V – A Question of Values

Posted on April 25, 2018 by hdh

A Question of Values


While sitting here, contemplating the world we live in, what it all means, and how it connects to my actions,  I’m reminded of a story from my childhood.

—————————————

Two friends, Otto and Herman, happened to meet along the road, both lost in their own thoughts about what is important and what guides their actions.

As usual, Otto always gets the first words in.

“You gotta’ have fun in this life. The key to happiness is play and adventure. Be your own boss. It’s through individuality and the freedom to do whatever you want to do that makes for a successful life. Who cares what anyone else thinks about you; if you’re happy then all is well. Don’t let other people’s suffering bring you down.”

Herman listened, as he was used to doing whenever Otto spouted out his opinions and then replied.

“I couldn’t agree with you…less. Sure it’s good to have fun and play and be your own boss, but not at the cost of others. Tolerance and acceptance of others should always guide your actions. Showing empathy and trusting that your decisions will always turn out for the better is truly the path to happiness and fulfillment. Thinking only about yourself will only provide a false sense of joy and contentment.”

Otto just shrugged off Herman’s comments. “How can you feel good at other people’s pain?”

Herman’s answer was short. “You feel good because they know you understand where they are coming from. They feel your support.”

The conversation went on with no real resolution.

————————————————-

 

As for me, it seemed that the answer was right there in front of them both. Play, adventure, freedom to do what you want for yourself are very important to how you do things, decisions you make, what you choose to create and expand upon. However understanding others, in what they say and do, and being accepting and tolerant of those that differ from you are of equal importance. You don’t live in a world of your own. As such, within reason, you need to compose your life and actions accordingly. You will have disagreements, some minor, some major, but understanding and the willingness to listen before you act is what fills your inner spirit.

At least, that’s how I want to live my life.

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2018, Original Stories, Personal Stories, Writing | Tagged , | Leave a comment

U – What’s your Username?

Posted on April 24, 2018 by hdh

Your Username is WHAT?

Lina was having a quiet respite from her class in the faculty lounge when Minna walked in, clearly upset. “Why is it so hard to find a person’s name online? I know her first and last name, shouldn’t that be enough?”

Her solitude broken, Lina asked, “Who are you trying to find and where are you trying to find her?”

The classroom teacher that I’m working with needs to find this woman, who she is planning to have Skype session with. She forgot the person’s username and asked me to figure it out,” was Minna’ reply.

Lina looked confused, “Why is that so hard. You have her name. Can’t you just do a search on her name in Skype contacts?”

Minna pretended to look like that was the answer she was missing. “Oh, of course, that’s what I should have done. I’m sure that will give me the answer right away. Oh, that’s right, I already did that. Can you tell me which one of the names listed is the one I’m looking for? I came up with ‘dragonbreath, ‘pieceofcake’, ‘twizzler’, ‘can’twait’ and ‘neverends’.”

“Wow!” was Lina’s reaction. “That is difficult. Why do people make up such weird usernames?”

“Because they like to be unique,” Minna said, “It gives them a sense of identity. The problem is it is very difficult to find them.”

“That’s true. It also causes a problem when they get tired of that name and they change it to something else to fit whatever they are into. I have a friend who’s email name was MarioKart132 and then he changed it to Zelda3486 and now his new name is MechanicB14.”

“I was told that the person I’m looking for is supposed to come in and do something with yarn,” Minna said thoughtfully.

Lina suggested, “Why don’t you do a search on Skype for something like ‘Yarngirl’ or ‘Yarnlady’ and see what names come up. If you show the results to your teacher, maybe one of those names will spark her memory.”

“I guess I can try that. It’s a shot in the dark, but with any luck, it will work. Otherwise, I’ll just have to say I can’t find the person.”

“Good luck,” Lina said as Minna left. It was quiet again. Lina took a deep breath as her prep time had run out. It was time to go back to her class to teach a math lesson. Today’s topic was “Logical Thinking.”

 

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2018, Technology, Writing | 1 Comment

T – Television Turn On

Posted on April 23, 2018 by hdh

Time for TV

Between the ages of 5 and 13, I did not sleep in a bedroom. My family lived in a two-bedroom apartment. My sisters got one of the bedrooms and my parents got the other. For me, they had to be creative. You can read more about all my sleeping places in my blog from 2007: http://www.hdhstory.net/Storyblog/?p=25. My first pseudo bedroom was in the foyer, where my bed was placed next to our piano. What was cool about its placement was that I had a direct view of the television in the living room. That meant that I could watch anything that my parents were watching without them realizing it, as long as I kept very quiet and faked sleeping whenever anyone came near me. I got to watch a lot of shows that became my favorites as I grew older. Among them were Million Dollar Movie and the Honeymooners. It is possible that this led to my addiction to television at a very young age. Move forward now to 2018 and the number of things that are on TV nowadays. It’s probably better for Otto and Lina to describe the present day issues.

——————————————-

Lina came into the living room and sat down on the sofa next to Otto. “So what do we have to watch on TV tonight?”

Otto was curt. “What don’t we have to watch on TV? Between the two of us, there are 4 different programs that we like to watch just today. One on PBS, two on CBS and one on ABC.  Then there are the Comedy Central shows we like to watch after 11:00 at night, except we don’t watch them live, we tape them so we can add them to tomorrow’s list!”

“We do have a lot of shows that are good,” Lina interjected.

“But we’re not finished yet.” Otto continued. “Since we subscribe to Netflix and Amazon Prime there are all those special series that don’t come out once a week but come at us as a whole season all at once. Thirteen hour-long episodes that we have queued up so we can binge watch if we ever find a day with 13 hours free.”

Again Lina interrupted. “But eventually we do catch up and get to watch everything. Don’t we?”

Otto was quick to reply. “There’s just too many choices. A lot of the time we continue watching series, even when we’ve grown tired of them. We need to manage our TV time better and start to weed out the bad stuff.”

Lina got a smile on her face. “That sounds good, how about we start with all the hockey and baseball games you watch?”

“WHAT! Why should I stop watching sports I like? I’m watching live broadcasts, not taped broadcasts. If I know the score ahead of time, I don’t watch them. Besides, once my teams are eliminated, I don’t watch as much.”

Lina acquiesced. “You’re right on all counts. I don’t mind watching sports games with you and we do need to manage our TV turn on time better. It’s so hard, because we like so many programs, both individually and together.”

Otto sighed, “Sometimes I wish TV was like what it was when I was a child. There were only 5 stations you could choose from and those stations shut down late at night. You could fall asleep to the test pattern on the TV or just white noise.”

Lina ended by saying, “But look at all we would miss.”

————————————

And there you have it. What they didn’t talk about was all the news/weather programs that exist, not to mention all the movie/special channels like HBO and Showtime. We live in an over-indulged information age. Add to that computers, video games, and apps, and you’ve created a society that lives on a screen. As good as all those programs may be it’s still a screen and a chunk of your life.

 

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2018, Writing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

S – Schedules…I have to be Where, When?

Posted on April 21, 2018 by hdh

Schedules – Finding the Time

Trying to write every day can be somewhat difficult. You need to find that moment between your job, your meals, sleep, chores that need to be done and also have the space, materials, not to mention the ideas to create your piece. Fitting things into a schedule takes work but it can be done. Just look at how Herman and Otto dealt with it…

——————————

Otto came over to visit and found Herman sitting at his workstation: on the computer was playing a youtube video on how to fix a bathroom fixture; on his lap there was a notebook that he was vigorously writing something down in; his calendar was open on his desk with all sorts of red lines drawn on it; and his cell phone was pinging him with some sort of notification. It was unusual for Herman to look so flustered.

“No. No. No. I can’t do that right now, I’m in the middle of something!” Herman screamed to no one in particular.

“You look kind of busy,” was Otto’s comment, “maybe I should come back at a more convenient time.”

Herman dropped his pencil, sat back, took a deep breath and sighed. “It’s not your fault. Stay. I could use the break. I should be able to fit it into my schedule.”

Otto laughed. “Fit it into your schedule? Why do you bother to keep a schedule? Just do things whenever they happen and if it doesn’t get done, no problem.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Herman replied, “You don’t have to get this report done for work and at the same time fix a bathroom fixture before it gets too dark to see anything and on top of that get to a meeting with my dentist in an hour and still have time to come home and cook supper.”

Otto thought about that. “You’re right, I don’t have to do that today, because I rarely schedule myself to do that much. I’m not what you call a multi-tasker. I’m not going to drive myself crazy just to fit some arbitrary schedule I feel that I have to meet. What gets done gets done. If I can’t finish my report, I’ll tell my boss I’ll have it in tomorrow. I do have more than one bathroom in my house, so I can go for days without using the one with the broken fixture. Dentist visits can be rescheduled and as for dinner, tonight sounds like a great night to eat out. Problem solved. I can just sit back, read a book or watch TV.”

“Yeah, but eventually you will have to accomplish all those things. If you keep putting them off, the pile will just get bigger.”

“If that’s the case,” Otto said, “then maybe I’m doing too much and I’ll just make my load a lot simpler. You know that TV is not going to be watched by itself.”

This time Herman was the one that was doing the thinking. “Maybe you’ve got a point there. What I need to do is schedule myself so that I have certain breaks throughout the day.  Where I can dedicate time to myself and I can turn off all of the requirements that I feel must be done now.”

Otto remembered something that Lina always did. “You know my wife always takes Saturday off from school. She decided that working 7 days a week built up too much pressure and she wasn’t looking at things through clear eyes. So she drops all talk, thought and actions about her schoolwork on Saturdays. She reads, we go places, she works in the garden, you know, stuff like that. Then when Sunday comes along she’s back to thinking about work.”

“Sounds like you’re telling me that having a schedule is okay as long as you temper it with open slots and downtime. That almost sounds reasonable.”

“Exactly,” Otto said. “Break out the drinks and chips and turn on the telly. My kind of schedule.”

“Not mine,” Herman responded, “but I think I can work with the idea.”

——————————

As I said, finding the time to fit everything you want and need to do into a schedule can be difficult. But remembering to fit in downtime, take a step back, breathe deeply, and relax are important to not only getting things accomplished but also keeping your sanity. Which reminds me, I was trying to find a time to do some writing today. If I only had something to write about?

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2018, Writing | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

R – Road Rage!

Posted on April 20, 2018 by hdh

Have you seen the condition of those roads?

Otto and Herman returned from their trip to the Northeast.  The car trip was long. They traveled through a few cities, along highways, some back roads and even had to take a ferry to cross part of the Long Island Sound. When they finally arrived home, each had a different perspective of the trip.

————————————–

Otto’s version

“That had to be one of the worst car rides I’ve ever been on. The highway department should be sued! First of all, there were all of the potholes. You would think that fixing roads would be a priority.”

Lina agreed that the pothole issue was a problem. “I’m not even sure who to contact to be put on the list. There are so many potholes in the city and on the highways; I’m sure they are working their hardest to repair them all. There must be some sort of priority list.”

Otto went on. “That’s only part of the problem. Someone should get the highway department to fix all of their signs, too. Who puts signs showing an exit after the exit ramp? Twice, I had to swerve quickly onto an exit ramp because I couldn’t figure out if the exit was the next one or the one I was about to pass.

Then there was that stupid Waze app. It said there was heavy traffic ahead, and you wouldn’t believe the side roads it took me on. I had no idea where I was. If we ever lost the signal, we would have been totally lost.”

 

Lina sighed. “How many times have I suggested to you to look at a hard copy of a map so you know where you are and where you’re going before you set out on a trip.”

“Whatever,” was Otto’s retort, “This was still the worst trip ever.”

Herman’s version

“What an incredible trip we just had. You should have seen all the things that I saw.”

Minna asked, “What was it like? I heard that it took a lot longer than it was supposed to and that the roads were terrible.”

“I wouldn’t know about that,” he replied. I was focussing more on what was happening along the roads. We took this neat detour when the Waze app noticed that traffic was heavy on I-95. I went through parts of the state that I had never seen. It was like a tour of an old fishing village. I wish we had a chance to stop and spend some time there.”

“Stop?” Minna questioned. “That would have made you much later. Who wants to spend that much time on the road?”

“It depends how you spend your time,” Herman answered. “If time in a car is just for going from here to there and that is all you focus on, then yes, it is never fun to be on a long trip unless you’re listening to something like a book on tape. However, if you pay attention to the surroundings, you get to see the beauty of our world. Did you know that I saw a couple of hawks gliding through the air over some trees? I was imagining what they were in search of.”

“I hope you were also looking at the road in front of you while you drove.”

“Of course I did. I can glance quickly at a scene and still enjoy its beauty. Besides, I wasn’t driving all the time; Otto and I took turns. At one point, it stopped raining, and I’m sure I saw a double rainbow.”

Minna sighed. “Only you can take a long trip and make it a beautiful journey.”

Herman’s reply was quick. “You bet!”

 

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2018, Writing | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Q – What’s with all the questions?

Posted on April 19, 2018 by hdh

Questions…Do you ever stop asking them?

It was late on a Wednesday afternoon when Lina came home totally exhausted. Otto noticed how tired she was and casually asked how her day went.

Lina replied, “It was very draining, so many questions, sometimes it just gets so difficult to think up what to say in math class.”

Otto seemed concerned. “Then why don’t you tell the kids to just stop asking so many questions?”

Lina tried to clear up any confusion. “They’re not the ones asking the questions. I am. It’s the way I teach.”

That still didn’t make sense to Otto. “You teach them the skills and then you question them to see if they understand what you’ve taught. If they don’t understand, then you teach it again. Correct?”

“You’re partially correct.” was Lina’s answer. “I teach them the skills and then as I’m working with a student if I feel they are not quite sure with what I’ve said, I’ll ask them guided questions to get them to come up with the skill that I taught. A lot of ‘What if…’ questions like, ‘What if you tried it a different way, what would you choose?’ or ‘What do you notice about all the other answers you completed?’ There are times when I totally talk about something different, but related, to try and get them to understand a simpler version of the same problem.”

Otto remembered the difficulties he had as a student. “Why don’t you just give them the answer? Won’t they eventually learn the skill?”

“They might, over the long run. But in the interim, they will just take the easy way out. They learn that If they say ‘I don’t know.’ long enough then the teacher or their parent will give them the answer so there’s no need to learn. However, if the teacher or parent keeps asking them leading questions then they will construct the knowledge themselves. It makes them more independent.”

“But what about those students that just don’t get it?” Otto questioned.

Lina relented. “For those few, I will give them an obvious answer such as, “I’ll give you a hint; it starts with ‘d’ and ends with ‘ivision’. Most kids will at least get to say the correct answer. Or, I will teach them the skill again using a different method. It’s coming up with all those questions that is so draining.”

Otto quipped, “Education is just not the same as it was when I went to school. You sat in rows, the teacher told you what you had to learn, and you learned it. If you didn’t learn it, you had to take the class over again in the summer. Easy peasy.”

Lina’s eyes began to close and she yawned. “I’m not sure if that was easier for the teacher. Besides there is a lot more children have to learn nowadays than when we went to school. Right now what I would like to learn is the best way to take a nap.”

Otto watched as Lina slowly drifted off to sleep in her favorite chair. He placed a blanket over her to keep her comfy.  As she rested, he thought about all of the techniques Lina had talked about and wondered if those same techniques would work with some of his trainees at work. That would be an interesting question for him to answer.

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2018, Education, Writing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

P – Performance anxiety

Posted on April 18, 2018 by hdh

Excuse me…there’s someone performing

I’m a storyteller and a musician. Sometimes I get to perform in schools and classrooms, at festivals, occasionally at libraries, and at events where there are a lot of other things going on at the same time. I can certainly relate to a discussion that Lina and Minna had following an evening Arts-in-Education event at their school. Lina plays guitar and sings and was asked to perform for the entire group of parents and children as they were entering the auditorium for that evening’s scheduled performer.

—————————————-

“I can’t believe it!” Lina said angrily, as she came backstage after her performance. “Don’t those parents know how to show respect for a performance that is going on?”

Minna was backstage, fixing up some refreshments for the performers when Lina entered. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about common courtesy.” was Lina’s reply. “When you walk into a space where someone is performing, you find a seat, sit down, and enjoy it, or at least remain quiet. These parents and kids just don’t even realize that someone is performing for them. They feel that it is all right to keep chatting away loudly, ignoring who’s on stage. It makes it very difficult to perform.”

Minna tried to find a reason. “Well, you’re not the person they came to see. Maybe they just don’t realize that you are doing a performance. You could be just testing microphones or something like that.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t buy that,” Lina replied, “they are just self-centered and rude. People should enjoy it when people are performing, whether they are who they paid for or not. If they don’t like what is being performed, then they should at least excuse themselves temporarily. It is a disservice to those of us that perform, and models the wrong thing to their children, who, by the way, are just as bad.”

Minna asked, “Don’t the teachers or supervisors that are there try to control the noise and ask those that are inconsiderate to leave?”

Lina laughed, “Some might, but a lot of them are doing exactly what the kids and parents are doing…poor role-modeling.”

“Couldn’t you ask for them to be quiet and respectful?”

Though Lina knew that she could ask, she was adamant that she was being tasked with being a performer, not an audience police person. “I think that diminishes my role as a performer. It’s the organizers and supervisors that should be doing the policing. That should include the use of cellphones during a performance.”

Minna felt somewhat guilty as she realized that at times, she had done exactly the things that Lina was complaining about. But being made aware of something you’re doing that is inconsiderate can sometimes teach you not to do it again. “I have to apologize to you,” she said to Lina.  “I wasn’t out there tonight, but I can recall times that I have done exactly the things that you are complaining about. I’ll make sure from now on, I definitely show more respect for people that are performing.”

“Thanks,” replied Lina. “I guess I’ll work on changing society, one person at a time.”

———————————-

As a performer for both small and large audiences, I see this kind of behavior a lot. I wrote a blog on this topic in 2013 http://www.hdhstory.net/Storyblog/?p=297 . What I wrote then, still holds true. Here’s a picture taken during one of my performances where a parent walked up beside me while a group of girls were chatting away right in front of me. I assumed she was coming up front to get her daughter and her friends to stop chatting. No…she came up to take a picture of her daughter and her friends. Mind you, this was while I was performing.

I wish I had a solution to this problem. Any thoughts you might have would be appreciated.

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2018, Storytelling general, Storytelling in School, Writing | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

O – Outer Space – Is anybody up there?

Posted on April 17, 2018 by hdh

Outer Space…Is there anybody up there?

It’s movie night at Herman and Minna’s house. Otto and Lina were invited as was I. They were just getting ready to sit down to watch the latest Star Wars movie. While Otto was getting the popcorn from the kitchen and Herman was setting up the video, Minna and Lina got to chatting.

“These movies are so exciting. I wish we lived in those times,” Lina remarked.

“Never going to happen,” was Minna’s response. “These events are just fantasy from the mind of George Lucas. It’s not real. There are no other planets in the Universe that support life. Outer space is just a vacuum. Everything you see in all these movies with aliens and such is just a myth created to entertain or scare people.”

Lina disagreed, “How can you say that? Our galaxy is immense; it is 100,000 light years across. And that is only a small fraction of the Universe. The Milky Way according to my research is about 1 millionth in size (.000001) of the Universe. The Universe itself has an estimated 350 billion galaxies the size of the Milky Way in it. You don’t think that in all those galaxies and planets there is not at least one that supports life?”

“Nah, that can’t be right,” said Otto, as he entered the room. “Outer space is just a vacuum. Nothing can survive in that. There’s no way anyone else could be living out there. How long have the Voyager probes been seeking out new life and connections? They launched in 1977; that would be over 40 years ago and nothing has been reported yet. Life on other planets is a dream that will never be.”

Herman, having finished setting up the video, joined the discussion. “I have to agree with Lina. It’s been calculated using the Drake equation that there is a 1 in 60 billion chance that we are the only technologically advanced civilization. So it’s just like the lottery. Even though there is a small chance to win, eventually someone does, which means if there is a chance that there might be another technologically advanced civilization in the Universe, then someday we’ll find it.”

At this point, Otto dimmed the lights, pressed play and the movie began. The question of whether or not there was life on other planets in outer space was put on hold; I certainly was not going to mention which planet I was born on. “Live Long and Prosper.”

 

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2018, Writing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

N – NOISE! Will you keep it down!

Posted on April 16, 2018 by hdh

Will You Keep It Down!

Noise according to the dictionary has a number of meanings. Here are two that are noteworthy for today:

  1. Sound or a sound that is loud, unpleasant, unexpected, or undesired.
    b. Sound or a sound of any kind: The only noise was the wind in the pines.

Depending on your interpretation, ‘Noise’ can either be pleasant or unpleasant. I was trying to write a piece for this blog the other day at Herman’s house when Otto barged in and…

————————————-

“All I get is complaints! Turn the TV down. Can we have some quiet in here? Why do we always have to have noise in the house? It never ends.”

Herman picked his head up and said, “You really do have things on a lot. I remember the last time we went on a car trip upstate, you had to have a book on tape playing throughout the entire ride. It was a little distracting.”

“Yeah, but how is that noise? Listening to things while driving helps me focus, especially on long trips,” was Otto’s retort.

Herman considered that. “Okay, I will grant you that not everything that you listen to can be defined as noise, however, there is a difference when you listen to something if you’re alone and when there are others around. If talking and listening are important to help you focus, then talk. You don’t need a radio, or CD or book on tape to make the noise when there is someone in the car to interact with.”

“Isn’t it more distracting when you are waiting for someone to talk as opposed to following a dialogue that flows. Sometimes thinking of what to say takes your focus from driving. Besides, when I’m at home a lot by myself, it’s good to listen to things and watch TV. Too much quiet is even more distracting to working; my mind then tends to wander all over the place.”

“Again,” said Herman, “what works for you on your alone time is different from what you do with others. For me, I love the quiet. It calms my mind and helps me focus on my writing and in the car on my driving. We all need to respect our individual differences.”

Otto grumbled, “Respecting is one thing, liking it is another.

Herman pointed out, “You have a lot of bluster when it comes to noise, but I’ve seen you enjoying the quiet when I’m driving at times and when we visit people and there is a big crowd, where you have to scream to be heard by the person you’re talking to.

Otto couldn’t respond. He just shook his head in frustration and went back home.

————————————-

I kept out of the whole discussion and just listened. I decided that Noise would be a good thing to write about. It does have multiple meanings and in different situations can mean different things. I leave it for you to decide. All I know is that when Otto left, it became much quieter and I was able to finish this piece.

 

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2018, Writing | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

M – Mistakes…I hate them!

Posted on April 14, 2018 by hdh

Another Mistake…I hate that!

Did you ever feel down on yourself because of all of the mistakes you make? You’re frustrated and feel incompetent. Ready to give up. Well, you’re not alone. That was exactly what Otto was experiencing the other day.

———————————–

“Why bother to do anything?” Otto screamed at no one in particular, one day. “I just can’t do it! This is the third time I’ve tried to put this stupid IKEA chair together and I just can’t follow the simple directions.”

Herman happened to be nearby on his way to borrow some eggs from Lina, so he could finish a cake he was baking for Minna’s birthday. As he reached his destination, he heard Otto screaming. Minna answered the door and went to get the needed eggs as Herman drifted to the room where Otto was, surrounded by pieces of wood, screws, allen wrenches and paper directions.  “Would you like some help?”

Otto looked up and answered, “No, I want someone to build furniture that just unfolds to be assembled, not one that you need an engineering degree to build yourself. I’m making too many mistakes. But that is par for the course since that is what I do with everything I try.”

Herman tried to reassure Otto. “Making mistakes isn’t the worst thing in the world. Think of how much you learn from the mistakes you make.  Thomas Edison once said, ‘I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.’ So maybe in making those mistakes, you are actually learning something for the next time you have to do whatever it is your doing.”

Otto wasn’t appeased. “If that is so, I must be learning a lot. What is the worth of it, if I don’t remember the next time I build one of these chairs. Does making the same mistakes over and over again show any learning? If I’m not mistaken Einstein defined that as insanity. So either I’m stupid or insane.”

“You are neither,” was Herman’s reply. “Some things are difficult to accomplish on your own, whether it be building something, learning a skill, like math or reading, completing an assignment, and the like. There are times when you should take a step back and ask for help. You don’t need to be an expert on everything. Mistakes that repeat themselves might be a good indication that you should get assistance. As I said when I came in, Can I help you?”

Otto rethought about his IKEA dilemma and decided that he could build the chair one last time, putting the pieces in the correct slots, but having Herman around to make sure he followed the directions would make it easier. “Yes, you can help. If you would just follow along with the directions as I build the chair that might let me accomplish it quicker with fewer mistakes.”

Herman helped, the chair was completed. He retrieved the eggs he needed from Lina and went home. When he got home he was greeted by Minna who was very happy and gave Herman a big hug.

“I’ll always take a hug from you, but what’s the occasion? I haven’t even finished your cake yet.”

Minna let out a little giggle. “It’s not for the cake, silly. We just received the present you purchased for me. Don’t you remember that new computer workstation you bought from IKEA for my study room? I can’t wait until you put it together.”

—————————

I can certainly relate to Otto’s frustration with IKEA. Rarely do I put together one of their pieces without putting one piece in the wrong spot and have to partially break it down to that spot and rebuild it.

There are a lot more thoughts on making mistakes if you ever wish to search them out. Thomas Edison seemed to be an expert on them. The following are just a few:

“Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” Thomas A. Edison

“Negative results are just what I want. They’re just as valuable to me as positive results. “I can never find the thing that does the job best until I find the ones that don’t.” Thomas A. Edison

“Just because something doesn’t do what you planned it to do doesn’t mean it’s useless.”  Thomas A. Edison

“You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.” – Johnny Cash

“Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.” – Mary Tyler Moore

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” – Scott Adams

“Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.” – George Bernard Shaw

“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.” – Oscar Wilde

“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something.” –  Neil Gaiman

Posted in A to Z Blog Challenge 2018, Education, Writing | Tagged , , | 1 Comment