Tag Archives: achievement

Bullying, Personal Growth, Road Trip 2024

Oh, No! Not that again!

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If only it were this easy!

Lane closed… Construction ahead!

No, we didn’t count how often we encountered it. But we did notice that people seem to see a sign beneath it reading, “Prizes awarded to those who get to the point of merging first!”

We are left to ponder the competitive nature of our society in general. A distant cousin in the Netherlands posted this morning about her son being bullied during his elementary school career. I think there’s a correlation here. (Not between road closings in the U.S. and schools in Holland, but between the constant competition and bullying.)

I might also be tired of driving. Today is our third day with a low goal of 250 miles. I can do this. I’m not excited about it but I can do this. Wait! Is that a form of competing with myself?

Life is not just about setting records.

As another example, I never intended to publish daily. (I did intend to keep a daily journal.) But here I am. I did look at today’s route and it does include some “non-Interestate” miles. Somehow, that’s a relief. Stopping for traffic lights seems better than being squeezed out by people who want to get there first.

I did need to refuel yesterday. The Ram has a range of 600 miles on a tank of gas! And we are averaging 20 MPG, even with all the merging and 10 MPH speeds.

But it would be nice to slow down because we want to and not because we have to!

Learning, Road Trip 2024

And Four to Go!

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It’s just about a half-mile from our house to the paved road. As we settle in our seats, that half-mile is an opportunity for us to clear our heads and remember something we either forgot or didn’t do. At the risk of bragging, we rarely find it necessary to turn around and go back.

Our first break will likely be in Gardiner, where we’ll recycle some coffee. Following the wisdom of serious road trippers, our first day is our most ambitious with a goal of Danbury, CT. It’s all familiar territory, and if we get an early start, the traffic on 495 should be tolerable. Note that we didn’t plan to leave Maine on Sunday.

Are we ready? A common answer is, “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be.” So there might be a theory of relativity on readiness. I just remembered a few minutes ago that I need to pump up the EZ Pass. I wasn’t as ready as I thought I was! (Yes, it does so automatically. But depending on technology is not without hazards. A few years ago, I went through two tolls close together. The balance ran out after the first one, and I didn’t have time to replenish before the second. A $2 toll became $30.)

Have we left? Well, not physically. But in our minds…

So many things are relative. That might mean there are more processes than events, and that’s worth considering.

Many years ago, I attended Berkshire Community College. The first president, Tom O’Connell, was justifiably proud of our motto. “To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive.” I remember him talking about it during a “President’s Hour.” I think he planted the seeds of my belief that life is an “unfinishedness.” For that matter, arriving may be relative as well. While planning and goals are important, we live in present moments.

Simple. This trip started months ago. When will it end? Maybe, in the truest sense, it won’t. Those present moments create change.

This portion of life’s journey begins with rereading “The Brook” by Alfred Lord Tennyson.

And out again I curve and flow
To join the brimming river,
For men may come and men may go,
But I go on for ever.

Amish Life, Learning, Personal Growth, Road Trip 2024

Two for the Show!

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In the previous post, I mentioned the possibility of “coincidence or Karma” influencing some of our decisions. We were initially planning a “Road Trip 2025.” How that became “Road Trip 2024” might be a matter of coincidence or Karma.

My uncle was a dairy farmer. I blame him for my interest and love of all things cow. As a kid, I “helped” put up hay bales (rode on the baler), stood in the silo while it rained silage, helped with the milking… Our only difference was that he loved to watch horse pulling at fairs. I prefer ox draws. The competition is fun, but I just enjoy watching a good team being driven by a skilled teamster. Somewhere along the way, I realized I’d love to be “in the pit” and closer to the oxen.

For the uninitiated, an ox (singular) is a bovine trained and used as a draft animal. They are usually castrated bulls and fairly docile and safe to work with and are best trained starting as calves. The vocabulary is potentially confusing. In simple terms, oxen are castrated mature males. Cows are mature females that have been bred.

“The cow is of the bovine ilk; one end is moo, the other milk.”

Ogden Nash

I stumbled on to the Tillers International Website and learned they offer workshops (“hands on”) teaching how to train and drive oxen. It took some rationalizing, but I signed up, at first thinking it might be one of the most useless things I’ve done. It didn’t take long for this to morph into Road Trip 2024–visiting simplicity and tradition. The trip will include some time with Amish Communities and serve as research for a book on hope to write.

For a preview of “the show,” I can offer this video of a previous workshop held in June, 2024.

Can’t wait to smell some hay!

We’ll also spend a week in Holmes County, Ohio where the Amish flourish, visit a young Mennonite Friend in Indiana, and see some Amish friends in Pennysylvania. Three to get ready!

Personal Growth

Subtle Changes

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Some would say that subtle changes are the best ones. It’s no secret that human beings like predictability. Visit the grocery store and discover that “they moved” where certain things are. Or discover that the store has changed its hours. When did that happen?

For some reason, this year, I’ve been more keenly aware of the changes taking place with the way we celebrate Memorial Day. The irony doesn’t escape me that I’m remembering how we used to celebrate this day by remembering military personnel who died serving our country.

When I was a young child, Memorial Day was a big deal. Preparations started long before the day itself. I accompanied my Dad on multiple trips to the cemetery, making graves “look good.” We also would retrieve heavy rifles stored at the then-legion hall for some spit and polish in anticipation of the big parade that everyone in town attended. Mom spent a lot of time fussing with Dad’s dress blues. I got to wear my very own sailor’s cap on the day itself.

I don’t remember any cookouts or family picnics, although I’m sure we had them. One of my favorite photos of Dad is him in full uniform kneeling in a pasture on my uncle’s father’s farm. I think he stayed in uniform most of the day—at least that’s the way I remember it. Dad always seemed to stand a little taller and straighter on Memorial Day. I tried to be like him.

A Normandy Cemetery

The overriding word for that day was “pride.” at seven years old, I didn’t fully understand it, but I felt it.

Seventy years later, I wonder what today’s seven-year-olds are thinking and feeling.

I listened to a George Patton speech (not George C. Scott!) last night. He described the trail of the Third Army and Eighth Air Force as “marked by forty thousand white crosses, forty thousand dead Americans.” That mattered. He cared about them.

Memorial Day does not celebrate those deaths. It does not celebrate war. It is perhaps more accurately a celebration of human potential and of human commitment.

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.

George S. Patton

When did it become difficult to find a parade to watch on this special day? When did we stop visiting the cemetery to place flowers and straighten flags?

The least we can do today is stand a little taller and straighter.

Walter Bruce Boomsma, Sr.
S1 USNR
World War II
September 29, 1926 – June 24, 1954

Causes and Friends, Just for Fun, Learning, Personal Growth, Teaching

My Brains!

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Click to enlarge image.

I suppose this screenshot puts me at some risk of landing in Facebook Jail, but it’s worth it. According to poster Becki Cassidy, it’s a visual representation of her real estate career in “stress squeezer form.”

Sales Agent Course Alumni may recall that I furnished these to students taking the course’s final exam. The idea was that you would have an extra brain to “squeeze” the information from. (Some data suggests that fidgeting (squeezing) improves focus and concentration.)

I really like Becki’s question, “Anyone getting a Wizard of Oz vibe?” I did–on several points. I’m not in Kansas anymore, having left teaching real estate and “repotting” myself. And, of course, “If I only had a brain” is an irresistible hum.

Maybe I’m enjoying this too much because of the fact that the brain is next to a heart, possibly suggesting some important synergy. Brain, heart, and courage do seem to be vital to personal success.

Thanks, Becki. It’s great to know my brains are still out there. Of course, they are now your brains. (Whenever UPS delivered a shipment, I would act excited while taking the box and exclaiming, “My brains came! My brains came!” ) The idea of brains existing outside the body can be fun.

I am humbly trying not to think of myself as a wizard, although we all have some wizard in us. We can “give” others helpful thinking and care and help create courage.

Following the yellow brick road is also not a bad idea. We all would benefit from having and better using our brains, hearts, and courage.

I’m off to see the wizard. Care to come along?