Archive for the 'Blog' Category
I was going to talk with a potential supporter yesterday and had the coolest thing happen. There was a gate outside this business and a man working there who had to let me in. He smiled, opened the gate and off I went. When I came back an hour later, he greeted me at the gate and handed me a check for 50 bucks. He had this huge smile on his face as he said, “Rick, Go Get Em”. Also, last summer we all talked about a guy named Howard Passmore. He has lung cancer and was dying…..we thought. He was part of a program called Reel Recovery. They help cancer patients by teaching them to fish (reel…get it).If you remember, Howard is amazing. One of the most real people I’ve ever met. Anyway, I got an email from Howard last night. He’s a survivor. His wife says he’s doing quite well. His whole goal was to live until Christmas. He sure beat those odds. Howard lives in Portland. I’m up there quite a bit and hope to visit him. Oh, Howards new goal is summer camping trips. Don’t let anyone ever tell you you can’t do something.These guys can explain why.
I’m sitting here at Brewed Awakening Coffee Shop in Eugene, learning to use my new computer program. There are people all around me talking about the news of the day. Next door folks are carrying their dry cleaning in and out of the neighborhood shop. There’s a woman across the room from me clicking away on her laptop. Nearby is a group of teenagers talking about the issues of life, solving world problems and laughing a lot. Connection is such a vital part of life. Moving from one place to the next, running into people you know, watching people you may never know and you do it, just for a moment or two in shared space. It’s too bad we can’t slow down more and take a second or three to connect with people. It makes you wonder, what would happen if we each put our lives on the “slow play button” and really took a minute to connect. What if we shut our mouths for an instant, opened our ears and just listened? What would we learn? Maybe the woman across the room has something to share that the person on the other end of her computer link is smiling about. Maybe the person gathering her laundry is going home to share her day with people you would never expect.And maybe if we listened more closely to the kids nearby, instead of writing this story, the worlds problems would be solved. Okay, maybe I’m dreaming too much. But shared space is great stuff. Next time you sit down in a coffee shop or a park bench, pretend to be working and just listen.Shared space……..The key is….you’ve got to show up first. I’m back.
400 students from all over Lane and Linn Counties were at Lane Community College yesterday to look at their options for the future. I was invited to give the keynote address to get the day going. What a great group of kids. They are so honest and so ready to listen. It’s difficult to have a one on one conversation with a group….but sometimes, sometimes it happens. Yesterday was on of those day.
These kids understand what it feels like to be labeled and misunderstood because to many, they aren’t just students they are labeled special education students. They know what it feels like for people to misread and judge them based on things the accusers may have no real expertise about. We talked for quite awhile about their future, dreaming, not allowing people to define who they are…..you know, stuff like that. They were all ears. So was I. It was one of those days where I think I got more out of the talk than they did.
I learned a very important lesson……I understand better what Special Education really means. It should be a label given to those willing to think outside the box. Now, that’s special ed.
I always thought I lived a fairly public life….because I did. Being on TV for 23 years, I didn’t have a lot of secrets. But it seems people gave me a little more room to be myself. But running for office brings a whole new meaning to the term public life. I used to just sit down at the computer and jot down my thoughts for the day. You all remember, I was pretty open, maybe too open, with what I thought, believed and hoped for. Now, if I got on here and really let the words fly I’d probably end up headlining some article in a paper or magazine. A long time ago, I learned that people don’t read things the same way. Words, without facial expression, sometimes don’t communicate the entire message very well. But in this line of work, it’s even worse. In some ways it’s a good thing. You learn to pick your words more carefully. But it’s also a bit constricting. It’s odd, we want politicians to be real people, yet when they allow themselves to step out of the box for a minute, we tend to push them back in. (Did I really just call myself a Politician?)
Just some carefully, over thought out, idea’s to share on this Tuesday Morning.
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