Judith L. Pearson's Blog, page 10

Lessons Learned … Lessons Shared

Soon after I was diagnosed with breast cancer last year, someone told me not to think of it as a disease but as a learning experience. At the time I didn’t think that was funny or even possible. But looking back, I realize my journey was a HUGE learning experience.

Furthermore, I believe my lessons were meant to be shared. So over the next 31 days, that’s exactly what I’ll do. I promise they’ll be short and sweet.

Here’s hoping you’ll learn from them too!

Do You Have Confidence Courage?

Here’s an interesting factoid: psychologists are now on board with the “fake it till you make it” concept. Furthermore, when you think you’re better at something than you really are, others tend to think so too. In a nutshell, recent experiments showed that people are easily persuaded by others’ confidence, even if it’s unjustified. You can read more about the experiments here.

How does that link to courage? I believe (and have actually seen exhibited) that if you are faced with a life challenge and take it on courageously knowing you will be victorious, your outcome will be favorable. Perhaps not always in the exact form you wish, but certainly with greater success than if you collapse like a deflated balloon at the outset.

Not convinced? Ah, here’s where history is our friend – monarchs, warriors, hot-coal walkers and more have been succesful because  they BELIEVED they could be. So how much Confidence Courage do you have?

 

The best of intentions …

… yep, that’s what I had when I posted the story of Jenn Gibbons and her courageous fund raising on the part of breast cancer patients and winners. I’m afraid I made a mistake, however.

Rowed the entire circumference of Lake Michigan. Check.

Raised over $100,000 for breast cancer support and awareness. Check.

Overcame breast cancer herself. Oops, no check! I erroneously stated that she had.

Nonetheless, she’s one courageous chick!

Row 4 ROW

Jenn Gibbons illustrates the Courage of One like no one else. After “kicking breast cancer’s butt” herself, Jenn created ROW – Recovery on Water – a Chicago-based organization providing support and group exercise to others who are fighting or have beaten breast cancer. Jenn also created Row 4 ROW, a fund raiser during which she is rowing the perimeter of Lake Michigan – an amazing 1,500 miles! 

As we all know, however, life doesn’t always unfold as we have planned. Midway through her trip, while sleeping on her boat one night in northern Michigan, Jenn was sexually assaulted. With an incredible show of courage and tenacity, Jenn is continuing her trip, now accompanied by a team of volunteers. Her exact arrival back in Chicago is still in flux due to weather on Lake Michigan. What is certain is that she is very near her finish line. And donations are still very much appreciated.

Congratulations, Jenn, for showing us the power and courage of one!

LOL – It’s Good for You!

My family is blessed with a humor gene. And while we try not to laugh at inappropriate times, we do seem to find relief during challenging times with a smile, a wink or a joke.

Right after my cancer diagnosis, I Googled “cancer jokes.” I seriously did! And when I wrote It’s Just Hair: 20 Essential Life Lessons, humor became the subject of one of the lessons.  So I loved the fact that Huffpost Healthy Living posted this article with more than a few reasons to smile even in the face of a life challenge. Check it out HERE.

All together now – SMILE!

Girl Power

Frenchman Baron de Coubertin, upon founding the modern Olympic movement in 1896, said, “Olympics with women would be incorrect, unpractical, uninteresting and unesthetic [sic].” Well Baron, the fact is that with 4847 women competing, the story behind the 2012 games is really a women’s story. And courageous women they are.

These games will see the first women’s boxing competition, debuting on August 5. And for the first time in history, last Friday’s parade of athletes included a woman on every team. Two of the Muslim nations adding women, Brunei and Qatar, marked the occasion with female flag bearers. Brunei usually sends just one athlete. The addition of runner Maziah Mahusin has doubled that country’s team size to two.

Furthermore, Malaysia’s first female athlete, Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi is 8 months pregnant. What a story she’ll have to share when her child asks about her mother’s Olympic experience!

The U.S. Team has made history as well. For the first time, our team includes more women than men – 269 and 261 respectively. As the mother of two very competitive and athletic sons, I have to say it appears as thought Title IX is having an affect.

Go Girls! Go Boys! Go Team USA!

“Let these Olympic Games begin!”

So declared the queen.
 And moments later, an extraordinary party of courageous humanitarian icons, symbolically dressed in white, bore the Olympic flag into the stadium. I’m guessing that, with one, perhaps two exceptions, they were as unfamiliar to you as they were to me. Ever the researcher, I have enlightened myself.



1. Daniel Barenboim, musician and conductor who co-founded West-Eastern Divan, bringing together young musicians from a variety, and often opposing, Middle Eastern countries.

2. Sally Becker, known as the “Angel of Mostar,” who risked her life to deliver aid and evacuate children during the Balkan War.


3. Shami Chakrabati, director of Liberty, a British civil rights organization.


4. Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Peace Prize winner, who has worked tirelessly for an end to the civil war in Liberia.


5. Haile Gebrselassie, Ethiopian two-time Olympic gold medal runner.


6. Doreen Lawrence, mother of murdered British teenager Stephen Lawrence, whose pressure on the London Metropolitan Police brought to light their racist handling of this crime   and others.


7. Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations Secretary General.


8. Marina Silva, a Brazilian “bioneer” who has fought against the destruction of the rainforest.



The ninth member of the group is by far the most familiar. Left frail from Parkinson’s Disease, Muhammad Ali approached the flag just before it arrived at its final destination. Ali was the light heavyweight Olympic gold winner in 1960 and memorably lit the torch at the 1996 Atlanta games.

The biographies of this group makes that procession ever more impressive, even in retrospect.

 

What’s Right and What’s Wrong?

Two stories have appeared on my horizon that trouble me deeply.  The first is about Alaina Giordano – a woman whose estranged husband was allowed by a judge to move her two children from Durham, N.C., to Chicago.  No big deal except she was dying of stage 4 breast cancer.  The judge felt hubby would be a better parent.  Alaina was able to go to court (with help from generous donors) and retrieve her children for the last few weeks of her life.

The second story involves Cindi Davis, also terminally ill with breast cancer.  Her medical bills have become so high that’s she’s unable to pay both them and her mortgage.  Her bank (Wells Fargo) remains unmoved and is allegedly threatening foreclosure.

What troubles me is that while both of these women could be accused of not appropriately planning for their unknown futures (i.e. making better spousal choices or better saving for a rainy day), the bottom line is that we never think bad things will happen to us.   How heart-breaking that they’re courageously living their last days, while others in their lives are behaving so inhumanely.  What has happened to being charitable (socially charitable, NOT  financially charitable) to our fellow human beings?

We Can Do It! (Was there any question?)

So here’s your “what happened today in history” question: who was nominated on this date for Vice President of the United States?  Oh, and she was the first of her gender from a major political party to have the distinction.  Whether you agreed with Geraldine Ferraro’s politics or not, it was a thrilling day back in 1984.

Ferraro was the daughter of Italian immigrants and a representative to Congress who had gained notoriety as a vocal advocate of women’s rights.  Ferraro far outshone the other name on the ticket – Walter Mondale.  But media focus was on whether or not she (or any woman) was tough enough to hold the second highest position in the country.  Kinda makes you smile, doesn’t it.

We’ve come a long way – or have we?  While women’s skills as Secretary of State have clearly been recognized, it took 28 years for another woman to be nominated for the same job.  And there’s not much chatter about a woman being added to either major party ticket this year.

C’mon girls – let’s let everyone know we can do it.  We’re not only tough enough, we’re REALLY tough!

The Mysterious Amelia

On July 2, 1937, 75 years ago today, Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra crashed into the sea somewhere near Howland Island.  Some hypotheses conclude she and her navigator, Fred Noonan, ran out of fuel, but others hold that they survived for some time or were even repatriated to the United States.

I confess I’m captivated by Earhart’s story: she quit school, took a flying lesson and bought a plane.  She was the first woman to soar 14,000 feet, the first woman to cross the Atlantic as a passenger and the first woman to pilot herself across the pond.

If I were to play the game which allows you to imagine a dinner party including the people you find most interesting, my table would certainly include Amelia.  She understood courage as few can, exemplified by these words,”The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.”