T.M.E.A. (The Music Educator's Alibi)

I was driving down the highway on my way back home from the Texas Music Educator's Association convention in San Antonio. It's easy and natural for a mind to wander and think about all kinds of things as one is driving down the highway. It's about this mental-highway-regurgitation - the chewing of the mental cud that I will share in this blog.

I was so wrapped up in thinking about the blues and jazz session that I had attended earlier in the day that I found myself two hours from Ft. Stockton. That wouldn't have been a problem if it hadn't been that I was supposed to be headed North toward Abilene, not West, toward Ft. Stockton.

As I traveled down Interstate 10, I noticed the speed limit had been changed to 80! At first, I thought I had misread the sign, but sure enough, only a couple of miles down the road, I saw the sign again! I edged my speed up to 78. Wow! What luck! At this speed, I should be home even earlier than I had anticipated.

Do you think that maybe seeing an 80 mile per hour sign would have been a clue that perhaps I was on the wrong road? Nope. I was in an 80 mile per hour denial. All I thought of at the time was - hmmmm, I guess the speed limit must have changed over the weekend. (selective reasoning)

Still traveling the wrong direction, I returned to my mental cud chewing and shortly noticed a police-type-car (no markings except that it had flashing grill lights) over on the side of the road. From a distance, I could see what appeared to be two darker mounds on the grassy embankment. As I neared the scene, the two mounds turned into two men hunched over in the grass, apparently looking for something. I decided to pull over and offer my assistance.

I approached the officer cautiously. He had that stern, serious look in his eyes as he rose upward to face my approach.

I said, "Officer? Do you need any assistance?" I raised my hands to indicate I was without any weapons. He asked, "Are you a law enforcement official?" To which I replied, "No Sir, I'm an elementary music teacher and I'm capable of handling anything." At that point my imagination bubble burst as I realized I was 120 miles from Ft. Stockton and I had just seen a sign telling me that Sonora was the next exit. What??? I had felt so empowered and proud of my profession from the brilliant clinicians and cohorts at the convention, that I had driven 80 miles per hour in the wrong direction with a bemused smile on my face.

I turned around.

I won't go into further detail about how many miles I drove out of my way. I'd rather say that as I left San Antonio, I purchased two Venti Non-fat Lattes for the four hour trip. By the time I arrived in Abilene, a little over five and a half hours later, I had driven an extra latte out of my way.

Sara Davidson: "LEAP" - What will we do with the rest of our lives?

SARA DAVIDSON, VOICE OF THE BOOMER GENERATION AND
AUTHOR OF THE BESTSELLER LOOSE CHANGE, IDENTIFIES A NEW LIFE PHASE: THE NARROWS.

Like many of her counterparts, Sara Davidson found herself at 57 in what she terms as "the narrows". She could no longer find work, her children were grown and no longer needed her help and her partner deserted her, leaving her stripped of those things that had identified her for many years.

She was determined to survive. She decided she would recreate herself.

Sara interviewed over two hundred "boomers" that found themselves at a similar point in their own lives. Her book, LEAP, is the product of these interviews.



Her book contains interviews from some of the following:

Carly Simon, Tom Hayden, the Doors keyboardist, Ray Manzarek, Gloria Steinem.

Other interviews are from the not-so-famous: a Benedictine nun, an
oil company CEO, and a former tax attorney.

We will discuss the many ways the 'Boomer Generation' is surviving the transition of aging and how to jump into the "next life" phase.


• Getting Back to Basics— Carly Simon moves to Martha’s
Vineyard and begins recording music to please herself.

• Accepting and Rolling with Change — Tom Hayden spends time
with his adopted child and teaches young people but not a day goes
by that he doesn't have conflict about this transition.

• Love & Companionship— Gloria Steinem marries for the first
time at 66.

• Second Sexual Revolution — Joan Hotchkiss, in her early 60s,
refuses to go untouched until the undertaker.

• Global Activism— Ed Wayne, a wealthy CEO, leaves his job to
help the refugees of Kosovo.

• Spirituality/Finding Religion— Sister Angèle, a Reform Jew
and manager of opera singers, quits her job, converts and becomes
a nun.

Sara Davidson is available for interviews.

She will be interviewed on Between the Covers from 8:00 p.m. Central to 8:30 at
BlogTalkRadio.

Between The Covers is an author interview program that airs LIVE, each Wednesday evening, at 9 Eastern/8 Central.

The call in number is free (1-347-996-5838)

Listen in on our conversation or Call to ask Sara a question. Subscribe and become a regular listener.

Spiders on Drugs

Expect

Ever so often, an experience will cross my path that I think might be helpful to someone, so I write about it. Recently, I ran across an inspirational video offered by one of my friends on myspace that struck a chord with me. Since seeing this video, I have found that I am being more aware of those thoughts and actions that I have chosen for years in describing and predicting my outcomes. Usually, I lurk on the edge of things. I walk the tightrope as often as I can and find that I am just one step from a dare. In other words, I have foolishly "pushed my luck" just to see if I can get away with something.



The negative thoughts of who I am regard what I imagine to be my confines can be changed. My brother has spoken of it before in a blog he wrote tailor made for me. But we've all heard the statement, when the student is ready the teacher will appear. I have begun to experiment outside my labeled constraints. I'm expecting something wonderful to happen so why do I settle for something less. Why do I look for a job that will get me by, rather than looking for what I think will truly make me happy. Do I know what will truly make me happy? No, not really, but I think I have an idea of several things that interest me. Am I experienced, educated and prepared to step into one of these roles? Maybe, maybe not. But what's the harm in trying something new and different. Maybe something I find out along the way can be useful to someone else.

I'll get to the point in a moment, but I'm inclined to state that one of the reasons I have enjoyed hosting an internet podcast show is because it is so different from anything that I have done with heart other than education. I'm learning about other people and how their inspirational thoughts or whimsies have effected me. I had to pause and look up the words effect and affect, as I sometimes confuse them. I realize that in using a word often, I sometimes forget the true meaning of that word. We hear many words misused every day. Are the rules of the English language becoming unimportant?

Affect - 1: To have an effect on; influence 2. to stir the emotions of 3. to like to use, wear, etc. 4 to make a pretense of being, feeling, etc.

Effect - 1. Anything brought about by a cause; result 2. the power to cause results 3. influence 4. meaning 5. an impression made on the mind, or its cause 6. a being operative or in force 7. accomplish

(source: Websters Dictionary)


Back to the point of the blog, if I even remember what that was now - It's been interesting to watch my thoughts and choose how I view them. It is my choice. Would reaching for something I am unprepared for be insane or would it just simply be my way of knocking on the door to see what could happen.