Sometimes what we are looking for isn’t what we find. The important part is paying enough attention to notice what else is there.

Bird Droppings October 6, 2026

Sometimes what we are looking for isn’t what we find. The important part is paying enough attention to notice what else is there.

I wandered about a bit today before sitting down to write and do my graduate work.  As I went from one errand to the next, I started thinking back to how a Barnes and Noble bookstore was conveniently in my way a few weeks back. By chance, I bought a few books. Those could be the focus of tomorrow’s droppings as I get into them a bit deeper. My droppings yesterday got a response from a friend who teaches gifted sixth- and seventh-graders and has also been a part-time college professor. I mentioned how professors of education should have taught first. A doctor would want a brand-new, out-of-school doctor working on you with no teaching experience; we see a new teacher treated the same as an experienced one, and both are expected to do essentially the same tasks and job. When I started in education as a freshman in college, I got sidetracked for a bit. I took a few side roads, but in doing so I became a much better teacher.

“We may pass violets looking for roses. We may pass contentment looking for victory.” Bern Williams

I was reminded recently as we searched the area several springs ago for flowering plants; the object was that the plant had to be flowering at the time of collection. This was my son’s environmental science project, which he was putting together. It was as interesting as we found plants that contained flowers far more beautiful than many commercial flowers but tiny, literally microscopic, as we searched. As I look at the statement above, what is Williams really referring to? Is it the times we overlook something when we are so intent on a specific goal? So often in education, we see only the pass-or-fail score of a standardized test, not that the child made great strides in learning.

“I consider a goal as a journey rather than a destination. And each year I set a new goal.” Curtis Carlson

“You are not likely to get anywhere in particular if you don’t know where you want to go.” Percy H. Johnson

Sometimes, as we search and wander in life, there is still so much to see and learn; one goal leads to another. But having a goal keeps us motivated to attain it. So many people do not even have a goal and stumble around, floundering.

“Set your goals high and don’t stop until you get there.” Bo Jackson

A reminder to Georgia football fans: there is always next year and the possibility of a national championship well the year after that.

“When we are motivated by goals that have deep meaning, by dreams that need completion, by pure love that needs expressing, then we truly live life.” Greg Anderson

“The person with a fixed goal, a clear picture of his desire, or an ideal always before him, causes it, through repetition, to be buried deeply in his subconscious mind and is thus enabled, thanks to its generative and sustaining power, to realize his goal in a minimum of time and with a minimum of physical effort. Just pursue the thought unceasingly. Step by step you will achieve realization, for all your faculties and powers become directed to that end.” Claude M. Bristol

So often, as I have experienced for myself, I recall a few years ago, on a Saturday, a good example: I went out feeling a driving purpose for the day beyond simply driving to Florence, South Carolina, nearly three hundred miles away. I didn’t truly know what was on my mind, and I anticipated each moment and each contact as I went about the day. I had a goal to get my son an apartment and hopefully see as much of Florence as I could, and yet under that was a search, a constant looking for more meaning to the day. In my searching, I found so much; I completed my goal, and we looked at several apartments, but they were older and not what we hoped to find.

As we headed back to the property rental office to return the keys, I noticed a flyer on the counter for a new property. I had a quick question, and we headed over to look at it and eventually get that apartment. At first, we were so focused on what we had been told and our goal of finding something Saturday that we nearly missed the new apartments. Throughout the day, we each had so many encounters and pieces of our life puzzle. It might have been locking the keys in the car, seeing my son’s chemical plant, seeing Florence and Lake City where he will be working, and spending many hours together.

“There are those who travel and those who are going somewhere. They are different and yet they are the same. The success has this over his rivals: He knows where he is going.” Mark Caine

“We aim above the mark to hit the mark.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Recently I read an article that was morbid in a way; it is also very true when you think about goals and how many people live their lives. As we became more technologically advanced, many human skills gave way to technology. In Viet Nam, marksmanship gave way to weaponry that could fire numerous rounds per second, and kill ratios were one kill per thousand rounds of ammunition; marksmanship was lost. Recently, in an article on the National Sniper Championships, snipers have been attaining kill ratios of 1.3 rounds per kill in theory; I do not think they use live targets in championships. While a morbid comparison, it is so true in our society that, rather than focus, we scatter our dreams, our goals, and hope for the best, or that common word used far too often creeps in: “whatever”.

“Concentrate on finding your goal, then concentrate on reaching it.” Michael Friedman

“The goal you set must be challenging. At the same time, it should be realistic and attainable, not impossible to reach. It should be challenging enough to make you stretch, but not so far that you break.” Rick Hansen

In a few weeks, students will get transcripts and new schedules for the upcoming semester. Some students will be fine, others will complain, and some will keep complaining even after the semester starts. My son told me about attendance the other day, and one student said, “No way that he missed so many days.” My son explained that four teachers had the same information, and his response was “whatever”; they are still wrong. Then he began whining, “How am I going to get into college?”

He sat there looking at a transcript of a second-year ninth grader who was failing because of attendance, not ability, and being asked, “How am I going to get into college?” My son said, ” First, simply passing, as you strive to do, will not get you into college I knew this student from his sister I had years back, and he would get a good SAT score, but that alone will not get a college acceptance. A high school transcript of seventies and failures doesn’t look so good. As he and my son talked, my son wrote 70% and 100% on a piece of paper and asked his student, “Would you want a brand-new doctor, fresh out of school and without supervised clinical experience, working on you?” Yet in education, we often put a brand-new teacher in a classroom and expect essentially the same performance we expect from an experienced teacher. Guess who he picked? I hope his eyes were opened.

“You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things — to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated to reach challenging goals.” Sir Edmund Hillary

A few years ago Hillary passed away, but last Saturday in my crazy search for purpose I was driving. That Saturday morning, as I gazed east, there was a glorious sunrise. I wondered what it was like for Hillary to stand atop Mt. Everest for the first time, looking over a world, not just down Interstate 20. He attained the highest point on earth yet considered himself a common chap.

“Goals are dreams with deadlines.” Diana Scharf Hunt

“Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work.” H. L. Hunt

“It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goal to reach. It isn’t a calamity to die with dreams unfulfilled, but it is a calamity not to dream. It is not a disaster to be unable to capture your ideal, but it is a disaster to have no ideal to capture. It is not a disgrace not to reach the stars, but it is a disgrace to have no stars to reach for. Not failure, but low aim is a sin.” Benjamin E. Mayes.

Every day I talk with teachers and former students whose only goal is this minute; guiding them is difficult, for in that self-centered world there is no direction, no plan, and no pathway. I can show them a road map and point them in the right direction, but sooner or later they will have to take the first step. All of us have been there and may be again, so watch for travelers who need help and always offer a hand. Trying myself to get back up to speed and back in a routine after several days of being lazy, I still end today with please keep all in harm’s way on your mind and in your hearts. namaste

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

Mitakuye Oyasin

(We are all related)

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