First Story:
Every Wednesday for the last 12 weeks I've been working in The Grandstand food wagon at the Summertime By George music festival in St. Cloud, MN (except for the two weeks we got rained out and the one week we rained ourselves out). Thousands of people, great music, fantastic food....week after week we park and sell and have a great time. Tonight was the final George of the summer with a crowd estimated between 15,000-20,000 people, every last one of them wanting cheese curds it seemed. At the end of the night as we packed away food and tidied up our operation I made my usual trek to the garbage truck with our two weekly deposits. At the Summertime gigs the organizers have been great to work with, our fellow vendors have been friendly and supportive of each other, and the patrons of the event have been overwhelmingly delightful to serve. But honest to goodness, the most pleasant people I've interacted with every single week have been the garbage guys. They often quickly come to me and take the garbage bags from me so I don't have to toss them in the truck, and they thank me as they do so. They are always making every effort to quickly clean up the area while giving the appearance of people who are taking pride in what they do. Each week I've been impressed with the professionalism they bring to their job, and I daresay "professional" is probably not how most of us would ever describe sanitation workers.
Second Story:
Watch this.
The Lesson:
If garbage guys and a walk-on libero at a school with "Kangaroos" as a mascot can bust their tails to do their jobs as well as possible for the benefit of those around them while treating those around them with respect, well - what's our excuse for not doing the same?
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Tuesday, August 29, 2017
I Love Watching Them Play
Tonight was the highly anticipated first volleyball game of the 2017 season. It seems odd to say "first game"; I've been going to volleyball tournaments or summer league games almost weekly since January. But all the tourneys and league nights were offseason play - tonight was the real deal.
Daughter 2 plays on the Junior Varsity team, Daughter 1 on the Varsity. Daughter 2 played pretty well and helped her team win all three of the sets in their game. Daughter 1 had a tough night and watched her hopes for a strong start to the season get demolished by the competition. The thrill of watching Daughter 2 succeed in her JV debut was equalled in sorrow at watching Daughter 1 struggle to remain composed in the midst of a complete systems failure.
I used to care about the scores, the wins, and the losses. I used to complain about the reffing. I used to spread too much blame and not give enough credit. There was a time, not so long ago, that I would still be fuming about the ugliness I saw on the court tonight. I would have let the disappointment of the varsity game completely wipe away the great things I saw in the JV game. I was the parent who saw the game as being more about me than the people who were actually playing it. I've begun to make a change, intent on leaving that parent in the past.
I follow "Changing The Game Project" on Twitter, an organization devoted to changing the culture of youth sports. A month or so ago they posted this link to their blog:
http://changingthegameproject.com/i-love-watching-you-play/
I love watching you play. Five simple words that have had a complex effect on the way I view my daughters' athletic pursuits. I'm not stewing, I haven't complained, and there's no blame going any direction. Do I wish our varsity would have played better? Absolutely. Am I mad at the team or my daughter for their poor showing? Not at all. Well, maybe a little bit. My response to tonight is my choice, and I'm choosing to remember the on-target passes and the spikes that went in. I'm proud of Daughter 2 for overcoming nerves to play well, and I'm proud of Daughter 1 for turning herself into a full-rotation player this season. The action on the floor belonged to them - the joys and sorrows that action brings also belong to them. I will no longer be selfish by pretending the game has anything to do with me.
When match point was whistled and the varsity beat-down was complete I stayed in my seat, wanting to leave but hoping a child would need her dad. She did. She made her way across the gym floor and up into the bleachers, dropping to the seat beside me with the weight of a poor performance driving her almost constant smile far from sight. I haven't produced many great parenting moments but I think I topped them all when I put my arm around her shoulders and simply said "I love watching you play. Not the start we hoped for, but I love watching you play." She nodded, gathered herself, and made her way to the locker room for what was sure to be a painful team meeting.
I've sat through plenty of games and I've got plenty more ahead of me. There will be fun wins and disappointing losses. At times it will seem as though the games will never end, but inevitably they will. Before that end comes, on the good nights and the bad, I'm going to enjoy the heck out of every contest...because I really do love watching them play.
Daughter 2 plays on the Junior Varsity team, Daughter 1 on the Varsity. Daughter 2 played pretty well and helped her team win all three of the sets in their game. Daughter 1 had a tough night and watched her hopes for a strong start to the season get demolished by the competition. The thrill of watching Daughter 2 succeed in her JV debut was equalled in sorrow at watching Daughter 1 struggle to remain composed in the midst of a complete systems failure.
I used to care about the scores, the wins, and the losses. I used to complain about the reffing. I used to spread too much blame and not give enough credit. There was a time, not so long ago, that I would still be fuming about the ugliness I saw on the court tonight. I would have let the disappointment of the varsity game completely wipe away the great things I saw in the JV game. I was the parent who saw the game as being more about me than the people who were actually playing it. I've begun to make a change, intent on leaving that parent in the past.
I follow "Changing The Game Project" on Twitter, an organization devoted to changing the culture of youth sports. A month or so ago they posted this link to their blog:
http://changingthegameproject.com/i-love-watching-you-play/
I love watching you play. Five simple words that have had a complex effect on the way I view my daughters' athletic pursuits. I'm not stewing, I haven't complained, and there's no blame going any direction. Do I wish our varsity would have played better? Absolutely. Am I mad at the team or my daughter for their poor showing? Not at all. Well, maybe a little bit. My response to tonight is my choice, and I'm choosing to remember the on-target passes and the spikes that went in. I'm proud of Daughter 2 for overcoming nerves to play well, and I'm proud of Daughter 1 for turning herself into a full-rotation player this season. The action on the floor belonged to them - the joys and sorrows that action brings also belong to them. I will no longer be selfish by pretending the game has anything to do with me.
When match point was whistled and the varsity beat-down was complete I stayed in my seat, wanting to leave but hoping a child would need her dad. She did. She made her way across the gym floor and up into the bleachers, dropping to the seat beside me with the weight of a poor performance driving her almost constant smile far from sight. I haven't produced many great parenting moments but I think I topped them all when I put my arm around her shoulders and simply said "I love watching you play. Not the start we hoped for, but I love watching you play." She nodded, gathered herself, and made her way to the locker room for what was sure to be a painful team meeting.
I've sat through plenty of games and I've got plenty more ahead of me. There will be fun wins and disappointing losses. At times it will seem as though the games will never end, but inevitably they will. Before that end comes, on the good nights and the bad, I'm going to enjoy the heck out of every contest...because I really do love watching them play.
Monday, August 28, 2017
One Crown, Many Hats
Went fishing this evening. A gorgeous early fall evening that would have felt perfect for any activity but was particularly pleasant for fishing - clear sky, little to no breeze, no bugs, warm sunshine that gave way to a slight chill as darkness crept across the water. Conditions so perfect it really didn't matter if any fish were caught (they were). Hadn't been on the water for nearly a month...if another night like this one rolls around it will be much less than a month until I'm out again.
A few blissful hours on the lake couldn't have been attached to a less blissful day. Today I returned to the world of full-time employment with an appearance at Day One of the back-to-school workdays for teachers. Nothing bad happened - besides my alarm clock working perfectly - but it became one of those days that required me to fulfill multiple roles with little to no time for costume changes or line prep in between. In the span of less than 12 hours I was a:
- student riding a school bus to a neighboring town to attend a speaking presentation.
- teacher studying changes in this year's instructional coaching procedures.
- dad checking in on his children via text and greeting them in person briefly at lunchtime.
- coworker collaborating with teammates during inservice activities.
- coach leading a junior high volleyball practice.
- fishing guide who once again lived up to his motto: "all I do is put people on fish".
I'm not complaining, mind you - I accept days like this one as the natural order of being an educator with children of his own and friends who need fishing guidance. However, I couldn't help but consider the fishes I was chasing tonight and the roles they play every day. Mr. Bluegill wakes up and is a fish for a while until he decides to be a fish for part of the day, after which he sticks to routine and finishes his day as. a. fish. Deer, birds, platypuses....sure, they do different things as they live but are the creatures of the natural world ever anything but what they are? I can't picture a bear leaving the berry bushes and shuffling off to the PTO meeting.
Again, there is no intent to complain here. If anything I am full of wonderment at we humans' ability to seamlessly shift from one piece of our day to the next when those pieces, many times, don't exactly fit together. The question borne of my wonderment is this: Who does life better, the creatures or the humans? Would we be better off - happier, healthier, wiser - if we had one unchanging role from one day to the next? Or is it the diversity of our days that defines us and actually keep us awake and alive longer than most one-act animals? I have no answers, only questions, and all of this role playing has worn me down at the end of this varied day. I attended an enlightening presentation, reaped the rewards of having great children, got reacquainted with teammates, guided young volleyballers, and led a successful fishing adventure. In short, I lived.
A few blissful hours on the lake couldn't have been attached to a less blissful day. Today I returned to the world of full-time employment with an appearance at Day One of the back-to-school workdays for teachers. Nothing bad happened - besides my alarm clock working perfectly - but it became one of those days that required me to fulfill multiple roles with little to no time for costume changes or line prep in between. In the span of less than 12 hours I was a:
- student riding a school bus to a neighboring town to attend a speaking presentation.
- teacher studying changes in this year's instructional coaching procedures.
- dad checking in on his children via text and greeting them in person briefly at lunchtime.
- coworker collaborating with teammates during inservice activities.
- coach leading a junior high volleyball practice.
- fishing guide who once again lived up to his motto: "all I do is put people on fish".
I'm not complaining, mind you - I accept days like this one as the natural order of being an educator with children of his own and friends who need fishing guidance. However, I couldn't help but consider the fishes I was chasing tonight and the roles they play every day. Mr. Bluegill wakes up and is a fish for a while until he decides to be a fish for part of the day, after which he sticks to routine and finishes his day as. a. fish. Deer, birds, platypuses....sure, they do different things as they live but are the creatures of the natural world ever anything but what they are? I can't picture a bear leaving the berry bushes and shuffling off to the PTO meeting.
Again, there is no intent to complain here. If anything I am full of wonderment at we humans' ability to seamlessly shift from one piece of our day to the next when those pieces, many times, don't exactly fit together. The question borne of my wonderment is this: Who does life better, the creatures or the humans? Would we be better off - happier, healthier, wiser - if we had one unchanging role from one day to the next? Or is it the diversity of our days that defines us and actually keep us awake and alive longer than most one-act animals? I have no answers, only questions, and all of this role playing has worn me down at the end of this varied day. I attended an enlightening presentation, reaped the rewards of having great children, got reacquainted with teammates, guided young volleyballers, and led a successful fishing adventure. In short, I lived.
A Slow Fade To Fall
The signs have been subtle but plentiful for those who take notice. The lengthening of a midday shadow. The constant whine of grasshoppers lurking in the long grasses of a road ditch. The smell of a cornfield ripening. Sumac leaves abandoning their summer green long before the maples or aspen do the same. Seen alone each is nothing more than a natural phenomenon - the collective a natural symphony announcing the arrival of fall on the heels of another summer fading to memory.
Fall arrived like it always does for me with the closing of the Koochiching County Fair in my hometown of Northome, MN. The Fair always precedes the first week of fall sports practices in Minnesota, so growing up it always felt like The Fair was summer's last hurrah. This year was no different as my daughters headed home from The Fair on August 13 so they could be at volleyball practice at 8:00 a.m. on the 14th. It's as if August is broken into stages for fall's arrival; the first two weeks are summery enough to fool us into believing summer won't end, the next two weeks put us on edge with earlier sunsets and busier schedules. The end, or the beginning of the end....or the start of the beginning.....or maybe it's the end of the finish.....whatever one may call it arrives tomorrow.
In six hours my alarm clock will kill whatever life was left in summer, launching me out of my bed and back into my life as a teacher. The first day of back-to-school teacher workshops, the first day of having to get up instead of just getting up, the first day of living life like an adult again. It's a bipolar day - the sorrow of another long vacation ending mixed with the anticipation of the greatest months of the year just ahead. The melancholy of being sucked back into the rigidity of a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday cycle sweetened with the activities that will be packed into those days - the volleyball games, the hunting trips, the leaf watching. Fall is a glorious time of year, thankfully, and is like a natural elixir for the pain of re-entering the working world.
I was surprised to see my last post was on the last day of school back in May or June or whenever that was. I knew I hadn't written much over the summer...didn't realize I hadn't written at all. Gonna try to write more this year - currently have a goal of writing something every day. So as I say farewell to another summer and get ready to open up another school year I also feel like I return to something I've abandoned for many, many months - this blog. And its readers. I hope you've enjoyed your summer and created some memories that will keep you warm on the chilly nights ahead. I look forward to sharing a memorable fall with you.
Fall arrived like it always does for me with the closing of the Koochiching County Fair in my hometown of Northome, MN. The Fair always precedes the first week of fall sports practices in Minnesota, so growing up it always felt like The Fair was summer's last hurrah. This year was no different as my daughters headed home from The Fair on August 13 so they could be at volleyball practice at 8:00 a.m. on the 14th. It's as if August is broken into stages for fall's arrival; the first two weeks are summery enough to fool us into believing summer won't end, the next two weeks put us on edge with earlier sunsets and busier schedules. The end, or the beginning of the end....or the start of the beginning.....or maybe it's the end of the finish.....whatever one may call it arrives tomorrow.
In six hours my alarm clock will kill whatever life was left in summer, launching me out of my bed and back into my life as a teacher. The first day of back-to-school teacher workshops, the first day of having to get up instead of just getting up, the first day of living life like an adult again. It's a bipolar day - the sorrow of another long vacation ending mixed with the anticipation of the greatest months of the year just ahead. The melancholy of being sucked back into the rigidity of a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday cycle sweetened with the activities that will be packed into those days - the volleyball games, the hunting trips, the leaf watching. Fall is a glorious time of year, thankfully, and is like a natural elixir for the pain of re-entering the working world.
I was surprised to see my last post was on the last day of school back in May or June or whenever that was. I knew I hadn't written much over the summer...didn't realize I hadn't written at all. Gonna try to write more this year - currently have a goal of writing something every day. So as I say farewell to another summer and get ready to open up another school year I also feel like I return to something I've abandoned for many, many months - this blog. And its readers. I hope you've enjoyed your summer and created some memories that will keep you warm on the chilly nights ahead. I look forward to sharing a memorable fall with you.
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