Thursday, August 18, 2011

Response to Cheryl's Week 3 Reading


Cheryl Post
Well, week 3 and it is chapters 5-8.  There were many tidbits that I picked up from this reading of "The Art of Possibility".  I will share my favorites with you.  The first major ah ha moment for me came when the author told about getting in the taxi and the passenger tells the driver to hurry! They need me everywhere!!!! This is so true in life.  As a mother or father, you are needed everywhere all of the time! You wish you could grow 8 arms and 8 legs.  As a teacher it seems that every student needs help at the same time on a different problem.  The next one that struck me was that power is the ability to make other people powerful.  This thought we have heard before, but maybe not in this way.  We may have heard it as give a man something to eat and he eats right then, teach him to grow his own food and he will be forever full.  Here is another: grab what you love and give it everything.  So often we tend to meander through life, giving what we feel comfortable giving, but to give it everything possible leaves the possibilities completely open!  As I continued to move through the reading I came to a spot where the author asks us to think about putting Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" before every remark we make.  Can you imagine? The last chapter was all about letting go.  That is where this week's picture came from.  We have to jump without worrying about every little thing to reach the highest and furthest that we can.  I think of the movie "The Great Outdoors".  We often forget that very simple command to let go.  John Candy is water skiing and after giving his son lessons on safety and letting go of the rope if you get into a situation, he totally forgets this himself and his son is screaming for him to let go of the rope but he doesn't.  I hope all of us this week can let go of our ropes and travel further and accomplish more than we or anyone else could ever expect! Have a great week! Cheryl

                                             Nealon Stemple excited about catching a "stick fish" Rick Stemple not so happy
                                             Photo by Shannon Stemple

Ricks Response

 Great blog, you are right there are so many tidbits it is hard to pick just one. I love how you talk about teaching in reference to the taxi quote “ I need to be everywhere”. Teachers and parents need to be everywhere at the same time. My class and my boys are constantly making requests and my wife and I sometimes respond with “ I am not an octopus,” or “ patience is a virtue,” only to follow-up with my favorite kindergarten quote “ you get what you get and you don’t regret.”

I have not heard the grow food quote before, however it does work. I have always heard the saying “ give a man a fish he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for life.” I liked the idea about adding “I have a dream” before every remark we make however that part of the book sounded a little fortune cookie-ish to me. Let me elaborate, in college when you opened it fortune cookie you would always add the phrase “in bed” after the fortune to make it sound more interesting.

 I love the movie The Great Outdoors, and I wholeheartedly agree, I cannot wait to let go of the rope. I hope we could all meet at graduation, good luck.

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