The Ordinary Impact

I think it's a safe bet to say that no one expected cities, restaurants, and schools to shut down; but here we are living a new temporary normal. Like many educators, I am missing my classroom and students - and frankly, missing the ability to leave my house. That being said, social distancing has made me be intentional about how I connect with my friends, my students, and my family. The challenges created by COVID-19 have birthed creativity and innovation in my approach to how I educate my students and how I educate my seven year old at home. We have read together. We have learned about animals from Wild Kratts . We have learned about people in history from The Who Was? Show . We have taken virtual field trips to Hawaii , the Smithsonian , and regions of Italy and China . We have found ways to problem solve by building with Legos ; and we have practiced addition and subtraction by playing with Bakugan . Every day we discover new ways to learn. Every day we ...

Everything has a beginning.  Everyone has an origin story .  When we understand it, things begin to make sense.  As we reflect, we begin to see (and hopefully understand) why. Why are we here? Why did this thing, event, success, tragedy, obstacle, celebration happen? Why? What happened? (Including the main characters/people involved) What choice was made? (Including my reaction/decision and where it took me.) There are more positive things that happen in life than maybe we realize on a day-to-day basis. Our story is bigger than just us. Much bigger. Even though there are problems that occur in our story, it will eventually turn out okay. The obstacles we encounter help us grow and eventually succeed in the future. The people we encounter (even the negative ones) help us understand how to live life (and how not to live life). Everything we experience helps create a bigger picture and potentially a greater success. Too often we think of the why a...

I’ve heard people say that life should be lived unapologetically. People should be unapologetically themselves. “Be unapologetically you.” Thinking about that piece of advice (or lifestyle choice), I can’t help but wonder if that is true? As I think it through, I feel the need to dispel the misconceptions: It does not mean that a person can do whatever they want to another person without the need for an apology. It does not mean that a person should live a life without concern for the well-being of the world around them (and the people within that world). It does not mean that a person should be content to live a life in a manner that is less than what they are capable. I have seen, all too often, people choose to follow a trend or try to fit into the crowd rather than living their life. I have seen women choose to be subservient because the “social norms” of their region of the country pressured them. I have seen diverse groups of people made to feel far inferior because...

I recently read a quote attributed to Seth Rogen: “So many people paid to watch the Mayweather v McGregor Fight.  Imagine if everybody paid to build up their communities or help people in need.” That quote got me thinking about how we respond to the needs of people around us so I put the quote on Instagram with the words “Great thought, @sethrogen. Can we make it happen?” From that post I was correctly reminded that our communities are funded by tax dollars so, in essence, when we pay taxes we are building up our communities and helping people in need. But shouldn’t we take it a step further, at the very least?  Shouldn’t we be teaching our children and our children’s children the importance of giving (and being generous)? In my opinion, giving is a noble act. I’ve been known to say that generosity and giving to others is the right thing to do. As humans, we should be looking for opportunities to give, and taking those opportunities when they present themselve...

Recently, I read about an economic theory called Greater Fool Theory . The theory states that the price of an object is determined not by its intrinsic value, but rather by irrational beliefs and expectations of market participants . In other words, when something has a value there may be other people who believe it has a greater value and choose to pay the greater price. These people are called Greater Fools . There are many uses and examples, of this theory, in the economic arena; but my mind drifts to examples outside of economics. America’s Founding Fathers, believed in a greater value for a nation free from British rule so they chose to pay a high price for it. Human rights leaders, believed in a greater value for the equality/equity of human-kind so they chose to pay a high price for it. Inventors and innovators have always believed in a greater value for their ideas so they have been willing to pay a high price for it. So many people have chosen to be Greater...

From a young age, love just seemed like a natural feeling. I felt love for people until, whether implicitly or explicitly, people let me know that love might not need to be as open as I naturally believed it to be.Children love naturally. In fact, they love and trust so naturally that they need to be taught to be cautious about a stranger trying to give them free candy. We don’t teach people how to love because love comes naturally. However, we demonstrate how to love deeply, and we most certainly exemplify how to withhold love. And learning to withhold love is dangerous.  I’ve heard people use hateful words, (racially insensitive words, words that objectify women) and excuse them away because “they were raised in a different time.” Our hearts get trained to hate and to exclude and to accept injustice. On October 1, 1995, Nelson Mandela referenced this idea in a speech on the nature of love and hate: “ No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, ...

In a previous post (July 12, 2018), I wrote about  The Butler Way   which consists of five principles of the  Butler Bulldogs  basketball team. (Note: Brad Stevens, former coach and current coach of the  Boston Celtics , added a sixth principle to the list.) These principles have been credited for Butler achieving above expectations on the basketball court, but they also could have the ability to guide the lives of individuals who desire growth off the basketball court. The second principle from The Butler Way  is passion. Most people define passion as a    strong feeling of enthusiasm or excitement for something or about doing something . Butler defines people who live with passion as individuals who refuse to be lukewarm and who commit themselves to excellence . To be fully invested to an idea or task, while committing to excellence seems more fitting to the word passion then just a strong feeling or excitement for something. A ...