6-26-2020

Mary’s Minute

“Do the best you can until you know better.  Then when you know better, do better.”

~ Maya Angelou

Whether in our thoughts or actions we strive to do our best, but Maya Angelou reminds us that even best is a relative term.   

In education we sometimes face parents who question educational changes, by saying, “If it was good enough for me, it is good enough for my kids.”  Fortunately, in education, like all fields, we continue to learn so that educational opportunities for each generation are better than the one before.

A few centuries ago there were credible doctors who mocked the idea of ​​invisible germs floating in the air, with sterile surgery being just a little over 150 years old.  The advances in cancer treatment are remarkable, and we are grateful for the changes.  In 1970 when we lost my aunt to breast cancer, her family and the doctors were doing their very best to save the young mother, but they couldn’t.  Today I am confident her prognosis would be different.  Today we know better, so we do better.

When we think that today is just the five-year anniversary of gay marriage being legal in the United States we may be a bit sad that it took so long, but thankfully now we know better so we can do better.

We can be sad about our country’s past.  I see the good in people, so even people who looking back were doing horrible things, like slave owners, were in many cases doing the best they could.  But today we know better – we know much better, so we can do better.

At every point in our lives and in the history of our country we must strive to do our very best, but the good thing is that our best will not stay the best for long because when we know better, we can do better!

                                                     Let’s do better!

                                                                                   Mary

6-19-2020

Mary’s Minute

“Live one day at a time emphasizing ethics rather than rules.”                         ~ Wayne Dyer

Last week my kids, their significant others, and I had a wonderful (social distancing) get-away to the Colorado mountains, and as we planned the trip we laughed that the trip had no rules -- like their upbringing.  We simply had a shared sense of the focus of the trip and a shared culture of caring.  As Jess, Zoe, and Bill were growing up, we often said that in our family we only had one rule – Love one another.  My belief was that if we loved one another, we would do the right things as a family.  There was no need to assign chores because you do household jobs to help the family.  Cleaning up after yourself, not fighting, coming home at a reasonable hour, etc. were all a natural extension of “loving one another.” 

When a group of people (like a family) have a shared set of ethics, rules are not necessary.  I am grateful that my children share my sense of family that allowed “love one another” to guide us. 

Sadly, I know this is not always the case, and it is a tricky chicken/egg situation.  Dyer suggests that we live one day at a time, focusing on ethics, not rules,  but when not all people are ethical, rules are necessary, but where do we put our emphasis – on creating the rules or on creating a shared set of beliefs?  The answer is not simple.  In the end we want to focus on ethics, doing the right thing because it is the right thing!  Until we get there, we need rules to help guide people to do what is right and just. 

                                 Love one another!

                                               Mary

6-5-2020

Mary’s Minute

“We can learn to see each other and see ourselves in each other and recognize that human beings are more alike than we are unalike.”

                                                            ~ Maya Angelou

The last thing I want to do is over-simplify or discount the genuine issues that our country is experiencing. I never feel like I have the right words, and I worry more about saying the wrong thing, so I often say nothing.  I can’t say nothing, so forgive me if I do not have the right words. 

I started my career as a kindergarten teacher, and I often am drawn to the words of Robert Fulghum who said, “All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.”  Likewise, I believe the words of Maya Angelou help keep us grounded, knowing that as human beings we are more alike than we are different. 

Recognizing the simplicity of treating people the way we want to be treated and realizing that we are more alike than different, does not erase systemic racism, but it is the best start I know to genuine change. 

At the most basic level it is about what “loving one another.”  I wish I had a detailed plan for bringing our divided country together.  All I know is that we are all humans with love in our hearts.  I believe that if we can truly give and accept the love that is shared among humans, who are more alike than different, we can heal and thrive as a society.

                                                                     I wish you well!

                                                                                 Mary