Equal time

Most of my recent ramblings have been over in the Technoleadership blog I created for my latest class.

 I have waxed enthusiastic there, granted with a balancing note of caution, about advances in technology, and especially about the societal revolution emerging from ubiquitous mobile internet access and ability to share information and form groups.  My position is, like it or not, the tidal wave is upon us, so we had better learn to surf it!

Here is a spot of equal time, with a beautifully-done artistic video, apparently viral on Facebook.  Ironic, of course because its message is, "turn this thing (the computer or more likely, the mobile device from which you are watching) off."  It is a good reminder that virtual connectivity, while it can be an amazing thing, is not the same thing as connectivity in "real life."  Certainly worth the time it takes to watch it:  Here is the link, if you are on a mobile device without Flash.

It is interesting to read the commentary, and different points of view, on the YouTube channel/page where this is posted by Gary Turk (disclaimer:  I don't know who that is, or anything about him--not an endorsement of anything but this which I found to be a valid and interesting visually presented poem and comment on our times).

See you online...AND, in real life.

Technology and Leadership

So, here is another choice, or decision point.  I have just started the next course in my doctoral program at Creighton:  Technology and Leadership.  We are to do the lion's share of our work, it seems, as posts in a public blog.

Now, I have a number of blogs:  two are strictly professional, and actually behind passwords, targeted at my school communities.  Then, I created a blog on my Weebly-based portfolio of work that will be reviewed by my dissertation committee.  It is focused on my "dissertation journey" and my own reflections as I zero in and do that work.  Then, there is this.  For whatever it's worth.  What started as an intended travelog, or public diary, or whatever, as our family headed overseas to Morocco, and evolved into a hodgepodge of my musings.  The one for "no audience in particular."

I need to decide whether to use THIS blogspot, or to create a new, dedicated spot, for class-related posts on technology and leadership (I'm excited about the class, as it represents the intersection of two topics very high on my interest list).  For some reason, I feel like I want to use this one.  I don't think I will, as that just doesn't make much sense.  For one thing, it would unbalance my hodgepodge.  One or two rambling posts per month, at best, for five years, and then suddenly at least one a week, and all on tech-related topics.  My goodness, the asymmetry.

Here is what actually makes the most sense, and provides a bit of a compromise.  I'll create a new blog on Blogger, with an appropriate title:  TechnoLeadership.  I'll link and reference it here, and reciprocally as well.  So there it is.

For whatever it's worth.

Choices

I don't really have time to post a blog (Yes, I call a "post" a blog, inaccurately.  It just feels right.  Deal with it.) here.  I have a professional blog (my "principal's page" for my school constituencies--with variants for staff and for parents and students.  I have a blog that is part of my doctoral portfolio, tracking the evolution of my dissertation.  I have discussion forums to post in--as graded classwork.  I have a monthly newsletter to contribute to.  And papers, and reports, and memos and emails and so forth to write, in considerable bulk, every day.

Yet, here I am, posting here.  It feels safe, and cathartic, I guess.  This is my "no consequences" blog.  Sometimes, it is ok to indulge oneself.  Sometimes, that kind of a choice is even healthy, and productive, in the longer term.

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about choices, and the cumulative importance of small choices.  I wrote, in a recent reflective paper, about an exercise I have done with students of mine, painting an analogy of standing at the 50 yard line of a football field.  I ask them to imagine one end zone to be filled with success (whatever that means to them) as great as they can imagine.  Riches, prestige, joy, love, self-actualization, being the best at something important, making a difference--whatever.  And in the opposite end zone, I ask them to imagine the opposite of that:  doom, gloom, despair, failure--"rock bottom."  I then talk about how every day, each of us is faced with small choices, and each choice is like a step in one direction or another.  The big take-a-way I want for these young adults is the apparent lack of consequence (position and perspective remain pretty similar after one step) of each choice, contrasted with the cumulative effect of many steps (even with a "two steps in one direction for each one step in the other" approach).  Right choices, a majority of the time, progressively move you in the right direction, and likewise the converse.

A recent book (on Ignatian spirituality, actually) brought that idea back home for me.  I'm working to consider my small choices, in the moment, and make sure they are heading me in the direction I want to go.

Time spent on this self-indulgent post, notwithstanding.

Happy New Year!

So there is this thing going around Facebook (I've mentioned here, before, not to look there, for me saying anything of substance.  In fact I rarely update my status at all.  There are reasons for that I suppose.)  I do enjoy keeping up with friends' adventures and opinings.  (My word processor underlined that last word in red, but I contend that it is a properly constructed and legitimate gerund of the verb "to opine.")  But I digress.

There is this thing going around Facebook, where people are prompting each other to list three positive things about the year just passed.  I am surprised at the number of people saying things like, "I'm so happy to turn the page on this year," or opining (see there?) in generally negative terms about 2013, on a personal and/or global level.  At the same time, most are able to generate a substantial list of positives.

So, I'm picturing the hoary Taoist icon depicting Yin and Yang--the one I've always found profound, compelling, and insightful into the Nature of All Things.  Each year brings its good and bad, and the further we step back (and, the more years we add) the more things tend to balance out.  You can apply the Law of Large Numbers, or the idea of Regression Towards the Mean (yeah, I'm reviewing Statistics as a gear up for my dissertation).

In the end it is down, of course to our choice of focus.  I like trying to focus on the positive (honestly that is easier said than done), while acknowledging that without the negative, the positive would be undefined and unrecognizable.  Or suspend value judgments altogether and acknowledge that it is ALL glorious, this wonderful, incomprehensible miracle that comprises our very existence.  With all its nuances.  All that being said...I'll play:

1)  I have reached the halfway point of my doctoral program.  While a two week break between classes (the first such since last Christmas, I think--when it was only one week long) has made me realize just how hard I have been pushing myself, balancing a challenging, long-hours job, a family that wants, needs, and deserves my attention, and a graduate program that demands a lot of thought, reading (you know, high-density, academic reading) and writing, and 20 or more hours each week.  While taking energy, it has also granted some.  And I have my eye on the prize.  Anyway, the experience has been a central defining positive, on the whole, of 2013 for me.

2)  Arlee and I marked 20 years of married bliss.  OK, not all bliss.  Refer back to the diagram.  Strife, contention, frustration, joy, adventure, and bliss.  But, together and in love, still.  So, I'm counting it, and her, and in fact the family we have made together, as a central defining blessing, this year, and really every year.

3)  I've been privileged to live, travel, adventure and just work and play day to day (such that I have time--refer back above) in Europe, with all the cultural and historic richness that I have come to take for granted.  And, I've given that give, for when they later look back and appreciate it, to my boys as well.  In 2013 I've ranged from The Hague, to Brugge, to Southern Oregon, to Phoenix, to Paris, and of course all around our local environs here in the Eifel region of Germany.  And that was a quiet travel year out of the last several.  I am lucky, our family is lucky, to be in a situation, geographical and financial, that lets explore so broadly and drink so deeply at the well that is the world.

Now, we've had some tough challenges, too.  And hard lessons, and lessons left unlearned.  But, as David Steindel-Rast sagely posited in his recent TED talk, focusing on gratitude is not only right and enlightened, but it is THE key to happiness.

So, I'm going to be grateful for a wonderful year, and I hope you will find a way to do the same.  Now, bring on 2014!

It's a lot

Don't get me wrong.  I knew it would be.  A wise mentor once told me (I never, ever doubted it was true):  In this field (education; educational leadership, specifically), you can be on top of your game in any two of the three:  work (e.g., being a school leader/administrator), school (e.g., taking graduate courses to grow), and family (e.g., being a terrific husband and father, and taking care of aging parents in a meaningful way).  But, all three at once--something has got to give.

So here I am.  I will say that family comes first, and it is the most important thing.  But, my family has been very patient, and very wonderful with me, as I sometimes (often) put them on hold.  Being a high school principal--being one that makes a difference--is a 60 to 70 hour a week job (yes, some weeks go over that), and high intensity as well.

A year and a half ago I added "doctoral student" to that mix.  My studies have been positive, energizing, even transformational.  But, time consuming.  I've found some tricks.  I put all my reading (it's a lot of reading) on a tablet, that I carry around obsessively.  I use all those little bits of found time (waiting in line, waiting for the food to come, for the next barber to be available, riding in a car if I'm not the driver, etc.) to chip away at that load.  I use wifi and a laptop to work on my discussion posts while my kid is soccer practice, or whatever the event du jour. 

So far, so good--I'm halfway through the program with flying colors.  My wife hasn't left me.  I have not quit or been fired (and the data says my school is doing well under my leadership).

And as a human being I still need down time.  To process, to assimilate, to rest.  Simply to rest, and recharge.  That time has become so precious, and I am learning to treasure it.  Maybe my mentor was wrong--maybe each panel of that life triptych can give, and take, and an essential balance can remain.  It is a lot, but not too much.

This blog post has been an indulgence, and counts toward that "recharge time."  All is well.  Now, back to work.

Furloughed

I won't politicize my blog, here, or express opinions my employer might not like.  Or talk about sequestration, the continuing resolution (or lack thereof), or the state of the federal budget in general.  Or, unintended consequences or hidden, soft costs.

I'm furloughed today.  I can't go in to work, though I have piles to do (I'm still the guy responsible for seeing to a smooth start to the school year at my school), can't check my email, and can't answer my work cell phone.  Tomorrow morning, I'll start sorting through all of that.  First thing.  Early.

I'm also off school (my school, the school I'm attending) for this one week.  I'm pulled in so many directions.  A short "found" day.  Run some errands.  Spend a little extra time paying attention to my wife and kids.  Catch up on a little reading.  Go for a walk. Blog. Watch a rerun of West Wing.  Work on my Creighton EdD portfolio (a program requirement, I need to update). 

Tomorrow will be a whirlwind.  Today, I'm laying low.

Envious.

One of the (too many) activities our family scheduled for this summer's home leave was a continued college exploration for my eldest son, starting his senior year in high school next fall.  While I was not present at each of these, this summer's campus visits included California Institute of Technology, Harvey Mudd College, Oregon State University, and Cal Poly Pomona; last summer included University of Oregon; recent previous visits have included my own (University of the Pacific) and my wife's (UC Santa Barbara) alma maters.

With each campus tour, I was struck with a strong wave of nostalgia.  Man, were my college years a great time.  I'm not saying I don't love my life now.  Having a bit of maturity (some from the peanut gallery may beg to differ, but nonetheless), a bit of a savings account, a wonderful family, a rewarding career, etc., and blah blah blah...is all good, mind you.

However:  did I mention what a great time my college years were?  I love to study and to learn, and to have that be your full time job and responsibility, how good is that!  And the recreational activities to boot.  We won't go into details here, but I do remember having a lot of fun, in a lot of ways.

We were adults, pretty much, legal, unsupervised (reference my recent "home alone" post for my position on THAT), footloose, fancy free, and a whole lot of other cliches to boot.

So, I keep going back to school, first for a masters, and now a doctorate.  But mark my words.  It is not the same.  The undergrad experience is a unique, wonderful, and very special time of life, and you will never get it back.  Sure, there are different, still special, and again wonderful times to come--but never again will you "have it all in front of you...."

Ah, youth is wasted on the young, as Shaw said.  Son, pay attention: relish these, your salad days. See if you can get your head around is paradox: it doesn't get any better than that...and, afterward, it gets even better.