Greetings, GreenMount Community,
The
election is finally over! I never
thought I would look forward to seeing commercials for free carpeting and deals
on cars for which Jack says, “Yes!”.
Well, maybe that’s going too far.
This has indeed
been a season of information, and just maybe some misinformation, through which
we all had to sift before ultimately making our decisions at the polls. My voting experience was punctuated by
comments I heard while waiting in line.
I vote at a senior center (appropriately) and the best comment I heard came
from one of the residents. A frail lady
shuffling by noted the line and remarked, “This is terrible!” (referring to the
long line). “No, this is wonderful,”
said one of her friends. “I haven’t seen this much enthusiasm since I was a younger woman.” Indeed, the turnout at my polling place was
exceptional and in a state where many people feel that the results are a
foregone conclusion, I think we should be happy that we had the turnout that we
did. I was also impressed with the
enthusiasm of voters. People were
friendly, talking about issues and expressing their points of view. Now, if only the Congress can get together
and follow their constituents’ example!
At today’s
Morning Meeting, we discussed the expectation of treating others appropriately
as listed under “Civility” as one of our Pillars. I talked to the students about how all of us
sometimes will gossip about someone who is not present because we might feel
safe from a confrontation that would otherwise result from talking to the
person directly. I gave the example of
how adults will sometimes do things while driving a car that they would not
think of doing in person. For example,
adults sometimes cut in front of each other in their cars, but would be less
likely to do the same while waiting in a line of people. The car becomes our cocoon that protects us
from the confrontation of person-to-person interactions. Likewise, Facebook, tweeting and other cyber-communications
protect us from that direct confrontation.
We discussed this idea and focused on how treating others appropriately include
how we speak of them, even when they are not there. The best GreenMount citizens do the right
thing, even when no one is watching!
Cheers,
Steve
