Communication Nation

This week, we are getting a bit of a late start--so, the due date for this blog will be Sunday, Dec. 4.

Here are some questions to consider.  I will not bog you down with any of my own thoughts on these, so you can just get to the heart of what you want to say.

REMINDER: Blogs matter.  Do your best, write professionally but personally, check your work in a Google or Word doc, and post before midnight.  Make sure you support what you say with appropriate details, try to work in a lit device or some other demonstration of what you know about communication, like some new vocab or something like that.

Ok, onward and upward.

Question number one: About what do you wish an adult in your life understood or knew about you that they don't already understand or know?

Question number two: At the tender age of either 16, 17 or maybe 18, what, if anything, have you figured out about life?  Your life and life in general, that is.


Aaaaaand....GO!

A Grateful Nation...pffft...Yeah, Right

So, this year has not been kind. To any of us. AT all.

And, when things don't go well, when we're sad, when we think the universe is conspiring to ruin our good times, we tend to do a few things. We mope, or we complain, or we point fingers.  It's rare that when life hands you lemons, you give thought to the best lemonade recipe you know, even though that's what we try to do and it might even be what we say we do.  It just does not always work out like that.
What I want to be able to do, ideally, is look at a situation as an OPPORTUNITY.  Even those situatons that are working my nerves--I wish I was  able to be THANKFUL that I have a situation that can really test my problem-solving skills.
Wouldn't that be awesome? If I could look at it that way?  Imagine how my perspectives would shift about everything.  Nothing would be awful because everything would be a lesson in which I had a chance to learn something.
So, bottom line, I wish I was thankful for ALL opportunity, not just the ones that may provide immediate, tangible benefits.

So...your turn.
What do you WISH you could be thankful for?  How come you're not?  Can you see any way to change your own mind about it?

The 7-Point Creed: Setting the Moral Compass

This is something sacred to me.  I don't feel that way often, but about this, I do. This, to me, is one of the most important things I will ask of you. To me, this is the key to your success, and you all know that is always my primary goal.

I keep meaning to explain this to you in a very conversational way, but somehow there never seems to be enough time to be able to really just "talk" to you. So, in an effort to make better use of "time," I have relied on the wonders of Wikipedia to be able to explain the 7-point Creed, which is the integral foundation of this week's blog question.
Without further ado--

John Wooden's Seven Point Creed,[1] given to him by his father Joshua upon his graduation from grammar school:
* Be true to yourself.
* Make each day your masterpiece.
* Help others.
* Drink deeply from good books, especially the Bible.
* Make friendship a fine art.
* Build a shelter against a rainy day.
* Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.

If you don't know who John Wooden is, LOOK HIM UP HERE--his story is quite remarkable. As a coach, I deeply admired  him and the things he accomplished. As a human being, he is amazing in every sense of the word and one of the few people I can honestly say I aspire to emulate. As you know, I don't say that about very many people.

In any case, your task for this week is to come up with your own 7-Point Creed and share it here. I know that I am asking a lot of you. I know that this is not something you can do in two-three days. And this is why I am extending the deadline until Sunday night (the 20th). You will really need to put a lot of thought into this.
 Ask yourself these questions to help you along:

What do I value?
What are my morals?
How do I want to be perceived by others?
What do I want my legacy to be?
What have I learned in my life?
What else do I want to learn?

Now, I certainly don't want you to answer those questions and consider that to be your creed. Remember, a creed is a sort of guideline for living, but it is also completely subjective. Look at Wooden's creed again. The statements there are kind of ambiguous and can be open to interpretation, don't you think? So, when you are doing this, try to keep that in mind. However, it is precisely BECAUSE the statements are ambiguous that you will have to explain what you mean by them, what they mean to you and why you chose them. Always the why.
What you are basically doing is creating a blueprint by which you can live your life. YOUR life. Nobody else's.
After all, who is more important than you?

"There's No Place Like Home" so says Dorothy Gale....Pfft..I Never Liked Her Anyway...

To be honest, that whole Wizard of Oz mantra never really made sense to me.

As a kid, I moved around A LOT. It wasn't until I was 15 and a sophomore in high school that I was ever in the same school for more than a year. Because of this--well, because of many things but this is just easier to point a finger at--I have never been able to go back to a place where I lived and say, "This was my home--I belonged here." As a result, I posit that feeling as though we belong somewhere has a tremendous impact on who we are and who we may one day become.

The need to belong is embedded in most people's genetic make-up. Abraham Maslow, a renowned psychologist who conceptualized what is known as an individual's "Hierarchy of Needs,” reasoned that the need to belong is third on the pyramid to a fulfilling life (the first two are pretty basic--physiological and safety needs), and without that feeling, we simply cannot advance, grow or ever fully become the people we are destined to be.  Interested in knowing more about my boy Abe?  Go here.Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs

So--what do you think? Do you, at the young and impressionable age of 16 or 17, feel the inherent need to belong? I bold that because feeling the need and feeling that you actually DO belong are sometimes two very different things. The most popular people you can imagine, the ones who are in every club, do every sport, go to every party--do you think THEY feel as though they belong?
If you feel like you do belong somewhere--where is it? What makes you feel that way? What does that sense of belonging do for you and your self-esteem?
If you don't feel as though you belong somewhere--why not? What do you feel is missing? Are you misunderstood, undervalued, overlooked? What does NOT feeling like you belong do for you and your self-esteem?
A lot to ponder over--trust me, I know. Give it some thought and tell me about it.

A Look Behind...

Someone somewhere said hindsight is 20/20.
That often seems to be one of those annoying aphorisms that people throw at you when they know you made a bad decision and now you have to fend off the consequences. If you never heard it before, it pretty much just means that you can see more clearly once you've looked at what you've done, rather than at what you will do.  So--why do you think that is?

Let's take it a step further.
What is the worst decision you ever made? You have hindsight now, so you should be able to see it from every angle--the risks, sacrifices, rewards and consequences.
 In your heart of hearts, with no false sense of modesty or conceit, was the outcome of the decision worth what you paid for it?  In other words, was the benefit worth the cost? Why or why not?
What would you  change?

If you're one of those folks who like to say they regret nothing because everything they've done made them who they are now--please don't.
You're too young to say that yet, and I mean that in the purest way possible, with no disdain or contempt for your age.  Biologically, your brain is simply not able to rationalize the decisions you make when you're "feelin' yourself" because your pre-frontal cortex (that part of your brain that controls impulse and decision-making) isn't fully formed.  So, technically--you aren't who you will be just yet.
Don't believe me--look it up. Here's a link if you're interested:  Teenagers Brain Development

Now, let's look ahead to the future.  Imagine your future child makes the same bad decision you did.  Knowing all the things you don't like about how your parents try to tell you about yourself--how are you going to teach, reprimand, respond to your kid's choice?

Identity Crisis

Warning: You cannot respond to this blog in less than 15 minutes. Manage your time wisely, sunshinefaces.

 So, I think we have reached that point where we can really start to do some introspective reflection.
Usually it takes a bit longer, but this year has brought with it a curious sense of urgency, and although I would usually like you to wade through a bit more of your own thoughts before we got to this point, I feel confident that you guys are ready to take the plunge into some in-depth blog questions.  So, here we go!

 Although I cannot make you do this, I would like you to minimize all distractions while you think about this blog. Exercise your right to have "You" time; put away your cell phones or video game remotes and for the sake of all that's holy--close any and all social media apps.  Just you, your computer, and your thoughts.

No man is an island, right?  Have you ever heard that? John Donne, prolific 16th Century writer, said it.  It essentially means that people do not exist in a vacuum, cut off from the world and the people in it; that people need other people if, for nothing else, to figure themselves out. Personally, I'm on the fence about whether or not this is true, but I suspect it probably is.  Here's an example.

Every day, you wake up, go through your morning rituals, come to school, do your thing(s), go home, go through your evening rituals and then go to bed.
There are obviously some variations to this routine from time to time, and I am not trying to downplay your life in any way by making it sound mundane. What I am saying is, that through all of this, these daily activities, rituals and routines other people interact with you.
They talk to you, refer to you, question you, yell at you, soothe you, talk about you, defer to you or, in some cases, though hopefully not many, ignore you completely. The point is, they KNOW who you are, at least enough to do one or more of the previous things.

But, when you stop to think about it, do they really know? And, more importantly, do YOU?

Now, here comes the hard part...

Beyond names, job titles or academic accomplishments, beyond labels given to you by yourself or by others, beyond traits and hobbies and virtues... who are you? Who are you inside? If you had to write your name, and then your definition, what would it say?

Why we love....and other unanswerable questions...

Most of us have been there at one point; the ones who haven't will get theirs, eventually.

There you are, innocently sitting there eating your Cheerios, or some other tasty snack, when it hits you.  That flash of lightning that zips through your brain, jump starts your heart to the point of acrobatics, and sends the corners of your mouth into that half-circle of upward idiocy because that stupid grin won't stop spreading.
An image of your beloved burns itself into your brain like a cheap plasma TV screen.  Yup--it's love, and its got you in its grips.  Muu ahhhhhahhhh.

If none of this sounds familiar to you--don't worry--you simply have no soul.  ;)  Just kidding--like I said, you'll get yours and it'll be just as described only maybe with different metaphors.  Not ever being privvy to this feeling does not preclude you from this blog question, though; no doubt, you've seen what looks like and that's as much as you need for this assignment.

First, define love.  Nbd.  Thousands upon thousands of poets, essayists, philosophers and the like have all tried to come up with a working definition--whose to say their version is better than yours?  Do your best.

Have you ever been in love, or known someone who has?  Did their behavior change?  Did yours?  Why do you think we are attracted to those we are?  What do you look for in potential relationships?  What is your idea of a "perfect" relationship?  Who taught you about love?  What is your earliest memory of "seeing" love?  Does that memory affect how you view the idea of love?
And, finally, what will you teach your future sons and daughters about the idea of love and relationships?