Educational Excellence

Happy Friday, Y’all …. ALL y’all!

Yes, I am feeling chipper today … not only because it has gotten a little chilly here in Sabadell, and is cloudy … no sunshine in sight … but because I have all this gratitude in my attitude …. AGAIN today!!  And … it’s Friday … AGAIN!!  T.G.I.F.!

Life is such a great gift … especially when one doesn’t have so many complications.  I mean, I will accept mine WITH the complications.  I guess I wouldn’t be “Me” unless I had and have complications to help shape me and form me.  Yet, I learn to handle each new one with renewed insight and strength.  I try not to let them … complications … wear me down.  Yesterday, I took a trip to an area of Barcelona called Barceloneta … It is close to the beach, the Port of Barcelona, and is rich in sights, tourists and street vendors, not to mention the competition of the local stores to lower their prices to compete with the street vendors.  There are some pretty cool restaurants, too.  I ate at one yesterday called “Taller de Las Tapas” where I had my favorite, calamari lightly fried and salted … with a ginger ale on the side.  I was just getting started on my adventure and needed a little energy to endure the casual 10 – 15 minute walk to the beach along the bustling harbor.  There were yachts in the water preparing to go out while others were just coming in and cleaning up, there were vendors on every inch of space along the side walks and tourists as well as locals all over the place!  The energy was swell.  I was able to saunter, meander and walk like there was no tomorrow!

Me and EE … you know, Educational Excellence … have this saying: “Know Thyself!” which we borrowed from Socrates and probably some other great “philosophs” of earlier times.  Have you noticed how many people think that they know everything … I mean EVERY DAMN THING … about me and you and the rest of the universe … and they don’t know much about themSELVES?!?  How annoying is that?!?  I could go on and on about the current president being an example but the one that really hit me was his comment alluding to the fact … alternate fact, of course … that Fredrick Douglass IS still alive!!  It just goes to show that some people will say anything just to seem like they like you or want to get along with you when they are really “sucking you in” to believe whatever they say.  Then, they say something completely hideous, that unless you are willing to be ignorant like they are, you finally realize that they are full of sh@t!

Here along my journey which is most definitely an “adventure” of sorts, I have realized that I can call upon another level of existence, of knowledge … of energy that I didn’t know that I had.  One thing I do have is a lot of self-confidence.  It’s hard to shake this “old horse” from believing what “he” already knows to be true.  I do my research first … then flap my lips afterwards, if necessary!  Sometimes, you can’t even converse with some of these “know-it-alls” because they continue to insist that … “they are right and you are wrong”!  How hideous, right?!  I can’t reduce myself to that level of existence … doing something or believing something … worse yet SAYING something that I know (or don’t know in Scrump’s case) to be wrong!  How do you do that?!?  This is another thing that I am grateful for … for knowing how to and believing in doing “the right thing”!

People come along when “we” are hurting and try to sell us on a complete bill of bull crap!  No shame in their game … just to be darn “right”, though wrong, for a second at the expense of a “broken-hearted person” or a “helpless soul” … so that they can feel “superior” … falsely superior.  To those kind of folks, I say, “Get the eff outa here!”  And please, stay out of my face with your pompous ignorance … it’s the worst kind.  I have found that I can learn something from just about anyone … even a liar!  I can learn what they hope I believe … I can learn what they fear in ME … and learn what they lack in themselves.  Sometimes, if they calm down … I am even willing to try to help them realize what they REALLY want other than to lie to me and have me believe it!!  Reverse psychology, you dig?!

So, my dear hearts all over the world out there, beware of those “false prophets” who rely on your ignorance of yourself … they know that you don’t know yourself … so they try to convince you that you are whom they NEED you to be.

Be well, have a great weekend … I will!

Peace,

John I. Cook, Director