Taking A “No Nonsense” Turn

“High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation.” (Charles Kettering)

Many college students who I’ve taught basic reading/writing skills to as a Reading Professor in South Florida have experienced academic difficulty in my classes because of lack of self confidence and poor time management skills. Because of these factors, these struggling pupils would typically drop out from this course in desperate circumstances throughout the academic term. In this fictional story, a confused freshman female faces similar life challenges that cause her to question whether continuing to pursue a college degree would be worth her time. Yet her unexpected meeting on her job with a Hindu stranger will inspire a fresh scholarly commitment to succeed.

Esther never expected her menial work as a day time waitress at IHOP this fall would ever amount to much. Yet with her first brush of adulthood, she anxiously faced the financial challenge of supporting herself alone on her own. To her credit, however, Esther decided to find some extra time at night to take a few preparatory courses at the Community College part-time this semester.

Yet the “hands of time” would soon frustrate Esther in September as she brooded over this stressful “tug of war” of working so much by day and sitting in long classes at night. Perhaps she thought it would be easier to drop out of her classes which would give her some time to re-indulge in her nightly teenage habits as a TV “couch potato.” After all, what was so wrong it seemed to her about being lazy? Or an even better solution soon arose in her mind that she could end her current life predicament if her “well-to-do” boyfriend, Jehul, would only ask her to marry him. For the likely financial stability offered by their matrimonial bond would convince Esther to forego college for good.

As October arrived, Esther “bought in to” this enticing wedlock scenario as the best remedy for her current life doldrums. She began offering Jehul tantalizing thoughts of bringing her home to New Delhi in celebratory fashion where he would seek blessing for their burgeoning relationship from his family. She also would entice Jehul’s love interest during their weekend dates by learning some words in the Hindi alphabet and scribbling down a few phrases of warmness for him to understand. She thus expected it would only be a matter of time before he proposed marriage to her.

One day around Thanksgiving as she busily engaged in double shift duty at IHOP, an unexpected crisis emerged. For she immediately noticed a short man of obvious Indian descent intently staring at her at a table along the back wall of her serving area. As she uneasily moved toward him with a menu to take his order, he handed her a note that she assumed he had scribbled on this piece of paper. She soon gasped when she read the message as if he had read her marriage plotting mind.

“Madam: My brother Jehul should never marry anyone who does not live up to the high ideals of his Brahmin name. I would rather poison him with hydrangea bush potion than have him commit to an improper marriage of convenience with such a common person as you represent to him. For he must abide by his parents wishes to prepare single-mindedly for his true destiny as a learned individual of our sacred Brahmin caste. He must fulfill his destiny to unselfishly share his wisdom with others. You must not stand in his way. Namaste”

This unexpected encounter at IHOP empowered Esther with some refreshing words of wisdom to end the year. She now recognized that she had never really expected in the past to succeed in college. Beginning next term, life though would be different. For it was time to “raise the bar” for self growth in life and settle for nothing less than serving her # 1 priority. Jehul would soon be gone from her life as she resolved to better manage her work hours and complete her college degree full time in a timely fashion.

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No Time To Wait

When you are feeling anxious, remember that you are still you. You are not your anxiety. “ (Deanne Reich)

What happens when a close family relationship disappears amid risk-filled rebellion in today’s turbulent political times? In this fictional story, an anticipated reunion of a progressive minded son with his old-fashioned father leads to a surprisingly positive result.

Ronald realized how nervous he would be in finally facing his elderly father whose strong embrace of ultra conservative values in Georgia would undoubtedly remain unchanged. Yet it seemed that this was no time to act as a passive bystander in delaying this encounter because of his anxiety filled fears. For pride in his chosen destiny to travel around the world to embrace the “Bernie Movement”, “Black Lives Matter,” and “ Go Green Environmentalism” now called upon this left wing activist son to visit him before the demons of time cast his father’s mortal body away to ashes.

Deep questions of uncertainty now arose in his mind as he planned this momentous encounter. How would a father that he knew before as a deeply Christian man, deeply set in his conservative ways react to meeting his son again after his AWOL disappearance from going home in the past five years? Would he angrily reject his son’s presence wondering why he had escaped his moral responsibilities to his loving wife and needy children? How could Ronald as well justify to him why he had abandoned a promising career as an accountant which to his father represented as the best shot for his son to attain the “American Dream”? Would he even understand his son’s emotional fervor of joining a revolutionary youth movement advocating radical agitation and risk of arrest to achieve equality for all?

So Ronald thought it best to show himself to him anew in person by way of a casual encounter during his expected ritual of attending early mass at the cathedral that Sunday. For amid these sacred religious surroundings, he envisioned a way to soften the blow to his father’s testy ego upon being seen by him again in this unexpected return. So when the hammer struck ten as the service began, Ronald would wait for the expected sounds of joyful choral singing inside. He would then enter the interior unnoticed and hope for the best that he would not endure his father’s loud cursings.

So as Ronald warily showed up for church that morning to ‘own up” to his abandonment of family, his father’s no-show that day from service then took him by surprise. For so many worshippers then would express praise to Ronald that  his seventy  five year “young” father would serve as a missionary of the church and volunteer on his own time to serve humans of desperate need now in downtrodden countries abroad. It seemed then like a parakeet finding new freedom from being released from the cage, his father in his absence today had just taught Ronald this inspiring lesson. There’s no time in life to waste sitting around. So go ahead and pursue your life’s calling as a “do good”, global activist while you can. Are you in?

http://www.anxietypanichealth.com, “Adult Separation Anxiety Disorder”, 2016

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Case Study In Cultural Awareness

 “How do we create a harmonious society out of so many kinds of people? The key is tolerance – – the one value that is indispensable in creating community.” (Barbara Jordan)

As a former professor of English Second Language classes, I vividly recall those international students I taught who endured numerous hardships in attempting to master English language competence in a competitive University setting. The following fictional story thus dramatizes the struggle of Maryan, a shy female pupil, originally from Iran, who would face insurmountable cultural barriers to succeed in Reading Lab because of her Islamic background.

Next to the holy mosque, the Reading Lab on campus seemed to Maryam these days as the most important place in her life. For as a young, second year student, her practice of ESL reading/writing skills in this isolated setting seemed to be a vital step toward obtaining her Microbiology degree at this esteemed institution of learning. So each weeknight at 5:00 pm, Maryam would dutifully put in her three hours of Reading Lab time on campus after working all day as a part-time, office delivery person to master the challenging lab time requirements of her course syllabus.

Everything seemed to be working well for Maryam throughout the college term until she experienced for the first time at Midterm,  the stern presence of Ms. Croft as the new night coordinator of the Reading Lab. For in taking her accustomed seat in the first row at the front of the room night after night, Maryan sensed gradually that Ms. Croft exhibited a distinct dislike for her as an Islamic worshipping individual. She began to ponder why Ms. Croft would address her every night as Mary Ann rather than show more respect for her given Muslim name. She also wondered for what purpose was she commanded to remove her Arab head scarf while in the lab and place it along with other personal belongings she carried under the coordinator’s front desk table before beginning each session. Maryam particularly objected as well to being told by Ms. Croft that her sacred Qur’an book that she normally took everywhere, could not be kept at her desk to read as it helped her to relax between challenging grammar lessons.

As “crunch time” proceeded inside the Reading Lab trenches during week 14 of the academic term, sudden tragedy struck Maryam’s life. For on this particular Tuesday night as Ms. Croft casually talked on the front counter telephone, Maryam took a lab violation risk of removing her shoes under her lab carrel to ease her pain from a foot injury she had experienced  three hours ago after standing all day at work. Suddenly a passing male student grabbed one of these shoes and flung it deliberately at the currently distracted Ms. Croft. Hoping to avoid scrutiny of his actions, he then immediately fled to a desk hidden from Ms. Croft’s view at the back of the room. Campus Security were called in immediately to investigate the incident. Ms. Croft reported to them then that she suspected that Maryam, who she indicated in fact was the shoe wearer in this case, would be a likely culprit to accuse for inciting this act of violent misbehavior. She also related to them that Maryam had shown negligent violation of current lab policies tonight by taking off her shoes. Sadly, there were no student bystanders in the lab that night willing to come forward to defend Maryam and point out the real culprit in the actual throwing of the shoe.

In spite of Maryam’s desperate pleas of her innocence in this matter, Ms. Croft was granted the right by the Reading Department Chairperson the next morning to ban her from attendance in the Reading Lab for the remainder of the term. Feeling embittered by thoughts of experiencing such cultural shame and negative impact on her current coursework efforts, Maryam would make the decision soon after the end of the semester to drop out of college. It seemed that she had persuaded herself that striving toward the heights of English competence made little sense to her anymore.

A reasonable conclusion can be made that Maryam did not deserve such an unjust fate in the Reading Lab. For based on her actions on that disastrous night, to what extent had she been wrongfully treated by others at this college simply because her cultural persona was different than theirs? How might you then go about building new bridges of cultural diversity awareness in this divisive time of racial/ethnic confusion?

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Unlocking Spiritual Confusion

 

A recent comment from one of my blog readers raised questions about the sincerity of my declared search for “religious” enlightenment” during our recent vacation to India. They suspected I was altering my religious stance perhaps because of the deadly presence of the Corona crisis. In the following story, I attempt to answer this critic with a revealing account about one young adult who might have similarly dealt with such a period of spiritual confusion.

Sam would often wonder how his life stood when it came to the subject of religion. Growing up as an only child, he deeply regretted that he never had a brother or sister to share with them his spiritual void. Knowing however, that his grandparents had immigrated to the United States from Germany in the early 1940s aroused his suspicion that his family connection to the oppressed Jewish faith there at the time seemed likely from a historical perspective. Yet throughout the course of his childhood and adult life, the subject of Judaism had never been discussed in his immediate family. Such secrets unshared in the face of this seemingly marathon period of religious confusion only intensified his curious demands to know more about his family’s religious past.

So it happened then on a lazy Sunday afternoon when Sam was busily putting up wallpaper in his mother’s living room, that she suddenly revealed to him a religious “bomb” that he was in fact a blood disciple of Jewish teachings. It shocked Sam further to see for the first time in his mother’s newspaper clippings notebook, some graphic images of German Jews living in tattered clothes with a prominent yellow badge labeled “Jude” pinned to their chests. One particular image that moved his emotions contained a struggling peddler carrying around a dusty bag in a war torn ghetto, obviously impacted by a viciously “Anti Semitic”island of Jewish shame. He then pondered how his grandfather most likely endured a similarly inferior fate as a Jew by the Nazi regime yet persevered to provide a worthy life for himself and his family.

So what conclusion might be drawn from Sam’s awareness of his grandfather’s crisis as a Jew and overseas escape from German persecution? One must realize the danger of allowing others to exploit the power of organized religion to define who we are as a person. So now my religious critic should know that my recent travels to India inspired new spiritual understandings on my “own terms” (not theirs) of life and death matters.

Have you ever experienced a similar time when your religious views were called into question? Could travel have helped you ultimately handle this situation? Why or why not?

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Musical Reawakening

Hi readers. As part of my decision to experiment with new ways to present my blog, I have decided to delve into the writing of reality based fiction. My first story below thus attempts to revive some interest in live music as a positive therapy to deal with our current isolation amid the current Corona pandemic.

Another day of wishing your life away does not seem to be an appealing option to Jason as he slumps lazily in his easy chair watching vicarious thrills of cable TV. For our musical genius misses the spontaneous thrill of playing live music now as the lingering medical crisis worsens While humans debate the controversy of whether or not to wear a mask, he most of all suffers in silence indoors with his awkward inability to play the trombone on stage for others anymore.

Sadly, our former virtuoso musician can no longer bellow out those high notes or pedal tones that he once played with ease. Instead he lets the oxidation of time take its course as the once shiny bell of his instrument now rusts badly in its case these days. Even if Jason could play again, he simply lacks the physical stamina now to practice hard enough at his accustomed standard of musical performance.

Yet it makes no sense for him to sulk like a spoiled juvenile who can never “get his way.” For this frustrated artist must realize that there are so many other talented musicians that are currently grounded from playing live shows now. In today’s “lockdown” times, these artists would have a better chance of making money from harvesting a field of healthy sassafras than booking a concert “gig” right now.

Face it. We are all merely mortal and must endure a runny nose, sprained ankle, or upset stomach once in awhile. Some of my teachers once told me to eat an apple every day and everything will turn out okay. The question remains whether Jason will choose to see a ripe apple or rotten apple in his current state of musical crisis. Maybe I would be wise to do the same. Wait a minute! What’s that beautiful carnival of sounds coming from beyond my patio now? I feel like I need to dance, Ruth. Can you twirl around with me a little? 

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Flaneuring Not Hurrying

As our country remains in high alert because of the Corona Pandemic, our travel options remain severely limited. In my spare time at home then, I’ve taken an increased interest in audio podcasts  as a way of satisfying my travel curiosities. So I’ve decided to delve into this listening medium myself by looking at more deeply, some of my favorite travel blogs from the recent past.

Continue reading “Flaneuring Not Hurrying” →

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Road Trip Realities Faced

“New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.” (Lao Tzu)

When you embark on a long road adventure as we do every year, you have to prepare yourself for unforeseen crises that may alter or end the trip. So in hearing the sad news last Tuesday that my mother urgently required a hospital stay back in Fort Lauderdale, we made the quick decision in Flagstaff, Arizona to strategize the most direct and easy path home as possible. Happily, we will accomplish our Plan B goal with a Saturday afternoon arrival in South Florida after four grueling days of driving along truck congested U.S. Interstate Highways 40, 20, and 10.

On a side note, government facilities, motels, and restaurants throughout the country on our vacation seemed to be successfully adhering to current virus prevention policies. Yet there were large numbers of customers/tourists we encountered, particularly in the “Deep South” who failed to similarly follow these guidelines. Don’t be fooled by such peer pressure to “let your guard down.” Wear a sturdy mask, avoid lingering in crowded situations indoors, and stick to social distancing guidelines.

In closing my account of this adventure with my eighteenth blog, I offer you some memorable video moments from our 2020 road trip below.

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Grand Canyon Chasm Of Life

“ I just need time in a beautiful place to clear my head” (Ritu Ghatourey)

Can you imagine a more beautiful place to reenergize your love of being alive than the spectacular Grand Canyon? Yes, you might imagine the euphoria we felt upon witnessing this grand spectacle of life once again on day 44 of our road trip. For it seemed right then to forget about the oppressive heat in Northern Arizona as well as the worrisome influx of so many maskless tourists at this park then. Instead we would resolve to experience these amazing canyon environs on Monday morning for the primary purpose of uplifting our human spirit. Thus a casual walk along the canyon’s South Rim corridor would successfully serve our purposes today. The following photographs thus provide a sensory glimpse of several memorable moments that we witnessed that day.

I am feeling more relaxed in the silence of pure nature today because the park does not seem busy today.

I scan this pleasing panorama of geologic layered artistry, feeling a human will that I will change yet survive.

As hardy plants cling to the canyon walls, I sense there is a strong will in life to obtain  peaceful coexistence conditions.

I breathe in more deeply and slowly in response the rustling wind blowing through the dense, Ponderosa Pine forest growing near our picnic table.

I follow the daring path of a black crow who flies freely to “edge of the canyon” environs and wonder about searching for such places of peaceful solitude for my life from up high.

I hear the shrill whistle of an old time, passenger train arriving from the nearby town of Williams and picture living in a much slower time and place.

I search closely for spiritual meanings provided by nearby rock formations that seem so oddly human.

Whether it’s photograph or painting, the Grand Canyon appeals to the celebration  of of the enduring living spirit for us all.

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Vibrant Energy Of Cliffside California

“You could travel the world, but nothing comes close to the golden coast.”(Katy Perry)

Can you imagine what your life would like if you experienced the freedom to fly as a seagull? Yes, I do envy the powers of bird flight as I gaze over a Central California coastal environs on our road trip dotted by inaccessible spots of wonder that only an adventurous seagull might reach. As a gull, I would certainly experience no fear of height when perching precariously on a jagged cliff above the crashing surf below. Or perhaps by posing proudly on an offshore rocky shoal, I would feel empowered about keeping my distance from the human predators staring at me on the distant shore. With the vast ocean as my trusting friend, my magical wings could also carry me along with great efficiency to find plentiful feeding grounds in the blue waters below.

Of course as I am merely human, a gull reincarnation in my next life will have to wait. Instead, I’ve been willing and able to slow down our road trip now to absorb the positive energy of California oceanside from a safe vantage point ashore. Along the famed Pacific Coast Highway, I thus cautiously drive my vehicle around Big Surs’ tortuous curves into panoramic bliss where mountain meet the sea. At Morro Bay, I gape in awe at a giant rock protruding from the ocean as multitudes of seagulls, squirrels and sea otters playfully gather nearby. Then it’s on to Montana de Oro State Park near the small town of Los Osos for a curious walk nearest cliff edge to obtain breathtaking views of a cove shrouded bay. So join me in my humbly human ways as I present the following photographic display of wild nature’s glory.

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