Monday Motivator: Be Gracious

 

 

I’ve been thinking about some lines in Don Henley’s song, “The Heart of the Matter” recently:

These times are so uncertain
There’s a yearning undefined
People filled with rage
We all need a little tenderness
How can love survive in such a graceless age?

They could certainly speak of our own pandemic age. Like you, I’ve seen the news where store employees have been spat on and even shot for asking someone to wear a mask. That sort of behavior wears me down, and I think that maybe I’ll never leave my house again.

But, ironically, all I have to do is leave my house to be reminded there is a lot of graciousness in a ‘graceless age.’ Just last week, I was waiting to check out at the supermarket. Standing the requisite six feet behind the customer ahead of me, I still witnessed what happened.

The woman was masked and had bought her own shopping bag. She had used it instead of a basket, so she was unloading her items from it as she was being checked out.

Then she looked at the bagger and asked, “What makes you safer: using the bag I brought or the plastic bags here?”

Probably, from a scientific perspective, there wasn’t much difference between the two. But I bet it made those employees’ day, to have someone ask them about their comfort level.

And I made a promise to the universe to follow her example: even after this pandemic age is over.

 

 

Monday Motivator: The Jolly Librarian’s Thoughts for Graduates

 

At this time each year, I write the Jolly Librarian’s Thoughts for Graduates. The post is a little sad for me this year since we will not have a face-to-face ceremony due to the pandemic. To be honest, I only attended one of the graduation ceremonies for my various degrees. Still, I know it is meaningful for many students, especially for some of our nontraditional students. Also, as a faculty member and now a dean at our college, I find it especially touching as I see ‘my’ students go through the line.

Still, I want to share my graduation thoughts. I have three pieces of advice.

• You may be disappointed that you will not participate in a live commencement, walk through the line, hug mentors, take pictures with classmates, and cry with families. It is perfectly okay to feel disappointed. It would be a little strange if you didn’t. So don’t feel bad about feeling bad.
• BUT remember the ceremony is not the degree. The work has still been done. The lessons have still been learned. And the skills learned will still transfer to the next level of education and/or to a career. You did it!
• We are living through a historic time. Scholars and scientists will study this period for generations. This is a time to document. Later scholars will want to know how we modified our lives, what we feared, what we dreamed, and how we coped. Leave a written record for your children and your grandchildren.
• A comma is not a period. These past few months have felt strange to us all. It seems that normal time has stopped. We have had to adjust to new ways of doing things from going to class to walking into Costco. In some ways, because this virus is a new mutation and we don’t understand it yet, it can feel like this time will never end. But sometimes clichés are clichés because they hold true: The only thing constant in life is change. This too will pass.

The hardest part of this time for me professionally is that I did not get the chance to say goodbye to the graduating students who are library regulars.  And even though I didn’t get to say this year, I hope they know how proud I am of each and every one of them.

 

Monday Motivator: Set a New Goal

Last week, I entered the Virtual Race Across Tennessee. Starting in Memphis on May 1, we are to run the equivalent distance of crossing the state in three months.

This was not my best idea for several reasons:

1. I am not a runner. The best I manage is a mile on the track at the Y in an environment that has no inclines and is climate controlled.
2. Since the stay-at-home orders, I have not been to the Y since mid-March.
3. In the past year, I have had several injuries: a bout with plantar fasciitis and a tumble on some downtown marble that left my knee a lovely shade of purple and in residual pain.
4. I am old.

In short, I have no chance of completing this race. So why did I do it?

Because in the midst of this pandemic, I needed a new goal. I needed something new to achieve. And I needed some sort of external motivation to help me achieve it.

So I paid my money and went for long walks on both May 1 and 2. And I checked my progress on the runners’ list. Sadly, I seem to have gone backwards and now am in Arkansas.

But I don’t feel like a loser.  I am using the race to set a reasonable goal for myself:  to up my 10000 steps a day to 15000. If I can do that, I will be healthier, I think. So even if I don’t make it to virtual Virginia by the end of the summer, I will be a winner.

And in the meantime, I am enjoying the posts from the other participants as they run across their own states and counties. I appreciate being part of a community. And it has given me a little extra motivation that I badly needed in the sixth week of being at home.