As any five-year old might tell you, sharing is important. It is an essential and oft-forgotten paradigm of human existence that we are not only supposed to share - we must share in order to thrive and make the most of our lives.
My earliest memories of the concept of sharing come from a kindergarten and involve a certain handmade wooden pickup truck that was the object of desire in a pile of lackluster toys in our classroom. For the boys, this was the only toy with any relevance. In a box full of dolls, stuffed animals, and educational games the truck was the prize.
In order get to play with the truck (or any other toy) you had to finish your exercises - and if you wanted the truck you had better finish first. Even girls would take the truck if they finished first because it had an undeniable value, a kindergarten currency that was unmatched by anything in the room.
The possessor had all of the attention, made the rules of the games, and was at once made a desirable friend and the object of great envy. A tiny dictator that called the shots, a three-foot tall figure that cast a large shadow and was simultaneously loved and hated for the same reason.
After a few weeks of finishing my lessons first I was atop the hierarchy that existed among the best and brightest my class had to offer the world in 1978. I owned that truck. You might as well put my name on it.
I deserved it, too. I worked my little butt off to finish fastest, to stay focused during any type of nose-picking or hair-pulling distractions. I kept my eyes on the prize and was rewarded with the truck and some quiet time playing before everyone else finished. Sometimes I couldn't even wait for the others to get there so I could exact my strategies on them. I would whisper across the room, "Hurry up, guys. I made up a new game to play. I am the truck."
This all went according to plan until one day when my teacher decided she would take the opportunity to teach me an important life-lesson: Sharing. On that day I was asked to give up the truck so that others could play with it, so others could make the rules, so others could feel what it was like to be "on top."
No, this was all wrong. I earned it. It was rightfully mine. Why should I have to give up power to the horse-players and booger-eaters who not only lacked the focus to finish their lessons on pace, but also had no experience in creating interesting games to play or viable story lines involving the truck? These people had no vision. They had not the qualifications nor experience to deal with the power that had actually been simply handed to them.
I did not see the benefit of sharing that day, or for many days after.
As an adult I can't escape the tenets of sharing and the healing power it offers. The power of domination and manipulation pales as we traverse adulthood. True power comes from sharing. True meaning comes from sharing.
After all what is success, if you can't spread it? What is love if you can't give it to someone? What value belongs to material things when no one is there to enjoy them with you?
So share. Share your successes, sprinkle them on everyone you love - maybe even reserve some for ones you don't understand. You'll be glad you did.
Share your heartaches - people will be happy to help you, and that will transform the way you view the human race.
Share your fears and worries - people will confide that they presently have, or have had the same ones as you. Either way your fears will shrink in the power of sharing.
Share your time because sometimes people need you to listen - sometimes people need your counsel. Share it with them. It will restore your faith in yourself.
Share your life - because you are interesting, because you are one-of-kind, because people will love you for it and you will love them back.
Share because true human power lives in the ability to expose ourselves to each other, pick each other up, and celebrate our triumphs.
What else is there?
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Apparently, You're Not Doing So Fine Oklahoma...
"...Oklahoma is the only state where the average lifespan has declined during the last 25 years." - Tulsa People Magazine, January 2009
It seems that while the wind was sweeping down the plains and hawks were making lazy circles in the sky, someone forgot to bring us along with the rest of the nation into the 21st century. Perhaps the reason our grand statesman Will Rogers never met a man he didn't like was because they simply didn't live that long.
This article run in the Tulsa People magazine points to an alarming trend. We rank 50th in the U.S. because of, "...the high number of adults and children without insurance, the low rate of children and adults who seek preventative care, the high number of avoidable hospital visits, the high rates of mental illness and the skyrocketing level of unhealthy living..."
All of this data points to what my good friend and political scientist George Bernard Shaw (a native of Florida and a current resident of Savannah, Georgia) once told me. Oklahoma's poverty is exceeded only by its poor health care and education systems.
Well, this paints a pretty picture for the future of our state. Couldn't we have at least finished 49th? I mean, have you ever been to Louisiana? Arkansas? West Virginia???
To keep this in perspective it should also be mentioned that we were the only state in the last election in which EVERY county voted for a candidate that had absolutely no plan for changing our current education or health care policies. But to be fair, the article did mention that we suffer from high rates of mental illness.
Another interesting factoid brought forth in this piece was that Okies cannot readily find healthy food to eat. "Heart patients in north Tulsa, for example, may not be able to buy fresh produce because they don't have a grocery store. Patients in west Tulsa may not be able to walk for exercise if they don't have sidewalks in their neighborhood."
No grocery stores? No sidewalks? Where are we, Beirut?
Believe it or not all of these problems really point to one thing: poverty. And though you wouldn't know it if you wanted to buy a house in midtown Tulsa, we are a poor State.
Let's face it, we have little to offer in the way of tourism, nobody aspires to retire here, we have no "Twister"-themed parks, no mountains nor oceans, no skiing or beaches, and no surfing. We apparently do not even have a skilled an educated work force that would lure big time companies to our "cheap" land and lax environmental policies.
But we do have oil, right? What has happened to all of the money made off of oil? Sultans and Sheiks have held American policy and wallets hostage this past year because of the prices of oil shooting upwards of $150 a barrel. However, I have seen very little of that money invested where I live. Although there are a suspiciously large amount of McMansions that have been built on the south side of town over the last few years. You know who you are.
So. Oklahoma. We are dumb, fat, poor, and our one natural resource is in effect and somewhat appropriately going the way of the dinosaur. Or is it?
What about the one resource so ever-present that we forget that it is there? What about the one resource that I curse almost every time I set foot outdoors? That's right: Wind!
Can we not step up and make the switch now? Will oil interests squash the wind industry in an attempt to keep filling their own pockets? No doubt they will try.
It is all we have. But the good news is we have a TON of it - and it never stops - never! The kind of state revenue that could be generated by wind energy would be staggering. More to the point it is what Thomas L. Friedman refers to as an "above ground" energy resource. That means we don't expend energy to reap the benefits. Are you following, Oklahoma? It's free and abundant.
This could be a resource that could bring us money. Forever. Money that we could spend on education and job training and health care and infrastructure.
Or maybe just Marlboro's and Big Macs.
It seems that while the wind was sweeping down the plains and hawks were making lazy circles in the sky, someone forgot to bring us along with the rest of the nation into the 21st century. Perhaps the reason our grand statesman Will Rogers never met a man he didn't like was because they simply didn't live that long.
This article run in the Tulsa People magazine points to an alarming trend. We rank 50th in the U.S. because of, "...the high number of adults and children without insurance, the low rate of children and adults who seek preventative care, the high number of avoidable hospital visits, the high rates of mental illness and the skyrocketing level of unhealthy living..."
All of this data points to what my good friend and political scientist George Bernard Shaw (a native of Florida and a current resident of Savannah, Georgia) once told me. Oklahoma's poverty is exceeded only by its poor health care and education systems.
Well, this paints a pretty picture for the future of our state. Couldn't we have at least finished 49th? I mean, have you ever been to Louisiana? Arkansas? West Virginia???
To keep this in perspective it should also be mentioned that we were the only state in the last election in which EVERY county voted for a candidate that had absolutely no plan for changing our current education or health care policies. But to be fair, the article did mention that we suffer from high rates of mental illness.
Another interesting factoid brought forth in this piece was that Okies cannot readily find healthy food to eat. "Heart patients in north Tulsa, for example, may not be able to buy fresh produce because they don't have a grocery store. Patients in west Tulsa may not be able to walk for exercise if they don't have sidewalks in their neighborhood."
No grocery stores? No sidewalks? Where are we, Beirut?
Believe it or not all of these problems really point to one thing: poverty. And though you wouldn't know it if you wanted to buy a house in midtown Tulsa, we are a poor State.
Let's face it, we have little to offer in the way of tourism, nobody aspires to retire here, we have no "Twister"-themed parks, no mountains nor oceans, no skiing or beaches, and no surfing. We apparently do not even have a skilled an educated work force that would lure big time companies to our "cheap" land and lax environmental policies.
But we do have oil, right? What has happened to all of the money made off of oil? Sultans and Sheiks have held American policy and wallets hostage this past year because of the prices of oil shooting upwards of $150 a barrel. However, I have seen very little of that money invested where I live. Although there are a suspiciously large amount of McMansions that have been built on the south side of town over the last few years. You know who you are.
So. Oklahoma. We are dumb, fat, poor, and our one natural resource is in effect and somewhat appropriately going the way of the dinosaur. Or is it?
What about the one resource so ever-present that we forget that it is there? What about the one resource that I curse almost every time I set foot outdoors? That's right: Wind!
Can we not step up and make the switch now? Will oil interests squash the wind industry in an attempt to keep filling their own pockets? No doubt they will try.
It is all we have. But the good news is we have a TON of it - and it never stops - never! The kind of state revenue that could be generated by wind energy would be staggering. More to the point it is what Thomas L. Friedman refers to as an "above ground" energy resource. That means we don't expend energy to reap the benefits. Are you following, Oklahoma? It's free and abundant.
This could be a resource that could bring us money. Forever. Money that we could spend on education and job training and health care and infrastructure.
Or maybe just Marlboro's and Big Macs.
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