I started my day with a double shot. When I get it I’m off and running, and when I don’t something is missing. My drive thru coffee shop of choice here in Ogden, The Daily Rise, starts my day off with a double shot of energy. The Daily Rise is not on my way to the office, but it’s well worth the extra few minutes of driving time and the wait (often there are half a dozen cars waiting at each of their windows). The slogan on the front of the building says, “Promoting Positive Energy, ” and they do know how to do it right. The building has drive thru windows on both sides, and as you drive up to the window you are greeted by each of the two, three, or sometimes four young energetic people making the coffee. With my travel schedule and days working from home, I’m a rather infrequent patron; but each and every time I drive up to the window I’m greeted by every employee by name, then one generally shouts out, “Bob, large house blend, two shots and cream.” And another shouts out, “Bob you’re looking good!” “How you doing today?” “Wow, I sure like that car.” They know my name, they know my drink, and they start my day on a high note and certainly promote positive energy. Today when I opened up my email I had a super email thank you card from one of our families and got another shot of positive energy.
Tough to beat positive energy—let’s all try and start our days with as much of it as we can.
The banner across the top of today’s Wall Street Journal read: ”Read Slowly and Change Your Brain.” The accompanying article didn’t actually extol the benefits of reading reaaallly slowly, but rather the benefits of actually reading books, literature, and fiction, which is sadly becoming a more and more rare phenomenon. Apparently the number of those over 18 who read is getting smaller and smaller. A study in 2011 indicated that only 76% of this population had actually read a book in a year. The article is worth a read, a slow read, not a scan or an “F” pattern read. (An “F” pattern read is reading the first line, then scanning down the left side and reading just the first few words on the left side of a few lines.)
Between hearing horror stories about what is happening in education from our families, as well as reports and studies and seeing the results first hand day in and day out from our families, there are some glimmers of hope that we might survive in spite of our governments and institutions.