Bird Droppings February 8, 2026

Finding the right spot for the puzzle pieces once we realize we have a puzzle

“In order to learn the nature of the myriad things, you must know that although they may look round or square, the other features of oceans and mountains are infinite in variety; whole worlds are there. It is not only around you but also directly beneath your feet or in a drop of water.” Genjo Koan

When we look too hard, we miss what we try to find. Contained within a drop of water, there is an entire universe. Sometimes we want things to be simply round or square, yet infinity abounds. A few days ago, I spoke with several teachers about why students behave as they do. In a recent presentation on a chapter from a book on behavior management and treatment, the chapter’s last paragraph summarized quite a bit. So often we look everywhere else, only to find the answer right beneath our feet.

I use the analogy of puzzles often in my writing. In my dissertation, I discuss the puzzle pieces of my life. As I drove around this morning on my morning photographic meditative journey, I recalled a puzzle piece that, in reality, has been significant even though it had been pushed back in my memory. In 1973, when I moved to Macon, Georgia, from Pennsylvania, I signed up to tutor. No computers, no cell phones. I honestly do not know how we found out about positions. I often talk about my two-week placement at a middle school and have many stories. But I subbed in an elementary school class for a week prior to that. As I walked in, I knew this was a different classroom. On the board were the week’s BOSS spellers—all the kids who had a 100% on the spelling test. There were twenty kids in the class and twenty photos on the board. It really set me back. This was a very low-income school in Macon, and most of the kids lived literally in shacks on dirt roads. (Macon was known to have more dirt roads than other major city)

As I drove around this morning, I realized how much of an impact that brief week had on me. There were no discipline issues, work got done, and we had a great time. I did take a snake or two in and an alligator. This teacher was not normal. He didn’t rule with a heavy hand or harsh punishments, but with imagination, ingenuity, and learning. It has taken over fifty years to really hit me.

“The absence of evidence to support medication as a viable alternative should lead future researchers and clinicians to explore further parenting strategies that facilitate the development of better sleep habits.” Alfie Kohn, Punished by Rewards

As we do so often, we look for excuses and medical, physical, and emotional reasons for sleep disorders in children. Yet, for behaviors at school, we blame classroom activities, teachers, planning, books, and/or administration. What always amazes me is that the sixteen-hour syndrome is never discussed; we never tend to see where the issue lies, parenting strategies, or the overt issues that children contend with as they leave school. I often wonder why we cannot accept the blame as parents or why we want an excuse in any aspect of life.

“It’s frightening to think that you mark your children merely by being yourself. It seems unfair. You can’t assume the responsibility for everything you do –or don’t do.” Simone De Beauvoir, French Existentialist, Writer, and Social Essayist, 1908-1986

I was ready to write down how the great Simone was a heroic figure in Bolivia, a crucial part of South American history. Yet this person was a French philosopher and an understudy to Sartre.

“The most important thing that parents can teach their children is how to get along without them.” Frank A. Clark

It is so funny how we have most of the world’s ADHD children in the United States. It is funny that as we became so mobile, our family structure somewhat altered, and that number increased as well. Another interesting point is that during the 1980-90s, ADHD increased rapidly, almost in epidemic proportions, by over nine hundred percent. It is so funny how we began seeing this issue when it got on our nerves as parents and teachers, and took our time. As an older person, I was thinking about my history and where ADHD was when I was a child.

“The first half of our life is ruined by our parents and the second half by our children.” Clarence Darrow

We try to look at the whole and miss the pieces, or sometimes we look so intently at a piece that we miss the whole. This is a paradox of sorts. I’m not too fond of jigsaw puzzles, yet I am fascinated by them, and I often use the same jigsaw puzzles to compare life in general. Life is like a myriad puzzle, millions of intricate pieces falling into place one at a time, each more intricate than the next. Sometimes we see a piece and, for days, focus on every minute detail, every little facet, and every little color speck of white or red, and the details overwhelm us. We quickly lose sight of the whole picture, the vast array of life in front of us forming over a minute, tiny aspect.

“Is the parent better than the child into whom he has cast his ripened being? Whence then this worship of the past?” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Excellent. As I pulled Emerson in, I saw how a poet has pieces for today, a hundred years ago. As parents and teachers, we try valiantly to cast our being into a child to see ourselves living again. Maybe that is why we focus on a piece for so long.

“Life affords no greater responsibility, no greater privilege, than raising the next generation.” Dr. C. Everett Koop, former Surgeon General of the United States

As I think of Dr. Koop, it is so much more for adding the cigarette warning than for his philosophy that most people remember him. I think I recall my dad’s story of how he also prayed by my younger brother’s bedside many years ago at Philadelphia Children’s Hospital, where he was Chief Surgeon. He is a fascinating man and a great doctor.

“Having children makes one no more a parent than having a piano makes you a pianist.” Dr. Michael Levine, professor of Genetics and Molecular Biology at The University of California

As I write today, I am finding out who these people are as I look at parenting, and it is interesting what they say. Dr. Koop told my father, as he sat with him one evening, discussing with my brother how parents of critically ill children differed from many others. They talked about how faith was an aspect of their lives, and trust was a critical piece of their puzzle in dealing with their children’s issues.

“The word no carries a lot more meaning when spoken by a parent who also knows how to say yes.” Joyce Maynard

“Do not educate your children to be rich. Educate them to be happy. So when they grow up, they know the value of things, not the price. “Santosh Kumar

On many mornings, I am not sure where I am going with a thought, and I know I wander about here and there. I wonder what I am trying to say as I start, and many times, midway, I am still wondering. Joyce Maynard’s statement may be where I was going in the last page or two, looking and building to this. Whether a parent, teacher, or friend, this applies as I look back at my starting quote from nearly 1000 years ago, written by Dogen, a Zen master, and addressed to his student. Back then, a koan was a question that helped a person piece together a puzzle in their life. A Genjo Koan is an essential question, a question that entails and involves life itself. A former student posted a status update with the line from Santosh Kumar a few moments ago. In trying to track down the unnamed quote, I found Santosh Kumar. On Facebook, I found a massive following for a young philosopher, and then I realized the name was much like John Smith, with thousands of internet hits. So perhaps this young fellow did not spout these words, but they are good ones and worth repeating.

“When fish go through water, there is no end to the water, no matter how far they go. When birds fly in the sky, there is no end to the sky, no matter how far they fly. But neither fish nor birds have been separated from the water or sky – from the very beginning. It is only this: when a great need arises, a great use arises; when there is little need, there is little use. Therefore, they realize full function in each thing and free ability according to each place. “Dogan, 1243

As I sat this morning, thinking and writing, so many ideas flowed in, listening to teachers yesterday express concern and ask questions, hearing parents gather around their SUVs trying to solve world issues, and who was wearing what and what was the latest gossip. It is so easy to be sarcastic. Children are our greatest future commodity, and we should not waste them. As Dogan said about fish, there is no end to parenting, as long as you are a parent. When a teacher, there is no end as you are teaching. When I say you are placing pieces in the puzzle, it is not a whole, as you focus on a piece in your hand. We all have work as parents, teachers, friends, children, or students. Please keep all in harm’s way on your mind and heart, and always give thanks to Namaste.

My family and friends, I do not say this lightly,

Mitakuye Oyasin 

(We are all related)

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