Tag Archives: learning curve

Pushing Off

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Posted by on in children, collaborating, Education, Family, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

March 25, 2026- Hana took her first moves forward, this evening. She did this by pushing her feet off against my hands. It marks the first time she has been able to propel herself forward, while on her hands and knees.I look forward to helping her build on this, and seeing her crawl using her hands and feet, very soon.

Every skill I’ve ever mastered has involved a learning curve. It has often been mastered under a modicum of pressure. I’ve made a fair number of mistakes and at times been labeled a slow learner. In the end, though, I’ve been able to perform the task with a fair proficiency. It’s gone best, when I haven’t had a well-meaning family member or friend tell me to “just let an expert take care of it”

That may work when it comes to repairing a car engine or rewiring a house, neither of which I have the least bit of confidence in doing. Other tasks, which I have found interesting, and simple enough to do on my own, have turned out fairly well. I painted the exterior of my house in Phoenix, and got about 2/3 of the way through painting the interior, before the place was caught up in the housing crisis of 2008-9. I cleared the roof of snow, at the school where I worked in Maine, in the winter of 1976-7. I used to do routine maintenance (changing oil & filter, gapping spark plugs, changing belts and hoses) on my cars, before vehicles became computerized. I can do simple plumbing tasks. Athletic skills, even as mediocre as they are, came late in life.

All of which come back to mind, as my granddaughter’s life begins to take root. The skills she acquires in infancy and as a toddler will be achieved in an atmosphere of patience and support. There will be no pressure on this end, only the loving encouragement of three people who have lived through situations in which pressure was applied, by well-meaning but insecure friends and teachers, to get the skill learned quickly.

She will have a solid foundation in confidence building, before heading off to whatever school her parents choose for her. She will push off from a pier of love.

Brexit and Bust?

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Posted by on in Community, Social, Striving

June 27, 2016, Prescott- One of the lessons that I have had to learn, three times, is that there are consequences to ill-planning, and even more to no planning at all. For this very reason, I have seen fit to go back to working full-time, come August.

It is coming to light that the advocates of Britain’s exit from the European Union had no coherent strategy.  This raises the old adage, “Be careful for what you wish; you might get it.”  Pandora and her box  also come to  mind, but you get my point.  Here, we have an entire nation that must abide the consequences deriving from the seeming whims of a slender majority, of a minority of registered voters.

I will have more to say about the devaluing of men, in a coming post.  The larger issue here, though, is that, no matter what a nation seeks to accomplish, its chosen leaders need to plan, to strategize in advance.  To be fair,  recent American leaders have not been paragons of strategy, either.  Passing a law, with no clear understanding of its terms, is not an example to offer up to the British, or anyone else.

I admire much about the United Kingdom, and its four distinctive indigenous communities.  I would like to spend some time there, within the next ten years, (along with several other countries).  It would be well if I do not go and find a wreck.  In order to avoid such, here’s hoping that the British stick to their present notion of taking their time with the actual exit.  It does not have to adhere to the German ach schnell!  Rather, the possibility of admitting to an expensive mistake, enacting reforms that would bring  a real sense of worth to the average middle class British worker and further reforms that give the common European a sense that the Union belongs to the people- these are the things that would have obviated the “Brexit” in the first place.  People who feel like they matter, have no problem accommodating newcomers.  People who feel ignored, are fodder for demagogues, and for nativism, whose repercussions they have scant understanding.

This shall be a nerve-wracking, but nonetheless fascinating learning curve, for the British people, and for us all.

The Road to 65, Mile 153: The Flow

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Posted by on in Personal goals, Social

April 30, 2015, Prescott- We each reach the point,in our grief process, where the events of our present existence take the precedence they deserve, over constant thoughts of the departed loved one. That said, it only takes a small trigger to bring it all back- if only for a short time.

Some regard it their solemn duty to act as “reality checks”, forcibly keeping the bereft person “focused”.  I had family members who did this, in 2011, mainly because they had either no direct experience with grieving a next of kin or because the experience they did have was so extreme in severity, that they had little choice but to carry the poor soul forward.

In my case, I went through  confusion and lack of focus, in the first year of grief; a new appreciation of life, in the second year; misplaced attachments to others, in the third; and, at present, a more concrete concern with reality.  Each stage has had its spiritual component, and each, its learning curve.

I have many well-wishers, a few, scattered, haters and a dedicated cadre of friends and family, on whom I can rely for just about anything.  As others in my circle face their own first, second and third stages of grief, I find myself being ready to wrap my spiritual arms around them and feel the concourse of spirits guarding us all.