May is upon us.
That's a good thing. It's landing spot for a few noteworthy days and often the enjoyable transition from the wet spring to the hot summer.
Be it Friday's Armed Forces Day parade or Memorial Day, May is bookended with pride in country.
It also is overflowing with personal pride, considering the number of students who will be concluding their education and graduating in the coming days. (Side note here: Folks, we've gone over the top on graduations. No one graduates from third grade. You complete third grade. You shouldn't be "graduating"' from middle school; you advance to high school. Elementary school graduations have become the academic version of the participation trophy.)
Jay Greeson
Still, May is for flowers and Mom and troops and celebrating education completion. How can anyone be against any of those things?
With that, I offer some May thoughts that, with the Lord's permission, I hope to be remembering daily come June.
May I remember the power of teamwork, because as Babe Ruth famously said: "The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don't play together, the club won't be worth a dime." That Ruth was the greatest baseball individual player ever adds that much more power to the sentiment.
May I remember the example my dad set and try to match it for my kids.
May I remind my kids to tell their mother how great she is, because at some point those words are said in spirit and you only get to imagine the smile it generates.
May I embrace the enthusiasm Devin Dobson shows every time he grabs his Easton and heads to the cage to practice. Or the smile Clark Sveadas shared when bat meets ball. With that, may I treasure the time spent coaching youth baseball teams because the clock is ticking. It won't be the wins or the trophies as much as the smiles of the kids and the laughs with the parents that will forever write the legacy of this time.
May I listen openly to all points of view, especially those that do not align with my original sensibilities.
May I find ways to support answers and solutions rather than simply shooting down the opposition.
May I forever know the parental double standard that our society has crafted for boys and girls. If you doubt that, well, later this month Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, a former data scientist at Google, will release his book, "Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are." In those pages, among the numerous Google searches, are the staggering words in each of these searches: "Is my son gifted" and "Is my daughter fat." These questions come despite the fact that nationally there is more than 10 percent more females than males in public school gifted programs. The online questions of sons being gifted, Stephens-Davidowitz says, are 25 times more common to Google than daughters being gifted. Sadly, there were three times as many "ugly" online questions about girls than boys, too.
May I laugh more. May I talk less.
And most importantly, may I always remember the perspective from every side. We may not agree, of course, but from the seeds of perspective grow the flowers of respect, and that crop can change the rotten climate that surrounds us in so many ways.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and 423-757-6343.
Photo Gallery
Ballet Arkansas
Ballet Arkansas held a Christmas in July Patron Party at 300 3rd Tower Saturday, July 14.