It Doesn't Take Much More To Win

The great thing about winning, is that it takes only one point. 

Any coach of any sport will share the times they won by one point and the times they lost by one point. Because it doesn't take much more to win, than it does to lose.

Water at 211 degrees is very hot and can be used to clean things that are really dirty. However, water at 212 degrees, just one degree more, changes to steam and with steam you can change the world. 

The nature of things is to endeavor, to create something big and totally new and substantial, in order to make a difference. While this kind of thinking is valued, perhaps a more valuable train of thought is to take something that exists, change it just a bit and make it better. 

These small changes, to what currently exists, when they do happen, are ofter so obvious, that we wonder why they were not done sooner. 

You see the blue handle in the picture. That is the control end of a garden cultivator. The handle is rubber (softer on your hands) and curved (easier to hold and create pressure). The changes, although small, make a huge difference and are the primary reason I purchased that tool and not the competing model. 

You see the picture of the vertical orange stripes on the street warning sign. Those orange stripes make a huge difference in the visibility of the warning sign and make the sign that much more powerful and effective. Not much of a physical change but a considerable change in the result.

The slight change will take place to modify, products or processes. The slight changes can and should have a dramatic impact. 

So, since doesn't take much more to win, and you have probably been considering a slight change, what are you waiting for. 

Paper & Digital

Paper is better than digital.

Recent research shows that reading a paper product, similar to one you are holding,  stimulates the deep-reading part of your brain. Digital reading does not. 

Neuroscience has revealed that humans use a different part of their brain when reading from a paper product versus a screen! The more time you spend reading on a screen, the more your mind skips around. The researchers call it non-linear reading. 

When reading digitally and not holding a paper product in your hands, your brain tends to focus on non-linear reading and encourage a bi-literate brain experience. You don't get as much and you cant' recall as much of what you just read.

When you read a paper product you read from the deep-reading part of your brain. And if you don't read often enough, thereby utilizing the deep-reading part of your brain, you lose the deep-reading part of your brain. If you don't use it, you lose it. 

What is deep-reading you may ask?  An example is what happens in our brain when we read a novel. When you spend most of your time reading from a screen, independent of the content, you compromise your deep-reading function. The things we really want to understand and learn by reading, we cannot accomplish by screen-reading. 

Deep-reading, by utilizing a paper product, encourages a slower read and that helps your brain to absorb, file and recall that which you just read.  Digital reading is literally and figuratively all over the board, according to the studies. 

This science is telling us, that you who rely on screens are not doing reading as well as you could, and are also may be the culprits encouraging children to grow up with a digital screen and compromised deep-reading capabilities. 

We, at The Constitution, recently began printing the Lawton School Newspaper. When we discovered that a digital edition was all the students had, we happily contributed our skills and printing capabilities to producing a paper newspaper for the students and teachers.  The response has been delightful. 

The power of paper!

Reading This Newspaper Pays

What most subscribers and people that don't subscribe, don't know, it that this community newspaper saves you tax dollars. Potentially a lot of tax dollars!

Researchers have found, that not subscribing or not buying your comminity newspaper, will cost you money in the form of higher taxes and will increase the costs of running the local government! 

Dermont Murphy, Pengjie "Paul" Gao and Chang Lee are the three researches that decided to take a look at data harvested from American communities between 1996 and 2015. During this time 300 newspapers ceased daily publication or closed. The researcheres matched the data with interest rates local governments paid to finance municipal projects like roads and schools. 

So happens that communities with community newspapers tend to get better borrowing rates than the communities that were in the information dark places. They found that the increase in borrowing costs happened when the community newspaper disappeared. Go figure.

Not only were there differences in borrowing rates, they found that the differences can be substantial. Those substantial differences are costing paperless-communities millions of dollars on their government loans. And the costs of running their local government increases faster than communities with a newspaper. 

Why? Great question, so let me explain the obvious. Community newspapers hold government officials accountable by shining the light of day on their municipal dealings. Healthy, well read newspapers like The Constitution enjoy fierce and loyal readership by engaged and involved citizens. These loyal readers don't miss a beat. They pay attention to the details and are not hesitant to make their positions known. They represent the very critical component of freedom of the press. 

Thomas Jefferson said; "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter." We agree with Mr. Jefferson.


(Most of the facts in this piece were harvested from an editorial previously published in, The St. Louis Post Dispatch, a newspaper) 

Just Not Ready

I was just not ready.

Even though I am around the news about the death of people every day at work, my brother died, and I was just not ready.

Donnie was the second of the six children that Mother had. Mother had two individual male births and followed that with two multiple births. She had two sets of twins, back-to-back. The first set was a boy and girl, the other was two girls. I am one of those twins. Cloth diapers and glass bottles, you do the math!

My brother, Donnie, was the first in our family to graduate college. He was a model student in high school and I always resented that about him. What I should have done is emulate his aspirations. 

He was a faster runner than me, I didn't care for that either. 

He could get our Mother to let him stay home from school, just because he asked. She NEVER granted me such favors. Mother knew that he was a much better, well-mannered, harder working and disciplined student than I, so she regulated school attendance accordingly. 

Growing up, Donnie and I did not have too much in common. A lot of that changed when we became adults. 

Donnie was a great husband to his wonderful wife Margaret and a wonderful and guiding Father to Alexandra, his only child. He treasured them both. 

He was a teacher. More specifically, a speech and hearing educator and, based on the comments from his fellow workers and former students, who attended his memorial services, he was a fantastic and caring teacher, employee and co-worker. We heard story after story about how Donnie would always help, they who needed help the most. He cared deeply about his profession, his students and the professionals with whom he worked.

He led a life that I am deeply in admiration of, even though much about his life, I did not learn until his life was over. I regret that reality and will have to live with my regrets until I see him on the other side. 

I could have changed the relationship and should have gotten over myself long enough to learn more about his impressive life and perhaps be more prepared for his death. Enough of my mistakes, this is a writing about my brother. Let's focus on him. 

He left a wonderful legacy!

I sat, for a while at his bedside and held his hand just several hours before he breathed his last. During that time, I told him I loved him, even though I could not be sure that he heard me since his condition was so grave. My younger sister, who was a Hospice nurse for years, assured me that he could hear me and that was reassuring. 

My brother died and I was just not ready.

(Donnie is on the back row, in the middle) 

Screen Your Screen

I never screened calls. 

There were many times I wish I had, but I never did. 

I don't screen calls now.

Today, some creative screening is in order.

An unsolicited suggestion from me, to you people who cannot let go of your screen long enough to even have a conversation, is to Screen-Your-Screen.

When I see people sitting together at a table in a restaurant and every one of them is on their "smart" device, I am left to wonder, how smart do you have to be to put the "smart" device down.

We should all be very concerned about the relationship damage that is being done to people, who are in the same room, and do not acknowledge anyone or anything other than their screen. The device they are obsessed with is not the answer, even though it may have access to billions of answers. 

While you are sitting there on your smart-phone do a search on; The damages smart devices do to relationships. I did and there were 12,200,000 results in1/2 second! (I did not read all 12,200,000 studies.) 

The essence of the majority of the studies I read shows that smart phones are undeniably damaging to relationships of every kind and at every level. The time spent on the device is damaging, but even more damaging is the terrifying dependence on the device.

The more dependent an individual is to their device, the greater the relationship damage. One study found that a majority of young people asked, would run into a burning building to get their device!

Another study found that individuals, obsession with their smart device can actually make their significant-other depressed. Kind of like second-hand smoke causes damage to health.

Most of us know the world before these so-called smart devices and the world after, or as it is now. What about the impressionable young people who do not know any other world?

You don't have to look too hard, in order to place blame. We are what we tolerate. 

The example we are leading with, is that it is okay to look at your screen and not the person sitting across the table. The result of such behavior will manifest into serious unintended consequences and do more damage to relationships, than the cane toad has done to the animal population in Australia.

In 1935 Australia imported and let loose the cane toad as means to control the grey-backed cane beetle. This species of beetle causes significant damage to sugar cane, a major crop in Australia. Problem is, that the cane toad does not eat grey-backed cane beetles. What the cane toad does do, is secrete a highly poisonous substance through its skin. And now, the citizens of Australia, are paying for the unintended consequence. A rude awakening indeed. 

This society is in for a very rude awakening. Just wait until this screen-addicted-connected-generation takes over and we, who grew up actually shaking hands, hugging and looking other people in the eye, have to communicate with decision makers who don't know how to relate. 

We allowed it, we own it and far too soon, I fear, we are going to live it. 

Turn it off or at least turn it over. 

Screen your screen.

Make The Call

There used to be a feature during a televised football game called; "You Make The Call".

The program would air a brief clip of a play during a previous football game and the viewers were tasked with determining, based on their knowledge of the rules of the game to, make the call. 

The outcome had already been determined, so the exercise was just academic. 

Life is a great deal different. 

You cannot see the future so making the call is rife with uncertainty. 

One fine day I answered the (land-line) phone in my office and a very polite, albeit very shy, young lady was on the other end of the line. She introduced herself and asked me if we had any openings in the newsroom for a part-time writer. We did not. 

However, because she made the effort and made the call, I set a meeting and after that meeting I hired her, to serve as a part-time project manager and whatever else the operation needed her to do. She preformed admirably and learned a great deal about the stresses associated with the real business world. 

We did not really need just anyone, we needed that right someone and until she made the call and walked in the door, we were prepared to wait and tough it out without the valuable assistance she provided. Many businesses are in the same situation we were before I took the call. They do not have anything until the right person makes the call. Then they find room because it makes sense, and the business can make faster progress. 

Neither of us knew what was going to happen when she made the call. But both of knew precisely what was going to happen is she did not make the call. 

No one knows what they don't know. That is why demonstrating bravery and making the call is so vitally critical to any worthwhile endeavor.  

The relationship we began on that fine day I answered my office phone lasted a good while until educational aspirations lead the caller in another direction. She is much, much netter equipped to tackle whatever situation she finds herself in because of the valuable lessons she learned in this, the real world.  All because she MADE THE CALL!

Our Little Girl Got Married

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Our little girl got married.

We first met when she was five and I was not. I was considerably older and was falling deeply in love with her beautiful and remarkable Mother. 

After a short while, I fell in love with her. The kind of love that only God really understands. 

She grew in every facet of her life and I was blessed to be a part of that growth. 

Sure, there were many times when her growth took on the character of a curse and not so much a blessing. But she was more and more mine as time and life moved on. 

There was the day, as a little girl, she declared she was ready to learn how to ride a bike. And knowing her as well as her Mother and I did, we knew were expected to drop everything and teach her how. We did just that.

There was the time she declared she wanted to play on a baseball team. I promptly purchased a right-size and colorful baseball glove and was prepared to begin the basics training process, Dad to Daughter. However, a potentially promising baseball career was derailed when she announced that she was not going to join a team, because there was an unacceptable possibility that she might not like the color of their uniforms!

There was the time when, after a 7-hour ride in a mini-van to see my desperately ill mother, she walked in, sat on the floor in front of my mother, laid her head in mother’s lap and wept. All of the other children were outside playing, she was not.

There are too many experiences to detail here. Most are really positive and wonderfully remembered. 

Over time and life, I learned she has a will as strong as a charging Rhinoceros and a heart as big as a full-moon. 

Our little girl is unique and not just because she is ours, but because she is ours, she inherited many of her Mother's finer qualities and some not so much. These and the qualities she built because of life's experiences, make her unique to us and to many, many others. 

Some of that uniqueness was manifest when, even as a young child, she called her Mother Norma as often as she called her Mommy. We knew she was not being disrespectful, she was just being Adrienne.

She grew up into a very impressive professional. She had a really great professional teacher, me!

She is dedicated to her faith, family, friends, pets and very impressive new Husband. We are proud to have Christopher as our new Son. 

Our little girl getting married is one of our defining moments. We are defined by these occasions because we have dedicated our energies to get to where we are. This we deserve.

We are proud parents and proud in-laws. 

Our little girl is married!