"If you can imagine it, you can achieve it 
If you can dream it, you can become it."   WILLIAM ARTHUR WARD


The Stranger                           Spiritmail  January 25th, 2008


You know you are getting old when you get an email which talks about a change that occurred 50 years ago and you say, "That's so true!!" That's the reaction I had when I got the following email from Bob Conner.

The Stranger

A few years after I was born, my dad met a stranger who was new to our small town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around from then on.

As I grew up, I never questioned his place in my family. In my young mind, he had a special niche. My parents were complementary instructors: Mum taught me good from evil, and Dad taught me to obey. But the stranger ... he was our storyteller. He would keep us spellbound for hours on end with adventures, mysteries, and comedies. If I wanted to know anything about politics, history or science, he always knew the answers about the past, understood the present and even seemed able to predict the future!

He took my family to the football and cricket. He made me laugh, and he made me cry. The stranger never stopped talking, but Dad didn't seem to mind.

Sometimes, Mum would get up quietly while the rest of us were shushing each other to listen to what he had to say, and she would go to the kitchen for peace and quiet. (I wonder now if she ever prayed for the stranger to leave.)

Dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions, but the stranger never felt obligated to honour them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our home ... not from us, our friends or any visitors. Our long time visitor, however, got away with four-letter words that burned my ears and made my dad squirm and my mother blush.

My dad didn't permit the liberal use of alcohol. But the stranger encouraged us to try it on a regular basis. He made cigarettes look cool, cigars manly, and pipes distinguished. He talked freely (much too freely) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing.

I now know that my early concepts about relationships were influenced strongly by the stranger. Time after time, he opposed the values of my parents, yet he was seldom rebuked... And NEVER asked to leave.

More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family. He has blended right in and is not nearly as fascinating as he was at first. If you could walk into my parents' den today, you would still find him sitting over in his corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures.

His name?

We just call him 'TV.'

He has a wife now ... We call her 'Computer'.

And her sister is mobile phone."

I remember TV coming to stay with us in 1962 so we could watch the Commonwealth Games that were being held that year in Perth... and not only hasn't TV left, every time I leave, I take him with me...
 


Enjoy this issue of The Maverick Spirit...  That's it for today, until next time, continue to enjoy being a free spirit in a complicated world... 

Wayne Mansfield

P.S.  Have you been to the USA and used the phone?? Were you surprised, as I was, when the recorded message says: "Push 1 for English, 2 for Spanish"? There are nearly 400 million Spanish speaking people in the world. Many English words are borrowed from the language, including: tornado, bonanza, patio, quesadilla, enchilada, and taco grande supreme.
P.P.S.  Aside from all of those kids who take it in high school, Spanish is spoken in just about every South American and Central American country, not to mention Spain, Cuba, and the U.S. where there are nearly 50 million Latino's. So for your foreign language phrase book that you need on your trip to Los Angeles add "Hola" (OH-la) for "hello" for the taxi driver from the airport.

And for something really different:

Visit my daily thoughts and views at    Confessions of a Boy from Margaret River   where you can leave comments and ideas
on stuff that doesn't make it to The Maverick Spirit
 
Simple Secrets of Successful People - It’s Never Just one Thing

An event may be crucial in the short term, but researchers find that people’s enduring self-concept – their view of who they are and what they are capable of – is not tied to any single positive or negative event. Instead, a self-concept is composed of a combination of beliefs and feelings based on long-term experiences both at home and at work.

Source:          David Niven, Ph.D.  100 Simple Secrets of Successful People
MAVERICK QUOTE OF THE DAY

"I have learned to live each day
as it comes, and not to borrow
trouble by dreading tomorrow."

Dorothy Dix

 

Samuel Maverick (1803-70) Texan rancher who, when branding of stock was introduced chose "Not to Brand." Every unbranded horse or cow he then claimed as a Maverick!

Feedback:   When I need cheering up or a reality check, I just have a quick look at your feedback... here is what greeted me over the last few days.

Thank you all - even those who think - "I should write in..." next time you get the urge - write to me.

Some people hit the delete button too quick...

Wayne,

I received this from The Maverick Spirit. Thank you. The article has been very interesting reading.
In my haste to delete junk mail on my return from holidays, I have deleted the subscription to The Maverick Spirit. Could I please be placed back onto the subscription list!

Vanessa

They say in the good books on Direct Marketing that people read the P.S. first, so I have always had quirky "P.S.'s" on each Maverick Spirit and, you know what, people do read them!

My great mate BLM sent in this note:

" After the break up of the USSR we seemed to suddenly hear about 50 or so countries that didn't exist before. "

Wayne, Check your European history, all of the countries that have re-emerged after the break up of the USSR were well and truly in existence prior to the revolution, they just got absorbed and lost their geographic identities, it was Stalin's wish.

However since the collapse of the USSR they have now re-established their pre revolution identity. A good thing.


Brian Leaning-Mizen.
www.mindsynergy.net

And maybe not the last word on Safe Places for Our Young people to Learn:

Wayne

There is a huge amount of worldwide research into this subject which shows that there is only one way to eliminate bullying in schools and that is to create a whole school culture that does not tolerate bullying. This includes students, parents and staff. I’m not talking about one-off clashes, nor about conflict between two people of equal power – that’s not bullying.

Bullying is defined as behaviour by a more powerful person or group against a less powerful person or group, that is repetitive and has the intention of causing harm.

There is a small number of schools doing their best to counter bullying and it works. Unfortunately, most schools don’t deal with this effectively, even though it is not difficult to implement. This is why I urge parents, who are so often “fobbed off” by schools, to take action and start demanding that schools do what they should, by law, be doing. We have a Federal government initiative called the National Safe Schools Framework, which dictates that schools take action, but the government does not enforce it. Why? That’s my question, too.

Bullying rips people’s confidence to shreds, causes sometimes lifelong emotional, physical and psychological damage – even suicide. We have to act against it. I would like to invite the government ministers, the principals, the teachers, the students – anybody, in fact, to spend a day in an average Australian school, dealing with the hurt, damaged children who are the fallout of all this neglect. Perhaps then we’d see some action. Do I sound angry? Yep.

Dr Dorothy Lenthall
Registered Psychologist
Doctor of Communication

And this note from Terry Parsons who runs Corridors College for Educational Disadvantage Youth in Midland Western Australia.

Hi Wayne

The discourse thus far is somewhat, understandably, polarised.

Everyone is a valued expert because we all survived schooling and so we are qualified to pontificate our position. However, I raise the thought of the role of the 'Zero Tolerance Sieve'.

These sieves, unlike the Hogwarts Sorting Hat, do not take into account the as yet
undetected gift and talent of the individual. Harry could speak Parcel - Tongue. There is nothing about caterpillars that gives us a clue that they will turn into butterflies apart from time.

So while the young are in development mode the failure imposed by 'Zero Tolerance' can become a permanent failure and and consequent dependence on the community or a lifetime.

Society does not appear as tolerant of 'failing youth' as business and science is of the Eddison Effect, experiment until we get it right.

So, we work to keep them alive till they are 25.

Dr Terry Parsons
BSc, Dip Ed, Grad Dip RE, Dip FLM, Dip TAA,
Dip OHS, Dip Bus Mgt, MEd, EdD.
Chief Executive
Corridors College Midland Western Australia

And finishing on a positive note about the work done by the professionals in our schools, I received this great "tick off" the other day:

Wayne

I was interested to see your invitation to attend a seminar on "Powerful Communication Skills for Women", a good subject for a seminar and probably quite worthwhile for many.

The number of grammatical errors in the opening paragraph intrigued me and I wondered if the seminar was likely to reach a higher standard in presentation. Maybe I’m a bit hung up on grammar but I work in a Grammar school and your message banged loudly in my tiny mind as I read it. Having nothing better to do at the moment I thought I’d amuse myself by doing a correction for you, invited or not.

I’ll now remove my tongue from my cheek and wish you well with the seminar.

Vince Evans, Bursar
Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School

 

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Until next time then... enjoy being a free spirit in a complicated world.

Wayne Mansfield Editor

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eMail: thespirit@spiritmailer.com


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