I was given the following thought to consider:

I will never know the freedom my parents had as kids and my kids will never know the freedom I had.

It’s a staggering point to consider, especially since my parents were very much of the old school mentality:
“Here’s a Pop-Tart. now get out the door until the streetlights come on.”
Yet, their parents helicoptered them even less than that.

That doesn’t fly (as much) today despite the fact our world is much safer than it has ever been. However, the dangers are there and amplified by media saturation of nothing but horror stories–making everyone a little paranoid.

It still doesn’t fully explain it and I suspect a key factor is the loss of our local community. Giving a child some cash to walk to the corner store and buy some bread isn’t possible because, for one, the corner stores are gone. Then there’s the issue of barely knowing our neighbours.

Perhaps we’re just in another cycle and the pendulum will swing back, especially since virtual spaces are being created to bring local communities together.

Or perhaps our kids will just never know and not be bothered by it.

The health benefits of going for a walk kick in after the first twenty minutes.

The results of a workout come when you exhaust the muscles.

The best writing comes after you get the first few paragraphs out of the way and let the subconscious take over.

The difficulty and reward of running don’t come in the first five minutes, or even the first five kilometers.

We never know what we’re capable of unless we’re willing to push ourselves. Push too hard, of course, and it could end in disaster.

But unless you’re willing to find out where that limit is, you’ll never see what you can truly accomplish.

There was a wonderful thread on Twitter about the “EduCelebrities” that dominate the platform. These are educators who have exploded in popularity thanks to their ideas, methodology, or (if you really dig beneath the surface) marketing.

The gist of the thread is their online personas have elevated their egos, and therefore their insecurities, to jerkface jerk status. Not all, of course, but they create a precedent for others to be like them.

I have no doubt there is a genuine care for the craft of teaching and willingness to elevate the practice so that all may benefit, but some honesty is needed.

For instance, at a Math conference, one teacher did a workshop on going gradeless in his classroom. He started with all the benefits, but then pivoted to show the progression and the result: the performance of his students dipped for the first few years, but then returned to where it was prior.

This could be seen as a failure (why do all that work for the same results?), but he showed the caveat–the performance curve was the same, but with way more students in the classroom.

Well, the norm was over a dozen would drop the class and now they weren’t.

Where the EduCelebrities are concerned, there is a feeling (whether intentional or not) that if everyone adopted their way of thinking, we will have fixed education. Period.

Yet, we never hear of their struggles, their issues, their failures and heartbreaks. This is a concern to me, especially for those who follow them with blinders on.

It can give a teacher (especially young in their career) a sense that if they’re not perfect, with 100% buy-in from their students, they’re failures. It’s devastating and can lead to burnout quite easily.

It’s the responsibility of an educator to keep learning, keep growing and keep adapting… while always keeping in mind this is for the benefit of students and not other educators on social media.

My thoughts lately have drifted towards what will happen when quarantine restrictions ease up. What will we do with ourselves afterward?

Aside from the obvious excitement of re-uniting with people, visiting family and stepping foot into areas that were closed off, what differences will there be?

As much as we feel we can get right back to it, there’s going to be an adjustment period for all of us. We’ve changed our rhythm and expectations and we’ll have to change it again.

Then there are the lessons we’re learning.

Remote learning has been a tremendous adjustment, but there are many flowers to be picked from its weeds. There’s also the time with my kids, the teamwork my spouse and I have established, learning how to bake and… this is the big one for me… completely unplugging for the weekend.

In the world of work, we’ve gone from, “It can’t be done!” to “We have to do it!”

There’s a real appreciation for our health care workers and genuine concern for our vulnerable people. UBI has gone from a pie-in-the-sky idea to plausible outcome when this is over.

The future is looking different… I just wonder how different it will be.

When I need to figure out what thoughts are ruminating in my mind, I find it helpful to fish them out through writing.

Writing is typically treated as a production art.

You write to show something:
Write a reflection piece…
Write an essay to argue…
Write a Facebook post to inform…

A major contributor of this treatment is our education system, of which I am a part and doing my best to unravel some of its more damaging practices.

However, divorcing writing from the production piece frees the mind to uncover the depths of your own thinking.

Julia Cameron recognized this through her practice of morning pages.

People who journal recognize this as well.

Sometimes I write my thoughts out completely and pull out a nugget for my posts here. Other times, the entry is too personal and I simply don’t post that day.

In a time where all of us are filled with emotions, fishing through writing may be a helpful way to cope.

It’s the first question I ask every morning.

While the optimistic, motivational speakers tell us to think positive and watch the day manifest itself accordingly–that’s not how it works.

Some days are tough and others are flat-out garbage. No self-affirmations will fix it.

The kind of day it’s going to be should be dictated by the following questions:

What am I going to pay attention to today?
How am I going to react to what happens?

That should determine what kind of day I’m going to have.

One of the most difficult pills to swallow as a magician was the manipulation of language used when performers spoke of their experience. In fact, it almost became necessary in order to keep up with the others who were doing the same.

Performing a magic trick for someone in the Caribbean while you were on vacation suddenly turned into, “Performed at the (insert name here) resort in St. Lucia.”

Did a magic trick at Mardi Gras in New Orleans?
“Performed at Mardi Gras in New Orleans.”

The real lucky ones who ran into a celebrity and showed them one of their routines?
“Performed for (insert name here).”

There were a whole lot of other manipulative marketing that happened (and still happens), but it was enough to build a solid BS meter for anyone I spoke with. It became so incredibly difficult to distinguish the stretched truth from the flat out lies (of which there were also many), that my default stance was to smile, nod and not believe a word.

(Side note: I see the same thing with writers, but that’s a post for another day)

This experience marked me for any sort of media, marketing campaigns and even reviews of products.

It took some time, but this formed a critical lens that was cultivated by a desire for truth and ability to read in-between the lines.

As we hear more about the world each day, each hour, I see this manipulation of language happening everywhere. It’s compounded by the endless comments, podiums and rants–each person more convinced than the last.

While an antidote (and vaccine) for COVID-19 is the priority, we should shift afterwards to building an antidote to the Orwellian doublespeak of our language.

This week has been incredibly difficult and I could feel a burnout in my near future.

When sharing this with a good friend, he reminded me I was in the same position last year. What did I do then and what have I learned since then?

All I remember is holding on until the most stressful factors dissipated. But how to hold on?

It was considering the things I had control over and the things I was willing… rather needed… to let go.

It was also a willingness to let go of the idea I had to be perfect in all areas. At that juncture, and this one, I had to make choices at where to focus my energy.

I also had to ignore my perceived opinions of others.

It’s doing the best I can given the circumstances.

I also realized this was a continued pattern of mine for the past ten years.

Maybe it’s time I finally learn my lesson.

Inspiration rarely shows up at its designated appointment time.

It ignores anyone’s summoning, much like a teenager ignoring demands to be home at a certain time.

It knows you’re around, but makes no effort to join you.

Expecting it to turn up when you want is a futile effort. it loves its freedom and will have no part in sacrificing any of it.

It’s aware of its power and enormous benefit to your work. However, it cares for none of the responsibility to deliver an inkling of usefulness to you.

It cannot be forced.

However…

If you keep the invitation open…
and let it know where you’ll be every day…
and work without expectation of it showing up…

it tends to join you.