Monday reflections 1

For those of you who live in the United States, I trust this past week was a beneficial week for you.  And I’m well aware that we’ll be exercising some of those “benefits” away this week.  Seriously, what once was a holiday that I barely enjoyed as a teen (I think it was the fact that many people crammed into a small hot house for 3-4 days) is now a week that I treasure and enjoy.  I don’t do the shopping adventure, but I like the time with family, the opportunity to stop and reflect, and to catch up a bit too.  And maybe it’s because I’m the one now orchestrating the cramming of people into familiar places.

Have you noticed how Thanksgiving is becoming less of a just a day and more of a week off? It seems that more schools are giving the Wednesday before off as well … and more families are planning bigger vacations around the holiday.  Quite a few colleges now give the whole week off and I think that more and more will consider it, though I am not sure how that will affect student learning. I had many students skip my class on Tuesday, even those who knew that doing so lowered their final grade since they had used their skips up already.

The time off afforded me a chance to reflect on a few matters:

I think people can be better workers, thinkers, and learners with strategic and well-managed time off. The opportunity for renewal of spirit, to have opportunity to sleep a bit more, and to reflect is a worthwhile one that makes people more productive.
Social media is filling our time and pushing out our ability to think and read critically.  Images (Pinterest) and bumper sticker thinking (statuses) take up hours of time that would have otherwise been filled with _______(critical reading, spatial hobbies?).
We’ve come a long way from the frontier days where we would’ve spent our days farming, cutting wood, and attending to animals.  Yet, we feel a higher level of stress even with the added leisure time.  Something’s wrong there I think.
Achievers work to accomplish things, be known, and have influence and yet at the end of our lives we’ll feel like we’ve not accomplished enough because that thirst is never satisfied …. and we’ll realize that those aren’t what mattered most. If we’ve been too task-oriented, we’ll miss out on those more important matters.
The routine of one’s week will not allow him or her to accomplish anything extraordinary without intentional time and discipline.  Playing musical instruments, getting in shape, learning another language, study, romance, true friendship, and even growing in our relationship with God all demand of us new time and attention … which is why many don’t do any of these.
Travel is still the great educator.
It’s worth developing our conversation skills and our curiosity about others and their lives.  I think this will be a hot training topic in years to come. Family time is less centered on sitting and talking now, so people grow up not observing those skilled in this area or they don’t have to practice the skill to accomplish much.
The week after a holiday or vacation week is extra busy.

Which means I’d better get to it and catch up.

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