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My friend reads books.  His daughter does as well.

My friend uses quitter strips.  His daughter doesn’t!

They both try to finish their books.  The father finishes over time.  The daughter likes to finish right away. 

Is a book worth reading if you can’t read it all in one setting?

There is the question of the hour. 

You see, most of us put a quitter strip in our books.  We most often call them bookmarks. 

But for many of us they are as far as we get.  We become distracted.  We decide the content wasn’t that interesting.  We set the book aside and forget where we put it.

If you read the book all in one sitting, you wouldn’t quit!  You wouldn’t end up paying for a product that wasn’t used fully.  You might even get past that first few pages of  information overload and find the heart of the book is on the last page.

Or, you might read War and Peace and find out that, no matter how much coffee, you fall asleep.

Over the years I have dealt with seniors whose memory and reaction times are in question.  This is particularly noticeable when they are driving.  Their children often become alarmed at close misses and small fender benders.

A visit to a doctor often ensues.  The senior is asked a few questions and the testing begins.

This time the driver’s test is in reverse.

With a driver’s license in hand, the senior is entitled to drive.  They must be proven unfit in order to rescind the license.  A doctor is often the one given the jurisdiction to start the testing.  They are often the first to notice a deterioration in a person’s health – physical, mental, emotional and even spiritual.  Any one of these areas can seriously affect response time.

And so, testing begins and sometimes licenses are revoked.

The seniors I have worked with find the loss of independence further accelerates their health issues.  Most often, if you have been able to outlive others and you are still alive (redundancy still lives!), independence has become a byword for you. 

Until one of the greatest transitions in life begins to happen.  You can’t do it all any more!  You have to ask for help to shovel the walk.  Vacuuming becomes too much of a chore.  One calendar item is enough in a day.

When your license is renewed, denial loses its hold on your life.  The choice is to accept others help – and realize how many friends you have.  Or you can chose to shrivel up and die – not the best option!

As friends, be open to help others.  As one whose independence is now restricted, be open to others help.

The room is crowded.  Your boss says, “May I have a word with you.”

Your response? 

You are probably not expecting just a word, and that the “word” is not going to be one that you like.  You will be headed to a private area and the day turns to other words – review, criticism, disappointing, reprimand, and a myriad of other terms.

One of the management approaches in our society attempts to balance productivity and privacy.  An interesting combination.

Productivity requires cooperation.  That means that people work together, talk together, advise each other and generally live public lives.

Privacy requires exclusion.  That means that people work alone, talk to themselves, research for themselves and generally live private lives.

When the boss sets your work standards based on how well you perform, the performance review is often given in private.  Some well intentioned performance reviews include peer feedback.  Often in anonymous format.  Not that helpful.

Just a management thought for this morning’s blog.  How can we more effectively provide words of encouragement towards productivity?  I wonder if a more public encouragement process would be in line, rather than just “a word with you.”

Our community hosts a music festival competition every year.  The platform for young musicians is well worth the effort the organizers put forth. 

Once again, I’ve been attending the sessions.  The audience is made up of mostly parents and relatives, and the music teachers.  Oh yes, there is an adjudicator as well. 

I sit at the back and take in the talent.  And there is very real talent!!

We are blessed as a community.  The teachers are superb, the musicians are definitely well prepared (OK, most of them!), and the adjudication has been on a level that allows students to learn.

To showcase the talent, the final Friday night (this week) is a concert.  A long concert.  With highlights of musical pieces that have been played during the Festival.  Well worth a donation.

If you are around Kindersley this Friday night at 7:00 pm, drop by the St. Paul’s United church and join in on the talent!