Just another Friday in Frederic, Wisconsin

15 Jun 2012 Leave a comment

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized

Friday, Friday, way too much too say about this day!  Black Friday, Freaky Friday, Good Friday; Casual Friday, Unlucky Friday! Can you believe a chain of restaurants, a god and more songs than I could list named after this day?  Friday, is derived from the Anglo-Saxon form of Frigga, the Germanic goddessof beauty.  Frigga was the goddess of love, marriage, and destiny. She was the wife of the powerful Norse god Odin, The All-Father.
If there were a magic day, it would be Friday. You know the reason why too, don’t you?  The last day of the week, payday, the day that three day weekends begin on and a holy day as well.  The Easybeats sing:  “Monday, I’ve got Friday on my mind.”  We can all identify with that song, since many of us start thinking about Friday as soon as we are headed to work on Monday. Even those of us who love our work, often look forward to this last day in the week, the day before our weekend break begins and frequently the day we begin it on early.  In Japan, Friday is Kin-Youbi: “Gold Day” or “money day”, and in many Asian cultures, paydays are on Friday (Wikipedia).  Friday for others has often been associated with the dreaded pink slips.  Instead of getting paid, you receive your layoff notice.  Love it, hate it, dread it, fear it, you cannot ignore it.
Well, Friday up North today begins the great 3-day weekend known to us locals as Frederic Days.  Three fun filled days of bake sales, book sales, brat fries, chicken and pork dinners, church dinners, races, sporting events, queen coronation and an amateur hour for local musicians.  I need to be at my library early this morning to get to the book sale.  I want to get their early to get the best selections.  Thus, this Friday I am up a little earlier than usual. Got to get started so I don’t miss anything.  Who would want to get started late on a Friday when there is so much to do and so little time to do it? 
What do Fridays mean to you?  Have Fridays more often been good to you or bad?  Do you anxiously wait for each Friday or do you take your days one at a time?  What do you like most about Fridays?  What if we had a four day week and skipped Fridays? How would you feel about that? Would you miss your Fridays? 

Will you live forever?

14 Jun 2012 2 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized

“Your time is running out” says the villain to the hero. How often have you heard this phase in the movies? Of course, we know that this is a lie. The villain’s declaration is just a cue for our heroine to spring into action. She will then surprise us with some type of unexpected near miraculous escape.  Perhaps, she will fool the villain into talking long enough so she can manage her escape. You know how villains like to explain their entire rationale for their villager.  This comment on time may be the most common phrase or at least one of the most common in all of theater. It is so melodramatic that authors can not refuse to use it. 
However, what do you think you would do if your doctor said this to you?  Perhaps at your next physical, you doctor tells you that “your time is running out.” Would you simply think of the metaphor of an hourglass with the sands of time running through it or would it strike a more essential chord of your being.  I am going to guess the latter.  You would want to know how much time you had left. You would want to know how you could escape this trap.  If there were no way out, eventually you would start wondering how you should spend the rest of your remaining days.  Suddenly time and its effective use would become the most important priority in your life.  Many of us would drop the nonessentials and focus on only the truly important things in our lives.
Karen’s mother died from breast cancer and she has always had a fear of this form of death.  We often joke about who will live longer, and she has repeatedly said “Oh, you are so healthy and active, you will live forwever.”  I seldom if ever am sick. In 13 years of teaching at Globe, I had only taken one sick day. In my 11 years of consulting before Globe, I had never taken even one sick day.  Imagine, our surprise when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer two weeks ago.  I told Karen “See, I beat you again and I was right again.”  Sort of sick humor I guess.  I know few men die of prostate cancer (could I be the first?) but the idea of having cancer and of hearing my doctor say “The bad news is you have cancer” is not what I expected to hear.  I mean, I have always been so healthy how could these f——– germs attack me.  I would think they would pick on a smoker or drinker or someone who is always sickly.  I watch my diet and my food.  Oh, well, that’s the way the diagnosis goes.  I want to live my life like my friend Harold who when he was dying said “I have no regrets.”  What a great inscription for my tombstone.  
Ironically, whether your doctor or a villain says it to you, it is a hundred percent true fact that time is running out for each of us each day.  Do you know anyone who ever said “my time is running in?”  Do you know anyone who knows the hour of their death?  Maybe, you should think more about your real priorities each day before it is too late, before someone else tells you that your time is running out.  Perhaps, you should be asking yourself today “What really does matter to me?”  
Do you spend more time doing what matters or do you spend more time on the nonessentials?  What would you change in your life if you were suddenly confronted with the fact that “Your time is running out?”  

Tempus Fugit?

13 Jun 2012 Leave a comment

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized

Tempus Fugit:  The expression was first used in the verse Georgica written by Roman poet Virgil: Sed fugit interea fugit irreparabile tempus, which means, “But it flees in the meantime: irretrievable time flees.” (Wikipedia). Two thousand years have past and sadly, no one has yet learned to retrieve time.  Time is a precious and scare resource that is valued and sought after but that becomes more important later in life.  As one grows older, the law of supply and demand enforces an increased value for time.  Time is to the elderly as money is to youth.  Yet, where money can be retrieved, time cannot.  I can lose a fortune but if I waste ten years of my life, I can never recover the spent time.  Who would not want to find the Fountain of Youth?
Time flies and flies and flies and ever I wish I could just “stop” the clock. Stopping the clock seems only possible on game shows and in some sports.  However, we do have those special moments when time seems to stand still. When we are truly engaged in something or someone, time may not seem to be present in our lives.  Like a hummingbird, time can hover in one place but only for short sequences.  Inevitably the clock starts to move again and we return to the world of time and money.   
As you go through the day, try to reflect on the Latin phase “tempus fugit” and see how and when your time flies. There is a value in truly treasuring the moments of our lives. Sometimes we seem to be trying to make time fly faster than it does.  Are you in a hurry to get home, to go on that date, to get some job or chore done?  In such cases, you can’t stand to see time standing still.  You want tomorrow to happen today.  It does not matter then that time flies. Where will your time fly today?  Where would you rather have it linger like the hummingbird?  Do you take enough time in the day to just let it hover for awhile?  What would your life be like if you had more hover time and less “tempus fugit?”

10 Things the ADA requires from Websites.

12 Jun 2012 1 Comment

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized

This post was from a reader and it might be helpful to many of you out there. My thanks to Ms. Howard for sharing it with us.

We recently published an article that you may be interested in entitled, “10 Things the ADA Requires from Websites” (http://www.longhornleads.com/blog/2012/10-things-the-ada-requires-from-websites/).

After having followed your blog for a while, I feel that this one article would align well with yourblog’s subject matter. I thought perhaps you’d be interested in sharing thisarticle with your readers? Thanks, and keep up the great blogging!

Sincerely,
Hannah Howard           

Are you still on a time clock?

12 Jun 2012 1 Comment

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized

Time clocks are synonymous with the industrial revolution.  Prior to industrial work, people thought of time as more cyclical. Time clocks went hand in hand with factory or machine and assembly line work.  The concept of a “Time clock” is an oxymoron.  Aren’t all clocks, time clocks?  The industrial revolution was a period when brawn became more valued than brains.  It was more important to measure the amount of time that a person worked (and this was equated with productivity and quantity) then the quality or creativity of their work. The information age and knowledge age has reportedly ushered in a quantum change in how we view and value work. Today, creativity and innovation have become highly prized, at least in word if not in deed.
On hears today that quality, creativity and innovation are the cornerstones of success in the 21st century business world.  Nevertheless, we still see managers who are more concerned with the time clock as a measure of productivity than anything else.  How long did you work today is often more important than how much you accomplished or what new ideas and innovations you could come up with. We talk about allowing workers to telecommute, yet many managers express the view that: “how will I know what they are doing or if they are really working?”  “Well, perhaps they will not get their job done and then you would know!”  We may live in the knowledge age, but the industrial era mindset is still dominant in many workplaces.
It often takes a generation before minds catch up with new technology and paradigm shifts. We have 21st century needs and technology still driven by 20th century minds and concerns. Companies that cannot make the change are destined to go the way of the dinosaur.  The same might be said for managers who cannot change their mindset.
What do you value in your workplace? Do you measure how much your employees contribute, including ideas and innovations or are you measuring how long they work and how many hours they put in?  Do you have the power to change things?  If so, when will you go from the 20thcentury to the 21st?   When will you start treating your employees like knowledge workers rather than machines?     

The value of spiritual exercise

11 Jun 2012 4 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized

We often hear the comment from someone getting older that they are “Aging like fine wine.”  Well, yes, wine does gets better with age, but sadly, the human body does not. My joints and muscles are no longer as flexible as they once were. My body does not recover as fast from aches and pains as it once did, and I no longer dream of playing football on the weekends or any rough contact sports for that matter.  My body seems to be aging more like cheese.  It is getting softer and moldier around the edges.  It might still be edible but it is not as fresh as it once was.  The good side of this issue is that my brain is more nimble and astute than ever. (IMHO) 
The body will inevitably deteriorate, (even with plastic surgery, knee and hip replacements etc.), but the brain does not necessarily age the same way. Studies have shown that IQ can remain the same throughout one’s life, if you keep “exercising” the brain by reading, studying and learning. Now of course, the body will stay in better shape as well if you keep up with some exercising.  However, no amount of exercising is going to keep the body in the same shape as when we were 21 or younger. 
Then we come to the soul and spirit. Here is where age can really excel over youth. Through experience and moral exercise, we can all become better then we were. We can continue to grow spiritually and morally throughout our entire lives. We can leave this earth as better people. We can give back to the world some of what we took from it. However, this also requires exercise. It requires exercise of both moral and spiritual values.  It requires moral and spiritual discipline. You will not grow in either area if you do not take the time to practice skills that lead to moral and spiritual development.  The virtues of faith, hope, charity and love must be practiced daily or they atrophy like old moldy cheese.
What exercise do you get each day?  Do you exercise morally and spiritually as well as physically and mentally?  Which areas do you need to concentrate more on?  Are you aging like a fine wine or like moldy cheese?  What do you need to do to perk up your aging process? 

Does it really belong to me?

08 Jun 2012 4 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized

A few days ago I received an email from a reader named Karen who lives in Australia or “down under” as many refer to the country.  Karen noted that her two teenage sons had found my blog useful for some of their school work and that some of my subjects were interesting to them.  Her older son is a senior in high school and has been studying the idea of “belonging.”  She suggested that I write on the subject of “belonging” and how it fit with time or perhaps just write on the topic as a new series of blogs.  I told Karen that I would think on this some as I used the “incubation” method of developing material.  I usually get an idea, put it on a notecard and let it “gestate” for a few days and then see if the muse of creativity visits me. 
One of my best ways of getting ideas for this blog has been to reflect on the idea while I am jogging.  So yesterday I did about 4 miles while thinking about the idea of “belonging.”  What does it mean? What are the ramifications?  Does the concept have the same meaning to people as it does to things?  What about how it applies to land and other legal titles?  My name belongs to me.  My house belongs to me.  My car belongs to me.  My property belongs to me.  My children belong to me.  However, my wife does not belong to me nor can I buy anyone like I buy a new motorcycle or a new coffee pot. 
Ownership is intimately related to “belonging” as is the idea of responsibility.  We are responsible for those things that belong to us. Thus, we are responsible for our children until they are adults and then they no longer belong to us.  We are not responsible for our relatives or our friends or our spouses and we would not say they belong to us. However, many people, (more men I think than women) act as though their spouses belong to them.  Some people have a perverted idea of what a marriage license or in other cases even a relationship means and they quite literally start to act as thought the other person they are in a relationship with is someone they own.  They attach the idea of belonging to people as though they are chattel or some type of product that they can buy, sell or trade.  How many times have you read some comment like “If I can’t have her, no one can.”  Each day the newspaper (at least in the USA) has some story about a guy who either murders his former wife or murders his estranged wife because “she left him or wanted to leave him.”  When I say this is a perverted sense of “belonging”, I think it is perverted because it carries the ideas of ownership to people.  It assumes that we own people like we own a product and that we have exclusive rights to their time, affections, attention and even bodies.  Should such “property” decide to “terminate” the relationship, it is a catalyst for feelings of betrayal, anger, jealousy and even hatred.  “If I can’t own them, if they no longer belong to me, I will see that they no longer belong to anyone else.” 
Here is where the idea of time comes in.  We get married and we promise to remain faithful until “Death do us part.”   Those who take the idea of belonging to extremes take this idea to mean that never can the other person “belong” to anyone else.  Their affections and body belong to only one person and that belonging is for perpetuity.  No one has a problem with this idea when it comes to things or property but when it comes to people; most modern cultures tend to regard the idea of anyone belonging to another as at best out of date and in many cases as simply sick.  I noted above that children are an exception.  It is often heard “who does that kid belong to?”  Children do belong (at least in a legal sense) to parents, guardians or foster care but this ownership only lasts until they become an adult.  After some legal age of responsibility, children no longer belong to their parents and any parent who continued to refer to their children that way would be thought of very strangely.   
As you may have noted, the concept of “belonging” not only implies a sense of ownership but it also implies a sense of responsibility.  Things that we own are things that we are responsible for. I own a dog or other pet and I am responsible for that animal.  If my dog bites or attacks someone, I can be sued or fined for the offense. We are responsible to different degrees for the things we own and land infers a different responsibility than my ownership of a new car.  Many legal warranties will specify my responsibilities for my new car and of course there are any numbers of legal ordinances which specify my responsibilities for my automobile.  Who was it said that great “power brings great responsibility?”  I suppose it can be said that the more possibilities something has for hurting others, the more responsibilities the owner has.
By the way, I find two different definitions for the concept of “belonging” in the online dictionaries.  One implies ownership and the verb form implies classification.  The latter is an interesting concept that I may explore some other time. 
Be·long·ing (Noun)
1.     A personal item that one owns; a possession. Often used in the plural.
2.     Acceptance as a natural member or part: a sense of belonging.

Belonging  present participle of be·long (Verb)
1.     (of a thing) Be rightly placed in a specified position: “learning to place the blame where it belongs”.
2.     Be rightly classified in or assigned to a specified category.
Suffice it to say, I have been focusing on the first or noun definition.  In this term, “belonging” also implies a sense of time.  We only own something as long as we are alive.  Something can only belong to us as long as we live. We can put something in a trust, but that simply transfers ownership.  My car, motorcycle, house, property and other objects that now belong to me, will no longer belong to me after I am dead and departed.  They will cease to be mine.  We can’t take them with us.  Some of the Pharaohs apparently thought they could and their tombs were found with numerous possessions as well as corpses of their wives and slaves.  Back in Ramses day, a man truly owned his wife as well as other people.
 
Going back to the idea of time and “belonging” and ownership, it is interesting how many of us act as though these things that we own can be taken with us.  We hoard, acquire, shop, buy, accumulate but eventually we die.  Our “belongings” are now junked, trashed, sold or liquidated to make cash for someone else.  Those things we thought most precious for our lives now become someone else’s junk.  Note the many estate sales, where relatives are heard to say, “I can’t believe they had so much junk.”  One person’s treasures are another person’s junk. 
Things no longer belong to us when we die. We no longer have any responsibility for them.  You can’t take it with you but you can ruin your life thinking that these things that you own, these things that belong to you have some form of transubstantiation.  You can delude yourself into thinking that they can be changed into something permanent and timeless or that they have some sense of immutable value.  The only true value they have is to you. When you die, they may or may not have any value to anyone else.  They may simply go into the junk pile of history.  Discarded and forgotten along with most of the rest of the stuff that you have spent years acquiring. 
Next time you think that something “belongs’ to you, ask yourself why it is important to own anything?  Is life simply about acquiring more? Does he or she who has the most toys win? What do you really win?  Our lives are defined by those “gods” that govern our behavior.  If you live to acquire, what god are you worshipping?  Will he/she let you take it with you? What will be written on your tombstone that will survive longer than your possessions?  Perhaps the words: “It all belonged to him.” 
Thank you Karen for the idea for my blog today.  I hope your older son will take my ideas and play with them. I would love to see his paper or final project. It occurred to me that the second definition under Noun would create an entirely different perspective. To belong to something rather than something belonging to you is a very different issue.  Something more to think about.  

Don’t Waste My Time!

07 Jun 2012 2 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized

Stop wasting my time!  This is a comment that is frequently heard and seldom reflected on. What does it mean to waste someone’s time?  Does the person know they are wasting your time? What was the person doing that “wasted” your time? Is it like wasting food or wasting money?  When someone tells you something that you are not interested in, does it waste your time?  In a country where the average person watches more than 25 hours a week of TV, it seems preposterous that anyone could dare use a phrase like “stop wasting my time.”
We spend over 14 hours per week watching people hitting a ball, carrying a ball, throwing a ball and bouncing a ball in games that we call sports, but we do not consider this a “waste” of our time.  If sports and TV are not time wasters, then what qualifies?  The average time spent watching sports (2.3 hours per day) is seven times greater than the average time spent participating in sports (.31 hours per day).  Perhaps watching sports exercises one’s eyeballs?  So what does it really mean to waste your time?  Is this time when you are not doing anything?  Whose fault is that if you have nothing to do? 
If we were honest, we would admit that most of us waste our own time with silly meaningless activities designed to take our mind off living and perhaps really accomplishing something. We are each experts at ways to waste time.  TV, gambling, casinos, watching sports, newspapers, endless meetings, etc. are only a smattering of the myriad ways we waste our time each day. Wasting time is a very subjective concept, since what I think is very wasteful, you might think is very useful.  My ideas of what constitute a valuable use of time might fit your definition of “time wasters.” Nevertheless, we all have our own ideas of what time wasting means to us. 

What if more of us started “wasting” our time on the activities that could really make a difference to the world?  What would the world be like, if more of us took an interest in government, law and politics and less in TV, gambling, sports and other activities?  What if we spent more time in charitable activities, loving others, finding ways to bring peace to the world, building bridges and creating friendships with those in need?  What if we spent 25 hours a week on these activities instead of watching TV?  Could you spend one hour less on TV this week and one hour more on peace?  Where would you start?  When will you start?  Why not today? 

What is the point of saving time? Is time management just a crock?

06 Jun 2012 2 Comments

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized

“Find More You Time!” This was a heading from a recent magazine cover. The byline was: “ten tips to try today.” Would you like to know what they are?  First, let’s talk about the subject of this article. How often do you see tips for saving time? Seems just about every day another article or expert is telling you how to “save” time? Do you know anyone who has time in a bank someplace?  “Yesterday I saved forty minutes and added it to my bank. I now have six hundred hours in my bank to use or to extend my life-time with.”  Wow, now that would really be something! Imagine if we could add all of our “saved” time on to the end of our life.  I have not heard of any time savings plan that would allow us to do that. Mores the pity!  I have not even heard of any savings plan that would let me transfer savings time from today to tomorrow.

Whenever I “save” time, I usually end up just relaxing. I suppose I could apply it to my next task and have more time to do it in, but it never seems to work that way. I mean, if you save time traveling someplace, what does that really get you? Look at those fools who tailgate and weave in an out of traffic as though it was the Indianapolis 500.  They drive like they think they are going to get an award for being first to work.  It might get you more time to do the next job or it might get you to an early grave.  Savings time seems to be akin to those ubiquitous diet plans that are always going to save you calories and thus help you lose weight.  Do you see all of the people that have lost weight?  Show me all the successful people that are time savers.

Maybe we are trying to do the wrong thing. Maybe saving time is not the right way to look at time. If we cannot really save time, then why describe it that way? What most of these ideas are about is really doing things faster or more efficiently. However, isn’t that what puts us on the treadmill in the first place? Always trying to do things faster and more efficiently; how many of us have become multi-taskers and to what benefit? Does multi-tasking really make us more productive or does it just cause us more stress. Maybe we need to learn how to waste time more.  Maybe we need to play more and have more fun?

Are you always trying to save time?  Have you managed to store time up for a rainy day? Are you always multi-tasking? Are you stressed out about not having enough time?  Is your concern for saving time making you happier or more productive? What if you took more time for fun and play in your life?  .

Can time affect your diet?

05 Jun 2012 Leave a comment

by Dr. John Persico Jr. in Uncategorized

Staying fit by the clock.  Can time affect our diets? Some experts proclaim that there is a best time for everything. They say this applies to eating, sleeping, drinking and exercising.  By following the best times, they report that you can stay healthier and happier. Staying fit by the clock is a philosophy that stresses consistency.  You exercise and eat at consistent times during the day.  However, with the many changes that each of use face in our lives, we must fit our exercise and eating into the varied patterns that our daily schedule will face. Modern life does not seem to allow many of us the luxury of a fixed schedule that never changes.
For instance, in terms of my own exercise schedule, I find that it must be flexible to accommodate my teaching schedule. My teaching schedule changes from quarter to quarter. Thus some quarters, I am teaching nights and others quarters it will be days. I adapt my exercise schedule to these changes. Some months, I exercise in the morning, some in the afternoon and some in the evening. There might be better times to exercise, but some exercise is better than no exercise regardless of when I do it. I have even run as late as 11 PM when it was dark and quiet. I bought some of those headlamps to wear when running trails at night. It is a very eerie feeling to run at dark with these lights giving me a true sense of tunnel vision in the woods.  
I also like to pay attention to my body clock as well as my time clock. I don’t care if it is “eating” time or supper time. If I am not hungry, I am not going to eat. Eating by the clock seems foolish to me. We have so many experts giving us advice that we forget to listen to our own common sense. What does your body tell you?  Do you feel good?  Do you feel healthy? Are you proud of your looks and your health? If not, then you probably need to do something different. Explore, read, and ask an expert but DO NOT put all of your health and happiness into an expert’s hands, no matter how many degrees they have. How can you take charge of your life and your time now?  What is keeping you from taking responsibility for your own life? If you already feel that you do, wonderful. 

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