Last Two Elements of My Second Personal Vision Board

Now to finish my discussion of my second person vision board.  Having discussed my friends' wedding day extensively and noting that one of the entries was actually entitled wedding music brings me to the last two elements of the personal vision board I am imagining.  The first is music itself.  It has been an important part of my life from the time I liked to imitate Buddy Holly as a kid (and had a few of my classmates since along as Kevin Frick and the Ladybugs rather than Buddy Holly and the Crickets) to playing bass in the church's worship band (which, being at a Catholic church, led a protestant minister to refer to St Pius X as a reformed Catholic church).  I figure since the vision board includes a mockingjay, I could have musical notes coming from the bird's beak.  One option would be just four notes--much like Rue used in the first book.  A nice tip of the hat to popular culture.

The second option would be a tie in with strengthening marriage and strengthening family more generally.  Inside my parent's wedding rings and inside mine and Sherry's are the letters "ILYMTTY".  For anyone old enough to recall the the Spiral Staircase song these letters are from the main part of refrain from an old song, "I Love You More Today than Yesterday".  And of course, logically, if you can say that every day the next line follows, "But not as much as tomorrow."  This is a wonderful aspiration for marriage.  It is also a wonderful aspiration for family.  And not that I don't already love my sons for all I'm worth but each day brings a new way of expressing and talking about the love I have for my family members.  The opportunities for growth and diversification of the ways we show our love are endless.

So the alternative option would be to have the notes of the words that go with ILYMTTY as the notes coming from the mockingjay.

Much like my first permanent personal vision board, i.e., my tattoo, this would be more like a mural than a single picture.  That is fine.  It is my way of connecting the dots in my life and thinking about things.  It is a series of symbols that characterize me.  As one of my colleagues who has now seen my tattoo commented about it, he said it was odd but me.

Not sure what I'll blog about next but life always seems to provide me with more than enough to ponder and comment on for all who are interested in sharing my world.   

Imitation, Innovation, and My Second Personal Vision Board

I have talked about numerous parts of what would be my second personal vision board--bread, the golden apple, the cornucopia.  There are three parts that remain.  I was not sure when I would get back to it, but I heard a story while driving to pick up my 13 year old from boychoir last night that inspired me to bring it out now.  

The program is a program that I hear on the local public radio station.  The program is called The Story.  The stories are long discussion format like some other public radio programs.  But the discussion is usually between the host and one person at a time.  There is no call in.  And each night there is usually a theme.  I'm not sure what the overall theme was last night, but at the conclusion of the program they were reflecting on some feedback they had received on a story about plagiarism.  Being a college professor and serving on or as chair of numerous academic committee, I think about plagiarism a lot.  It, for obvious reasons, has many very negative connotations.

However, the discussion about the piece on plagiarism also spent some time reviewing the concept of imitation in general.  And they closed with a thought for which I hav found a link that attributes it to jazz trumpet player Clark Terry: that the learning cycles can be summarized in three words: Imitate. Assimilate.  Innovate.  

That is a pretty cool thought.  The key is that the first step really is imitation.  Of course, I must begin by saying that this does not in any way, shape, or form excuse plagiarism.  But there are lots of ways in which I have imitated.  Prayer.  Lecturing style.  Overall approach to research. Playing bass.  Writing music.  Parenting.  The list goes on.  The key is that I have learned from others and whether I imitate consciously or subconsciously, I know that a lot of what I have done over time is to take the best of what I have observed and tried to make it mine.  It is just that I don't have to put in a footnote when I imitate through my parenting.

The assimilation.  Going along with the prayer theme, it is taking the ideas and making them an ingrained part of my way of living.  Taking the teaching, it is making an approach to leading a lecture or helping others to develop their faith (in Sunday school) or professional opinion of economic or cost-effectiveness (in my day job) a part of what I always do.  Yes, I am imitating at first because I learned from my teachers from elementary school to graduate school what are some of the best ways to present information.  However, I then assimilate and make each part a part of me.

Finally, I innovate.  Once I am comfortable using whatever the approach is in writing, playing, parenting, teaching, or praying (or anything else that I have learned from others), then I begin to make up my own themes.  I change things a bit.  I experiment.  I try things on for size.  Eventually, what was a shadow of what my mentors had done and then became an integrated part of my persona becomes truly mine as I find ways to bring it alive that are unique to my interest.

Now, unlike my love of the kitchen that could be usefully summarized in bread or my love of teaching that could be usefully summarized in a golden apple or the abundance with which I have been blessed that could be summarized with a cornucopia, it is not so obvious how one would summarize the learning process that is encapsulated by the three words: imitate, assimilate, innovate.  

However, I draw on The Hunger Games for some inspiration here.  Perhaps that is just a function of what I read this summer, and I certainly would not have been able to call on this image before this summer, but I like the mockingjay.  Why?  Well, think of the third book.  It is when Katniss who has really been led into things earlier on and has tried to imitate (listening to Haymitch) and then assimilated (taking what Haymitch said and acting on her own decisions) truly comes into her own and innovates.  It also fits quite well with a description of the mockingjay that appeared in the second book, Catching Fire on pages 91 and 92 of the hardback version.  I will close with that as I imagine having a mockingjay sitting atop the cornucopia on my virtual vision board.

“The jabberjays were mutations, genetically enhanced make birds created by the capitol as weapons to spy on rebels in the districts.  They could remember and repeat long passages on human speech, so they were sent into rebel areas to capture our words and return them to the Capital.  The rebels caught on and turned them against the Capitol by sending them home loaded with lies.  When this was discovered, the jabberjays were left to die.  In a few years they became extinct in the wild, but not before they had mated with female mockingbirds, creating an entirely new species.

 “But mockingjays were never a weapon,” said Madge.  “They’re just songbirds.  Right?”

“Yeah, I guess so,” I said.  But it’s not true.  A mockingbird is just a songbird.  A mockingjay is a creature the Capitol never intended to exist.  They hadn’t counted on the highly controlled jabberjay having the brains to adapt to the wild, to pass on its genetic doe, to thrive in a new form.  They hadn’t anticipated its will to live.

Now, as I trudge through the snow, I see the mockingjays hopping about on branches as they pick up on other birds’ melodies, replicate them, and then transform them into something new.  As always, they remind me of Rue.  I think of the dream I had the last night on the train, where I followed her in mockingjay form.  I wish I could have stayed asleep just a bit longer and found out where she was trying to take me.

Personal Vision Board II Part III: The Cornucopia

I have discussed the bread and the golden apple as the first two elements of my second personal vision board.  The third element would be the representation of the fact that I have been blessed with an abundance.

Born in America--an abundance of freedom

Born into a great family--an abundance of love

Given an abundance of academic smarts

Given an abundance of drive to succeed

An abundance of resources for living

An abundance of friends--some love to run, some love to run fast, some love to hear about all the good in my life, some like to tell it like it is, all are blessings

An abundance of interests--music, cooking, spirituality, academics

An abundance of love within the family that Sherry and I have created

The list could go on.  These are all blessings.  They are all important.  They are all things that if I did not have my life would be much different.  And it is for that reason that I would add a cornucopia to my personal vision board.

In fact, if I were an artist I would have the Golden Apple and the multiple breads all flowing forth from the cornucopia.

Three more elements of the vision board to go.  Those will come up in the coming weeks. 

Vision Board II in Text Part II: A Golden Apple

As I continue to think about what my second vision board would contain, I turn to the idea of the golden apple--and how it symbolizes teaching.  It represents the center of my of my professional life.  It represents the highest goal that I have for the remainder of my professional life--to be the best educator that I can be.  Educator, for me, means a combination of teaching and showing students how to do research and teaching them about being professionals.  I'm not always sure I do the last of these very well, but it is something that I strive for.  All three of the things I listed are "teaching" but not all teaching in the classroom.  Teaching can be so much more.

I am fortunate enough to have been awarded two Golden Apple awards at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.  They involved teaching online.  That is somewhat like teaching in the classroom, but not identical by any means.  There may or may not be more awards in my career.  Whether there are or not does not affect my desire to teach.  My passion about teaching.  Regardless of whether I ever get more awards, the two awards I have received symbolize my emphasis on teaching.  It has been a big part of my life in the time since I began graduate school and it will continue to be a big part of my life as long as I continue to be a faculty member somewhere.

As I envision how this would fit with the first element of my second vision board (bread) I see different types of bread around a golden apple.  The bread is the sustenance.  The golden apple is central to my existence.

Why is teaching so central to my existence.  Because while I have emphasized teaching within a graduate school setting so far, that is not the only opportunity I have for teaching.  Obviously teaching can be of my own kids too.  Teaching can be within the Sunday school setting (and although having St. Sebastian in my first vision board shows that I value spreading the word of God, the element of teaching about the word of God now becomes front and center).  Teaching can be within the community.  Teaching can occur any time, any place where I am with someone.

I also like to think of teaching by example.  Teaching by my behavior.  Teaching by my choices.  Teaching by what I do as much as by what I say.  Teaching by showing how to use what I teach and not just teaching things for the sake of the information itself.

Finally, I not only hope to continue to use my teaching skills but I hope to continue to improve my teaching skills.  Just because I am good at something does not mean that I should not continue to make an investment to be even better.  It is intellectually stimulating.  And it is what my students deserve.  

Vision Board II in Text Part I: The Bread

This Saturday morning I "slept in".  Of course, sleeping in for someone who is usually an early morning runner can mean just not getting up until 6 AM, which I realize for most people would not be considered sleeping in.  After a long week in which I knocked a few important end of summer tasks off my to do list at work and an evening of walking with my wife and our dog to Belvedere Square to listen for a bit to a band that self describes as "alternative country," I needed some extra rest. Besides, tomorrow is the 20 mile race that I have been looking forward to all summer and extra rest the day before is not a bad thing.

As I sit, what have I been pondering.  In less than two weeks (thirteen days, to be exact) I get color added to my first tattoo.  I have, as the summer has gone on, been more willing to share my tattoo with those at work.  Most people seem surprised but I haven't noticed a huge change in anyone's opinion of me or anything.  I look forward to the addition of color and seeing what the final product looks like.  Emily told me that she was going to try to use period specific colors (the period being the 1930's setting of the clothes on St Sebastian and Irene, the lamppost, and the Baltimore City skyline.  

When I originally came up with the new title for this particular blog, I was thinking of "Connecting the Dots" in terms of a constellation in the sky or the type of activity we may have done as young kids.  Having a page with a bunch of dots that are numbered and connecting them to make a coherent picture.  What I didn't think of (but is kind of cool) is that tattooing is also sort of like connecting a bunch of dots--or at least putting a bunch of dots close enough together to form a coherent picture.  The notion of dots is captured well in a web page that describes the tattooing process.  

Sometimes in adult life it feels like we still get the dots on the page but not the numbers.  This makes developing a coherent picture more difficult sometimes.  But I suppose that challenge of figuring out how things fit together rather than simply being told is part of what being an adult rather than a child means.

It's sometimes funny how a blog entry wanders.  I never thought when I started typing that I'd end up with any focus on the issue of what it means to be an adult rather than a child.  With that, it is interesting to ponder how our "vision boards" would change over time.  I'm not sure how easy it would be even to define our interests, aspirations, and hopes enough to create a vision board.  I suppose that I had what I thought of as big dreams as a kid.  But I know that one thing about being where I am now in life (again, another adult-child distinction but this may even be a young adult and early-40's adult)  is that all the ideas about hopes and aspirations are much better defined.  I can think of the answers to this question in sort of a "life course" approach.  Where did they used to be?  Where are they now?  How do my life experiences to date influence where I am now?  And how do I expect anything to continue to evolve over time?    

I can verbalize (and then turn into pictures) what is now a much more stable set of ideas.

So, with that, and taking my existing tattoo as "life course symbolic vision board #1", I will begin a short series of reflections on what might be called life course symbolic vision board #2.  

It would begin with bread.  Wikipedia tells us that the history of bread goes back at least 30,000 years.    That is pretty amazing.  But that is not why I would choose it.  I would choose it for my second vision board as it represents my love of being in the kitchen.  I prepare many things in the kitchen but my specialty is bread.  I make bread more often than anything else.  And this is interpreting bread very broadly.  Bread can be pizza dough.  It can be stromboli dough.  It can be rolls I use for steak sandwiches.  Banana bread.  Bagels.  Pretzels.  Simple whole wheat bread.  Challah.  Easter bread.  Biscuits--with or without sweet addition.  Lion house rolls. Irish soda bread.  I've tried my hand at pita.  I've tried may hand at tortillas.  I've even tried my hand at injera.  The list goes on.  So much diversity (another theme in my life).  Bread is something I choose to make with my hands despite having a bread machine.  It gives me a sense of accomplishment.  Sometimes (particularly kneading dough for yeast breads) it lets me take out my frustrations.  It shows how I learn over time--as I have diversified the breads I make and I have even modified recipes to make them fit into the time that I have or for the specific needs I have in feeding my family.  Thus, bread as part of my life course vision board #2 would appear in multiple forms and represent many important parts of my adult life.   

So Many Tattoos...

The public radio program "The Take Away" yesterday had a story entitled "America's Growing Love for Tattoos."  The Centers for Disease Control had released new data showing that the self-reported prevalence of tattoos among adults had risen from 16 perent in 2003 to 21 percent in the most recent data.  The program's speculation on why included the fact that there are more and more people who are visible to the public who have tattoos that are also visible to the public.  The had a tattoo artist who they interviewed--she provided some interesting insight although I think that my tatto artist, Emily Sloman (whose gallery is here), could have given a better interview.  They also spoke with someone who talked about people in Congress who have them.  I have not tried to figure out how many academics have them, but that might be an interesting idea to try to estimate.

One of my family members asked why would the CDC be interested?  Probably because tattoos were historically seen as a risk factor.  Perhaps a risk factor for infection--although if the tattoos are done right that risk is actually quite minimal.  Perhaps they were seen as associated with other behaviors--like things that "bikers" were historically associated with doing.  There may be some other reason.  I'm not sure what having a tattoo has ever been found to be associated with epidemiologically.  Earlier in my career I actually wrote a paper about tattoo removal (ironic given my relatively newly inked status now).

The discussion talked about how tattoos have become main stream.  Perhaps as our culture begins to see more than simple ear piercing and other forms of body changes as acceptable tattoos just come along with that.  I certainly have no problem with permanent body modification--which is what tattooing is after all.  And I won't be able to tell my kids, "Don't do that."

One of the hosts told a story about his tattoo.  He mentioned how he had thought of it as a silly thing for quite some time but that since the friend he got it with suffered an early death, it now serves as a permanent and daily reminder of his friend.  That is cool.  Every tattoo seems to have a story.

I am increasingly seeing mine as a permanent vision board.  I first heard about vision boards around a year and some ago when Metta Wellness had an afternoon to share vision boards.  I didn't participate but I considered it.  Vision boards are an interesting concept--taking a space and putting images of things that you love or that matter to you or that you aspire to.  Obviously, it's best if something fits in all three of those categories and then you can use it to pinpoint where you hope to go.  There are lots of things that a tattoo can be of.  My one (so far) tells a story of things that matter a lot.  If I ever get another I'll probably do the same.  I don't expect to use tattoos any other way, personally.

It makes me think of Pinterest.  Different people use the "pins" different amounts. I've simply used mine to organize a few things that are relevant to me.  Each person using each tool in life has their own way of using it and their own vision for it.

Probably if we asked 100 people with tattoos we'd get a wide variety of stories about why and what each meant.  It is just a form of self-expression.  It is a form that should be thought about seriously (as any form of self-expression) and should be considered thoughtfully before making a decision.  And it is one that is apparently becoming increasingly popular in the United States.  It will be interesting to see if that trend continues.