We’ll see you soon no doubt.
I’ll let the White Stripes take us into this next yearly cycle. A song filled with hope, smiles, friendship and a bit of the unknown – key characteristics for a successful run at the adventures that are ahead for us this time of year.
…staring at this yellow haired girl, Mr. Jones strikes up a conversation with a black haired Flamenco dancer…
With those lines one realizes we have once again reached August and Everything After. Only, this time it is 15 years on. Fifteen years! True, the album came out in the fall of ‘93, but it was the summer of ‘94 that saw this album rise to iconic standing in many of our lives, particularly the third track, which opened with the lyrics above. It was a summer of acoustic guitars and new paths, so this album seemed to fit the bill. The crazy things is – has it really been a decade and a half?
A decade and a half from now what songs and albums will we look back upon with the same nostalgia as we do now. Somehow I don’t think it will be Poker Face. Use Somebody seems to be getting a surprising bit of play right now in different corners, but it doesn’t have the story-telling effect of Duritz’s ballad. If you have any thoughts, please comment below.
However, I’m rambling. The main point of this post: we have once again reached August, and we are looking down the road to the “everything after” part. It’s a weird month this August. Does it belong to the end of the past cycle, or the beginning of the next? (As you may remember, the author has argued a few times that September makes a better start to the annual cycle.) Yet, he’s not too sure that August makes a natural ending. It is both the wind-down and the build-up, the relaxation and the anticipation, the calm and the storm. August houses the dog days of the season, but hints at what’s to come. The crescendo that is June and July are done, but we are still a ways from autumn. Is August the climax, the denouement, or a continued build-up? Whatever it is, I’m all for it. It’s got the maximum 31 days. It plays host to many a festival and fair across this country. It’s the time of vacation in many parts of Europe. It’s got travel, BBQ, and reading on the itinerary for many of you. You deserve a good August, and everything that follows. Perhaps August has the maximum days so it can be about setting one’s self in a good frame of mind for all that follows after. Perhaps August is about dreaming of what lies ahead, but not feeling pressured into it.
Mr. Jones and the song’s protagonist seem to be doing a lot of dreaming and aspiring to bigger things. Fifteen years ago we aspired to some pretty big things. Some of them have come to fruition, others we’re working on, and many dreams have changed – in many good ways. However, the question remains for the duo in that song: did they go out and make any of it happen? I hope your August is one of fond nostalgia, rest, and dreams of things you will go out and make happen. Here’s to finding your New Amsterdam, and all that lies ahead in August and after. I believe it’s set to be a good one.
Mr. Jones and me look into the future…
p.s. – final thoughts on this year’s tour now appear on the TdF page.
Constructing, as in social-historical constructivism. Power, as in who has it, where it comes from and how it should be used. Thunder that accompanied the amazing hours long lightning storm I was lucky enough to take in this evening. All overseen by the thoughts and visions of cyclists that fuel procrastination so well.
Amongst all of this I am beginning to wonder where the balance is? It’s at times like these when we may feel unbalanced when we should ask ourselves if that is really the case. I am fortunate enough to have the time to take in a lightning storm with no worries about where I will sleep tonight or where my next meal will come from. I have the luxury of modern technology to help generate and organize my thoughts about social-historical constructivism and power. I easily engage in the extravagance of following a race half a world away, in depth. Any stress I make a claim to right now are completely self created, with the exception that my tools to create it and deal with it socially and historically acquired. (Try that one on for size).
Thus, is it worth asking ourselves sometimes, whether or not we are actually unbalanced, or are we balanced, but realizing that we might need to readjust the fulcrum? There’s nothing wrong with having the fulcrum in different spots at times. I can think of a number of ways to justify where it is right now personally, and I am certainly not here to gripe, or complain about where it is. I’m only here to recognize that its placing is my doing, and to share that thought – for your thoughts. Take it or leave it as you wish. In the end, this outlook, my sense of balance, and my fulcrum placement are (again) constructed, and yours may be constructed differently.
Now, for what you really came here for: I’m forced to pick Cavendish for a win on les Champs-Elysées. I’ll be pulling for Tyler Farrar though.
Quite frankly I am fortunate to have such caring, loving, and fun filled friends and family. I was reminded of this last night. School, work, volunteering, travel, sport, living abroad, coaching, childhood, randomness, all of these and more have contributed to me being incredibly lucky and fortunate to meet people who care so much, and give so much. My good fortune extends in that I not only got to meet so many of these people, but got to know them on a variety of levels. It wasn’t so much the experiences that helped make me a better person, as it was and is the people.
Often we need excuses like weddings, graduations, retirements, births, birthdays and other “special” events to bring together the amazing people in our lives. I was fortunate enough to have one of these experiences and I am hopeful that the people I care about got to meet some amazing others. I’m also hopeful that we can all make the time and effort to make more caring connections without waiting for the same excuses.
Thanks so much to everyone. We’ll see you soon no doubt.
In the latest brain wave that will surely make me rich, I’ve come with a new spin on the only decent reality TV show, The Amazing Race. Instead of a human partner, contestants would choose an animal partner, or maybe it would be a team of three, keep the two humans and add an animal. This immediately begs the cool question (at least I think it’s cool):
Which animal would you choose to go on the Amazing Race with you?
I was initially thinking about bringing a monkey. While their intelligence factor and dexterity with hands and feet could prove advantageous in many a road block or detour, I then remembered I have a bit of a phobia about monkeys. Partnering with a Giant Ape might be a better option. Only, I would be wary of us getting into an argument during which I would be incapacitated. Some sort of giant feline, like a lion or cougar would certainly be great for all the running we would have to do, and could make getting on and off, and in and out of airports quick due to the fear factor the animal would inspire in others. However, I don’t feel very trusting of cats and would always suspect my partner would eat me in the end to take the million dollars for him/herself. I imagine a kangaroo to be really laid back, yet at the same time competitive, which means we could get along really great. Although, I’ve never met one so really don’t know for sure. For some reason I would trust a bear over a cat, and I like bears. Yet, I’m a bit worried about the motivation and drive factor. I can picture a bear getting distracted for some reason, or bought off easily by another team with honey, salmon, mai tai or some other sweet treat from an exotic place. A bird of some sort might be the way to go. He/she could scout ahead, and there are always climbing or jumping from height tasks in the Amazing Race, and the bird could just fly through these (pun intended). Then I recall that birds, particularly certain birds, give me another irrational phobia (even though I let them eat out of my hand). Honestly – I really like animals, and I fight these monkey/bird phobias (which are the only ones) and realize they are probably irrational (maybe).
So, what I think it comes down to is a dog or a an elephant. I see them both as being very loyal. They would hopefully have good memories, because there is always that last activity (and we would make it all the way to the end to be in the last activity) where you have to remember stuff about the places you’ve been to or the other contestants. A dog, like a shepherd, retreiver, or collie, would have good stamina and intelligence, they would be able to carry some stuff. An elephant would be able to carry me anywhere. (I’m assuming that on the Animal Amazing Race they would give us planes big enough to transport any partner we selected). Both seem like they could be friendly, yet competitive as well, so we’d get along. I would worry about neither having opposable thumbs, with some of those road block tasks requiring fine motor skills sometimes. I’ll mull it over and try to decided between these two. Maybe you have some other suggestions I haven’t seriously considered yet?
More importantly: which animal would you take on the Amazing Race as a partner or team of three with your human partner? Feel free to comment down below (click on “comments” if you’re on the main page).
The last refuge of the content deprived is lists. I am not above this, so here begins a few posts about lists. I few people have “tagged” me on a that site almost everybody uses… bookfarce, cafebooks – something like that – anyways, they’re asking for 25 “random things”. While random implies “without objective” the process does appear to have an objective: getting to know more about people. I like that kind of objective – I’m out to learn more about the people I care about.
The list that appears for me here may not appear to live up to the details, intricacies, hidden wishes, and obscure revelations some other people have sent me on their 25 points. However, three reasons for its seemingly more obscure nature: (1) This blog is not about intricate details of my life. (2) It just might be that all that is random in my life and yours flows from a list like this. All our little differences and hidden treasures actually connect us all, rather than separate us. (3) When this list is kept open like this, it stays random. Each time I read it a different – and random – story, detail, or thought can be applied to it – either from my life, or maybe yours as well. This list stays random, it stays alive, and in this way anyone who reads can consider her/himself “tagged”.
Here were the instructions (spelling and grammar of instructions have been left alone):
Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things about you, then choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If i tagged you, it’s because i want to know more about you. continue reading……..
I hope.
I often feel like a dichotomy.
I have experienced joy.
I have experienced sadness.
I have been wrong.
I have learned.
I laugh.
I have cried.
I won.
I lost.
I have been lost.
I have left.
I have returned.
I have not returned.
I commit.
I change.
I dream – when awake and when asleep.
I am pragmatic and unrealistic at the same time.
I believe.
I doubt.
I am subjectively objective, and sometimes objectively subjective.
I adventure.
I have hated.
I hope to, and work to, not hate again.
I love.
I am loved – it makes me a better person, and I sometimes wonder what I did to deserve it.
I have a history of subverting rules, guidelines, and suggestions.
There are many decent public speakers, a few good ones, the odd great speaker, but exceptional speakers are very rare. I will not deny I can sometimes be critical of those trying to convince, and lead through spoken word. Today, an exception spoke again in a new role.
The exceptional leader-speakers are those that can fluidly combine personal interaction while keeping the attention of millions. They are effortless and exuberant at the same time. They combine leadership, with camaraderie, and mesh calm clarity of simple purposes with passionate grandiose ideals. All the while, they are not in front of us, they are actually with us. Very, few people can hold these qualities of leadership, let alone leadership and speaking ability.
In the past when watching Obama I was reminded of Clinton, and felt him drawing on King. While those influences are no doubt still there, there were signs today that his own growth, and now presence as President may come to walk beside these influences. I claim no political affiliation. I feel my country’s citizens should care more about leadership at home than always looking south. However, I cannot deny this man, like MLK, and many others before him, represents hope, and I’m big on hope.
The full speech is below (I like how the sound has crowd noise, and has a bit of a crackle to it – much more real, like how it might have been like there). Yet first, a few lines that stood out to me, either for their quality, or the message they send to the world:
Willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves…. [that is] a spirit which must inhabit us all.
America is a friend to each nation.
We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.
Forty five years ago today, Martin Luther King Jr. stood before more than 200,000 in Washington and delivered one of the greatest speeches of all time. It stands for itself even to this day. The values, goals and message embedded within King’s words and eloquent delivery can still guide and inspire us today as we deal with injustices all around the globe. Thus, the most appropriate gesture to mark the occasion seems to simply post the speech itself. If you have never seen or heard the speech in its entirety, or if it has been a while, I wholeheartedly encourage you to take the time to view it here.
