David J Terrell

What is the point of doing something, anything, if you are not having fun? Teaching has a lot of frustration, many obstacles, and challenges. But over all teaching has a lot of satisfactions. Once I had a T-shirt with the slogan: “I teach, I touch the future”; who can deny this is the reality of teaching? Regardless of what kind of teaching or what kind of students one have in the classroom, teaching is always about the future. But there can’t be a future without a ‘present’ that is vivid, strong, and unforgettable. Recently I was recommended to read a book by Simon Sinek about the ‘why’. Titled “Start with the Why’ Sinek points out the importance of knowing at a deep level of existence, why do we do what we do! What is the fundamental drive and purpose of our actions. So we can, with better understanding, analyze the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of the things we do, and actions we take to accomplish our goals.

Mission statements are in a way what institutions develop in order to articulate the ‘why’ of their existence. But unfortunately these mission statements can sound hollow and vain. Maybe because they are hollow and vain.

So how can we establish mission statements that truly allow the basic purpose of a person or institution to emerge and energize the life of the individual or the institution. Let me clarify that as institutions are made of individuals there must me a connection between the core intentions and purposes of the institution with that of the individual stakeholders of the institution. From employees to those served by the institution.

A second book is helping us understand how leadership follows after we know the why when leaders see that the only way institutions succeed is when the individuals within the organization pull together. And  in the “Happiness Advantage’ Shawn Achor emphatically articulate how this has to be done by happy people. Having fun is not an accessory is it core, central to any successful enterprise.

Many people are going to say that is ingenuous and disingenuous to say that one has to always be happy and have fun. That work should be hard and ugly by intrinsic nature and that if not then it is not true work.

Can you believe that even hard work can be fun?

It is been a while since I wrote about change and time. During the summer I had the opportunity to read and heal after my total hip replacement. It was, I think, the best excuse I had to take the time to read.

There is one thing I can say about my hip surgery: it was great!

Everything happened according to plan, so now I am ready for the start of a new academic year. Ready to meet new students and to re-encounter with old students. My notebook is full of ideas developed during reading a broad spectrum of books and blogs, from environmental to political topics. The ones about spirituality like Deepak Chopra’s “The Future of God” had (I’m sure) the most impact. I will keep pondering about those ideas well beyond the next couple of months.

Outside of my health, one thing that happened that was not planned at all is that our “Friends” meeting (church) was released from the Northwest Yearly Meeting (NWYM). The NWYMis the umbrella organization that unites many Quaker meetings in the Northwest. The reason for the release is that our meeting decided some time ago to be welcoming to the LGBTQ community. As a core value of our religious convictions is that we all have in us the light of the Divine Spirit.

The process of expulsion has been complicated. Some other meetings have appealed and the administrative council of the NWYM is now thinking about how to proceed. We’ll soon find out.  In the mean time many manifestations of support have been received.

These two aspects of my life, hip and religion are telling be that reality manifest in many ways and that we have to change in order to move on. Some times is easy as is the case of dealing with a new situation having a new hip. But, many a times, some are not easy as when dealing with new personal relationships.

For the time been I know that we’ll be fine. In fact I think we’ll be better!

Did you faced changes in your life during the summer?

It is very interesting to see how words change with time, or better to say how the meaning of word evolve in our society. Three books come to my mind as I think about the evolution of the word ‘socialism.’

In the book “The (Un)Common Good” Jim Wallis articulates how in politics some people have lost the idea of common good in a social context. Politicians have developed a language of ‘us’ versus ‘them’ that has damaged the political atmosphere and has stopped politicians from finding solutions to problems that transcend political parties. But the political posturing of politicians today blocks any effort to solve critical issues that are affecting us all regardless of political affiliation of geographic location, even having international implications well beyond our borders.

Jeffrey Sachs in his book “Common Wealth explain how in the face of an increase in population and an increase in the needs of  this increasing population we need to address the solution of todays’ environmental problems through an international collective endeavor. Sachs present a solid economic argument based on lots of data about the need for economic collaboration at international level. Sachs argues that it is only with agreement at the international level that future problems with the environment will be solved. My point here is that in order to have international agreement we first need to have national agreement. Something that appears far under the current political environment of un-common good explained by Wallis.

(For the full text click here.)

Finally Kropotkin in his book “Mutual Aid” written in 1902 clearly develops a historic explanation of how for most societies common good has been the driver of social evolution. The historic evolution of our society is based on the human nature of relationship. A basic characteristic of our human nature, a fundamental trait of our existence is the need for a collaborative subsistence. By ourselves individuals can’t subsist much less today when specialization is dominating societal activities. Not even in the old days at the beginning of civilization before agriculture when a bunch of savages lived by hunting and gathering. Even then, as it is seen today in the rest of the animal kingdom, life had to be within collaboration between and among groups of individuals. Kropotkin argues solidly against some who have misinterpreted Darwin’s idea of the survival of the fittest as an individualistic effort in favor of a sociological fitness based on intelligence. Fitness so defined is based on a broader view of circumstances, context, and environment.

We must realize that today is even more important to see the world as a unity where we will not succeed individually, even if our individual belongs to a strong small group of individuals. The word “socialist” related to the idea of common good, is today the example of how the meaning of words have change with the evolution of our society. For some socialist means anti-american, when in fact the United States of America was founded on the very idea of common good.

The word “United” says it all!

Teaching can always be improved! The question is: how can we use class observation in the improvement? I also think that observing and being observed are ways to get useful information and there should be a regular custom to do this in every college and university.

This blog by Shaun Allison is an excellent example of ways to do it and not to do it. Hope you enjoy (and learn) reading it. I did!

Life without lesson observation grades.

Is this a despairing situation? Are we facing a hopeless future for human kind?

When we see all the destruction caused to our environment and see the apathy of powerful interests it is easy to despair and feel dishearten for the situation. But there is hope!

There is hope for many reasons, and for no reason at all. I am reading Roger Gottlieb’s book “A Spirituality of Resistance”

Gottlieb’s profound ethical  view guides us through a labyrinth of questions and help us to get our own answers. This is why I am optimistic about the future: Every time we encounter challenges we find ways to overcome them and to come out of them stronger and better. The hard part is always to justify the victimization of innocents in the process. How can we justify the victimization of Jews during the Holocaust to say that now we know better thus making this a better world? There is no justification in my mind, as there is no justification of disappearing forests, endangered species, and natural wonders for humans to learn a lesson.

This is the message that I am bringing to our class “Earthkeeping” the HUM 212 course taught at Warner Pacific College every spring. Being this one of the elective courses required for the humanities sequence we have students from all walks of life in the pursue of different majors. This gives us the opportunity to address ethical behavior applied to many disciplines.

The questions I always ask then are: What am I supposed to do? How should I address the issue without despair? Is there a small action that I can do together with others in my community that will have a noticeable impact?