Easter Franging

Easter snuck up on us this year, which has happened before, but here in China that mistake is less forgivable. Then this morning I got a second chance to feel like the Easter Bunny while practicing the fine art of franging, and I realized that the evidence of Easter is everywhere.

Yes, He really, really lives.

~vbb

Real Teaching & Real Learning

I’m passionate about education, and I’m passionate about teaching. I’m passionate because I love learning, and I love teaching. Sometimes I’m even good at learning. I hate it too though. And very often I’m pretty miserable at both. But the world needs great learning and great teaching. So I must tenaciously seek to fulfill my mission in regards to education and learning. In the process I’m grateful for God’s servants to help us understand His Truth in regards to Teaching and Learning. In the October, 2011 LDS General Conference Matthew O. Richardson gave a talk entitled, Teaching after the Manner of the Spirit. The following quotes are from this talk:

 I have learned that a key to becoming real in every aspect of our lives is our ability to teach in a way that does not restrict learning. You see, a real life requires real learning, which depends on real teaching.

In another post, I admitted that I hate teaching, mostly because I’m overly sensitive to anything that even remotely smacks of non-real teaching. Overly. Enough that I simply walk away from such teaching when I should find a way to help the world have more real teaching and more real learning.

While we are all teachers, we must fully realize that it is the Holy Ghost who is the real teacher and witness of all truth. . . . As we align our manner with the Holy Ghost’s manner, then the Holy Ghost can teach and testify without restraint.

This is both frustrating and comforting. Frustrating in that we over shoot the mark with our teaching so often. Comforting to know that all we have to do is lead the horse to the water. Then we just let the Spirit do the rest.

The Holy Ghost teaches individuals in a very personal way. This makes it possible for us to intimately know truth for ourselves. . . . . Those who teach after the manner of the Spirit understand they teach people, not lessons.

What is the implication of this idea of teaching people not lessons? How do we apply that? I love this question too much to even attempt to answer it here.

The Holy Ghost teaches by inviting, prompting, encouraging, and inspiring us to act.  . . . . You see, the Holy Ghost cannot learn for us, feel for us, or act for us because this would be contrary to the doctrine of agency. He can facilitate opportunities and invite us to learn, feel, and act. . . . . Parents who mirror the workings of the Holy Ghost create homes where families learn to value rather than just learn about values. In like manner, rather than just talking about doctrines, teachers help learners understand and live gospel doctrines. The Holy Ghost is unrestrained as individuals exercise their agency appropriately.

One of the things I hate about teaching are the things teachers ask us to do. What kinds of things does the Holy Ghost invite us to do? What kinds of things do the Holy Ghost not invite us to do? Again, I hesitate to answer that really great questions. I’m pretty sure, however, that the Holy Ghost did not inspire the study guides required in my 5^th grade Social Studies class, even though I really did like my teacher, Dr Darden.

So my tenacious passion for Real Teaching must be about inviting the Holy Ghost to teach so that the Learner can act. How does the Teacher do that? What does the Teacher do?

I love great questions!!!

~vbb

HOW was this Abraham Lincoln?

My thoughts after reading Henry Ketcham’s The Life of Abraham Lincoln

Kindle Ed.

 

Born and raised in the Wild West, his mother, step mother and then he, alone, had the audacity to tame it within and without, for himself and a whole nation through companionship with formidable greatness. Along the way he found the eternally flowing fountain of hope and compassion for every soul struggling within the world they were given. Then, empowered by unbending integrity and resolve, he puzzled through to the heart of every dilemma in his path matching the incredible power of deception and oppression with truth, clarity, and purity. Acting according to his duty and with the greatness he had tamed and aided by his humanity, he carried the crosses of a lost generation.

And enabled others to do likewise.

Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it.

The man does not live who is more devoted to peace than I am, none who would do more to preserve it; but it may be necessary to put the foot down firmly. And if I do my duty and do right, you will sustain me, will you not?"

I know there is a God, and that He hates injustice and slavery. I see the storm coming, and I know that His hand is in it. If He has a place and work for me—and I think He has—I believe I am ready. I am nothing, but truth is everything. I know I am right because I know that liberty is right, for Christ teaches it, and Christ is God. I have told them that a house divided against itself cannot stand, and Christ and reason say the same; and they will find it so. Douglas doesn't care whether slavery is voted up or voted down, but God cares, and humanity cares, and I care; and with God's help I shall not fail. I may not see the end; but it will come and I shall be vindicated; and these men will find that they have not read their Bibles aright.

Let us forget ourselves and join hands, like brothers, to save the republic. If we succeed, there will be glory enough for all.

It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us,—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.

~vbb

Is it absolutely true

that a goal MUST be written down in order to be effective or viable or even worth making?

Goals are stars to steer by, not sticks to beat yourself with.

Barbara Smith

I have a goal that I'm working on right now, but I've been in the stick business for so long (think Personal Progress, very first goals) and this goal is so important to me that it's probably more of a prayer.

I think there's a hierarchy of goals based on how much of your heart it demands. Some, like a 'to do' list, may demand very little. This goal of mine (and, no, I'm NOT going to write it down despite the suspense it may be causing some of you ;) is demanding a LOT from my heart. Other goals may be somewhere in between those two. Whether or not it requires a written evidence of the goal, depends on a person's ability to keep that goal demanding what they want it to from their heart.

So, if anyone has a goal that you feel loathe to write down. Don't! Especially if it helps you look up enough that you can't find your stick!

~vbb

SO, What Will Matter?

My mother sent me this email this morning. After having so much of our lives turned upside down with recent underemployment, massive downsizing in our stuff, and then moving to a very new and very foreign culture, this certainly hits home.

Dear Family,

After weeks of trying to organize all our stuff I came upon this "What Will Really Matter?"

It is just what I need to finish organizing all the stuff we have collected. After another week of stuff, and three boxes of old letters yet to go through, I needed this article. I will file this under, Daily Read Stuff.

Love you all

Mom Broderick

What will really matter?

By Richard Schuif  - 8 Feb 2004

Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end for each of us, this earthly life.
There will be no more sunrises, no days, no hours or minutes.
All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else.
Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.
It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.
Your grudges, resentments, ambitions, plans and to to lists will all expire.
The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.
It won't matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you lived.
It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.
Your gender, skin color, and ethnicity will be irrelevant.

So what will matter?

How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built:
Not what you got, but what you gave.
What will matter is not your success, but your significance.
What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.
What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage and sacrifice
that enriched, empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example.
What will matter is not your competence, but your character.
What will matter is not how many people you knew,
but how many will feel a lasting loss when you are gone.
What will matter is not your memories, but the memories of those who loved you.
What will matter is how long you will be remembered, by who and for what.
Living a life that matters doesn't happen by accident.
It's not a matter of circumstance but of choice. 

Choose to live a life that matters.

And to my Mom and Dad:
As we watch your time here with us come slowly around to a close . . .
I want you to know that

YOU and everything you've stood for and fought for and become MATTERS TO US!!

~vbb

Frang, Frung, Franged, Franging

For those who missed it on Facebook

As the proud owner of 5 drying racks (count them FIVE, NOT including the stair rail which could count as 3-4 more) and no mechanical laundry dryer, I'm coining three new words today:

frang- v. the fine art of hanging laundry up to dry
frund- n. any laundry hung up to dry
afrang- v. the fine art of adjusting frund so that the dry stuff gets put away and everything still wet can dry more efficiently.
conjugate like 'hang' (yes, I like the innuendo there . . . ;)

I frang, therefore I am. 

(Yes, I'm a little tired of frund! . . . Now back to my regularly scheduled Thursday.)

听不懂 Tīng bù dǒng

Today I’m celebrating our upcoming 5 month anniversary of living in China with a proclamation:

听不懂 Tīng bù dǒng.

Literally this means, “I hear, but I don’t understand.”

A dear friend and fellow expatriate taught me this phrase within a few days of our arrival here in Shanghai. It’s the proper way to let people know that you don’t have the slightest clue what they’re saying. But it’s not just for expats. I’ve heard my Chinese English students say it to me in class. It’s cute, really, to hear them say it, but then, I love my English students. I’ve also heard adults say it to people who are trying to talk to me in Chinese. And sometimes someone will say it to me when they realize I have no idea what they’re trying to tell me. It’s not so cute then, and not just because I feel it WAY too much myself to enjoy hearing someone tell me that I don’t understand. Mostly it’s not cute because of how prevalent the 听不懂 Tīng bù dǒng attitude is here for the Chinese themselves.

One prime example of this attitude is that no one uses their rear view mirrors here. If they can’t see you, you don’t exist and you’d better stay out of their way. A recent example of 听不懂 Tīng bù dǒng happened just this afternoon when a group of security guards and office management people (including one who I know speaks tolerable English) talking in front of my home refused to come ask me (sitting at the window looking at them) why someone (sitting in the car and whom they also refused to speak with) was leaving with a whole bunch of stuff from my home. No. They had to call our Realtor, who then called Rob. It was a simple answer of course, that our friends had just been storing a few things at our home in the process of moving from Mongolia to Nanjing. But all they could see was what they didn’t understand.

Rob and I are also really disappointed with many of the Expats who live here and walk around with a similar attitude, only their circle of who they connect with is even smaller than it is for the Chinese. We rarely speak to any Expats outside of our Church and home school family because of this.

You know, there really is something grand about living abroad where the language and culture and daily habits are so foreign from one’s native country. Here in China I am surrounded by writing and meaning I don’t even partially understand. I think often of how great it is to have this chance to stretch my world, and that of my family, in such a way that it is bigger than we ever comprehended before. The opportunity to love a people so separated from the Truths we know and yet still so rich with their own is truly awe inspiring. And yet there’s also something so oppressive about living abroad where the language and culture and so much of the meaning I’m surrounded by are simply indecipherable. Nothing wears on you like the ever present, and sometimes so completely unavoidable, message that you don’t understand. My sanity recently has come from using the energy from that frustration to push back and reject those who hear me but don’t understand and push forward to follow and protect the treasures and cares of my heart.

So, after 5 months, how do I like living in China? Do I have any regrets about moving here?

No regrets. We have connected with some fabulous people and experiences and opportunities here. No, we don’t love living here, for a variety of reasons. There are things we really hate about this whole adventure. But I’m learning to just prayerfully say,

听不懂 Tīng bù dǒng.