Discovery Drafts

“We lose a great deal, I think, when we lose this sense and feeling for the sun. When all has been said, the adventure of the sun is the great natural drama by which we live, and not to have joy in it and awe of it, not to share in it, is to close a dull door on natures's sustaining and poetic spirit.” (Henry Beston, The Outermost House: A Year of Life on the Great Beach of Cape Cod )

I'm not a fan of Christmas.  In fact, I don't like it at all.  Too much is expected of December 25, and everyone comes at it with a different set of needs, expectations, and anxieties.  You can't do right by everybody on this great day of remembering who's missing, what's wrong, and why you are not happy so why not throw some gifts around. And then there is all that annual perfunctory giving that goes on--to charities, soup kitchens, churches, non-profits, family, loved ones.  I can't get through my email for all the organizations looking for a cash donation because the world is about to end because of something the turd in chief has done.  While I am tempted to forward those emails to the loved ones who voted for the despotic idiot, I can't waste my time.  We are, after all, days away from the end of everything. Anyway, those people don't give.  And it's all I can do to be in contact with the people who voted to ruin this world because they do

My most recent instructor in Sacred Heart University's weekend cohort of its educational leadership program regularly told us to "lead from the position you're in." She would make the point that, whether we stayed in the classroom or moved into a position of greater leadership, we should see ourselves as leaders. Period. So, how do we conduct ourselves? What does leadership look like to us? What should we expect from others if we lead from where we are?  Great questions. I get it. And I wonder how these ideas should impress an introvert like me. I find it painful to listen to people.  I set my own standards, and I strive to live up to them. I work hard. I care about what I do. I don't tolerate interference or distraction or noise. A public educator, I am the 14th generation of my family to occupy this real estate, to derive a purpose from being here, to believe that being here involves being responsible for the people around me, for caring what

We've got to carry each other... I have been thinking about Sandy Hook today.  Five years ago, a seriously deranged child of well-heeled NRA-supporting (estranged) parents killed 26 children and public educators for reasons we'll never know because, heck, the murderer is dead, too, and therefore cannot clue us into his thinking.  The father of mass murderer Adam Lanza has since poured tons of money into Newtown, but landing on his soft dollars at the bottom of the slide now is no consolation for the deep loss Newtown experienced because he and his former wife and the school district's special education department lacked the integrity to deal with the mass murder Adam Lanza they surely saw coming. But Adam Lanza came.  He killed children. How does Newtown vote now?  Think about it, Newtown, before you break your heart again. Before more children die. You own Adam Lanza whether you like it or not, whether your SPED administrators who are there now were there then. 

Snow is silence, Sacred and light, Soft and lovely Until it is too much. Before that, though, It is the peace That comes in the solitude Of a solitary heart. If it is not too cold, It can lead you, Content in the mystery Of a clean world Whose truths and sorrows Are not erased But put away. Snow says, Come away, Start here.