Musing

Mark – congratulations on your Toastmaster of the Year award. There – I bragged for you!, AW

. . .

OK Now I'm dying to know what I need to congratulate you about so here goes.... You need to develop a finer sense of balance - to acknowledge when you deserve praise and equally, blame. Enough time for the blame later, let us share in your pleasure and render your just deserts as desserts. What's up? CH, Chimacum

. . .

Congratulations! In my opinion speaking of positives is great! Our society seems to be good at celebrating ourselves as people (holidays, birthdays etc), and I like that, but our culture is a little short on speaking of things that we experience as good. The messages in my family were more along the lines that sending out the correct impression of yourself as a competent person was good and truthful. On the undesirable side of a gray area was overdoing it, after all others have successes too. Then I grew up and met a few people who spend more time trying to tear down others than they spend running their own lives. Apparently tearing down is politically correct, but any sign of recognizing anything positive or happy is politically incorrect. Kudos to you for speaking of something that you experience as good! More of us should do it more often! LHE, Edmonton

. . .

Mark, today's musing was fully relative for me!! so eloquent on behalf of many many people, well, me at least! it is important to encourage people to feel good about themselves, and to encourage them to share their successes, else would friends be there to also fulfill the other side of friendship, and share the troubles or challenges??? Life is not to be lived alone! Cheers, DW, Edmonton
(PS, don't know who added me to your distribution, but thank him/her for me!)

. . .

RE: thumbday - June 18 musing; Terribly sorry for the email yesterday....I was deleting emails and replied to that one by mistake. I know, I know, the send and delete buttons are really not that close but I was multi-tasking and was unfortunately not dedicating enough brain cells to the task of cleaning up my mailbox. Anyway, I am just one of the people to whom AO copied his response to your musings on Father's Day. I don't know him well and it is not clear to me (even after exchanging several emails with him on the subject)why he copied me on something that I thought was...well, bizarre to say the least. I don't agree with his opinions and didn't appreciate being told that if I don't agree with him then I should seek out a "a cold, steel syringe" as a mate. My response was to tell him (among many other things) that his position of how onerous the task of reproduction is for a man only has validity if men died from the humiliation of not being able to get it up. He didn't take it very well. The silly thing is that men don't have to have an active role in the actual physical mechanics of reproduction to have an valuable role in the lives of their children. I am just not sure why AO felt the need to aggrandize what is in essence a few seconds of enjoyment at an opportune moment as being an indication of the value of a father. Anyone who has had children knows (or should know) that conception and birth are the mere starting point of the very long, complex process of raising a child to competent, confident adulthood. This is true for men or women. As the years go by the pregnancy itself becomes totally insignificant in comparison to the many milestones of a child's life and the effort required by his/her parent(s) to get him/her there. Just ask an adoptive mother if her child is any less hers because she didn't carry it for 9 months. The opportunity to play a significant role in their children's development is there for any father who wants to take advantage of it. Any man can "father" a child but not every man is a father. Oh, well, apparently, AO upset more then just me with his weird email as he said that one person he sent it to no longer wants to communicate with him. I am not sure yet if I will join her but am leaning in that direction. Again, sorry for the odd and unsolicited email yesterday - and perhaps this one too, though you did ask for an explanation so this one at least is not unsolicited, BB, Calgary

. . .

Mark, please let me join the ranks offering you sincere congratulations. Definitely Type A, definitely Leo, but those are accidents of birth. I prefer words like "skilled, determined, achievement driven, enthusiastic, committed, risk taking." Go ahead and brag, get a swelled head, it doesn't hurt at all. Know you a little, like you a little, trust you. rnRN

. . .