Category Archives: Personal Values

The Road to 65, Mile 308: October Beginnings

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Posted by on in Education, Inspiration, Personal goals, Personal Values

October 1, 2015, Chino Valley- I made my last visit to Del Rio School for a while, spending the day with a class of second-graders, with whom I have worked a few times in the past.  I will actually miss this school, and several others, but throwing myself into the well-being of a specific group of children, day-to-day, for at least two months, and hopefully longer, is something I need to do.  It’s necessary for my own sense that I can do good by a classroom, over a long period of time.  It’s necessary for the children, whose skills are undeveloped, and thus seen by the Masters of the Universe as “low”.

In another iteration, I covered for a teacher on maternity leave, for five months.  The children loved me, and I, them.  I had the support of the school administration.  The teacher, sad to say, did not like my work and made it very clear, especially at the end.  I digress.

It was a good day today, and it will be another good day tomorrow, at Mile High Middle School, in Prescott.  I can work in Prescott schools on Fridays, until the Winter Break, at least, so the separation is less than final.  My first priority, though, will now be Mingus Springs’ third grade class.

October will see me back on the trails- the first few days of Fall Break- next week, and on several weekends hereafter.  Son will be out here, at the end of the month, and I will make my now traditional visit to San Diego, at Thanksgiving time.  My Faith also factors directly into the schedule:  Besides being the cornerstone of my daily life, Baha’i events will occupy me, this coming Saturday, (as will community service, here in Prescott); at the beginning of November and on several days throughout the Fall.  I can never tell when the needs of trusted friends may arise and take me off on an errand of mercy, as happened a week ago, today.

October is always a fascinating month- and not the least because of our fun traditions of Halloween.  I have always enjoyed treating children, from my front door, over the years, in places like Toltec City, Tuba City, Jeddito, Salome, Phoenix and Prescott.  This Halloween will find me at a friend’s house in Tucson, perhaps finagling front door duty.

The crispness of the air, and the changing leaves of the Northland, will also bring me and mine a renewed energy.  I had my mid-year check-up yesterday, and all my vitals are in top form.  Fall will be a great season.

The Road to 65, Mile 299: What Is School?

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Posted by on in Education, Personal Values

September 22, 2015, Chino Valley- I am gratified that my sleep and energy levels are proving more than adequate to do the job I have been given- and will get more in tune with the students and their needs, in short order.  A lot of time and energy will need to be devoted to shoring up their skill levels, to say the least.

Much has been said about the “dumbing down” of the curriculum, with an idea that the common denominator, in a polyglot world, is pop culture.  There are uses to which phenomena, like Hip Hop can be put, but seriously, I see no good use for lowered expectations,double negatives, coarse speech and mangled grammar.

A longtime friend complained today, that teachers are getting all the blame, for students’ lack of success, and that people should stop crying Victim, every time they are criticized.  She is right on both counts, and I attribute these phenomena to false pride, if not narcissism- and both are rooted in insecurity.

Teachers are just part of the team that raises and nurtures a child.  Parents, extended family, community members, and the child herself, are equal partners in this effort.  No one should get off the hook, when a child fails.

I will need to do a lot of one-on-one and small group tutoring, both during, and outside of, the school day, in order to bring my students up to speed. There will also need to be consistent parental encouragement and efforts to provide a stable home life.  The child needs to be taught responsibility, as one of the finest supervisors I  have ever had kept saying, day in and day out, in the Fall of 2001.  That supervisor was 18 years of age.  She was a prodigy, and is now a Master Teacher, at age 33.

School is more than just a building.  It is a community, a center, a medium of exchange (in the ideal sense, not in the financial sense).  It needs to be a refuge of hope and of strength.  We have a long road ahead.

The Road to 65, Mile 298: Equinox and Equity

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Posted by on in Hiking and Nature, Inspiration, Personal Values

September 21, 2015, Granite Dells-  I spent the evening of the Autumnal Equinox, observing the International Day of Peace, with a host of kindred spirits, enjoying the music of a local artist, Celia, and of our host, Johnny Light.

Heaven on Earth, where I find myself fairly frequently these days, is the home of John and his beloved, Happy Oasis, whose poetry is another draw to the blessed Dells- one of three “Rainforest”-type environments I have found in Arizona.  Johnny built the place himself, from the ground up, after their earlier home was leveled by a forest fire, little more than a year ago.

Celia was moved to thus dedicate a song to the victims of northern California’s ongoing wildfires, arguably the worst natural disaster we have had in this country, since Hurricane Katrina.  Over 23,000 people have now been displaced, with many living in tent cities.  Her song was simple:  “Rain”, chanted over and over, for about five minutes, with a Chilean rain stick furnishing the percussion.

John and Celia are each in superbly equitable relationships.  Many others in the assemblage, this evening, are in that situation, as well.  I enjoyed equity, in my marriage, and know that it is hard work.  It is also the most satisfying effort there is.  Yet, perhaps, Celia’s song, “Everyday Goddess”, puts the whole matter of gender and roles into perspective:  “It’s no big deal”.  If we just be, and not cast ourselves into untenable roles, then it seems that true equity will come about, as a matter of course.

I arrive at an exquisite realization, every time I set foot in Heaven on Earth.

The Road to 65, Mile 297: Where I Stand, Part 3

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Posted by on in Inner Struggles, Inspiration, Personal Values

September 20, 2015, Prescott-  I spent this day alone.  Tomorrow, and for almost every day for the next three months, I won’t need to be concerned with being alone.  In fact, my aloneness has often been a good part of the reason why I have brought so many difficulties on myself, over the years. Penny brought me out of it; then when she passed, and I drifted back into torpor, various people came into my life and helped our son keep me on the straight and even.

“Development Comes From Within.  The process of human and community development unfolds from within each person,relationship, family organization, community or nation.”- Four Winds International Institute

This second principle for building a sustainable and harmonious world correctly states that it is the individual who feels the impetus to build self, from inside out and from the bottom up.  Without a determination to focus outward and concern myself with the needs of others, I would remain stuck- trying to live above my means, casting about to blame a chimeric force, bigger than myself, for all my woes and looking to an imaginary solution for those problems.  Each of us is capable of a certain degree of good.  It is towards that capacity that one best focuses.

Once a relationship is established, it is essentially either 100/100. or 0/0.  For one person to do all the work in a relationship is the same as a sluggard, dragging thrice his weight in rocks, along the ground. I had to work at not trying to do it all.  Fortunately, I had an exemplary partner in that, and most other regards.  Only when a couple has this balance set, can a family successfully begin.  Mother and father set a united front, and child(ren) have a clear sense of wiggle room.  Family organization, even in the age of the nuclear family, or rather, ESPECIALLY in this age, is best set in stone, with room to expand outwardly, to grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins- clear up to as many generations as can meaningfully participate. Community is only as strong as its members can manage, through cooperation, due to recognition of several common goals, and despite differences of opinion.  I was raised by a conservative, business-minded father and a liberal, civic-minded mother.  The town was close-knit, first by neighbourhood, then community-wide.  We did knock on doors before entering, once people from Boston started moving into the newly developed suburban “projects”, which in those days meant new, single-family homes, and there were no longer just the “old families” around. Neighbours minded each other kids, and everyone respected the Irish cop on the beat. Dad had a few men over, each weekday evening before dinner, and they would sit on the porch and solve the problems of town and state. The Town Meeting was held, once a year, and further discussions addressed key issues, almost in Athenian style.  Things were accomplished.

The same is true at the national level.  Too many unwieldy interests, motivated by entitlement, are pitting themselves against one another.  My father told me to never regard the “other side” as an enemy, to be vanquished, but rather as a teaching unit, to which I do best to listen, and to expect them to listen to me.

The “what” and the “how” do not need to be at odds with one another, ad nauseam.  Perfect is Good’s younger sibling, and needs the example borne out first.

The Road to 65, Mile 296: Where I Stand, Part 2

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Posted by on in animal and plant life, Hiking and Nature, Personal goals, Personal Values, Service Activities

September 19, 2015, Prescott-  For the next several posts, I will be centering my comments on 16 principles, developed by Four Worlds International Institute, in Surrey, BC.  It is led by a man for whom I have a lot of respect:  Hereditary Chief Phil Lane, Jr., of the Blackfoot Nation.  All quotes herein are from the document, The Fourth Way:  An Indigenous Contribution to Building Sustainable and  Harmonious Prosperity in the Americas, Update, October 2008.

Nobody asked me to do this, but I share both genetic memories and spiritual values with the Aboriginal Peoples of the Americas, specifically with the Penobscot Nation, of central Maine.  There is no barrier between us, except those that people choose to put between each other.  So, let me begin.

Principle 1: “Human Beings Can Transform Their Worlds. The web of our relationships with others and the natural world, which has given rise to the problems we face as a human family, can be changed.” –  

The author, savant and change agent, Star Hawk, has written that, for Man to regard himself as divorced from nature, is an arrogant mindset.  In fact, we in our physical state are very much connected to the rest of Nature.  It’s pretty much a given, to me, that each and every thing we do in this life is a matter of choice.  Some choices are more difficult than others, but they still need to be made.  So, with regard to relationships with others, we can choose to respond to people, or to ignore them.  I have found that I can only ignore those who irritate or are disagreeable to me for just so long, before one or the other of us presses for a resolution. The converse is also true.

How much more is this true, with regard to nature.  One can, in the name of stockholder profits, order the spewing of poisons into the atmosphere, water and soil, for just so long, before the toxins find their way into the Web of Life- with cancer, dementia and neurological ills becoming pandemic.  One may, in the name of Science, release Genetically-Modified Organisms into the food chain, while demanding that the rest of the planet toe your line, or face crippling litigation.  Then, because living things are just not ready to digest your products and therefore, in the case of humans, RESIST purchasing them or, in the case of scavenging rodents, birds and insects, just IGNORE the stuff, you redouble your efforts, getting shills to write articles that ridicule those who won’t buy GMO’s, and prodding normally thoughtful, even-minded people to jump in the fray and try to analyze the case against your products, with a view towards “talking some sense into those who would starve humanity, for the sake of romanticism.”  Still, the illnesses, and the wreckage, pile up.

My plans, with regard to relationships, are these:

  1.  Accept all offers of friendship, unless and until such offers prove to be based on ulterior motives.
  2. Respect those, online and in real time, who indicate they wish me to not contact them, either for a time, or permanently.
  3. Be a trustworthy person, more than I have been towards some people in the past.
  4. Listen, listen, and listen some more.
  5. Own the mistakes I have made with people, and do better by them , and others.

My plans, with respect to Nature, are these:

1. Tend the seeds I have planted, in my back yard.

2.  Honour animal and plant life, wherever I encounter them.

3.  By all means, continue hiking and other acts of personal exploration, both in my home area and          further afield.

4.  Carry a trash bag in my pack, so that the unwarranted intrusion of the thoughtless may be mitigated.

5.  Recycle, as much as possible, while recognizing that not everyone regards this practice as truly beneficial to the Planet.

I have gone on longer than usual, but these matters are very basic to my human and natural states of being.