The Wisdom of Sharing

As I sat in Morocco, among the Berber People and listened!
One day long ago a Sufi Master was near death, and wanted to make sure his three disciples would come under the guidance of another Sufi Master after he passed away.  He had accumulated 17 camels during his life, so he laid down the following instructions for his disciples:

“On my death, the three of you shall divide my 17 camels in the following proportions: the eldest disciple shall have half of them, the middle in age disciple shall have one-third, and the youngest shall have one-ninth.” 

He died soon after writing this bequest, leaving the disciples in a dilemma, so they sought out advice from learned men for how to interpret these instructions.  Someone told them just to make the nearest possible division, while another told them to own the camels communally until they reproduced.  A clever trader said they should just sell the camels and divide the proceeds among themselves, and a wizened old judge advised them that the bequest was null and void because it couldn’t be executed.

The three disciples weren’t happy with any of these suggestions, sensing that their master must have had some deeper and more helpful lesson in mind for them.  But what exactly was that lesson?

Lesson 1: Remain Open-Minded

One obvious lesson the disciples learned from their master’s instructions was that seeking advice and wisdom from others will always broaden their perspectives.  No one ever has a monopoly on the truth, no matter how quick or smart they are.  Genuine wisdom requires humility in the face of life’s many complexities, so a wise person not only knows how to tolerate and learn from different points of view but actually seeks them out.

This is as true in life.  Very few decisions ever involve Absolute Truth.  A decision almost always boils down to a matter of opinion.  Not only that, but the actual outcome of any decision will have just as much to do with the random and unforeseen events that surround it as with the intellectual prowess of the decision-maker, so always be prepared for the unexpected. 

Something else the disciples learned was patience.  Their dilemma was significant, and they certainly wanted to resolve it, but there was no urgency to the issue.  And for today, learning how to be patient is perhaps more important than ever before, given the fast pace of life and the proliferation of information and techology.  Every time your mind is refreshed it produces a new batch of issues commanding your immediate attention.  Figuring out not just how to prioritize, but how to “let go” of the unimportant issues while showing patience for the truly important ones is a skill that will always comes in handy for most bottom-line obsessed, goal-oriented, time-stressed up-and-comers today.

The Dilemma Resolved

In the end, our three disciples did find the answer to their Master’s challenge.  After much searching, a wise old man solved the riddle for them:

“Although I only have one camel myself, I will lend it to you so you now have 18.  The eldest disciple should then be given one-half of these, which is 9. The middle disciple should get one-third, or 6, and the youngest disciple should get one-ninth, or 2.  That will leave just one camel, which is mine, and you can return it to me.”

This was how the three disciples found their new Sufi Master.  It also taught them one final lesson.

Lesson 3: Share

Sharing with others is a natural human urge, and it is becoming an increasingly vital idea as the cost of interacting continues to plummet. The urge to share comes largely from the human instinct for empathy, and  empathy and trust are becoming ever more important to people as we become more and more technologically connected.  It is the human instinct for sharing that drives our willingness to create  So think carefully about how your own  family’ and your friends’urge for you  share might be used to benefit your life in the e-social age.  How can you do a better job empathizing with your family and friends?  

Sharing comes from empathy, and for a family/friend,empathy is the ultimate form of love and insight.   

Ancient lessons can often be very useful even in modern situations.  Technology may gallop along, but wisdom is timeless.   

I Just Returned from Morocco

I Just returned from Morocco

Morocco is an exotic gateway to Africa; its mountains, desert and coast are populated by Berbers and nomads, and its ancient medina lanes lead to souqs and riads. The Mountains & Desert, from Saharan dunes to the peaks of the High Atlas, Morocco could have been tailor- made for travelers. Lyrical landscapes carpet this sublime slice of North Africa like the richly colored and patterned rugs we lusted after in local cooperatives. The mountains – not just the famous High Atlas but also the Rif and suntanned ranges leading to Saharan oases – offered simple, breathtaking pleasures: night skies glistening in the thin air; views over a fluffy cloudbank from the Tizi n’Test pass. On lower ground, there are rugged coastlines, waterfalls and caves in forested hills, and the mighty desert. The Traditional Life in varies terrain may transform your dreams, but it shapes the very lives of Morocco’s Berbers, Arabs and Saharawis. Despite encroaching modernity, with motorways joining mosques and kasbahs as manmade features of the landscape, Moroccan people remain closely connected to the environment. The nomadic southern ‘blue men’ brave the desert’s burning expanses in robes and turbans, with mobile phones in hand. Likewise, traditional life continues – with tweaks – in the techniques of Berber carpet makers; in date cooperatives; in medina spice trading; and in the lifestyles in ports. Ancient Medinas, often exotic, sometimes overwhelming and always unexpected, these ancient centers are bursting with Maghrebi mystique and madness: the perfect complement to the serene countryside. When you hit town and join the crowds, you follow a fine tradition of nomads and traders stretching back centuries. Walking through     Fès, the world’s largest living medieval Islamic city, and the carnivalesque in Marrakesh. was breathtaking. Moroccan Activities for us included: Meeting the Moroccan people.  Drinking mint tea; watching the world go by with the locals; hiking up North Africa’s highest peak, riding across the Sahara Desert in Jeeps, camel trekking, shopping in the worlds 5^th largest shopping mall, getting lost in the medina, and sweating in the hammam. Between these activities, you can sleep in the famous hotels rooms, relax on panoramic terraces and eat a Rick’s Café in Casablanca.

Get going!

Once you hit 90, your average life expectancy is 95!

If you intend to live forever (well, nearly), the key is to live healthfully now. Here are the top 10 steps to reaching 90 in good health and great shape:

1. Stay active. That daily 30-minute walk is vital to keeping you young.

Get enough of these to keep body and brain humming: whole grains, fruits, and veggies; vitamin D3 (1,000 IU; 1,200 after age 60); DHA omega-3s (600-900 mg); low-dose aspirin (talk to your doc first).

Get next to none of these: saturated fats, trans fats, added sugars.

Sleep 7 1/2 hours to 8 hours a night. Every night.

Manage stress. Meditate (here's an easy way) or take two 10- or 15-minute deep-breathing breaks daily.

Do. Not. Smoke.

Stimulate your brain. Do puzzles, learn languages, and take on new challenges. Stay sharp with these nifty (and fun) brain games.

Support "village" movements: neighbors-helping-neighbors programs that let people live independently at home.

Harass your legislators to get health costs under control and affordable. At some point, you'll need it. Meanwhile, here are 6 ways to cut your own healthcare costs.

Move to North Dakota, Hawaii, or California. They're meccas for 90-year-olds.

Then plan on blowing out more than 90 candles. Once you hit 90, your average life expectancy is 95!

Douglas becomes the first African-American to win the Olympic women's all around.

USA's Gabby Douglas crowned Olympic champion in dramatic gymnastics all-around final

Getty Images - LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 02: Gabrielle Douglas of the United States competes on the balance …more  beam in the Artistic Gymnastics Women's Individual All-Around final on Day 6 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at North Greenwich Arena on August 2, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)  less 

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LONDON – With a big smile and even bigger performance, Gabby Douglas, the high-flying 16-year-old out of Virginia Beach, held off a strong and dramatic challenge by Russian Victoria Komova to win gold in the women's gymnastics all-around final on Thursday.

Douglas led throughout but needed to deliver a near flawless routine on the floor exercise, the final of four rotations, and then wait out the floor effort by Komova, who needed a 15.360 to win gold.
She got only a 15.100.
As the score dramatically flashed on the screen, Komova broke into tears in her coaches' arms and Douglas flashed one of her signature grins and jumped in celebration as chants of "U-S-A, U-S-A" rained down.

(Getty)Douglas finished with a score of 62.232, just .259 ahead of Komova. Russia's Aliya Mustafina won the bronze.
American Aly Raisman, of suburban Boston, actually tied Mustafina at 59.566, but she finished in a heart-breaking fourth place after losing the tiebreaker. In case of a tie, the lowest score is thrown out and each competitors' top three are calculated. Mustafina was higher.
Douglas took the overall lead on the vault, the first of her four rotations, and then never relinquished it despite strong challenges from the Russians, who were determined to excel at the all around after being blown out by the Americans in the team competition on Tuesday.
Douglas, deemed "The Flying Squirrel" due to high-wire routines, landed a meet-best 15.966 on the vault to assume the early lead. She followed it with a sharp 15.733 on the uneven bars, managing to maintain a gap.
Douglas then delivered a brilliant performance on the balance beam, scoring a meet-best 15.500 to give herself a 0.326 cushion going into the floor exercise. Her best moment was landing a full flip with a twist on beam just moments after Mustafina, the 2010 world champion, fell attempting the same complex maneuver.
Douglas then delivered a 15.033 on the floor, but had to wait nervously as Raisman and Komova got the final two chances. It's common in gymnastics for scores to increase as the competition goes on. In this case, it wasn't enough.

Douglas becomes the first African-American to win the Olympic women's all around. She follows Nastia Liukin (2008) and Carly Patterson (2004) to give America the overall individual champion three Olympics running.
Raisman was the surprise in qualifying, posting the best score of the Americans and effectively knocking out 2011 world champion Jordyn Wieber. Each nation is capped at having just two participants in the finals.

Raisman was unable to equal her performance on Sunday, however, delivering a few too many mistakes to keep up with Douglas, Komova and Mustafina.
Needing a huge performance in her strongest event, floor, Raisman registered a meet-best 15.133. It turned out to be just 0.001 too low or she would have earned bronze.
Women's gymnastics will stage its individual event finals on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, with all five of the American gymnasts qualified in at least one event, so the United States' haul of gold should continue into next week.
Douglas, however, is now the unquestioned champion of women's gymnastics.

Why is Reading Aloud So Important?

Why is Reading Aloud So Important?

                                             Building A Better World

An interview with Mary McLeod Bethune

“Bethune: My mother kept in rather close contact with the people she served as a slave. She continued to cook for her master until she [saved enough to purchase] five acres of land. [Her former master] deeded her five acres. The cabin, my father and brothers built. It was the cabin in which I was born. She kept up these relations. Very often I was taken along [to my mother's job] after I was old enough, and on one of these occasions I remember my mother went over to do some special work for this family of Wilsons, and I was with her.

I went out into what they called their play house in the yard where they did their studying. They had pencils, slates, magazines and books. I picked up one of the books and one of the girls said to me -- "You can't read that -- put that down. I will show you some pictures over here," and when she said to me, "You can't read that -- put that down," it just did something to my pride and to my heart that made me feel that some day I would read just as she was reading. I did put it down, and followed her lead and looked at the picture book that she had. But I went away from there determined to learn how to read and that some day I would master for myself just what they were getting and it was that aim that I followed.

One day we were out in the field picking cotton and the mission teacher came from Maysville, five miles away, and told mother and father that the Presbyterian church had established a mission where the Negro children could go and that the children would be allowed to go. I was among the first of the young ones to enroll, and... so it seemed to me.

That first morning on my way to school I kept the thought uppermost, "Put that down -- you can't read," and I felt that I was on my way to read and it was one of the incentives that fired me in my determination to read. And I think that because of that I grasped my lessons and my words better than the average child and it was not long before I was able to read and write”.

Charles S. Johnson, [abridged] (1940) in Mary McLeod Bethune: Building A Better World: Essays and Selected Documents. McCluskey, Audrey Thomas and Smith, Elaine M., eds., (University of Indiana Press, Bloomington, IN, 1999): pg. 36.

Tips to Encourage a Love of Books and Reading in Young Children

• Hearing stories helps children learn new words.
• Helps develop children’s speaking and listening skills.
• Reading experts tell us that children need to hear 1,000 stories aloud before they can begin to read themselves.
• Reading aloud with a child creates important cuddling time for you and your child.

What Kind of Books do I Choose?

• Look for books with repetition: it helps children feel smart when they can figure out what comes next. 
• Use books that have lots of rhyme and rhythm which is soothing and helps to calm children.
• Non-fiction (books about real subjects) help children relate to the world around them.
• Look for bright, beautiful illustrations that will ‘catch’ your child’s attention.

How do I Get Started?

• Get a Public Library card!
• Relax and enjoy yourself: the best way to help a child learn to love reading is to love it yourself.
• Read with enthusiasm.
• Read slowly and enjoy your time together with the book
• Ask questions about the story as you go along.
• Read books over and over again: children love hearing their favorite stories again.

  Read to your child 20 minutes each day!

Farewell to Paris!

Farewell to Paris!

My companion for 15 years

Paris my mixed breed dog was given to me in

 in April 1987 as a gift from my nephew who

was leaving to join the Marines.

This little tannish white puppy was put in my

care and for the last 15 years we walked, ran,

he swam in every stream, pond, lake or pool of water

we walked by and when we finished our water walks,

Paris looked forward to being hosed down on the front lawn.

As he grew to know me and I to know him, whenever

you saw him, you saw me.  We knew when it was

time to wake up and walk in the morning and we knew

when time it was time to walk in the evening.

Paris knew when I was dressing for work, walking, or bed,

just by snipping the clothes I were wearing and he would adjust

himself according to what I was wearing….work clothes….short walk.

walking clothes….long walk and evening walks in between.

Paris would look into my eyes and I into his and I could the spirit of life,

loyalty and living.  Paris was a great companion to me.  We walked for 15 years.   

Paris and I walked 5 miles of more daily; during all seasons and all weather.  I hope I was a great companion to Paris as he was to me.

Thank you Paris for 15 years of life, love, living, and loyalty!

Why Celebrate Juneteenth?

Why Celebrate Juneteenth?

Juneteenth today, celebrates Black descents of slave’s freedom in American and their achievement, while encouraging continuous self-development and respect for all cultures. As it takes on a more national, symbolic and even global perspective, the events of 1865 in Texas are not forgotten, for all of the roots tie back to this fertile soil from which a national day of pride is growing.

Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. Dating back to 1865, it was on June 19^th that the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. Note that this was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation - which had become official January 1, 1863.

In the early years, little interest existed outside the Black American community in participation in the celebrations. In some cases, there was outwardly exhibited resistance by barring the use of public property for the festivities. Most of the festivities found themselves out in rural areas around rivers and creeks that could provide for additional activities such as fishing, horseback riding and barbecues. Often the church ground was the site for such activities. Eventually, as Black Americans became land owners, land was donated and dedicated for these festivities. One of the earliest documented land purchases in the name of Juneteenth was organized by Rev. Jack Yates. This fund-raising effort yielded $1000 and the purchase of Emancipation Park in Houston, Texas. In Mexia, the local Juneteenth organization purchased Booker T. Washington Park, which had become the Juneteenth celebration site in 1898.

Economic and cultural forces provided for a decline in Juneteenth activities and participants beginning in the early 1900’s. Classroom and textbook education in lieu of traditional home and family-taught practices stifled the interest of the youth due to less emphasis and detail on the activities of former slaves. Classroom text books proclaimed Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863 as the date signaling the ending of slavery - and little or nothing on the impact of General Granger’s arrival on June 19^th. 

The Depression forced many Black people off the farms and into the cities to find work. In these urban environments, employers were less eager to grant leaves to celebrate this date. Thus, unless June 19^th fell on a weekend or holiday, there were very few participants available. July 4^th was the already established Independence holiday and a rise in patriotism steered more toward this celebration.

The Civil Rights movement of the 50’s and 60’s yielded both positive and negative results for the Juneteenth celebrations. While it pulled many of the Black American youth away and into the struggle for racial equality, many linked these struggles to the historical struggles of their ancestors. This was evidenced by student demonstrators involved in the Atlanta civil rights campaign in the early 1960’s, whom wore Juneteenth freedom buttons.

Again in 1968, Juneteenth received another strong resurgence through Poor Peoples March to Washington D.C.   Many of these attendees returned home and initiated Juneteenth celebrations in areas previously absent of such activity. In fact, two of the largest Juneteenth celebrations founded after this March are now held in Milwaukee and Minneapolis.