Making Music in the Key of You

Beauty is being in harmony with what you are. Peter Nivio Zarlenga

I had a friend named Louis.

Birth and geography had put him in to gangs, and ultimately, he died in the streets.

But I remember once, when he was dressed up in a suit for a wedding, or a Baptism, or more likely a funeral and I commented on how nice he looked, he said:

“This is the real me. This is who I am.”

I cannot decide if Louis was one of the lucky ones because he knew who he really was, or one of the most tragic among us because he did not live it out loud and clear.

Bob Kall said “Guido the plumber and Michelangelo obtained their marble from the same quarry, but what each saw in the marble made the difference between a nobleman's sink and a brilliant sculpture.”

Other minds can ponder the outcome of that marble, but as for me- I am impressed with Guido as much as I am with Michelangelo.

Both saw what life gave and they knew what to do with it because they knew how to live in harmony with who they were. The sink was not made because Guido was a plumber or the statue because Michelangelo was a an artist. Their callings were the products of living life in harmony.

The actor Cary Grant once remarked: I pretended to be the person I wanted to be and eventually I became that person.
Grant had started out in humble beginnings, but he had a vision of who he really was.

Living in harmony with that vision is the true art.

Our sons both play the guitars (very well, I might add in a motherly tone) but no matter how skilled or practiced they are, their music would not be right if the strings were not tuned properly.

Each string is made differently- some thicker, some thinner- and they are tuned to the note they are meant to carry. If they are wound too tightly, they break.

If they are left too loose, they cannot be played. Each string has a purpose and when all six are in sync, there is harmony.

So, your mission: find out who you are- where your strings are in harmony. Don’t tell me: I am a mom, or wife, or a Cop.

That is what you do.

Who you are is a much tougher question,

Who you are will tell you how to live in harmony with what you do.

Today, is a song that you began to write soon as you awoke. It is a song that the world will hear in everything you do, but more importantly, it is the soundtrack of your life. Live it out loud and clear and scrap the notes that are not in harmony.

So, go!
Write your harmonious song today in the Key of You.

And that's Poetiquejustis.

A Theory About String.....

It's all unraveling. One little string poked its way out of the neatly intertwined system, and now it is unraveling. It is just a little rag rug that I probably paid too much for at some Orange County boutique many years ago, but I like it.

And now it is unraveling because I did not see that one of the ends had come loose and developed a life of its own.

A very independent life.

Life can be like that.
Relationships, hopes, dreams, plans- they can all start to unravel when you are not looking.

Perhaps you were not even the one to start the process.

Maybe someone else just kept pulling and tugging an inch at a time, and you did not notice that moment when it all started to come apart; or maybe you chose to ignore it; or live with it; or maybe you just had a kind of morbid curiosity about just how unraveled it could get.

Well...now you know and there is a big pile of life-string at your feet.

So, what are your options?
That's a lot of your life lying there on the floor- things you learned about yourself and the world.

- about how life is put together
and how it comes apart.

You have options.

Get out the emotional broom and dustpan and sweep it all away.

Perhaps.

Sometimes that is the better thing to do.

Or, you can pick up the strings and work them into a stronger piece.

Can you take this opportunity to add new and vibrant colors to your future?
Yes, it has all unraveled but now you have been given a whole lot of experience to work with.

Go! Make it whole. Make it yours. Make it to better! Make it brighter!
Don't let all that life-string go to waste!
And that's poetiquejustis.

The Heart of the Matter

Anatole France said: Nine-tenths of education is encouragement.
The longer I teach- heck- the longer I live!- I know that to be true.

I just received a very nice phone call from a student in one of my graduate classes in Criminal Justice. He is a retired police officer who has decided to get a Masters Degree. He is a self-proclaimed Luddite with a deep suspicion of the Internet- and yet he is taking the classes online, and doing very well. He did not call me to praise me for erudite online lectures, or the hours I put in reading and grading and responding to discussions.
He called to thank me for the encouragement I have given him throughout the course.
Now, that was encouraging!

How simple it is to reach out and help someone along the way! To encourage means to give heart to someone. To give them the strength to keep pressing forward. Not to carry them or not even necessarily to clear the road for them- just to infuse them with that sense of believing in themselves because someone else believes in them.

So, whatever it is- give a try!
There is always going to be someone who did what you want to do first, and is doing it great. Remember, there was somebody else doing it before them, and they just kept going. It is called progress. Put your own special brand on it. Give the world the best you have and do not worry about what other people are doing.

Be that person who decides on a path, puts all their effort and creativity in to it and just does it.

Do not look at the downside, the dark-side, the why-me side.
Abyss!
Abysmal!
My prayer for you and for all of us is that there is someone in your life who shouts louder than those voices telling you to give up. And even if there is no one else to cheer you on- you always have me!
And that's poetiquejustis.

A Drum, Two Sticks and a Purpose

"The challenge of social justice is to evoke a sense of community that we need to make our nation a better place, just as we make it a safer place." Marion Wright Edelman, Children's Defense Fund

Last night at Disneyland, we caught the Parade as it made its glorious way down Main Street.

Do you know what got me?

Not Mickey, or Ariel, or even my favorite Duck-
What got me were teenage guys leading the parade in a drumline.
The music was Mickey-does- rap, and the drummers wore head bands and street clothes.
I have no idea who these guys were, but to me- they were a mandate the community: Someone gave these kids a drum, two sticks and a purpose, and that can make all the difference.

There are two groups of people in the world who claim to know it all:
politicians and undergraduates and of the two, undergrads seem to lead the pack.
Whenever I teach a class on juvenile justice, it amazes me that the "throw away the key" attitude seems to prevail among my students. And as they are not the ones making the rules, I can only assume their are those in power who feel the same way.

Perhaps because I spent a great deal of my early teaching years educating "at risk" youth, I just don't get it.
We mend tires, shirts, and garden hoses, but seem reluctant to mend kids.
The kids I worked with were ones that had been kicked to the side of the road by schools and even churches.
They were the kids you warned your kids about.
Operative word: kids.
If the people from Iowa in that Disneyland crowd had seen those drummers (or my former students) on any street other than Main Street, they would have been very nervous. But they weren't. They seemed...curious, and perhaps they were even wondering about the possibilities. Perhaps they will take home more than Mickey ears. Perhaps they will take home a new idea about our youth.
Wouldn't that be great?