Jan Choma sent me this via e-mail. It may become an urban myth.. but it is a good thought and last should be considered when ever we send our youth into harms way:
The Sack Lunches
I put my carry-on in the luggage compartment and sat down in my assigned seat. It was going to be a long flight. 'I'm glad I have a good book to read. Perhaps I'll get a short nap,' I thought. Just before take-off, a line of soldiers came down the aisle and filled all the vacant seats, totally surrounding me. I decided to start a conversation.
'Where are you headed?' I asked the soldier seated nearest to me.
'Chicago - to Great Lakes Base. We'll be there for two weeks for special training, and then we're being deployed to Iraq '
After flying for about an hour, an announcement was made that sack lunches were available for five dollars. It would be several hours before we reached Chicago, and I quickly decided a lunch would help pass the time. As I reached for my wallet, I overheard soldier ask his buddy if he planned to buy lunch.
'No, that seems like a lot of money for just a sack lunch. Probably wouldn't be worth five bucks. I'll wait till we get to Chicago.' His friend agreed. I looked around at the other soldiers. None were buying lunch.
I walked to the back of the plane and handed the flight attendant a fifty dollar bill. 'Take a lunch to all those soldiers.'
She grabbed my arms and squeezed tightly. Her eyes wet with tears, she thanked me. 'My son was a soldier in Iraq; it's almost like you are doing it for him.'
Picking up ten sacks, she headed up the aisle to where the soldiers were seated. She stopped at my seat and asked, 'Which do you like best - beef or chicken?'
'Chicken,' I replied, wondering why she asked. She turned and went to the front of plane, returning a minute later with a dinner plate from first class. 'This is your thanks.'
After we finished eating, I went again to the back of the plane, heading for the rest room. A man stopped me. 'I saw what you did. I want to be part of it. Here, take this.' He handed me twenty-five dollars.
Soon after I returned to my seat, I saw the Flight Captain coming down the aisle, looking at the aisle numbers as he walked. I hoped he was not looking for me, but noticed he was looking at the numbers only on my side of the plane. When he got to my row he stopped, smiled, held out his hand, and said, 'I want to shake your hand.' Quickly unfastening my seatbelt I stood and took the Captain's hand. With a booming voice he said, 'I was a soldier and I was a military pilot. Once, someone bought me a lunch. It was an act of kindness I never forgot.' I was embarrassed when applause was heard from all of the other passengers.
Later I walked to the front of the plane so I could stretch my legs. A man who was seated about six rows in front of me reached out his hand, wanting to shake mine. He left another twenty-five dollars in my palm.
When we landed in Chicago I gathered my belongings and started to deplane. Waiting just inside the airplane door was a man who stopped me, put something in my shirt pocket, turned, and walked away without saying a word. Another twenty-five dollars! Upon entering the terminal, I saw the soldiers
gathering for their trip to the base. I walked over to them and handed them seventy-five dollars. 'It will take you some time to reach the base. It will be about time for a sandwich. God Bless You.'
Ten young men left that flight feeling the love and respect of their fellow travelers. As I walked briskly to my car, I whispered a prayer for their safe return. These soldiers were giving their all for our country. I could only give them a couple of meals. It seemed so little...
A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life wrote a blank check made payable to 'The United States of America' for an amount of 'up to and including my life.' That is honor and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it. But for those who do, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Roast Chicken Dinner for Sunday
This afternoon the house is filled with the smell of roast chicken.
The chicken was washed and placed in a magnalite roaster breast side down. It had a cup of chicken stock to prime the flavor pump.
The potatoes are on. They are at a temperature just below boiling. They are headed for the mashed potato treatment later.
The stock got poured into a pan and will be available for a little gravy.
The rest of the menu will feature a little broccoli with some slivered almonds.
It should be here and I wish you all were here to eat it with us!
: ) Pat
PS I am sure my mom would be aghast to know that a fresh foster farms chicken is now 9 dollars.
The chicken was washed and placed in a magnalite roaster breast side down. It had a cup of chicken stock to prime the flavor pump.
The potatoes are on. They are at a temperature just below boiling. They are headed for the mashed potato treatment later.
The stock got poured into a pan and will be available for a little gravy.
The rest of the menu will feature a little broccoli with some slivered almonds.
It should be here and I wish you all were here to eat it with us!
: ) Pat
PS I am sure my mom would be aghast to know that a fresh foster farms chicken is now 9 dollars.
Fear and Fear of Fear
I am interested in hearing what my fellow practitioners of the counseling art think of the following excerpt from the Huffington Press on October 17th, by Kathryn and Gay and Hendricks Entitled "Body Politics: The Source Of McCain's Odd Body Language, And The Gift It Brings"
As budding psychotherapists 35 years ago, we were taught the essentials of how to help our clients deal with fear. The key principle can be stated simply: what you resist, persists. If you hold fear at arm's length, if you seal it out of your awareness, you sentence yourself to living every moment in a prison of fear. The more you try to seal it out, the more it pervades your life. The stonewall barrier McCain has proudly built to keep out his fear makes him a prisoner inside his own arrogance. His stubborn unwillingness to let in the normal human emotion of fear makes him propelled by it. In the Pink Floyd phrase, he's "blown on the steel breeze."
This much we can tell you from working up-close with more than twenty thousand people: The only real solution to fear is to let yourself acknowledge it and feel it until it dissipates. Fear is natural. Your body spent hundreds of thousands of years perfecting it. It's there to tell you important things like these:
There's a potential threat--pay attention.
There's a problem I don't have a solution to--look for one quick!
When you're scared, look to see if there's a real threat. Figure out what the problem is and get creative about solving it. Get good at distinguishing between real threats and imaginary threats we make up in our minds. Don't use the McCain Prescription for fear, by shutting it out of your awareness. For the sake of his health and for the safety of the rest of us, he should take counsel from another war hero, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf: "Any man who doesn't cry scares me a little." That's a piece of useful wisdom, and it points to why John McCain scares a lot of people.
How does this measure up?
Pat
As budding psychotherapists 35 years ago, we were taught the essentials of how to help our clients deal with fear. The key principle can be stated simply: what you resist, persists. If you hold fear at arm's length, if you seal it out of your awareness, you sentence yourself to living every moment in a prison of fear. The more you try to seal it out, the more it pervades your life. The stonewall barrier McCain has proudly built to keep out his fear makes him a prisoner inside his own arrogance. His stubborn unwillingness to let in the normal human emotion of fear makes him propelled by it. In the Pink Floyd phrase, he's "blown on the steel breeze."
This much we can tell you from working up-close with more than twenty thousand people: The only real solution to fear is to let yourself acknowledge it and feel it until it dissipates. Fear is natural. Your body spent hundreds of thousands of years perfecting it. It's there to tell you important things like these:
There's a potential threat--pay attention.
There's a problem I don't have a solution to--look for one quick!
When you're scared, look to see if there's a real threat. Figure out what the problem is and get creative about solving it. Get good at distinguishing between real threats and imaginary threats we make up in our minds. Don't use the McCain Prescription for fear, by shutting it out of your awareness. For the sake of his health and for the safety of the rest of us, he should take counsel from another war hero, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf: "Any man who doesn't cry scares me a little." That's a piece of useful wisdom, and it points to why John McCain scares a lot of people.
How does this measure up?
Pat
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Writing and Art
Writing in this blog has helped me to be a better writer. It is easier to come up with sentence in sequence. The fluency of writing is easier to maintain due to daily practice. I have learned to spell the words I more frequently use (thank you spell checkers). While it is still not up to professional journalist standards, I guess it is not supposed to be as it is a blog. Reader beware.
1.Do it often:
Art is the same. If you don't practice it, it is much harder to pull it up and use it when you want to "art".
2.Don't Miss the Details
I have the photo I took of cruise ship in Juneau up on my study wall. It a great photo because it has all the elements with out being staged. There is a tiny piece of foreground, a massive ship in the right middle third of the photo and some great atmospherics (clouds) coming down to the city in the background with reflected lights on the water.
When I framed this photo in Juneau just before we left, it was one of the few times that I really wished I had a more extensive camera and the ability to operate it. This photo was taken with a couple of premises that help even out the playing field.
3. Work in the Right Frame of mind
I took the photo with the camera resting on the ledge, not in my hand. This reduced the vibration, even though the ship always has some vibration.
4. Sometimes you have to do it multiple times to get it right:
I bracketed the exposure. I shot the photo with several different exposure combinations so that I would not miss the shot because I was in the wrong photographic mode.
5.Use Past Experience to do something new:
I was prepared for the shot, because I had taken a similar one with with the cook on the balcony looking at us leaving Juneau a trip or two before. While that photo is good, this one is even better, because I had planned it and took more time making sure that it would work.
Applying this same principals to writing.. even a blog.. its a good reminder on what it takes to make this successful.
: ) Pat
1.Do it often:
Art is the same. If you don't practice it, it is much harder to pull it up and use it when you want to "art".
2.Don't Miss the Details
I have the photo I took of cruise ship in Juneau up on my study wall. It a great photo because it has all the elements with out being staged. There is a tiny piece of foreground, a massive ship in the right middle third of the photo and some great atmospherics (clouds) coming down to the city in the background with reflected lights on the water.
When I framed this photo in Juneau just before we left, it was one of the few times that I really wished I had a more extensive camera and the ability to operate it. This photo was taken with a couple of premises that help even out the playing field.
3. Work in the Right Frame of mind
I took the photo with the camera resting on the ledge, not in my hand. This reduced the vibration, even though the ship always has some vibration.
4. Sometimes you have to do it multiple times to get it right:
I bracketed the exposure. I shot the photo with several different exposure combinations so that I would not miss the shot because I was in the wrong photographic mode.
5.Use Past Experience to do something new:
I was prepared for the shot, because I had taken a similar one with with the cook on the balcony looking at us leaving Juneau a trip or two before. While that photo is good, this one is even better, because I had planned it and took more time making sure that it would work.
Applying this same principals to writing.. even a blog.. its a good reminder on what it takes to make this successful.
: ) Pat
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Long Day at the post
Today started out with my walk. Somewhat abbrevated because I needed to get to Golden Valley to give my lesson plans and then drive to IHOP to meet the negotiating team for breakfast. We had 7 plus the president for breakfast.
We had a very productive session for negotiations. They were happy to meet us at the table because we had 302 pending grievances on the matter from our 5 schools.
At the end of the day management was able to get what they wanted and so were we. We found a win win (always good) and the lawyer got dog shit on his shoes.
He accused us of setting him up. He spent the first couple of minutes wiping his shoes off and then disposing of the kleenex.
I successfully got into his face (figuratively) and he backed down. It made my year at the table.
I invented a new word. punition. It means the conditon of a punitive act. We had some fun with that.. as you may imagine.
After negotiations it was report card night. We defend our first quarter grades to the parents in an arena style format.. too loud too long, dead tired.
Sue is not doing too well with the infusion. This afternoon she experienced flu like symptions.. too hot then too cold and unable to eat anything. I got her some frosties at Wendy's and she was able to eat 8 bites combined.. frosties with small hamburger.
I hope she feels better soon.
66 scheduled to come to our 40th high school reunion.
Pat
We had a very productive session for negotiations. They were happy to meet us at the table because we had 302 pending grievances on the matter from our 5 schools.
At the end of the day management was able to get what they wanted and so were we. We found a win win (always good) and the lawyer got dog shit on his shoes.
He accused us of setting him up. He spent the first couple of minutes wiping his shoes off and then disposing of the kleenex.
I successfully got into his face (figuratively) and he backed down. It made my year at the table.
I invented a new word. punition. It means the conditon of a punitive act. We had some fun with that.. as you may imagine.
After negotiations it was report card night. We defend our first quarter grades to the parents in an arena style format.. too loud too long, dead tired.
Sue is not doing too well with the infusion. This afternoon she experienced flu like symptions.. too hot then too cold and unable to eat anything. I got her some frosties at Wendy's and she was able to eat 8 bites combined.. frosties with small hamburger.
I hope she feels better soon.
66 scheduled to come to our 40th high school reunion.
Pat
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Debating Joe the Plumber
This debate used a technique that I tried to teach all of my debators.
1) Humanize the issue through a classic stereotype.. design your sterotype so that it fits your idea concept
2) Show how your stereotype cannot be ignored
3) Show how your opponent's plan hurts your stereotype.
Classic debate technique.
The adept debater on the other side can either spend the time showing how that stereotype is not relevant, or that the assumptions made with that stereotype are false.
When the opponent chooses either tactic, they are not debating the issue. It is somewhat of a red herring argument.
The red herring argument is when the debate centers around a small detail rather than the principal that needs to be resolved.
Lindsay loaned me a book whose title is "Sway" it is a pretty expensive little hardback. It basically outlines how people will make an irrational choice just so that they won't lose anything. The success rate is not so celebrated as much as even a little loss. The tragedy of the KLM flight in the Azores was cited. People will buy an extraordinary amount of insurance knowing that there is little chance that they will need it. They just don't want to be caught with a little loss. This is what is behind cancer insurance as well as some other insurance products. It is also what makes people pay more taxes than they owe so that they can get a check back from the Feds or the state so they won't have to come up with operating money to pay their taxes. Everyone is protecting themselves from just one little red herring in the kettle.
This is why Joe Plumber is such a strong way to argue.. still it really is a red herring compared to the nation's economy or jobs.
Just my opinion
Pat
1) Humanize the issue through a classic stereotype.. design your sterotype so that it fits your idea concept
2) Show how your stereotype cannot be ignored
3) Show how your opponent's plan hurts your stereotype.
Classic debate technique.
The adept debater on the other side can either spend the time showing how that stereotype is not relevant, or that the assumptions made with that stereotype are false.
When the opponent chooses either tactic, they are not debating the issue. It is somewhat of a red herring argument.
The red herring argument is when the debate centers around a small detail rather than the principal that needs to be resolved.
Lindsay loaned me a book whose title is "Sway" it is a pretty expensive little hardback. It basically outlines how people will make an irrational choice just so that they won't lose anything. The success rate is not so celebrated as much as even a little loss. The tragedy of the KLM flight in the Azores was cited. People will buy an extraordinary amount of insurance knowing that there is little chance that they will need it. They just don't want to be caught with a little loss. This is what is behind cancer insurance as well as some other insurance products. It is also what makes people pay more taxes than they owe so that they can get a check back from the Feds or the state so they won't have to come up with operating money to pay their taxes. Everyone is protecting themselves from just one little red herring in the kettle.
This is why Joe Plumber is such a strong way to argue.. still it really is a red herring compared to the nation's economy or jobs.
Just my opinion
Pat
Day at the Infusion Center
What is an infusion center?
It is a place not in a hospital but in a large room off the reception room of a cancer center where a group of patients are "infused." Today they were running really behind. We had an appointment at 9:45. The infusion is supposed to last 45 minutes. We were out at 2:15.
At 10:45 we saw the doctor. A very knowledgeable Philopino doctor who was figuatively and literally on the run. She checked the results of the blood test for kidney function.. everything was okay. She answered my question.. how and when will we know it worked.. answer: About 2 years from now.
And then she ordered some hot compresses so that the veins would surface. At 11:45 Sue was ready to have the intervenous bottles hooked up. She was sitting in a very elaborate leather reclining chair and there were 12 others much older than her in similar leather reclining chairs and one stout Mennonite nurse checking levels and threading needles. The room was huge. There were 4 TV's hung from the ceiling and most of the patients were sound asleep as the bags slowly flowed into their systems. A few had wives there to keep them company. Some of these folks were also asleep.
Sue was very thirsty so I was dispatched to the Starbucks across the street and down where I had a green tea ice tea made up for her and I had my usual cappuccino. When I returned they had her hooked up to the tubes and the saline was flowing. At 11:45 she was feeling a little uncomfortable since the saline was burning a little. At 1:00 she was given the bottle that contained the bone enhancer medication and it slowly dripped down from the bottle. At 2:15 it was through and so were we. We dropped by the tax ladies and signed 2006 and talked about what we needed for 2007.
Sue had a chance to shop at Craft shop and a stop at Target and finally we got something to eat at the coffee shop.
We left the day knowing that we were indeed better off than the others that were waiting for cancer infusions. A new appreciation for our lives..
Love
Pat
It is a place not in a hospital but in a large room off the reception room of a cancer center where a group of patients are "infused." Today they were running really behind. We had an appointment at 9:45. The infusion is supposed to last 45 minutes. We were out at 2:15.
At 10:45 we saw the doctor. A very knowledgeable Philopino doctor who was figuatively and literally on the run. She checked the results of the blood test for kidney function.. everything was okay. She answered my question.. how and when will we know it worked.. answer: About 2 years from now.
And then she ordered some hot compresses so that the veins would surface. At 11:45 Sue was ready to have the intervenous bottles hooked up. She was sitting in a very elaborate leather reclining chair and there were 12 others much older than her in similar leather reclining chairs and one stout Mennonite nurse checking levels and threading needles. The room was huge. There were 4 TV's hung from the ceiling and most of the patients were sound asleep as the bags slowly flowed into their systems. A few had wives there to keep them company. Some of these folks were also asleep.
Sue was very thirsty so I was dispatched to the Starbucks across the street and down where I had a green tea ice tea made up for her and I had my usual cappuccino. When I returned they had her hooked up to the tubes and the saline was flowing. At 11:45 she was feeling a little uncomfortable since the saline was burning a little. At 1:00 she was given the bottle that contained the bone enhancer medication and it slowly dripped down from the bottle. At 2:15 it was through and so were we. We dropped by the tax ladies and signed 2006 and talked about what we needed for 2007.
Sue had a chance to shop at Craft shop and a stop at Target and finally we got something to eat at the coffee shop.
We left the day knowing that we were indeed better off than the others that were waiting for cancer infusions. A new appreciation for our lives..
Love
Pat
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