Boulder, Colorado, writer Bob Morgan
makes readers laugh and cry
at the same time
Chocolate-lovers will understand
and sympathize with Bob in this excerpt
from his poignant memoir Goodbye Geraldine
My addictions didn't just disappear
when I got in AA. Chocolate chip cookies have taken the place of
alcohol. You can have your martini, I'll take cookies.
No one ever went to jail for eating cookies, or had car accidents, or beat their wives, or went insane, or died. So it's not so bad. My dentist loves it.
Susan who has never seen me drunk, doesn't bake anymore. And that's good.
I used to lick out the bowl,
eat a few when they were just dough drops on the cookie sheet, a few
more when they were served, and even more when they were cooked and
wrapped in tinfoil in the freezer waiting for a special occasion.
Susan stopped baking one day
when, in the early days of our marriage, I returned from work and found
about 64 small chocolate chip cookies. I ate one, then two, then
about twenty before she stopped me. "You'll never eat supper,"
she said.
So I proved her wrong.
I ate the spaghetti supper, watched TV on a waterbed, then found myself
in the bathroom about 1:00 a.m. sicker than most hangovers, berating
Susan, "Don't ever, ever bake chocolate chip cookies again," I said.
"I'll never touch another one," I said, "Never."
The next morning I got up and ate the rest of them. All of them.
I'm older now, trying to grow up. It's not easy. My brother Tom puts it best, "It wasn't a
happy childhood," he says, "but it's been a long one." From Goodbye, Geraldine by Bob Morgan.
Here's a fast and easy way
to find out whether or not your child
is being prepared to succeed in the real world . . .
A time to teach, a time to learn . . . Another reason I love to teach writing . . . #15
I carry in my heart everywhere I go
a beautiful little fifth grader I met in Massachusetts. I call her
little because she was little. She had not grown as other children grow
because she had been sick all of her life. She was home recovering from
surgery the day I presented writing programs at her school, but her
teachers told me about her between programs and about how much she
loved reading and writing. They made arrangements for me to visit her
at home after school. I went to her home to teach her about writing,
but she is the one who taught me.
We talked about many things
that afternoon, and she shared with me a book of poetry she had
written. I read some of her poems myself and she read some of them to
me. They were very beautiful, not only because
of what she had written, but also because of the way she had written.
Her writing was as good as or better than some high school and college
students' writing I have seen. I knew she had not been able to be in
school as much as most of us, but I also knew she read a great deal. We
talked about how writers work and about how she learned to write so
well. I asked, “When you are reading, do you pay attention to how
authors use phrasing and punctuation to share their thoughts and
feelings?” She answered, “Oh, yes.” It showed in what she wrote.
What she taught me that afternoon
is that we develop our writing power by writing, of course, but we also
develop our writing power simply by reading a great deal. Every minute
we spend reading is a minute spent developing our writing power. Every
minute we spend reading is a minute spent developing the vocabulary
power we need for writing. Every minute we spend reading is a minute
spent developing the resourcefulness and access to the world of ideas
we need for writing. Every minute we spend reading is a minute spent
developing the strength and focus we need for writing.
I have had great teachers
who taught me how to keep growing as a writer. One of my favorites is
the beautiful little fifth grader I met in Massachusetts. — www.johngile.com/learn more
Our Best Defense Against Nonsense™
Another reason why I teach writing . . . #11
"Educators have become somewhat 'media conscious," Neil Postman tells us in Amusing Ourselves to Death,
but "much of their consciousness centers on the question, 'How can we
use television or the computer or the word processor to control
education?' They have not yet got to the question, 'How can we use
education to control television or the computer or word processor?'
"There has been no worthwhile discussion,
let alone widespread public understanding, of what information is and
how it gives direction to a culture. There is a certain poignancy in
this, since there are no people who more frequently and
enthusiastically use such phrases as 'the information age,' 'the
information explosion,' and 'the information society.' We have
apparently advanced to the point where we have grasped the idea that a
change in the forms, volume, speed, and context of information means
something, but we have not got any further.
"What is information? Or
more precisely, what are information? What are its various forms? What
conceptions of intelligence, wisdom, and learning does each form insist
upon? What conceptions does each form neglect or mock? What are the
main psychic effects of each form? What is the relation between
information and reason? What is the kind of information that best
facilitates thinking? Is there a moral bias to each information form?
What does it mean to say there is too much information? How would one
know? How do different forms of information persuade?
"...No medium is excessively dangerous if its
users understand what its dangers are. It is not important that those
who ask the questions arrive at my answers or Marshall McLuhan's. This
is an instance in which the asking of the questions is sufficient. To
ask is to break the spell...
"It is an acknowledged task of the schools to assist the young in
learning how to interpret the symbols of their culture. That this task
should now require that they learn how to distance themselves from
their forms of information is not so bizarre an enterprise that we
cannot hope for its inclusion in the curriculum; even hope that it will
be placed at the center of education.
"What I suggest here as a solution
is what Aldous Huxley suggested as well. And I can do no better than
he. He believed with H.G. Wells that we are in a race between education
and disaster, and he wrote continuously about the necessity of our
understanding the politics and epistemology of media. For in the end,
he was trying to tell us that what afflicted the people in Brave New World
was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did
not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped
thinking."
I encourage journal writing
because it can strengthen our thinking and free us from being
manipulated by sound bites and sloganeering. Good writing is good
thinking, our best defense against nonsense™. — www.johngile.com/learn more
Forward thinking people are finding ways to win
the deadly, real world "hunger games"
Developing and fine-tuning
technical systems required for vertical farming in urban areas has
taken another step forward with groundbreaking for the first Plantagon
Greenhouse in Linköping, Sweden. The development is a new type of
greenhouse for vertical farming, an international Centre of Excellence
for Urban Agriculture, a demo-plant for Swedish clean-tech, and a
climate-smart way to use excess heating and CO2 from industries.
At the groundbreaking ceremony,
Linköping Mayor Paul Lindvall, regional energy company Tekniska
Verken CEO Anders Jonsson, and Plantagon CEO Hans Hassle cited the
development as an important step toward creating functional,
sustainable solutions for the growing cities of today and tomorrow,
where food can be produced in a resource-smart way. Cities following
the Swedish lead include Stuttgart, Germany, and Barcelona, Spain.
Working independently on vertical or skyscraper farming are cities in
Italy, the Netherlands, China, and Canada. New York and Las Vegas have
begun work in the area along with cities in Texas and Florida
First impressions can be misleading. Just ask
this first grade teacher and a student’s mother.
When first grade students
were told to draw a picture showing what they wanted to be when they
grew up, one of the girls told her teacher, "I want to be like Mommy,"
and handed in this drawing. Her teacher
gasped when she saw the drawing, but praised the little girl for her
work and then put the drawing into the child’s packet of papers to take
home.
The next day
the little girl returned to school with the drawing and a note for the
teacher from her very embarrassed mother — who had instructed her
daughter to make certain the teacher read Mommy’s note.
The note said,
“I want to explain my daughter’s drawing. My friends say it looks like
a drawing of me at a dance pole on a stage surrounded by male customers
handing over cash, but it’s not. I work in a hardware store and told my
daughter how much money we made during the snowstorm last week. Her
drawing is a picture of me selling snow shovels.”
Teachers, not politicians,
know how to improve our schools
If politicians who say our
schools must be improved to produce more creative thinkers like Steve
Jobs really mean it, they can learn how from Steve Jobs’ best teacher.
In his biography,
Steve Jobs tells us that he was a troublemaker, frequently causing
disruptions and being sent home from school until a creative,
innovative teacher transformed him. His fourth grade teacher "was a
spunky woman named Imogene Hill, known as 'Teddy,' and she became, Jobs said, 'one of the saints in my life.' After watching him for a couple
weeks, she figured that the best way to handle him was to bribe him.
'After school one day, she gave me this workbook with math problems in
it, and she said, 'I want you to take it home and do this.' And I
thought, 'Are you nuts?' And then she pulled out one of these giant
lollipops that seemed as big as the world. And she said, 'When you're
done with it, if you get it mostly right, I will give you this and five
dollars.' And I handed it back within two days.' After a few months, he
no longer required the bribes. 'I just wanted to learn and to please
her.' She reciprocated by getting him a hobby kit for grinding a lens
and making a camera. 'I learned more from her than any other teacher,
and if it hadn't been for her I'm sure I would have gone to jail.'"
Many teachers I work with
are like Imogene Hill, but they are constrained by a stultifying,
self-serving education bureaucracy forcing them to teach to the test.
Our schools will be improved to produce more creative thinkers like
Steve Jobs when teachers are freed to really teach and, as Steve Jobs attests, to build up and build on students' natural curiosity.
Are we really in a pickle?
Another reason why I teach writing . . . #8
News media
regularly give us ominous reports saying that just about everything we
eat and drink or do brings on some terrible disease. Those gloomy
reports — sometimes from laboratories seeking publicity to justify
continued funding or from headline-chasing scientists and physicians
with similar financial motives — often are scuttled by close
examination and clear thinking.
A case in point is
cited by M.E. Ensminger, Ph.D., who tells a story attributed to a food
faddist in which "all pickle eaters are warned that 'Pickles will kill
you!" Then the food faddist continues:
"Pickles are associated
with the decline of civilizations — the ancient Egyptians ate them.
Eating pickles breeds wars, causes auto accidents and airline
tragedies. Pickles are associated with all the major diseases of the
body; and there is a positive relationship between crime waves and
consumption of pickles.
"Then the faddist administers the coup de grace with the following alarming statistics:
1. 99.44 percent of all people who die from cancer have eaten pickles.
2. 100 percent of all soldiers killed in battle have eaten pickles.
3. 96.8 percent of all people involved in auto and air accidents ate pickles within 30 days preceding the accident.
4. 95.3 percent of all juvenile delinquents come from homes where pickles are served frequently.
5. 99 percent of all pickle eaters born prior to 1905 have wrinkled skin,brittle bones, and failing eyesight."
Next time you
come across a news report that says we're in a pickle, remember that
you have to take it with a grain of salt. And consider becoming a daily
journal writer. Journal writing can help you clarify your thinking,
keep the events of your life in proper perspective, and free you from
intimidation by the fear mongers you encounter in the media and
elsewhere. I help children and adults become better writers because
good writing is good thinking, your best defense against nonsense™. — www.johngile.com/learn more
Every guy at the coffee shop insisted that it must have been his wife who put up this billboard across the street.
On getting it right . . .
I can hear a cherished editor-friend's comment on this photo, a prime example of his favorite maxims:
-- "Those who fail to take the time to do it right must make time to do it over."
-- "Measure twice, cut once."
-- "Haste makes waste."
-- "Work in haste, regret at leisure."
He demanded bulldog-like diligence
in completeness and accuracy in every story: "Go the extra mile. Dot
your i's and cross your t's. You don't get a second chance to get it
right."
No writers,
from beginning students to published professionals, want to be told
their
work is incomplete and requires still more legwork or still another
rewrite. The feelings of
frustration and discouragement that come with starting over again can
be overwhelming. That's why persistence, patience, and perseverance are
the keys to writing that is clear, complete, cogent, and compelling. It
requires discipline and effort -- which is why writing is all about
growing.
Developing the paramount skills
for the twenty-first century workplace
News reports remind us
that college admissions offices are placing more and more emphasis on
writing skills. The essays students submit with their applications may
ultimately determine whether they receive good news or bad news from
the school of their choice.
It seems that grade inflation,
teaching to the test, and watered down course content make it more
difficult for colleges to discern if students really have the ability
and maturity to be competent students. Strong writing attests to both
ability and maturity and favors students with otherwise comparable
qualifications.
It doesn't end there.
Communication skills are paramount in the twenty-first century
workplace. Effective communicators learn faster and better. They create
a positive image for themselves and for their employers. Those same
skills play a central role in personal relationships off the job, too.
The good news
is that strengthening writing skills to become a more effective
communicator in school or on and off the job can be fun and fulfilling.
It's all about growing.™ The bad news is that it doesn't happen unless
you make it happen.
John Williams, a popular talk show host
at WGN Radio in Chicago, asked for comments
on this viral video of a father "disciplining" his daughter
Here are some of the thoughts that occurred to me:
1. Who's the adult here?
Has the father talked with his daughter about the letter? Is it
possible she wrote it in a fit of uncontrollable anger — which she
obviously comes by honestly — and would have deleted it when she calmed
down?
2. The father's action
seems to violate important principles: let the consequences be
proportionate to the offense; and don't apply a permanent solution to a
temporary problem. What does he do if she has a good explanation for
her letter and sincerely apologizes? She could delete her letter and/or
write a letter of apology setting things straight. I'm not sure the
father can resurrect the computer after blasting it with eight bullets.
3. He refers to his daughter's
mother and stepmother. We know that children of divorce are damaged by
their parents' actions denying them their very foundation for security
and trust in their lives. The father seems to show no compassion or
understanding for the distress her parents' divorce has brought into
his daughter's life. It's still true that the most important thing a
father can do for his children is love their mother, and the most
important thing a mother can do for her children is love their father.
4. The father doesn't seem
to have done much thinking about what he wants to accomplish over the
long run with his daughter. I am the father of six and the grandfather
of 16. On more than one occasion, I have had to say to a child, "I love
you, and there is nothing you can do to make me stop loving you. You
can disappoint me. You can break my heart. You can cause me to grieve
over your self-destructive behavior, but you cannot make me stop loving
you. And there is nothing for which you cannot be forgiven if you ask
for forgiveness with sincere contrition." I think children, especially
teenage children, need that assurance and understanding.
5. The father cites his own experience when he was the age of his daughter and holds himself up as a paragon of virtue. I teach writing to children and adults — www.jgcunited.com/enrichment.html
— and encourage journal writing because brutally honest journals help
us see ourselves more realistically. Because my journal helps me
realize how much others put up with from me, it helps me be more
patient with others. I, too, had a hard row to hoe as a youth, working
40 hours a week in high school, serving in the military, and then
working more jobs while going to college. But I also did things I
shouldn't have — of which my journal reminds me, causing me to be more
compassionate toward my children and others.
6. We can attribute
the teenage daughter's behavior to typical adolescent immaturity, an
extenuating factor. To what can we attribute the father's behavior?
There may be extenuating factors of which we do not know, but I can't
imagine any. I come back to my first question: who's the adult here?
7. No one has ever regretted being
too sober, too kind, too patient, too understanding. I suspect the
father will one day regret his action and, most likely, other actions
consistent with the mindset he has manifest in the video. Still, it may
not be too late to turn it around. I hope he does — especially for
his daughter's sake.
Being a publisher sometimes means
defending authors from malicious gossip by people who don’t understand
authors’ creative processes. I’m writing this to explain how an author
friend ended up behind bars.
The author was struggling with writer’s block and picked up Steven Pressfield’s book, The War of Art,
for tips on overcoming it. In the book’s introduction, Hollywood
screenwriter Robert McKee wrote, “Some years ago I was as blocked as a
Calcutta Sewer, so what did I do? I decided to try on all of my
clothes. I put on every shirt, pair of pants, sweater, jacket and sock,
sorting them into piles; spring, summer, fall, winter, Salvation Army.
Then I tried them all over again, this time parsing them into spring
casual, spring formal, summer casual…”
The author decided to try McKee’s approach. He
went through all his clothes just as McKee did, but still was blocked.
Then he he decided to try on all his wife's clothes, too.
Just when he finished the closet and
started through her lingerie drawer, she came home and surprised him.
She was a little surprised, too, and became somewhat hysterical. She
began beating him with her purse, and he ran from the bedroom to get
away from her.
What he didn't know
is that their church pastor and the women's committee against
pornography had come home with her for coffee and were continuing their
meeting in the living room. He tried to explain about McKee’s
recommendation for overcoming writer's block, but could hardly get a
word in between his wife's blows with her purse and her verbal abuse.
He tried to get out of her line of fire
and gain an opportunity to explain by taking shelter in the closet, but
was so distraught by her relentless attack that he accidentally opened
the front door and ran outside. His wife slammed the door shut and
locked it.
When he heard some children
who were passing his house on their way home from school laughing at
him, he turned and made an obscene gesture in their direction.
Unfortunately, two police officers in a car passing his home took in
the scene and the gesture — and then took the author in, with handcuffs
and all.
The bottom line
is that his experience did free him from writer's block, but he injured
his hands struggling against the tight handcuffs and now can't even
hold a pencil. His cell was too cold for writing anyway, since he was
so scantily clad, and the only paper in his cell was on a roll next to
the commode and was not very well suited for writing.
When he called for help,
I delivered a bathrobe and paid his bail. Then I called his wife to
explain what happened. She agreed to let him back into the house. On
our way to his home, I suggested a visit to my writing workshop
the next time he wants help. He agreed, then said he doesn’t expect to
have any trouble with writer’s block in his next writing project — a
letter to McKee letting him know what he thinks of the
trying-on-clothes technique.
Please leave our teachers alone
and let them teach.
Here's a math story problem for you.
How many hands does it take to show this year's $77 billion budget for
the U.S. Department of Education (DOE)? After spending trillions of
dollars since its inception,
hamstringing teachers with No Child Left Behind constraints, and
ballyhooing phony test scores while forcing teachers to teach to the
test, the DOE has given us the state of education in America captured
in this photo.
If that $77 billion were block-granted
to local school districts instead of being poured down that federal
bureaucracy rathole, every district would receive between five and 15
million dollars each year, depending on district size, to apply to true
education — which takes place in the classroom, not in Washington, DC.
I've worked with students and teachersacross our nation
and I've heard so many teachers say, "Just leave us a alone and let us
teach." When I ask why they don't speak up against the dysfunctional
system, they invariably reply that they fear for their jobs. That's why
I just have to say something here on their behalf.
What kind of people are we?
What kind of people are we becoming?
I was driving on a city street listening to eulogies
of Martin Luther King Jr. on my car radio. When the traffic light
turned yellow at a busy intersection, I prepared to stop. Moments later
a car sped past me in the center lane and ran through the red light. At
one time, running red lights was a rare occurrence. Now I see it happen
so often I've made it a habit to look both ways before I enter an
intersection even though I have the green light.
I was considering how and when and why that change took place
in our culture when I passed a billboard advertising "The College of
Me." I know the sign referred to a school adapting its programs to
individual students, but it conjured up the image of self-absorbed
boors endlessly whining, "Me. Mine. Me first," and howling, "I want
what I want when I want it."
The reckless driver and "The College of Me" image
echoed the answer a 90 year old man gave when he was asked at his
birthday party to cite the biggest change he had seen in his lifetime.
Technology was the expected answer — cell phones, computers, GPS's and
iPads, space travel and so on. Instead he said the biggest change he
has noticed is declining civility: "People don't show respect for each
other anymore." The Me, Mine, Me First mindset suggested by "The
College of Me" billboard could account for that decline.
The reckless driver and "The College of Me" image
were in sharp contrast with the eulogies of Martin Luther King Jr. and
words from one of his last sermons: "I want you to be first in love. I
want you to be first in moral excellence. I want you to be first in
generosity. If you want to be important, wonderful. If you want to be
great, wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall
be your servant."
Veterans are
those who, at one point in their lives, wrote a blank check payable to
the United States of America for an amount up to and including their
lives. That is beyond honor, and there are way too many people in this
country who no longer remember that fact. Share this with others if you
are a veteran, know a veteran, love a veteran or support our troops.
A salute to all veterans from a comrade-in-arms:
I remember the day I found out I got into West Point.
My mom actually showed up in the hallway of my high school and waited
for me to get out of class. She was bawling her eyes out and
apologizing that she had opened up my admission letter. She wasn't
crying because it had been her dream for me to go there. She was crying
because she knew how hard I'd worked to get in, how much I wanted to
attend, and how much I wanted to be an infantry officer. I was going to
get that opportunity.
That same day, two of my teachers took me aside and essentially told me
the following: Nick, you're a smart guy. You don't have to join the
military. You should go to college instead.
I could easily write a tome defending West Point and the military as I
did that day, explaining that West Point is an elite institution, that
it is actually statistically much harder to enlist in the military than
it is to get admitted to college, that serving the nation is a
challenge and an honor that all able-bodied youth should at least
consider for a host of reasons, but I won't.
What I will say is that when a young American is being told that
attending West Point is going to be bad for his future, then there is a
dangerous disconnect in our country.
Too many Americans have no idea what kinds of burdens our military is bearing today: — In World War II, 11.2% of the nation served in four years. — In Vietnam, 4.3% served in 12 years. — Since 2001, only 0.45% of our population has served in the Global War on Terror.
Over time, fewer and fewer people are shouldering more and more of the
burden, and it is getting worse. Our troops are sent to war by leaders
who've never served. Only about ten percent of members of Congress are
veterans.
Taxes have not been increased to pay for current wars. War bonds were
not sold. Gas was not rationed. In fact, the average citizen was asked
to sacrifice nothing, and has sacrificed nothing unless they have
chosen to out of the goodness of their hearts. The only people who have
sacrificed are the veterans and their families, the volunteers, the
people who swore an oath to defend this nation, to defend you, your
life, your liberty, your rights.
Our military serve in deployment after deployment and fight on — for
you. They've lost relationships, spent years of their lives in extreme
conditions, years they'll never get back apart from their kids, and
they've conditioned their bodies in a way that even professional
athletes can't understand — for you.
Then they come home to a soft nation that doesn't understand sacrifice
and suffering, a soft nation that doesn't even understand that bad
people exist. When they come home, many sit in college classrooms
with political science teachers who discount their opinions on Iraq and
Afghanistan even though they were there and know more from direct
experience than the teachers will ever know from their textbooks.
TV shows portray every vet as having post traumatic stress syndrome,
and the violent strain at that. Congress is debating their benefits,
their retirement, and their pay, while asking them to do more.
But the amazing thing about those who serve is that they all know this.
They know their country will never pay back what they've given up. They
know that many Americans will never truly understand or appreciate what
they have done for them. They know that, in some circles, they even
will be disdained for having worn the uniform. But they do it anyway.
They do what the greatest men and women of this country have done since
1775 — they serve. That alone makes them part of an elite group
without whose courage and commitment our liberty and our nation would
cease to exist.
God bless our nation and all who serve.
A salute from a Marine chaplain:
It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag,
and whose coffin is draped by the flag who allows protesters to burn
the flag.
A classic salute:
What is a vet? You can't tell a vet just by looking.
He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in the Middle East
sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers
didn't run out of fuel.
He is the barroom loudmouth whose frat-boy behavior is outweighed in
the cosmic scales by four hours of unparalleled bravery near the 38th
Parallel in Korea.
She is the nurse who fought against futility in Da Nang and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years.
He is the POW who went away one person and came back another.
He is the drill instructor who has never seen combat but has saved
countless lives by turning lazy loafers into soldiers and Marines and
teaching them to watch each others' backs.
He is the parade-riding legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.
He is the white-haired guy driving too slowly who helped liberate a Nazi death camp.
A vet is an ordinary and extraordinary human being— someone who
offered his life in the service of his country. He is a soldier and a
savior, a light against the darkness and a sword against evil — and
nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the
finest, greatest nation ever known.
A 9/11 Salute To My Soldier Son
And His Courageous Comrades-in-Arms
"Let us live
to make all free . . ."
You and the brave men and women
with whom you serve are why I and many others believe our nation's best days lie ahead.
Your selfless service, paralleling service rendered by your forebears,
tells the world anew that Americans have come too far in freedom, have paid
too high a price, and owe too much to too many of our forebears to allow any adversary —
or adversity — to deter us from pursuing our nation's ideals and destiny.
America is a nation without "good old days" because
all of us know in our heart of hearts that one person's "good
old days" were "bad old days" for others. Our national experiment in
self-government is essentially about creating better new days
for everyone, about realizing the often recited ideals of liberty and
justice for all. If "liberty and justice for all" is to be more than an
empty slogan, we need the qualities of character you and the brave men
and women with whom you serve have demonstrated for us most powerfully:
concern for others and courage in meeting our duties, obligations,
commitments, and responsibilities.
You and the brave men and women
with whom you serve have given me and many others reason to believe that we need not fear defeat by
terrorists or by an invading horde. Your courageous service has proven that we are too
strong and too resolved to allow that to happen. Your courageous service also has given me
and many others reason to believe that our nation's best days lie ahead. I salute you, all of you, for all you do.
The greatest books have not been written yet.
The greatest inventions are yet to come.
The best ideas are in your head.
One of my greatest pleasures in
teaching writing to children and adults is seeing the light come on as
they realize writing is not just an academic or professional skill. It
is a way to unleash life-enriching powers that we use every waking
moment. Here is a program handout I distribute as a reminder:
"The new manufacturing" wave
will create millions of jobs
The Vision: An Idea Whose Time Has Come The Beginning: First Steps In A New Direction The Future: Will Our Nation Lead Or Follow?
Every two weeks more
than a quarter of a million perish from preventable hunger and related
diseases. It doesn't have to be that way. Modern technology has made it
possible for us to create agri-facilities that produce food and
drinking water far in excess of conventional production methods without
pesticide and chemical pollution, without crop failure from drought and
other weather problems, and without burning fossil fuels that create
devastating climate changes around the world — and create millions of permanent, well-paying jobs in the process.
Based on the most modest statistics from
world health monitoring agencies, about 16,000 children alone die of
hunger and related suffering each day. That is one child dying every
five seconds. Imagine placing the emaciated bodies of each child in a
normal hearse. In a little over a month, we would create a bumper to
bumper funeral procession extending all the way from New York to San
Francisco. That doesn't include adult victims and doesn't portray the
misery of those living with the consequences of malnutrition — lost
human potential, including mental retardation and other maldevelopment
— all of which we have the power to end if we so choose, while
simultaneously generating unprecedented job creation here and abroad.
Just as America created millions of jobs when it retooled to wage war
against tyranny in the middle of the last century, retooling to wage
war against hunger can create millions of jobs now.
The estimated cost of facilities capable
of providing food and drinking water for 50,000 is less than twenty
percent of the cost of one B-52 bomber. During media coverage of the
earthquake response, I heard a Haitian who was receiving help from an
American say, "I love America. God bless America." Protecting our
national security is important, of course, but is it possible that a
new national focus on increasing food and drinking water production
here and around the world would strengthen our national security in a
way whole squadrons of bombers could never do?
It's a win-win effort: a
national commitment to meeting this most basic human need would both
help end human suffering from hunger and help end human suffering from
unemployment and underemployment by creating millions of well-paying
and meaningful jobs, a major concern of leaders at all levels of
government. Because jobs flow from serving human needs, it is not
enough to be asking, “How can we create jobs?” — as though jobs are
created by magic. Instead, the important question to ask is, “What are
humankind's most urgent needs?” Meeting those needs will create jobs.
First and foremost among those urgent needs is the need for food and
water for parched and starving children and adults.
Elements for creating multistory
crop production farms taking up a city block and capable of feeding and
providing water for at least 50,000 people already exist. Greenhouses are not new. Hydroponic farming is not new. Irrigation systems are not
new. Solar energy is not new. Controlled lighting, temperature, and
humidity are not new. Recycling and purifying water are not new. Indoor
planting beds and fields are not new. Multistory buildings are not new.
What is new is simply the combination of those elements, even in urban
settings where 80 percent of the world's population is projected to
live by 2050.
Cost estimates for
construction of a multistory crop production farm range from $85
million to $200 million, depending on size and scope. Even at the $200
million figure, the cost of a multistory crop production farm is less
than we have been spending on the Iraq war every week. Our expenditures
alone for war, for foreign oil, and for global entertainment and media
over five years would build enough multistory crop production farms to
feed more than half the population of the entire world.
Beyond that, billions
of dollars, private and public, are projected to be invested in
multistory crop production farm technology and development as the need
intensifies. Investment interest in multistory crop production
farm technology and development is driven by studies showing that the
world's population growth during the next four decades will require
almost 60 percent more food production at a time when tillable land
availability is shrinking.
Multistory crop production farms
create hundreds of thousands of jobs in manufacturing and construction
here for workers who create and assemble millions of valves, light
panels, microswitches, computer control systems and panels, solar
energy panels, desalinization and recycling systems, hundreds of
thousands of tons of steel and reinforced concrete, millions of miles
of electrical cable, hundreds of thousands of miles of pipe, hundreds
of thousands of panes of glass, millions of fasteners, and thousands of
planting and harvesting devices and maintenance machines for the farms.
Multistory farm developments
also create thousands of computer programming and technological
research jobs, hundreds of thousands of jobs in transportation of
supplies and materials, and, of course, thousands of jobs processing
crops and maintaining the farms themselves. If providing water
and food for parched and starving children and adults is not sufficient
motivation for focusing on meeting this most basic of human needs,
perhaps the employment benefits inherent in the vision can provide the
necessary impetus.
Our national leaders might
want to consider what happened to our nation when JFK committed us to
landing a man on the moon within a decade. With his articulation
of that vision, our languishing economy came alive with a sense of
purpose. Jobs were created. Educational excellence
blossomed. And enduring life enhancements for all humanity flowed
from it. Too often today we hear talk of creating jobs, but
without vision, without any sense of purpose. Jobs doing
what? Building unnecessary gadgets or, worse, instruments of
death while others starve and the crisis comes closer and closer to
home?
Imagine what might happen if
our president said, "I am today committing the full resources of the
United States of America to eliminating hunger from the face of the
earth within the next decade by harnessing modern technology and
helping all humankind realize the full promise of safe and
environmentally sound multistory farming." Just imagine.
Resourcefulness directed toward worthy endeavors that
feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, and educate
every man, woman, and child to live healthier, happier, and more fully
human lives is the essence of strong economic development that endures.
Let us begin. — John Gile(Related item: click here to read "The day the president shocked the world.")
I'm grateful
to this clever sign-maker for the graphic reminder that whining and
complaining, like worry and hurry, are forms of self-sabotage.
Proverbial wisdom tells us that the squeaky wheel gets the grease, but
it's equally true that the squeaky wheel gets replaced.
Wall Street Retires Bell. New York Stock Exchange adopts roulette wheel as new symbol.
The familiar "ding, ding, ding, ding" that has
opened and closed New York Stock Exchange sessions since 1903 will be
replaced by the "whir-r-r-r-r, click, click, click" of a spinning
roulette wheel and ball falling into a lucky number when the market opens for trading next Monday.
NYSE directors voted for the change after
returning from a retreat in LasVegas where casino owner Alan Greenspan
gave his annual assessment of the U.S. economy.
"American businesses and investors today are
governed by the laws of casino ethics," Greenspan said. "They're
looking for a good time and a quick buck, just like many of my
customers here on the strip."
He warned the directors, "You face a large
scale diversion of investment capital to state lottery tickets unless
you change your image to accommodate the need for instant
gratification."
One dissenting director voted against the
roulette wheel and proposed returning to the Chinese Gong that was used
from the 1870's until 1903. Directors voted to save the Chinese Gong
until Wal-Mart executives and Peking leaders order them to use it after
the 2012 election is wrapped up.
From the video:
"You will find the strength to get back up."
"There are some times
in life when you fall down and you feel you don't have the strength to
get back up. I have no arms, no legs. It should be impossible for me to
get back up, but it's not.
"I will try 100 times
to get up, and if I fail 100 times, if I fail 100 times, if I fail and
I give up, do you think I will ever get up? No. But if I fail, I try
again and again and again.
"It's not the end. It matters how you are going to finish. Are you going to finish strong?" — Nick Vujicic
Giving our children what they need most
I received a photo
showing one of my grandchildren sitting on the grass in the foreground
with her parents in soft focus holding hands in the background. It says
something to me about the unfolding of life, how each child is growing
in his or her own world while parents recede into the background, less
and less in focus but always present and always having an influence.
Our granddaughter's obvious sense of security as she examines the world
around her with her parents present to her but apart from her also
reminds me of the expression that the best thing parents can do to help
their children grow is to love each other.
Somehow the photo
also is a reminder of how important it is for husbands and wives to
focus on their marriage relationship, which is ultimately most
important not only because it gives the children a sense of security
while exploring the multifarious universe in comfortable curiosity, but
also because the day comes when the children move on in life and the
parents are left alone with each other — and a lifetime of memories.
Beyond all that,
I see in the the photo's focus field an encapsulation of the circle of
life, a reminder that the day comes when children and parents are
separated from each other for a period by the veil between time and
eternity, yet are always and ever present to each other. We are richly
blessed in our children and our children's children, and I am grateful.
— John Gile
Building Bridges To The Future
A roadside rest area
on a country road between the cities of Rockford and Durand in north
central Illinois invites weary travelers to pause and be refreshed by
the peaceful retreat. A boulder by benches overlooking a scenic view
there bears a plaque in memory of Rockford construction czar Bill
Howard.
The plaque paraphrases
a poem by eighteenth century writer Will Allen Dromgoole and tells the
story of "an old man, going a lone highway," who "came in the evening,
cold and gray, to a chasm, vast and deep and wide...
"The old man crossed
in the twilight dim, the sullen stream had no fears for him, but he
stopped when safe on the other side and built a bridge to span the
tide."
A puzzled and cynical
fellow traveler chides the old man for wasting his time building the
bridge: "You never again will pass this way. You've crossed the chasm,
deep and wide, why build you this bridge at evening tide?
"...The builder lifted his
old gray head: 'Good friend, in the path I have come,' he said, 'there
follows after me today a youth whose feet must pass this way.
"This chasm,
which has been as naught to me, to that fair-haired youth might a
pitfall be. He, too, must cross in the twilight dim. Good friend, I am
building the bridge for him.'"
Another reason why I love Sophia Loren . . .
"There is a fountain of youth.
It is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and
the lives of the people you love. When you learn to tap this source,
you will truly have defeated age." —Sophia Loren
Through the years I've
believed that Sophia Loren set a standard of feminine pulchritude
matched by few and exceeded by none. When I read her reflection on
growing older, it struck me that her outer beauty is matched by a
profound inner beauty and wisdom. Her name, Sophia, means wisdom, and
it's clear she's aptly named. (With due deference to and respect for
another exemplar of beauty and wisdom in my life, my wife Renie — JG)
Dear Renie, I walked home
from the office for lunch today. You were out running errands, so I
fixed myself a sandwich and ate alone in the kitchen. You came back
just as I finished, and we sat talking at the kitchen table.
Though I was in
familiar surroundings the entire time, it wasn't until you walked into
the room that I really felt at home. The experience reminded me of what
Twain wrote in his Diary of Adam and Eve: "Wherever she went, there was
paradise." You make ordinary things extraordinary.
I love you,
John
The day the president
shocked the world
Stunned silence greeted
President Barack Obama as he entered the General Assembly of the United
Nations and approached the podium cradling in his arms the emaciated
and lifeless body of a small child.
He did not speak
when he reached the podium. Instead he stood grim-faced, glaring
at the shocked ambassadors. He fixed his penetrating stare
particularly on the representatives of warring nations.
"I came here today
to speak of challenges to global peace and prosperity, but the child I
hold in my arms, one of more than 175,000 dying from war and hunger
each week, speaks more forcefully than anything I can say.
"In this child, behold
the insanity gripping member nations of this organization who pay lip
service to peace and human development, but spend trillions upon
trillions of dollars each year to make more destructive bombs and more
deadly bullets.
"In this child, behold
our collective guilt. Hear the questions asked by this child, by
this child's parents, and by thousands of others who die each day of
hunger and its consequences: 'Why? Why does anyone die of
hunger when technology has given us the power to end hunger everywhere
on the planet today?'
"In this child, hear the plea from millions of other children around the world: 'No more war; no more hunger.'
"Nothing new is needed
to heed their plea except the vision and resolve in our individual
nations and in our joint policies to change perverted priorities that
contribute to hunger and spawn wars over food and water in many parts
of the world. Consider the savagery of wars over food and water
that will erupt if we cling to those perverted priorities as the world
population grows from six billion today to nine billion by 2050.
"Today's global insanity
threatens to engulf all of us in global suicide. In this child,
we behold the question, 'Why? Why persist in choosing death over
life?'
"Technology available to us today
in multistory crop production and other developments can provide food
and drinking water far in excess of conventional production methods
without pesticide and chemical pollution, without crop failure from
drought and other weather problems, and without burning fossil fuels
that create devastating climate changes around the world. Nothing
new is needed except the vision and resolve to choose life over death,
to choose bread and butter over bombs and bullets."
Pausing, he bent forward
and gently kissed the child's forehead. Lifting the child above
the podium, he repeated the plea, "No more war. No more hunger."
No sound was heard as he turned and carried the child from the Assembly Hall. Dazed ambassadors sat in silence with heads bowed. — John Gile
teacher
gasped when she saw the drawing, but praised the little girl for her
work and then put the drawing into the child’s packet of papers to take
home.
hamstringing teachers with No Child Left Behind constraints, and
ballyhooing phony test scores while forcing teachers to teach to the
test, the DOE has given us the state of education in America captured
in this photo. 
falling into a lucky number when the market opens for trading next Monday.
