Looking Back Over 2012 and Ahead to 2013

Yesterday, I was looking over credit card receipts for the year and found something surprising.  It is now taken care of.

So, today, while 3/5 of my family is skiing and I've completed taken a first stab at a health economics second course syllabus, I thought it would be a good time for my annual aspirations blog.  I'll call them aspirations rather than resolutions.  At least according to dictionary.com, a resolution is "a resolve or determination" whereas an aspiration is a "goal or objective desired" or an "aim; ambition". I think that what I look forward to in the next year fits more in the second category of "big picture" stuff rather than specific determinations.  And I think that with a few exceptions the same could have been said last year.

Looking back, then?  Here is what I wrote last December 31:


(10) Continue to implement a plan for well-being that includes financial well-being.
Sort of.  We've built some assets.  Paid down some debt.  Some still hangs on.  And it has been difficult to anticipate what 2013 will bring.

(9) Run a sub-20 minute 5K and qualify for the Boston marathon. 
These were definitely in the resolution rather than aspiration category and I met both.

(8) Continue my involvement with Back on My Feet.
I did.  I stayed a team coach as long as I could, but something had to give way.  I still run with the Team at least once a week if at all possible and also run with a bunch of BoMF Baltimore teammates at track workouts that I somehow have been the nominal organizer of for a while now.

(7) While this could go under the well-being heading of #10, I want to integrate pieces of “the arts” into what I do including more reading (because one way to write better is to read more), continue blogging, continue other writing, and perhaps even get back to writing a bit of music.
On this one, I continued to blog, I started a second writing project, and while I never wrote a full song this year, I did finalize a poem for two friends who got married and they really liked it.  It was about what made a first impression about each of them as I met them--their smiles.

(6) Better balance of responsibilities at work.
I have mostly continued to learn what can "give way".  The new year may bring new opportunities here.

(5) Hang out with friends more in situations other than running.
There is precious little time for this.  Although we did make it to a few nice gatherings at the end of the year.  And while my oldest son's girlfriend was not someone I had thought of when I wrote this a year ago, we have welcomed her to hang out with us (and running is not involved) a lot more this year than last.

(4) Help my children become all that they can be.
We continue to find ways to provide opportunities for our three sons to try out and to get better at all sorts of interesting things.  I think that Sherry and I have done a good job at this.

(3) Take the serenity prayer ever more seriously. 
I definitely still take the first part very seriously.  It is interesting that I will simply speak--sometimes not even yell--a snarky comment about another driver and let it go at that.  My oldest son's girlfriend asked if it was my form of "road rage".  What it really reflects is my effort to let out a little frustration while otherwise letting go of whatever might cause road rage as I cannot change it and more or less have to accept what other drivers do.  There are still some things that go unacted on.  I strive to change that.

(2) Continue to share my cooking. Enough said.
And done. Mostly through having my son's girlfriend over for dinner more.  She even had a chance to help us make Christmas Eve dinner.  But I have also cooked for family on this vacation and have brought snacks for friends post-running on numerous occasions.

(1) Enjoy the second half of my 20th year of marriage and the first half of year 21. It has been an incredible nearly 20 years. I hope we share 20 more.

Year wasn't perfect, but we had some new experiences that served us well including going on our first cruise.  And we are still together.

Looking ahead...

(10) Keep running in the right place in my life--it should promote physical, mental, and social well being--the gold old health triangle we learned in high school health ed class.  It should also promote spiritual well-being. If it ever interferes with those re-assess.

(9) While keeping it in the right place in my life, don't forget that there are some real goals.  Mile on the track under 5:40.  2-mile on the track under 12:00.  5K--wherever--under 19:30.  Complete Boston--and if the weather permits aim for 3:10.  Half marathon closer to 1:30.  10 miler closer to 1:10.

(8) Continue to be creative.  Maybe art.  Maybe words.  I'd say 10-15 minutes per day.  Could be a little verse.  Could be a little progress in my ongoing attempts to write longer stuff.  Could be a blog entry.  Could even just be some project like the silk tie I did earlier this week.  Just to keep that part of my brain in high gear.

(7) Think about next career steps.  Who knows what they may be?  The key is that even as a full professor, there are things to think about.  Even if I stay a full professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health for the remainder of my career, the job will change.  And there may be opportunities within JHU (or someday in the future outside JHU) that would bring about even more changes and hopefully changes that would challenge me and engage me in new ways.  And while my well-being now is about stability, my well-being once the kids are out of high school and college will depend on what I see as my next steps.  So, I might as well start thinking now.

(6) Continue to grow spiritually.  I have stopped writing about every single bib number and race time.  That was fun.  But I have found many new inspirations for my spirituality including the tattoo that is now nearly finished.  That turned out to be an interesting part of my art experience last years as it really has become much like a piece of commissioned artwork that I always have with me and really participated in a two-person (me and the artist) effort to bring about a vision of symbolism that I had.

(5) Continue to play an active role at St. Pius X.  I don't see that changing for any reason--but it is just worth putting out there.  No matter what other pressures may come and go, the stability of my involvement in Sunday school and the worship band--each with its own set of ups and downs--is definitely like a rock for my to stand on in my faith and in my life.

(4) Continue to mentor.  The experience or mentoring has been a gift to me as much as anything from me over the past several years.  I have a new student to mentor in the Penn State Schreyer Honors College and there are other opportunities for mentorship as well.

(3) Help my two oldest on the path to figuring out where they will go to college and high school respectively.  While the process will not be completely finished one year from today, it will be well on its way.

(2) Remember that I would not be where I am without the help of others.  This is part of what I reflected in my artistic vision last year and what I hope to continue to reflect this year.  This is part of my spirituality.  It is part of my professional mentoring.  It is part of my family relationships.  It is part of being a good neighbor.  I am ultimately responsible for me.  But I am not responsible for just me.  And in the same way, I know that I have truly benefitted from having so many around me who are not only interested in benefitting themselves but who are interested in lifting up others.  When I am taking credit, I must give credit where credit is due. And when I am deciding how to act, I should remember to act with others in mind.

(1) Be the best family member I can be.  Husband, father, son, brother, and so many more rolls.  All important.  All provide ways to lift others up.  All provide ways to reflect on what others have done to lift me up.  And all provide ways to show God's greatness in blessing me and my family with abundance.

It should be an exciting year ahead.  

A Tribute to Some Things I Was Not Known for in Upper Darby

For weeks, if not months, I have been following the saga of some proposed budget cuts in the Upper Darby School district where I grew up.  I had hoped that they were just threatened and the clear heads and calm minds would prevail and resources would be found from somewhere.  But, it is not at all clear that this will happen, and I am beginning to go from just talking about potential implications to wanting to say something about it.

Am I the first?  Well, no.  I am FB friends with many from a year or two ahead of me to as much as seven or eight years behind me (we had a block with kids of all ages when I was in 5th-12th grade).  Many have posted about a petition.  I'm somewhat skeptical of what a petition on FB will do.  However, today my father forwarded an article to me.  You can read it if you click here.  This article was written by  Maria Pantaritis, who, like many at the Highland Park elementary school, got transferred the year that I was in fourth grade.  She was one class behind me and went to Highland Park, Beverly Hills Middle School, and Upper Darby High School just like I did.  She knew Tina Fey, Nora Murphy, (both of whom she mentioned) and many of the same cast of classmates I did all the way through.  Maria mentioned one of my elementary school music teachers, Ms Buynak.  She probably could have mentioned Mr Mackis from middle school as well.  Even Tina Fey was reported to have sent an email about the arts issue.  The memories that all came rushing back finally got me off my butt on this issue.

Because until today I sat on the sideline, it may be too late now.  But, I just signed the petition.

Now, I want to take a moment to comment.  At least one article referred to cuts in gym, library, vocal arts, technology, and foreign language.  The one that most people would associate with me would be library.  I loved library as an elementary school student and my wife always jokes about how much time I spent in East Pattee (now the Paterno wing of the library at Penn State) when we were undergrads.  As someone whose life has been so focused on academics, I bet no one would be surprised that I would stand up and protest cutting library.  I also have had the chance to see what library cuts can do to kids' reading when not much reading goes on in the home and the sheer joy of having some volunteers reopen libraries in several Baltimore City Schools.  It would be a shame to lose what a library can offer elementary school kids.  Thinking big about writing is what has led to this blog.  I know it's not so big, but just the idea that I would want to share my writing comes from reading so much of what other people wrote when I was a kid.

But it is not just about the library.

I wasn't known for my art.  I was the geeky kid who made a paramecium for my pressed copper project in middle school.  I was the one who got a very minor part in Annie Get Your Gun.  And I was the one who despite taking piano lessons for six years never got that good and left all signs of participation in music other than the piano lessons behind after eighth grade.  But, I've turned into the one who loves to play electric bass in the church worship band.  Who has written a number of songs over the years.  Nothing earth shattering but good stuff.  And I just enjoy it.  Where did it all start?  Elementary school.  A small group of us sang "O Ladybug, now come, and stand..."  as some of the first third graders ever to sing in the school's spring program.  I remember one girl sand Tomorrow from Annie (I think).  It was all good.  And while I gave it up and then came back to it, so many kids saw if through.  If the foundation had not been set, what would have happened to all of them?

As for gym, well, I was not much of an athlete in elementary school.  I remember often getting picked toward the end for kickball teams, although I swear it had as much to do with the plaid Toughskins I was forced to wear (here is a reasonable image) as with my sports ability.  Nevertheless, our gym teacher also ran a gymnastic club.  And I played soccer on the middle school team before switching over to track.  While I left the track behind for almost two decades after high school, I came back to it.  (And, as one colleague tells me, with a vengeance).  I have also watched two of my sons try lacrosse and tried a bit of golf myself.  Why?  Because I at least tried everything in elementary school.  I was encouraged to. I was given a chance to.  And where would I be without it?  Where would anyone who is participating in a lifelong sport be without elementary school gym?

As for foreign language?  I never mastered any.  But the experience with French occasionally pays off and did give me some confidence for learning a bit of Swahili at one point.  And, as my graduate school advisor points out--math and economics has its own language which is foreign to most.  The concept of mastering a new method of communication is critical.  Not having that in middle school would be a serious loss.

Technology?  Well, it depends on what technology means these days.  Having "shop" as we called it back in the day was critical for me.  Especially print shop.  I learned a lot about how to set type which has helped me think about how to design some things since then.  And computers are critical.  It's not knowing how to use Word (or Blogger) that has mattered most to me, but how to program the thing.  And it dates all the way back to the TRS-80's in the room just to the side of the cafeteria at Beverly Hills, where a couple friends and I programmed a stock simulator game for the 1920's unit in eighth grade.

So, I was and still am known mostly for academics.  But without technology, gym, art, and foreign language, my life experience would have been a lot different. I'd say, not nearly as rich.  The blog even brings together the technology, the library/writing, the athletics (as it is about physical and spiritual well being), and the art of layout.

I would hate to see kids anywhere not have those opportunities.  I would especially hate to see kids miss out on arts, physical education, and more  in a school district with an incredible legacy of its art programs with many on its Wall of Fame who either specialized in their art or for whom art and athletics was an integral part of their full lives.

Do I have any easy solutions for the money to fund these?  No.  But it doesn't stop me from making a plea to the power that be to try to find a way to come up with the funds to avoid losing these programs.  The outcomes are too precious for too many to just toss them aside.