I've been workin' so hard (Van Morrison)

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According to four-star Marine Corps general and former secretary of defense James Mattis:

'If I was to sum up the single biggest problem of senior leadership in the information age, it's lack of reflection. Solitude allows you to reflect while others are reacting. We need solitude to refocus on prospective decision-making, rather than just reacting to problems as they arise'.

Solitude for me comes at regular intervals during my workday.

First thing in the morning is when I'm the only person awake. This routine started when the kids were young and I needed some part of my day without noise and bustle. Now, it's because my back is sore every morning when I wake up, and I need to get up and move around. I've always been an early riser so this hasn't disrupted things too much. This equals to about 1 hour usually.

The commute to Hastings takes an hour so I have two hours a day of listening to music, thinking my thoughts, driving on State Highway 50. Out of nowhere, the weirdest things pop into my head on the commute. 

I arrive at school before others get there. At Hastings Boys' that means I arrive at 7.00am (the time Andrew turns off the alarms). I've done this early arrival thing since the late eighties so it's an ingrained routine. This equals to another hour usually.

During the day I can sometimes head off for a walk during a non-contact period. I walk from school into the CBD and back. It roughly takes about 40 minutes. I don't take my earpods - instead I pay attention to my surroundings as best I can, and think.

My final solitude experience is at night before going to bed. I need some time to myself to write my journal entry for the day. This equals to about 15 minutes usually.

That's quite a bit - at most about 4 hours of me time a day. Nice.

Rewards

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The reward of our work is not what we get, but what we become.

(Paulo Coelho)

No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn.

(Jim Morrison)

You can't always get what you want but if you try sometime you'll find you get what you need.

(Mick Jagger)

Brains, like hearts, go where they are appreciated.

(Robert McNamara)

There are two things people want more than sex and money: recognition and praise.

(Mary Kay Ash)

All that you behold, that which comprises both god and man, is one - we are the parts of one great body (Seneca)

I have mentioned before how proud I am of my choice to be a teacher (and Jacky's career as a nurse).

Having just finished marking Year 9 and 10 work (Letters to Mr Purdy) and my Psychoanalysis for beginners responses from my three senior classes, I had a moment of realisation about my on-going connectedness to generations of current and former students of mine stretching all the way back to 1983.

It's probably best described as a stepping back from the enormity of that immediate experience (reading their work and encouraging my students) to seeing/appreciating the experiences all those students (old and new) and connecting with them.

It's a magic feeling that reinforces my own worth on a planet spinning around the solar system. I love being a teacher of service to others.

My hope is that you get to experience that feeling in your own life from time to time.

A smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks (Charles Gordy)

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I'd go further than Gordy and say, a smile is an essential element to improve your looks, as well. Especially for a schoolteacher.

If you can't smile/laugh at yourself, if you can't smile/laugh at the ridiculous things that kids say, if you can't smile/laugh at your colleagues' war stories, then...what are you doing in teaching?

Really.

Yesterday, I had to go to the admin hub and it was sunny so I put on my dark glasses and off I toddled. As I passed a couple of boys I heard one say to the other, "Mr. Hollywood".

I laughed, turned around and said, "Mr. Hollywood is it?"

Hilarious!

Keep a blue head!

 

My Pirate Code poster (outlining for my students desired classroom behaviours), amongst other things, uses two ideas from the 15 All Black Principles' poster which I love:

Keep a blue head (keep calm under pressure essentially)

Sweep the sheds (be humble, be responsible, take a lead, look after the small things).

They apply to everyone don't they?

The stonecutter

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Students are back at Hastings' Boys High School, next week, where I am teaching English.

The Chinese story about the stonecutter comes to mind:

“There was once a stonecutter who was dissatisfied with himself and with his position in life.

One day he passed a wealthy merchant’s house. Through the open gateway, he saw many fine possessions and important visitors. “How powerful that merchant must be!” thought the stonecutter. He became very envious and wished that he could be like the merchant.

To his great surprise, he suddenly became the merchant, enjoying more luxuries and power than he had ever imagined, but envied and detested by those less wealthy than himself. Soon a high official passed by, carried in a sedan chair, accompanied by attendants and escorted by soldiers beating gongs. Everyone, no matter how wealthy, had to bow low before the procession. “How powerful that official is!” he thought. “I wish that I could be a high official!”

Then he became the high official, carried everywhere in his embroidered sedan chair, feared and hated by the people all around. It was a hot summer day, so the official felt very uncomfortable in the sticky sedan chair. He looked up at the sun. It shone proudly in the sky, unaffected by his presence. “How powerful the sun is!” he thought. “I wish that I could be the sun!”

Then he became the sun, shining fiercely down on everyone, scorching the fields, cursed by the farmers and laborers. But a huge black cloud moved between him and the earth, so that his light could no longer shine on everything below. “How powerful that storm cloud is!” he thought. “I wish that I could be a cloud!”

Then he became the cloud, flooding the fields and villages, shouted at by everyone. But soon he found that he was being pushed away by some great force, and realized that it was the wind. “How powerful it is!” he thought. “I wish that I could be the wind!”

Then he became the wind, blowing tiles off the roofs of houses, uprooting trees, feared and hated by all below him. But after a while, he ran up against something that would not move, no matter how forcefully he blew against it – a huge, towering rock. “How powerful that rock is!” he thought. “I wish that I could be a rock!”

Then he became the rock, more powerful than anything else on earth. But as he stood there, he heard the sound of a hammer pounding a chisel into the hard surface, and felt himself being changed. “What could be more powerful than I, the rock?” he thought.

He looked down and saw far below him the figure of a stonecutter.”

"Why, why?" Says the junk in the yard (Paul McCartney)

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I'm reading two books concurrently Stillness Is The Key (Ryan Holiday) and The McCartney Legacy (Kozinn/ Sinclair).

Ryan's advice when things get really tough:

• Be fully present
• Empty our mind of preoccupations
• Take our time
• Sit quietly and reflect
• Reject distraction
• Weigh advice against the counsel of our convictions
• Deliberate without being paralysed

In 1969 at the height of Beatle business issues, McCartney escaped London, with his wife Linda and their two children, and went to his remote Scottish farm called High Park near Campbeltown. 

By all accounts, while there he was at a low ebb ('a dark place' in the current parlance). By his own admission he was close to a mental breakdown. He drank a lot, he licked his wounds, and he slowly recovered by doing something he has always been able to do - make music.

When they returned to their London home he started making some home recordings that became McCartney (his first solo album).  

Music appears to be his stillness. There is a pattern - he did this solo thing again in 1980 after his drug bust in Japan (and produced the terrible McCartney II as a result, but that's by the by).

I can tick off all of Ryan's list as I put myself in Macca's shoes, and I can certainly relate it to other times in my own personal and professional life.

Stillness is the key.