Bird Droppings December 31, 2023
Why am I looking for data in a data-less environment?

Earlier this morning, I read a dialogue of sorts from a young man who is currently serving in the military. He is trying to decide on his future as he pieces together his dialogue options and possibilities not just in his immediate moments but days ahead, and in the process, he is asking for suggestions and thoughts on the various options he presents. It was interesting reading and moving through his process of elimination and multiple choice responses almost while in the first person from a differing view, analytical and calculating. Essentially, his process was a taxonomy of job futures. If then this, and if that, then this. I began to think back to my own choice nearly twenty years ago to return to teaching after a twenty-plus year vacation away.

“I’d rather be a failure at something I enjoy than a success at something I hate.” George Burns

I could easily wager most of you have never seen George Burns on TV or in a movie, but then he only recently, in the past few years, passed away at 100 years old. George Burns and Gracie Allen were a husband and wife comedy team staple dating back to vaudeville. Gracie passed away many years ago, and George continued acting in films and on the stage for many years, always with his trademark cigar in hand.

“It’s simply a matter of doing what you do best and not worrying about what the other fellow is going to do.” John R. Amos

Several years back, I designated my classroom name as SUCCESS 101 in a joking sort of way. Yet, for some students, being a success is a unique proposition. Cheering on all students in school has become a passion for me; coaching, leading, and guiding students to succeed on tests and papers and eventually graduating from high school had become my mission in life.

“The person who tries to live alone will not succeed as a human being. His heart withers if it does not answer another heart. His mind shrinks away if he hears only the echoes of his own thoughts and finds no other inspiration.” Pearl S. Buck

Perhaps I am passing by Mr. Burns’s original point. It is not simply success that is important. Mr. Amos adds, “doing what you do best,” and Ms. Buck adds community-noted anthropologist and student of humanity. It isn’t only about success. It is being happy and finding joy in what you do.

“Success is important only to the extent that it puts one in a position to do more things one likes to do.” Sarah Caldwell

“Real joy comes not from ease or riches or from the praise of men, but from doing something worthwhile.” Pierre Corneille
Even on days when you could swear a full moon is out, and students are on the verge of perhaps somewhat less than, approaching that point that would bring sweat to your brow, it should still be fun. You know what? It is still fun in all of it, even when nothing seems right, and then it is still right, and it still should be fun. When you can have joy and happiness in what you do, then you are finding success, regardless of whatever assessment tool or what others think. When a student wants to come to class, when a student would rather stay in class doing what they do not want to do or so they say they do not, then maybe, just maybe success is near.

“Occasionally in life, there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

It has been a while since I sat in a research class and listened to an instructor explain evaluative measurement and how data is something you can see and measure. Also, adding that touchy-feely stuff, while possibly existing, cannot be adequately measured. I was thinking to myself one of the greatest aspects of humanity is touch, and it is that no measurable quality that we innately have within ourselves of feelings of the touchy-feely. Can we truly measure happiness or joy or, better yet, that Jungian term, synchronicity? Many years ago, the two partners split over the measurability of science versus “the touchy-feely.” Jung knew something else existed that affected human nature, something beyond Freud’s measurable data. He spent his life looking at and defining that aspect of humanity, and as Dr. King offers in his quote, “the inaudible language of the heart” maybe that aspect.

“Warm weather fosters growth: cold weather destroys it. Thus a man with an unsympathetic temperament has a scant joy: but a man with a warm and friendly heart overflowing blessings, and his beneficence will extend to posterity” Hung Tzu-Cheng

What is in a man’s heart is what leads and drives a person forward in life, and it is that aspect that guides our next step across the stream and keeps us from slipping on the wet rocks.

“When you have once seen the glow of happiness on the face of a beloved person, you know that a man can have no vocation but to awaken that light on the faces surrounding him, and you are torn by the thought of the unhappiness and night you cast, by the mere fact of living, in the hearts you encounter.” Albert Camus

It wasn’t too long ago I offered up the experiment of smiling at people. Have you tried it? Decide to smile for a day and then look at responses from people around you. Not just smiling and grinning or staring at people, but a sincere smile. You will be amazed at how people respond. More often than not, people smile back, and I would rather be around people smiling than frowning. I have used this thought from Albert Einstein so many times in my wanderings.

“The real difficulty, the difficulty which has baffled the sages of all times, is rather this: how can we make our teaching so potent in the motional life of man that its influence should withstand the pressure of the elemental psychic forces in the individual? “ Albert Einstein

Freud and Jung have split many scientists and teachers, those who want to have a measurable commodity to focus on, and as Einstein quotes, there is human nature to contend with. So how do we make our lessons so potent as to withstand the pressure of the measurable? How do we take the immeasurable and find substance in it? Can we measure the heart? Can we find a way to understand why we respond beyond empirical data? Maybe one day we will, and all of Jung’s searches will not have been in vain. Until then, the journey continues to keep all in harm’s way on your mind and in your heart’s namaste.

My family and friends, I do not say this lightly,
Mitakuye Oyasin
(We are all related)
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