Delights: November 1 to November 7

November 1: For Halloween, I sat on my front patio with bowls of candy, having declined my sons’ offer to wrap me in gauze like a mummy (to match my bandaged knee). Neighborhood children arrived as unicorns, video game characters, and even one fully pawed panda who relied on her companions’ opposable digits to grab candy.

Four spunky cowgirls sashayed up my walk. After the customary “Trick or Treat” and offer of candy, I recognized them and introduced myself as a substitute teacher at Oak Street Elementary School. They, in turn, studied me and suddenly chimed: “I had you for music!” “I had you for STEM!” “I had you for Spanish — and you taught us ‘Where, oh, where is my underwear!’”

Oops. That was two and a half years ago, and I taught the class how to say it in Latin: “Ubi, o, ubi, est meus sub-ubi?” I invited the girls to repeat the Latin after me, and they smilingly obliged. They, in turn, invited me to join them at the middle school. Maybe, I said. But for now, have some more candy.

November 2: This week I listened to an episode of Guy Raz’s How I Built This podcast with author and organizational psychologist Adam Grant. It’s helping me frame my intimidating docent adventure. 

Grant said we should start using our skills before we’ve mastered them. So I want to be like the highly successful people Grant studied, i.e., the ones “who bounce back and forward from failure and keep getting better.” Grant said, “[They] invest their egos in their future growth as opposed to their present comfort.” 

Bring on the ice.

November 3: Because PT is the highlight of my day (between routines of ice and exercises), I basically do nothing but stretch my brain. So, here are more reflections from the Adam Grant podcast.

Because I know I will try and fail, I’m putting this nugget from Adam Grant into my docent toolkit: “The performance is over; the judgment has been made. You can’t change the first score. The best thing to do is try to ace the second score. Which is to say, I want to get an A+ for how well I take the D-.” And this: “I know the best way to prove myself is to show that I’m willing to improve myself.”

Bonus: Also from the podcast: “‘Adam, you’ve gotta unleash your inner magician.’” His mentor had offered Grant this advice after he had bombed a presentation. (Grant had actually performed for years as a magician.) Grant gleaned two things:  First, “that I had some latent unused skill in connecting with an audience.” And second, “Maybe she’s not overestimating me; maybe I’m underestimating myself.” 

Grant goes on to say: “Here’s one of the things I’ve come to believe about Imposter Syndrome: it’s often a sign of hidden potential. If other people have higher expectations for you than you do of yourself, that means they’ve seen a capacity for growth in you that’s not visible to you — and if multiple people believe in you, it is time to believe them.”

November 4: A sticker on the laptop of my physical therapist reads, “There’s no PARTY without PT!”

November 5: As the world knows, today was Election Day in the United States. I am proud to report that my dear, courageous friend Cindy won election to her county’s Board of Education. A trained mediator who directs the Maryland Judiciary’s Mediation and Conflict Resolution Office, Cindy already has a history of cultivating strong community partnerships among individuals with disparate interests. During her campaign, she rang doorbells, answered questions in hostile public forums, and made her case for kindness, courage and freedom from fear.

She also took a very short break from campaigning to hang out with high school friends just 10 days before Election Day. (You can read about our adventures here.)

Cindy won 50.38% of the vote — a 46-vote margin. Now the hard work of governing begins. I am so proud of you, Cindy!

November 6: My recovery from knee replacement surgery is going very well, and I’ve been promoted from walker to cane. So I took the Metro to my SAAM Docent Training tonight. My assignment was to make a short presentation about an object that would reveal something about myself; I chose my Alma Thomas tote bag. I used its colorful wonderfulness to recount how Thomas made herself into an abstract painter at the age of 69, hit her stride at 75, and created my favorite painting — a 13-feet wide, 6-feet tall triptych of joy — at 85.

I also listed the three principles that Thomas said animated her later years: Joy, Beauty and Adventure. 

Me too? Yes, me too.

Bonus: My physical therapist has encouraged me to undertake activity “as tolerated.” To me, that definitely includes Metro excursions. It definitely does not include cooking. 

November 7: In the newspaper yesterday, I read a story about a young landscaper who, imagining clients with an overabundance of produce from their vegetable gardens, built a tiny stand and placed it in a Louisville, Kentucky, neighborhood with a sign inviting passersby to leave their excess harvest — or to help themselves to what others had left. Basically, a tiny trading post, akin to “take-one-leave-one” penny saucers alongside cash registers or, even better, Little Free Libraries.

A year later, more than 50 fruit and vegetable trading stations have popped up in eight counties around Louisville, including in places where residents cannot easily obtain fresh produce. Some are connected to community gardens. Some have become tiny social centers. One woman, when she finds a wealth of produce at one stand, delivers the excess to stands in underserved parts of town.  

The young man named his movement “Pineal,” after the gland that regulates our circadian rhythms. He also liked René Descartes’ theory that the pineal gland was “the seat of the soul.”

Bonus: You can read the article in the Washington Post, where I found it, or in the Louisville Courier-Journal.

Double Bonus: Pineal is a more polite version of my father’s approach to excess harvest. Thrusting into my arms a paper bag bursting with zucchinis, he would point me to the house across the street, instruct me to leave the bounty on their doorstep, ring the doorbell — and run!

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If you’d like to browse my past delights, please consult the “word cloud” featured at the very bottom of this post. Find a theme or two that interests you and sift through the sands. Or learn a bit more about my Blog by visiting my Welcome page. You’ll also see links to four essays that were published in print magazines. I’m glad you’re here!