Mindshifting is recognizing and shifting from the mindsets that hold us back to the mindsets that push us forward. I write about mindsets, Mindshifting, learning, and education, with the hope that these posts give readers more power over their own lives and helps them give others, like their students, more power as well.
What Makes Something Worth It?
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We went to Neung Sarat’s, our (former) exchange student, wedding this weekend. Neung lived with us for the second semester of the 2010-11 school year when he was in high school. The wedding was in Thailand. We flew out Thursday morning. There was a 17 hour flight to Singapore, a 90 minute layover, then a 2 hour flight to Bangkok, and we arrived at 8:00PM on Friday. The wedding was Sunday, from 1:30 PM until about 11:30 PM, and it was entirely in Thai, which we do not speak. Then we flew back starting at 6:00PM Monday for the 2-hour flight to Singapore, then 3 hours layover and the 17 hour flight back to New York, arriving at 5:30AM on Tuesday. What made this journey worth it? We had over 48 hours of pure joy and connection in Bangkok. Over the 2 ½ days, we got to spend 6-8 hours face to face with our Thai son and his fiancée/bride, plus another 2-4 hours with their parents and siblings at meals. We were all so happy to be together, to be connected, and to be sharing a very happy occasion. While we did not understand anything that was said during the wedding, we could listen to the emotions in the voices and watch how Thai and Chinese cultures manifested in different wedding traditions. So many family members and friends of the couple came up to us and told us how happy they were, and how honored they were that we had travelled so far. Many recounted stories that our son had told them about his time with us and the life lessons from the experience. What makes something worth it? What made all that travel worth it? Emotional connection with others is what makes something worthwhile. |
Mindshifting Educators
Mindshifting is recognizing and shifting from the mindsets that hold us back to the mindsets that push us forward. I write about mindsets, Mindshifting, learning, and education, with the hope that these posts give readers more power over their own lives and helps them give others, like their students, more power as well.
I was brought up short this week by a post condemning values. Or rather, values statements by organizations. Paul Sweeney, on his Disruption Space blog, used an excerpt from his book Magnetic Nonsense: A Short History of Bullshit at Work and How to Make it Go Away, and gave some thought provoking examples of worthless values statements. Here are three. People who Act with integrity This was Ernst & Young’s number one value at the time the company knew some its auditors were cheating on exams...
The human toll from the 2025 California fires is heartbreaking. In my mind it rivals the damage from Katrina. So many people’s lives have been torn apart. I hope everyone does something, contributes something, to help out those who have been hurt. You can reach out personally. You can support the Red Cross. You can find GoFundMe pages like this one which is a recovery fund for Black residents of Altadena and Pasadena. Every one of us can find a way make a difference for someone. California...
Gurwinder Bhogal published an intriguing list of 25 Useful Ideas for 2025. A list of 25 is too many. Maybe my little brain can remember three. On the other hand, these are all thought-provoking. The 25th is on Sphexishness. Sphexishness is when you blindly follow a rule without checking if the rule works in the present situation. Gurwinder Bhogal has a great example. Ants follow each others’ pheromes which lead them to food and back home. But some ants may start moving in a circle, and all...