There is Something Good in Every Day

“Every day may not be a good day but there is something good in every day.” – Anonymous

As I write on my son’s twenty-second birthday, the coronavirus ravages the United States surpassing nearly 1.1 million infections and 64,000 deaths.  These are rather bleak days.  No end is in sight.  The federal government, led by the Trump and Pence Administration, evidences extraordinarily little competence.  The average American citizen has minimal scientific and factual data with which to make informed decisions about the health and lives of the people for whom he is responsible.  Last week, in the inanest press conference ever held by a U. S. President, Trump seriously suggested that Americans absorb ultra-violet heat and inject liquid disinfectants as preventive measures to combat coronavirus.  At that media briefing, he asked health professionals to validate his absurdity.  A day later, he unsuccessfully attempted to characterize his suggestion as sarcasm in response to an unfriendly question from a reporter.  A feeding frenzy of late-night comedians exposes how profoundly disturbed and unprepared the current American President and Vice President are to lead in this pivotal healthcare, economic and social crisis.  The solemn and sober thoughts of an Irish leader crystallize the current disposition of the United States.  “Once, we admired the United States, some of us hated you and others were jealous of you.  Now, we simply pity you.”  As we practice social distancing and obey appropriate and reasonable stay at home orders, we face the hard reality that the people running our country do not have a single clue as to resolving this pandemic.  I hasten to exclude the governors of the most populous states and mayors of densely populated cities from this acerbic condemnation.  Their rational measures and common sensical governing continues to impede growing infections and rising death rates.  Nonetheless, amidst the darkness, decline and death of this current crisis, there is always something for which I can and will give thanks.

This anonymous author reminds us that each day affords us an opportunity for gratitude.  Today, my heart overflows with immeasurable thanks for my beloved son who remains a blessing to his mother, sister, our extended family, his friends and me.  Despite the social distancing orders, a group of his friends drove by the house in a caravan.  They stopped briefly to wish him a happy birthday and share gifts.  I found their homemade cards to be most impressive.  Though it was not my birthday, I felt deeply touched by their random act of kindness.  They demonstrated the incalculable love that I feel for my son.  Their deeds were like a thousand lights shining in the darkness.  What a wonderful gift of appreciation and celebration of my son!

Beyond my son’s birthday, today was another average day of social distancing and staying at home during coronavirus in the greater New York City metropolitan area.  I wrote for a few hours before completing a virtual hiring interview.  Afterwards, I went for a five-mile walk.  I am resolved that I will not gain an ounce of weight during this challenge.  Whereas I may not lose any weight, I know that I will not gain any pounds.  Multitasking, I removed clothes from the dryer and folded them as I started another load.  Then, I took a shower before sitting down for my son’s special birthday meal of ribs, macaroni and cheese, collard greens and baked potatoes.  His sister made and decorated a cake to his specifications.  After the meal, we went to our silently chosen corners of the house to continue watching the latest Netflix, Hulu or Amazon Prime Video series that interests us.  I, however, turned on my laptop to compose this column.

My day, in the estimation of many people, was probably uneventful.  Some of my friends would holler aloud because of the boredom and monotony.  Yet, I had a blast.  Moreover, I give thanks for the amazingly simply but incredible gifts and blessings that filled today.  I began with writing which is a talent and strength of mine.  It brings me great joy as I see words form on the page.  I relish in listening to the muse of creativity, voice, uniqueness, passion and mystery.  I am appreciative of God for this gift with which I advocate for vulnerable persons who are unable to speak for themselves.  Also, I write the stories of common folk, argue for a more just and equitable society, share my spiritual journey with fellow Christian disciples and pilgrims of other faith traditions and exchange ideas with countless persons who share my love of reading, writing and lifelong learning.  Maintaining in a bewildering and difficult space of looking for a job amidst a pandemic and being unemployed in my mid-fifties, nevertheless, I am thankful for the virtual interview I had.  I ask God for a position that is right for me, accords with His will and adheres to His divine design for my life.

There is Something Good in Every Day - Part II

“Every day may not be a good day but there is something good in every day.” – Anonymous – Part II

My thrice-weekly walks are the means of accomplishing my previously mentioned goal of rebuffing weight gain during the stay at home period.  They also are tremendous periods of affirmation, meditation and prayer.  Some days, I listen to audio books through Librivox, a consortium of volunteers who record books in the public domain to assist persons with disabilities and literacy challenges.  Delightfully, my writing muse joins me.  She graciously and bountifully shares inspiration for blog columns and other writing projects.  A long walk is a good antidote to writer’s block, need of a transition, lack of focus or failure to conceive the next big idea.  I ended the walk with the purchase of much needed items of milk, bleach and dish towels.  Shockingly, I paid four times the regular price for generic bleach and twice the amount of a name brand.  The price gouging during this market, financial and employment crisis is reprehensible.  I hope consumers through their purchasing choices and powers in the post coronavirus world will punish retailers and manufacturers who committed such cruel, greedy, heartless and unnecessary deeds.  Upon returning to the house, I attended to the laundry that I had begun and took a shower before feasting upon those finger licking ribs.  For the foregoing mundane activities, I am profoundly grateful because I find sheer joy and fun in them.

My greatest thanksgiving extends to God for my family.  As we had dinner with my son on his birthday, I looked at him with a heart of love and admiration.  The baby who spit up on me multiple times on countless occasions is now an adult who is progressing in a career and planning to achieve superlatively in life.  I hurl myself down memory lane and recall the first day that I took care of him by myself.  My wife had laid out four outfits for the day.  Due to my inability to get him to burp, two of the outfits were soaked with infant “upchuck” by ten that morning.  In utter frustration, I yelled, “My God, would you please stop spitting up milk?”  He started crying as he sensed how upset I was.  Then, I picked him up and said, “Baby boy, your mother is not here.  It’s just you and me and we have to stick together.”  We both calmed down and spent an enjoyable remainder of the day together.  In returning to the present, I relish the extended conversations that we have about business and entrepreneurship.  Honestly, I continue to learn a lot about stewardship of money, time, talent and other important resources from my son.  As another author suggests, our children personify a window to the world that would never have opened had we not been blessed to have them.

At the table, I thanked my wife and daughter for respectively cooking the meal and making the birthday cake.  Within the next few weeks, we celebrate our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.  It seems as if a quarter of a century passed like the morning.  I still remember the very first time I ever saw my wife.  That memory is indelible.  I recall what she was wearing, her hair style, jewelry and shoes.  To me, she does not age as I vividly remember the beautiful and attractive woman whom I saw on that day and would marry.  The intervening years have affirmed my intuitive impression that I met “the right one.”  Whereas the bond between a father and son is formidable, the connection that a father and daughter share is equally powerful.  My daughter regrettably ends her senior year of high school in a pandemic thereby being deprived of a senior prom and formal graduation ceremonies.  Still, she exemplifies impressive discipline as she completes her work through e-learning.  I greatly admire her academic excellence, vocal talents, commitment to friendship even with undeserving persons and willingness to perform labors of love for our family.  From time to time, I evaluate my service to ascertain whether it equals hers.  I possess indelible memories of my daughter, too.  I proudly see the toddler who came into the church fellowship hall and immediately ran to me.  I always felt truly special and important.  In recompense, I strive to make her feel as important as she is to her mother, brother and me.  Unquestionably, my daughter is a gift to the world.  I look forward to witnessing how her unique contribution to the betterment of humankind unfolds.

I hope my recollection of my average day with millions of reasons and experiences to be grateful convinces you of the anonymous author’s correctness.  Indeed, “There is something good in every day.”  Hopefully, you can investigate your mental file and find memories of hard days that still had one great experience that parallels a diamond in the rough.  As a chaplain in a hospital, I witness people make peace with God thereby enabling them to transition to eternal life without guilt, regret or fear.   Additionally, I have observed profound acts of forgiveness as people lie in their deathbeds.  A church custodian was terminated summarily because a new pastor insisted that all employees have college degrees.  As this unemployed man walked home, he observed a strange phenomenon.  He saw a lot of smokers and people reading daily newspapers.  Interestingly, he did not notice any places that sold tobacco products and papers for several blocks.  His entrepreneurial spirit erupted and he secured the funds and permits to open a kiosk for a block between stores selling cigarettes, papers and beverages.  In time, he acquired multiple kiosks and became a millionaire.  His business idea was the pearl of great price that lay within his unconscious.  His unjust firing created the venue for him to discover it.  Some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs found something good within what otherwise was a terrible day.

You Can Learn Anything You Want to Learn

You Can Learn Anything You Want to Learn

If You Are Willing to Learn

A debate rages within educational, schooling and curricula circles about whether people are borne with an aptitude to learn certain subjects and acquire skills.  Once, standardized tests were thought to measure the level of a student’s aptitude for success in college and graduate school.  Specifically, a predominant and vocal sector of the academy insisted that certain students possessed the requisite aptitude for math and science.  Unchallenged, this thinking discouraged generations of learners from pursuing careers in mathematics, engineering, medicine and other branches of the natural sciences.  Students were overheard in the hallways, after receiving the results of the first quiz or other quantifiable assessment, “I guess I just don’t have an aptitude for math or science.  I’ll drop this course and find a throw away class to fulfill this requirement.”  Introductory pre-med courses became graveyards for aspiring physicians.  Hardly anyone questioned this policy or the pedagogy of teaching these courses from a theoretical standpoint.  Underrepresented communities were deprived of cadres of potentially good doctors and other health professionals.  Still, this fierce debate fulminates as we consider the future of standardized testing in higher education admission.  Should each student who aspires to college deserve entrance to an institution of higher learning?  Conversely, should we reserve public resources and allocate them only to students who exhibit undeniable acumen for success in college, graduate and professional school and learned professions?  Judiciously parsing both sides of the issue with data, research and citation to relevant evidence lies beyond the scope and purpose of this blog entry.  However, I elect to err on the side of personal application and work ethic instead of aptitude.  I posit anyone can learn anything that he wishes to learn and if he is doggedly willing to apply himself until he learns the subject.

Anecdotes from my recent teaching stint at an inner-city parochial high school determine my position.  A faculty colleague and I were speaking with a group of African American and Latino males during our monthly advisory session.  Midterm examinations loomed on everyone’s mental horizon.  We teachers had to write them and prepare to grade them in a timely manner.  The students had to develop a study plan to prepare to earn the best possible grades on the exams which equated with ten percent of an overall grade in a course.  My fellow faculty member and I listened to our advisees’ complaints.  Naturally, they blamed their other instructors for their low grades and unpreparedness for their forthcoming mid-terms.  The breadth and depth of their criticisms would have been helpful for curricula and pedagogical writers.  When the last student finished sharing, I asked about their study habits and time.  How do they study?  When do they study?  How much time do they commit to studying?  Do they allot the lion’s share of their study time to the subjects in which they are not doing well?  Answers to those and relevant questions revealed that these students were not lacking in aptitude but self-application.  The students’ failure to apply themselves with any diligence and discipline most reasonably explained their minimal achievement specifically in math and science courses.  Subsequent to that advisory session, I had an impromptu conversation with a school administrator who had recently done a presentation for senior staff and faculty department chairpersons on the role of expectations, characterizations, esteem and application amongst students of color.  Her perusal of recent educational and instructional literature inclusive of recent studies and data essentially proved my hunch.  I said before leaving her office, “Our students are not lacking in intelligence and aptitude.  They need to apply themselves to strengthen their knowledge and develop greater acquisition in their studies.”

Those experiences reaffirm my primary premise for this blog entry.  You can learn anything that you want to learn if you are willing to learn.  Wholeheartedly, I believe in lifelong learning.  Anyone can learn anything at any age if he or she is willing to learn.  If a person is honest about what he does not know, his lack of knowledge ideally prepares him to learn from a master teacher.  In turn, honesty yields humility which is a necessary attribute to acquiring new knowledge in any field.  Usually, a person’s admission that he does not know anything about a subject but is willing to learn from someone with expertise garners a teacher’s graciousness and willingness to teach an eager and willing student.  Open-mindedness follows honesty and humility.  To learn something new, it is necessary to discard anything you thought you knew about the subject.  The combination of honesty, humility and open-mindedness culminate in willingness to commit whatever necessary time and resources to learn a new subject.

Dismiss the idea that you need a certain level of aptitude to learn something new.  You first need to admit that you do not know anything about the subject.  That admission is an eraser that cleans the canvass of your mind.  A master teacher then can create a beautiful work of art.  It is as if you stood at the dawn of creation.  Out of nothing, you can create an impressive and priceless portrait of knowledge and expertise which can enhance anyone’s quality of life who encounters it.  Honesty empowers you to begin the journey toward new, deep and wide knowledge.  You admit that you do not know anything meaningful or substantive about the subject.  Two examples from my childhood years in an impoverished neighborhood in the American South vividly illustrate the need of frank admission of ignorance.  Before the current engineering of automobiles which link a computer and engine with electronic devices, leather, steel, aluminum, fiberglass and technological features, cars were manufactured more simply.  Anyone with a passion for car engines and minimal knowledge of their structure and operating systems could be a “shade tree” mechanic.  Each Southern neighborhood had at least one such “professional” who could either “fix” your car or “get it running.”  Utilizing their zeal for cars and increasing experiential knowledge, these guys welcomed the opportunity to work on cars.  However, many of them could not withstand auto diesel college when it began.  As the market, technology and consumer demands transformed the design, research and development of cars, the “shade tree” mechanic resisted these fundamental changes.  Time has left him decades behind the current generation of automotive technicians.  The “shade tree” mechanic was not lacking in aptitude to repair cars but was unwilling to admit he did not know anything considerable about this generation of cars.  His failed to honestly recognize his need to start from the beginning and learn a new method of engineering and repairing cars.  Still, he had to be honest about his need of new knowledge.  In turn, he became unwilling to apply himself.  The “shade tree” mechanic could have acquired expertise in his field notwithstanding the market shifts.

You Can Learn Anything You Want to Learn - Part II

You Can Learn Anything You Want to Learn

If You Are Willing to Learn – Part II

Second, each year basketball tryouts would end with a few heartbroken players who were certain that they would make the team.  These guys were self-taught players who cultivated their shots and game on dirt courts in their backyards.  I remember keenly one such basketball court which stood adjacent to our large family garden.  We cleared a patch of land for our makeshift court which in our minds rivaled Madison Square Garden in New York City and the Staples Center in Los Angeles.  The pole was a longleaf pine tree that we cut in the nearby woods.  Our backboard was the sturdiest plywood we could find.  Initially, we had an empty metal hoop.  The sound of the ball connecting with the rim and falling inside was confirmation of the points.  As our court became the gathering place for our adjoining neighborhoods, the kids of Salterstown Road and Rebecca Cove pooled our meager resources and bought a set of white nets.  As I write, I see in my mind’s eye the pride and joy each of us shared as we hung those nets.  Nonetheless, on courts like ours, players would develop what became known as “the country shot” which would go in the basket but lacked finesse, poise, science, technique, acumen or polish.  That shot certainly won many pick-up games on dirt courts and playgrounds.  In contrast, it proved ineffective in school gymnasiums and official athletic conference competitions.  Coaches cut the players who specialized in the situationally successful “country shot.”  Realizing the inadequacy of that shot and their inability to assist a player in relinquishing it, coaches would cut these types of players.  “I have coached for years and I just can’t get kids who perfect the country shots to let go of them.”  Though these players appeared eager to gain a place on the team roster, they held in the crevices of their mind that they would digress to the security of “the country shot” in a clutch.  This hidden motive meant that these players were not really open to learning the fundamentals of the game of basketball.  Already, they assumed they possessed the requisite skills and abilities to excel.  They would not erase their assumptions and learn to build a solid foundation in the sport.  Their refusal to be honest and let go of their cultivated crutch prevented them from making the team.

Humility demands total surrender of anything you presume you know about the subject you wish to learn.  Take a sledgehammer and smash your presuppositions and paradigms.  You must annihilate any idea that you bring anything meaningful to the classroom, studio, garage, lecture hall, kitchen, gymnasium, field, courtroom or construction site.  Humility empowers you to become teachable.  An adage endures, “The teacher will appear when the student is ready.”  Acknowledging your lack of knowledge about a new subject perfectly situates you to learn from a master teacher.  Ironically, you could acquire a depth of knowledge and expertise that exceeds your teacher.  However, your success begins with your willingness to humble yourself and be open to whatever you are taught.  A graduate school professor denied the application of an intelligent, talented and gifted applicant to the doctoral program in history.  As an undergraduate, this aspirant majored in history.  He also earned a master’s degree in the discipline.  In applying to doctoral programs, he resolved he knew a lot about the guild of academia, generally, and consortium of historians, specifically.  His personal statement contained meticulous detail about the courses he would teach and books he would write.  Taken literally, he did not need a teacher as he projected an arrogant and close-minded image of being self-taught.  He simply wanted an advisor and other graduate school professors to approve what he previously decided.  This would be an untenable situation as this applicant was unteachable.  One of the deans met with him and shared this frank criticism.  The dean stated forthrightly, “We believe that we have the right to have some say in what our students learn and how their careers will unfold.”  The applicant’s refusal to dismantle the house of card he constructed made him unwilling to humble himself and learn from new teachers.  Relying upon the angle of “evidentiary standards” to understand and practice the historical, critical and analytical method in teaching and writing, this applicant was not open to anything he would learn in graduate school.  To the professor who foiled his application and aspirations, this candidate would have been a burden instead of a blessing.  This man’s experience demonstrates the necessity of humility in learning anything.

It is amazing what a person can learn if he keeps an open mind.  As he strove to invent the lightbulb, Edison failed one thousand times in his experiments.  Most people would have abandoned that quest much sooner.  Some people would not have made a hundred attempts. They would have relegated the hypothesis to be a lost cause.  Others may have made several hundred tries but would not have made a thousand.  To compound the agony of his many failures, Edison’s laboratory burned to the ground on a winter’s night.  When asked what he was thinking and feeling, he responded, “Now, we know a thousand ways that do not work.”  Ever the optimist, Edison remained open-minded and forged ahead in his pursuit of the light bulb.  A friend of mine who is an engineer shares the story of his first days in a few required courses.  Each professor assured the class that he could teach and train them to succeed in their current generation of bridge designers and builders, sound systems creators, municipal grid systems operators, alternative energy architects and general infrastructure developers.  To achieve this grand goal, the professors asked my friend and his classmates to have an open mind.  Their teachers insisted upon the suspension of previously accepted theories and principles in the field of engineering.  One professor boldly declared, “If will discard these ideas, then I can teach you everything you need to be successful.”  

You Can Learn Anything You Want to Learn - Part III

You Can Learn Anything You Want to Learn

If You Are Willing to Learn – Part III

Open-mindedness allows a student to build a firm methodological, critical, systematic and analytical foundation in any field.  You will able to read the main literature of your discipline and construct a theoretical paradigm which you can apply pragmatically in your profession.  Surveying the canonical writings of your field exposes you to the origins, ascension, shifts and decline of various schools of thought as your field evolves.  You see the limitations in thinking of prior generations.  As market forces demanded changes, some schools of thought were necessarily dismantled.  Whatever paradigm that you assemble will inevitably shatter beneath the sledgehammer of research, novel hypotheses and market trends.  An open mind is essential to ongoing achievement and success as nothing remains static.  I hasten to add this process is relative in every field.  The “shade tree” mechanic quickly becomes a dinosaur if he refuses to remain open to new developments in automobile design, engineering and manufacturing.  Again, it is simply amazing what a person can learn if he keeps an open mind.

If you have a mental and emotional block about a subject, you will not be able to learn and achieve proficiency in it.  The use of standardized testing in the United States is a complex and challenging issue.  Its history is fraught with racial, gender, class, ethnic, cultural and linguistic biases.  An extensive body of literature explores this complicated issue in American higher education.  Analyzing that history exceeds the scope of this column.  Nevertheless, my opposition to these tests and an excessive reliance upon them which negates more dependable criteria to determine an applicant’s admissibility prevented me from attaining a good score.  Test preparation and study were useless as I fomented silently about the fruitless nature of this test.  As I prepared for these tests as an adult with multiple graduate degrees and a decade and a half of professional experience, I reasoned the tests were non-applicable.  My disdained reached a feverish pitch between my ears.  “These people have me studying for a child’s test!”  My anger and resentment boiled over thereby hindering my ability to do well on the test.  The mental and emotional resistance that I formed against this test and its importance in my application equated with the rock of Gibraltar.  By the grace of God, a confluence of favorable experiences and a few epiphanies, I was able to surmount that formidable mental block.  I learned from the criticism that I had of my students.  I was not facing a challenge of aptitude.  I also had to apply myself and earn an admissible score on the exam.  No admission professionals would waive this requirement.  Each applicant had to take the test.  So, I had to become calm and prepare to succeed on the exam.  I possess the intelligence.  My fierce mental and emotional opposition made an admissible score an impossibility.  Once I accepted the obvious and non-negotiable dimensions of the process, I began to do better on practice tests.  It was necessary that I irreversibly discard my anger and resentment about having to take the test. 

If you are having difficulty learning anything, I encourage you to consider whether you have a silent and unconscious mental block.  You cannot learn anything if you have any mental resistance.  Do you think it should be easier?  Do you find some of the learning steps to be an imposition? Is it too time-consuming?  Are their requirements that you rebuff?  I recall working in educational administration when the college made an irreversible decision to incorporate technology into all dimensions of daily operations.  Resistant to making this change and having to learn word processing, email and other programs like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and SPSS, several workers elected to retire.  They refused to learn the technology and software.  They had blocks against this new information and procedures.  Had these people kept an open mind, they would have discovered how efficient and more productive the computerized working environment would become.  Their refusal to entertain the idea of doing anything differently prevented them from progressing professionally.  I have a lingering hunch that they experienced a similar atrophy in their personal lives.  Had they been willing to erase the canvass of prior experience and willingly embrace a new way of working, possible promotions, salary increases and change in jobs awaited them.  Regrettably, new experiences, mysteries and joys eluded them as they insisted, “We’ve always done it this way.  It works and there is no need to change after all of these years.”

You Can Learn Anything You Want to Learn - Part IV

You Can Learn Anything You Want to Learn

If You Are Willing to Learn – Part IV

In addition to realizing that personal application combined with discipline and focus empowers anyone to learn and master any subject, I finally understood just how dangerous harboring anger, resentment and other negative emotions are.  Those toxic emotions equate with leaves, hair, paper towels, food particles, broken branches and other items that clog drains and pipes.  Negativity impedes free flowing mental and emotional channels.  “Anger turns off the light in the mind.”  That maxim expresses the truth of the ways in which anger’s acidic nature corrodes creativity.  It is hard to allow your mind to wander imaginatively if anger immediately kills each new thought.  If you harbor resentment toward something or someone, it nullifies any new concept you may have about anything relative to that person or experience.  As it relates to the standardized test I had to take; each time I sat and attempted to study, my mind and emotions flooded with vitriol.  Within a millisecond, I rehearsed thousands of “reasons” why this was so unnecessary in my instance.  Then, past poor performances on similar tests would arise from the depths of my consciousness.  I would surrender to the fallacy of aptitude as it relates to earning good scores on these types of exams.  Add the fear of failure and an inability to achieve my heartfelt dreams and goals.  That cocktail of emotional bile relegated my study time as worthless.  A subsequent inadequate score confirmed the ineffectiveness of retaining any mental blocks.  Fortuitously, my epiphany came as I admonished my students to doggedly apply themselves to improving their math and science grades.  They did not lack cognitive abilities.  Simply, they needed to discard their useless emotions about their teachers.  They further needed to realize that they were students and not instructors.  Regardless of how they felt, they still needed to earn better grades to raise their grade point averages.  As I lectured them, the words reverberated within my mind and heart.  Eureka!  By the grace of God, I apprehended the most needed dimension of my preparation for this test and ambition to enter field of my childhood dreams.  Consistent with my longstanding belief in a just society that affords each person the right to self-expression and self-actualization, I had to study diligently to achieve and excel.  The door opened to this vista of creativity and comprehension when I ceased to stoke the live embers of anger, fear and resentment.

Parenthetically, complaining is lethal to creativity.  In fact, complaining and creativity are as dualistic as darkness and light.  These intellectual activities cannot coexist.  One will obliterate the other.  Each of them commands a person’s undivided attention and full mental energy.  Without question, if you exert any time and effort complaining about anything, you will not have any resources with which to create.  Complaining culminates in any number of venomous emotions.  If you think of an idea, you immediately consider ways it may fail and then trash the thought.  You are unable to conceive success.  You see every torpedo in the water.  The mountains loom larger than they are.  Fear becomes bigger than life itself.  Complaints boom within your consciousness.  Like Goliath in the Valley of Elah who verbally frightens and paralyzes the army of Israel, complaining and its thousands of minions awaken each morning to kill your imagination.  Conversely, if you preoccupy yourself with sketching ways to transmit a novel idea into a product, policy, procedure or paradigm that will enhance the quality of life for countless people, you will not have any time or effort for complaining or negativity.  Rather with exuberance, you will conceive a million pathways to success.  I encourage you to apply this concept to learning new or difficult subjects.  Arrest each complaint.  Redirect your focus and energy towards constructive activities.

After honesty, humility and open mindedness, willingness is the final requirement to learning anything you want.  Willingness is not an emotion.  It is the flint-like commitment you make when learning something new.  Your willingness is the cumulative acts of faith you take as you acquire greater knowledge and facility.  You demonstrate your willingness through focus and discipline which together yield success and excellence.  You begin with a mission statement.  “Within the next three years, I will attain the same command, fluency and knowledge of the Spanish language that I have of English.  I will be able to speak, write and read Spanish with facility, functionality and quality.  I look forward to enjoying travel, cuisine, literature, music and conversation with 500 million global citizens who live in twenty Spanish speaking countries.”      What an amazing personal learning goal for someone who wishes to the embrace our global village!  To achieve this admirable goal, you must dedicate time, singleness of purpose and whatever necessary effort it requires.  Discipline in learning this language necessitates decline in watching television, searching the web and other recreational or competing activities.  Keeping your goal in mind is another demonstration of discipline as it maintains focus upon your primary purpose.  Your focus and discipline will produce excellence if you commit the mandatory amount of time.  In his critically acclaimed and universally well received book, The Outliers: The Story of Success, journalist and author, Malcolm Gladwell, posits success emerges for persons who commit a minimum of 10,000 hours to their craft.  Lest I oversimplify his research and conclusions, I highly recommend this beautifully written, enlightening and informative book to you.  Gladwell explores how a person achieves success.  He studies musicians, athletes, academicians and persons in other professions to ascertain the difference between the outliers who attain superlative achievement and others who merely achieve or succeed.  The commonality amongst the persons who excel was their willingness to dedicate the time necessary to be one of the best in their field.  Without exception, the persons who rose to the top one percent in their professions had spent at least 10,000 hours or more in individual study or practice.  Therefore, can you achieve your formidable goal of excelling in speaking, reading and writing Spanish?  The simple answer is “Yes.”  The more detailed answer is. “Are you willing to commit to attaining this goal by devoting the time, effort, discipline and focus necessary to know Spanish as well as a native speaker?”

You Can Learn Anything You Want to Learn - Part V

You Can Learn Anything You Want to Learn

If You Are Willing to Learn – Part V

I write to encourage you that you can learn anything you want to learn if you are willing to learn.  I think of three clergy colleagues who declared God’s call on their lives to seek ordination to the gospel ministry.  They entered professional ministry at a later stage in their lives.  Each of them was more than sixty years of age.  Easily, they could have short circuited the process by seeking ordination based upon their personal experience as disciples and decades of membership in a local church.  Most commendably, they refused to travel the easier, softer path.  Steadfastly, they applied to seminary to earn the professional degree required of the ordained clergy.  One of my three colleagues did not have a baccalaureate degree.  She started from the beginning, committing the next decade of her life to earning a bachelor’s and master’s degrees.  Bearing the expense, she further dedicated herself to obtaining a formal theological education. As I recall this woman was in her seventies when she completed these studies.  This means she enrolled in college in her late sixties; at a time when most people reason that earning an undergraduate degree is a foregone possibility.  “Why would someone start such a long and arduous educational journey at that point in life?”  Nonetheless, my three colleagues wanted to be trained clergypersons and were willing to complete any required task to accomplish their heartfelt and professional goals.  Are you as willing as they were?

In addition to considering learning Spanish or some other language, you possibly have other latent and unexplored interests.  Do you watch cooking shows and have Walter Smitty moments of winning one of the contests?  Have you harbored dreams of cooking with the expertise of a French, Italian or chef from another region of the world?  Does your dream vacation remain within your mind?  Have you traveled to Cape Good Hope in South Africa, the Amazon Rain Forests in Brazil, the Outback in Australia, the Mayan ruins in Mexico, the Great Wall in China, the obelisk in the center of Istanbul in Turkey or the Emperor penguins in Antarctica?  Perhaps, you will admit silently and humbly that you never learned to swim.  Is a camera sitting on a closet shelf collecting dusk? What about tennis rackets, golf clubs, polo sticks, toolboxes, paint brushes, mechanical pens, or musical instruments?  All these ideas offer opportunities to learn something new and develop expertise if you are willing.  Pause for a moment.  Stand or sit still.  Think long and hard.  Are there childhood dreams and goals that lay dormant in your mind and heart?  Has time covered them over with cobwebs of fear, forgetfulness, surrender and inertia?  Were you previously unable to act on these ideas due to circumstances beyond your control?  Were you unable to afford lessons and instruments?  Did you lack your family’s support to actualize these interests and abilities?  The powerful examples of my three clergy colleagues prove it is never too late to begin! 

I conclude with a few additional examples to encourage you with this simplistic yet empowering concept.  You can learn anything that you genuinely want to learn.  Marie Jastrow, the mother of renowned astronomer, Robert Jastrow, lived to ninety-five years of age.  She wrote three books; the first of which was published when she was seventy-five years old.  Harland Sanders, “Colonel Sanders,” started Kentucky Fried Chicken when he was sixty-two years old.  Jack Canfield, co-author with Mark Victor Hansen of the international bestselling collection of Chicken Soup for the Soul books, endured nearly one hundred and fifty rejections from publishers before finding one in Florida who printed and distributed his original book.  Canfield was nearly fifty years old when he received the break he needed.  Dame Judi Dench was sixty-one when Hollywood discovered this diamond amid the British and American theatre world.  Basketball great, Michael Jordan, was cut from his high school team as the coach deemed Jordan lacked basketball intelligence.  Jordan’s dedication to excellence is known to the world.  At one juncture in Oprah Winfrey’s career, a television producer terminated her employment; characterizing her broadcasting and reporting as unfit for the industry.  Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain during the Second World War, lost five elections, had a lateral lisp and suffered from clinical depression.  Surviving the early death of her mother to multiple sclerosis, academic and personal rejections, an abusive marriage and divorce and repeated rejections from publishers, J. K. Rowling, author of the international mega-selling Harry Potter series, is the first writer to become a billionaire from writing alone.  These eight stories of tenacity share the commonality of this column’s premise.  If you really want to learn something, nothing can prevent you from doing so if you are willing to learn.

Mother’s Day – 10 May 2020

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all mothers and women who serve as mother figures in the lives of children and adults within their spheres of influence.  Amid the Covid 19 pandemic which has nearly paralyzed our country, your incalculable labor of love defies its recipients’ abilities to describe and express thanksgiving.  Today, the words, superlative, magnanimous, unique, exceedingly abundant and invaluable are never trite.  Do they adequately characterize who mothers are and what they do in the shadows and on the sidelines to enrich the lives of their families?  A few years ago, a human resource professional wrote a job description for mothers that yielded ten single-spaced pages.  Humbly, I hope you receive the genuine and heartfelt gratitude of the often-undeserving persons who on most days devour the bread of life and gulp the living water which your unfailing love yields.

This year, I am particularly thankful to the countless mothers who are nurses, physicians, hospital and nursing home workers, first responders, grocery and convenience store employees, sanitation personnel, postal and delivery workers, fire department and law enforcement officers and who occupy any other essential positions.  Your commitment to your families and work ethic support millions of other American households.  Your duty and faithfulness enable us to provide for our families even as you potentially risk the well-being of your families each day.  As I say to any of the previous persons whom I encounter as occasion warrants, “Many thanks for doing what you do and for helping my family.  Thanks for being here.”  These distinguished mothers could not have imagined that they would one day be a mother to hundreds of millions of people when they first become mothers.  I imagine our nation shares my overwhelming gratitude.

As I write this morning, the latest coronavirus numbers paint a bleak and seemingly unending picture.  The CDC confirms approximately 1.3 million infections and 77,000 deaths in the United States.  These grim numbers mean that thousands of mothers are bereaved on this day of celebration for them.  Others undoubtedly have very heavy hearts as they care for children and other relatives who have contracted this disease.  Within our respective faith traditions and belief systems, let us pause and pray for these women as they bear such unimaginable burdens of loss, fear, bewilderment and grief.  Beyond today’s fitting accolades, I hope our enduring affirmations and kindnesses will empower these mothers “for the living of these days.”

Living in “the valley of the shadow of death” and surviving a pandemic compels you to re-evaluate life and what really has value.  Love, families and friends, in my opinion, comprise life’s most valuable assets.  On this mother’s day, what a most wonderful and incredible gift we have to celebrate individually and collectively the amazing women within our lives without whom we would be poorer.  Thank you, our beloved mothers, for your loyal and unending love which pierces our current darkness and empowers us with hope for the future.