Postcards from the Funny Farm

It’s been said that life is a series of lines you wait in until the end and even there you have the funeral procession. I guess you lead that line … anyway, I think the notion is true. We wait to get into kindergarten then middle school, high school, college, marriage, parenthood, middle age, old age, and finally death. Ah, but if it were only that easy. We have letters to learn, forms to fill out, blood tests to take, and a mammoth mountain of other requirements to fulfill before each line shows us to the front.

My title says: “whistle” while you wait, but I know it’s not that easy. Besides whistling, which connotes a “devil-may-care” attitude, you can do things to make the line faster and more pleasant. What are you waiting for today? Instead of waiting, which brings anxiety, do something and you’ll be so glad you did it when your number comes.

As you know, we here at the funny farm house are waiting to buy our new home about a block away. It seems like the miracle mile. We have been so stressed about where to get the closing costs. While I have been “waiting,” I have liquidated my TSA account, applied for grants and other sources and done all I can every day (as has my wife). This is proactive waiting. Knowing I have done all I can in the waiting process helps me sleep better when I hit the good old mattress.

You can whistle without guilt while you wait proactively. The good news is, all the necessary funds have come our way and we have the funds to close. Now, as we see the front of the line approaching, we’re all whistling happy tunes. And aren’t we glad that we don’t have to be waiting in line (like so many are nowadays) for foreclosure help.

What can you do while you wait?

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I have music around me as much as possible. It lifts my spirit and makes me more human, I think. Someone might say that I am in my own la la land because I have a playlist for before the kids get here called “Feelin’ Good Classroom Music.” To that voice I say: “No, it took effort to get those songs loaded and it takes effort to press play when I get to work.” I put music and meditation on a high pedestal when it comes to work. In a given day I am barraged with requests from the administration, parents, and of course the kids have many needs. As an educator, it is easy to get caught up in my “to do list” and stress over it. When I stress out, the first casualty is my creativity and that ironically is that can solve most these professional issues of stress.

In short: I need music at the beginning of the day.

I’ve read that every one of the 5 senses has a different component related to memory. Scent, for example, has hedonic component where if you smell something you haven’t smelled since you were a kid, you might recall volumes of memories … it can even be overwhelming causing people to pass out I have read. Music is like that as well.

I have on this songlist music that takes me away to a place where I feel free and open to create and innovate my work. I also have a big comfy desk chair that I bought years ago at a discount furniture. It helps the musical effect, let me tell you! I am a moody person, to put it simply. For me, music is just as important as a drug would be. Recognizing that and being responsible to have a boombox or computer playlist in my work area is a facet of responsibility, no la la land here ;)

There are meditation actions one can take such as TM, prayer, mantra repetition and others. These are also important. There are so man things I can do proactively to have a great day at work. Nothing, however, prepares me better for my job of creativity and patience than quality time hearing musical notes and melodies being played in the morning. Whether it’s Theme from a Summer Place or DEVO singing Girl You Want from the Tank Girl soundtrack, playlist rules and I know it makes me a better teacher in a good mood every day.

Have you made a “Feelin’ Good” playlist?

I see the biggest challenge to blog authors today as keeping visitors on their site long enough to have an impact through their writing. I’ve seen and heard the effective traffic brought on by games and gimmicks for shiny items like designer jewelry. I wonder if that traffic really reads their stuff though. Readers that stay is what I am always thinking about when I create and innovate my blog.

Going down my reading list of blogs today, I found that a few blog titles really stood out and urged a comment out of me without me even reading the post. As I went on to read the post my idea changed a little, but the gist of my comment came from that initial reaction to … the title.

As a teacher of writing, I have told my students for years that what sets a good article apart from a great one is its creative, thought-provoking title. Now, as a blog writer, I see that is all the more true in electronic medium. There are two types of readers among many that visit your blog:

1. Quick hoppers: These folks are looking forsomething they don’t find at your blog, or they are just trying to get EC points for Entrecard. Whatever the reason, their intention is not to stay long. These people might be the ones to consider in a creative, innovative title. Even more so if you have a SUMMATIVE title. I’ll give an example shortly.
2. The second kind are people who are looking for something and found it through a search on your blog. There are more than these two types, but when talking about summative titles, you should consider these two. So, howabout that example … okay … patience my good friend:

Imagine you have two blogs to read that you have starred for later. You look at the title of the first one and it says:

“As if …”

Then you restar that because your are not quite ready to let it go and you come across one that says:

“Songs that Stay in Your Head.”

The first title requires guessing (brain strain) and curiousity (again, brain drain). Nowadays very few readers will bother with a post like this unless they are good friends of yours or extreme fans of your personality etc. The second title is suggestive. It doesn’t even require the reader to finish the post in order to leave a comment. As Entrecard and “blog hopping” becomes more of the social norm in blogging, you should do all you can to get a comment, if not just get hoppers to stop and read the words you worked so hard on.

I think titles are something I’m going to do a series on. They are scantly addressed in the blogosphere
To Entrecard hoppers and other speed-readers: “Would that be something you’d enjoy, and stay awhile for? Wait, don’t answer that, I know you’re in a big hurry ;)

I was talking to someone the other day and they told me drama was inevitable in their life. I disagreed and made a suggestion that has worked for me during similar pessimistic times:

Make a list of what you want.

It’s great for focusing your own energies on your goals as well as setting an example for your family. I remember making a list like this with my wife several years ago. Many of my “dreams” on that list have since come true. For example, at the time I dabbled in a personal website but had a larger dream of being published. Since then, I’ve become a regular contributor to 3 online publishing platforms and I run 3 other blogs of my own. This has required a lot of patience on my wife’s part and a lot of hours of work on mine. I truly feel though it all started through making and sharing that list.

When making a list like this, one should let ones mind run free. Put on some relaxing music … go sit with a yellow pad under a tree … write it while sipping your favorite hot beverage … whatever. The point is, you shouldn’t let limitations of everyday family life, married life, your job, or other constraints get in the way of what you want. Things you see as impossible can materialize when you start “believing” anything can happen.

Furthermore these dreams can actually make the things you once saw as limitations transform into miracles. Those very limitations (or at least the things you see as limitations) can be the yellow brick road to your “Oz.” I am not into the modern bestseller they call “The Secret” per se, nor do I believe in karma 100%. I say 100% because I do believe in the direction of dreams. I see proof of it in people like Walt Disney, Wrig.... Then there’s me for example, when I see myself as a successful writer there is an energy there that brings things into concert with itself. But unlike the required success of the Secret, even if I don’t turn out being as famous as I’d hoped, I have an amazing experience along the way. When your cause is true, you can’t lose.

I think I’m about due for a new list.

It’s not that my dreams have all come true, but many have. My dream list now is more about simplifying. I want to be able to maintain the projects I’ve been blessed with. To further the writing example (just one of my many dreams): I want to be a great writer that creates images with words for people, like paths to paradise. I want to keep every writing endeavor “holy,” not in the religious sense but in the sense Allen Ginsberg talked about: sacred.

I know that through time my dreams will change, but I will not stop having them and writing them down. One day when my kids read these words, and they will because I’ve made a plan to keep these blogs intact ... hopefully many many years from now, they will know above all else that I was not a coward about dreaming. Their dad sets out to define what he wants and then works to make it happen. They are living proof since all three of them were once my dreams. The list is a good thing, I strongly recommend you make on and then get back to me on this question:

What’s in your book of dreams?

This is a short anecdote. I told it to my mother-in-law and she suggested I blog it . . . so here goes, for Kathy’s sake:

The other day I had a migraine at work. I’m a 3rd grade public school teacher in California, and migraines are not 100% conducive to working with 30 kids. Nonetheless, I walked through my morning in the usual way being surprisingly effective, I primly thought, at getting my lessons across to my students despite the nagging headache. Then math time came . . .

Moving into the math lesson, I knew we had to be on page 50. I could also tell the group was a little boisterous that day and likely would not hear me the first time when I announced the page number. (It’s uncanny how they seem to get that way when and only when you are either feeling sick or have a headache, which luckily for me is not that often).

Anyway, to ensure that I wouldn’t have to repeat myself a second or even third time, because one hates to do that when ones head hurts, I wrote in RED PEN on the whiteboard: “TURN TO PAGE 50.” Then I said, “Class, let’s turn in our math books to page 50.” Then I heard the flurry of some students turning to page 50 getting ready for the lesson. It was at that point that one of my future astronauts (at least that’s what I keep telling myself) said to me in the most purely innocent way: “Teacher, what page?”

Working with kids, bottomless patience is a crucial tool of the trade sometimes.