Potluck Dinner!

Discussing diversity is dicey!  Rep. Steve King of Iowa found that out when he tweeted that America’s diversity isn’t our national strength, but rather that assimilation is our strength.[i]  Social media lanced him with comments not repeated in polite company.  Thankfully, he didn’t call America a “melting-pot.”  The intelligentsia would have stoned him.  They consider assimilation and melting pot racists terms, so why suffer twice the slings and arrows.[ii]  

The meaning of words can mutate over time.  Diversity and melting pot are two of them.  Progressives and conservatives emphasize different meanings, college professors preach their own brand of egalitarianism, and soon an ideal becomes an onus.  Context has a significant role in how we look at diversity.

I came of age in a small town in northeast Vermont, nearly one third of its inhabitants of French Canadian descent.  They spoke French at home, they attended Notre Dame de Victoire Catholic Church, and sent their kids to French speaking schools.  The Irish Catholics attended St. Aloysius.  Descendents from other European countries spoke English, having assimilated generations earlier.  At the end of the day, however, these diverse groups tried hard to be part of a fondue they called America.  The melting pot was devoutly to be wished back then.     

My mother’s side of the family immigrated from French-Canada.  My father’s mother emigrated from the Irish section of Montreal.  In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, where you came from identified  you.  After a generation or two everyone seemed to assimilate; they came to find work, got good jobs when they could, opened shops, learned trades, bought houses and cars, learned enough history to pass the citizenship tests, and then they voted.

Today’s immigration paints a different picture.  Immigrants, legal or not, come from many more parts of the world with many more cultural backgrounds, many more languages, and many beliefs.  Some sneak through the border fences, others over stay their visas, and others, well ….  In spite of our President’s wishes, we are not all blue-eyed blonde-haired Scandinavians.  We never were.

Census Bureau[iii] data shows wide variations of foreign-born population, nationally and by state; Alabama has 03.6% and California 27%, New York 22.6% and Mississippi 2.3%.  Diversity has different meaning state by state.  We have a large Hispanic population that varies by state: California 38.9% and West Virginia 1.5%, or New Mexico 48.5% and Missouri 4.1%...  To “blend in” in West Virginia, where 90+percent of the population are of one group means something different when compared to an area where nearly 40% of the population is recent immigrants? 

As far back as the 80’s I was told that the idea of the “melting pot”[iv] is racist and demeaning to ethnic sensitivities.  I was taken aback.  For generations it was the metaphor that defined what America was and should be; our various cultures coming together to build a new common culture.  People said they came here for opportunity for themselves and their families.  They told us that they had heard stories that if you worked hard you could accomplish whatever you wanted.  They went to school, they learned the Lingua Franca, and they learned to live in a new culture without giving up too much of their own.

Today college faculties and students are told that it is racist to say that America is a melting pot, that it is racist to say that you believe the most qualified person should get the job, or it’s racist when you say that everyone can succeed if they work hard enough.[v] 

An article in Fiscal Policy Studies Institute said that it is a myth that we are a melting pot.[vi]  It suggests that if we ever were a melting pot, we aren’t today.  We may share a form of American identity but we have separate cultural identities that coexist, each vitally alive and unmelted.

Maisha Johnson suggests a different metaphor, the potluck dinner.  We’ve all been to one; someone brings a composed salad they learned to make in France, someone of Indian heritage brings wonderful Naan bread, there is a bowl of Texas chili, some curried chicken, spring rolls, and apple pie.  A smorgasbord of wonderful food lay before us.  How will we react when the host pours it all into the blender and purees it?[vii]  The potluck dinner seems a good description of modern America.   

The US Citizen and Immigration Services data tells us that nearly 700,000 people become citizens each year.  Ten States account for 75% of the new citizens: most of them on the coasts, and in or near big cities.  Most come from China, India, the Philippines, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico.  Think of what we would be missing if we didn’t include the cultural heritage of these new citizens into their newfound country.

Historically, we welcome immigrants when we need them and send them home when we don’t.  In 1915 when WWI ended, men returned to their homes and jobs, and Mexican laborers were deported.  In 1943, The Bracero Program encouraged Mexicans to move to the U.S. to provide labor for American manufacturing until the soldiers returned.  After the Korean War, we deported nearly four million Mexicans during Operation Wetback.  Ten years later the Border Industrialization Program established the Maquiladoras Program to encourage American companies to open factories on the Mexican side of our southern border.  Today, our President wants to punish companies that do that.  It’s easy to detect racism in the current protest about immigration.  Interestingly much of the concern comes from areas with very low immigrant populations.

Many, it seems, are concerned about the “American culture” changing too rapidly, even though it’s hard to define.  Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said that he couldn’t define pornography, “but I know it when I see it.”[viii]  Culture is like that.  You know it when you see it.  Maybe you know it when you see it, but try this experiment.  Ask any ten people to define “American culture.”  You should get twenty different descriptions...  Why?

The answer is hiding in plain sight.  We are a country of diverse races, cultures, ethnicities, and religions from all over the world who strive to be part of the stew called America.  What really unites us is an idea.  It starts with “We the People …” Think of how radical that idea was when first proclaimed in 1787.  Too many in the world today can’t say that about their country.  The ideal is one for which people are willing to cross oceans, or cross dangerous deserts to be a part of it.  It is a place where personal industry can flourish, where who you are is more important than what you are.  Some came for the adventure, others forced to come, indentured, some refugees from oppression, some for wealth, but most for opportunity.  In many cases, E Pluribus Unum[ix] evaded us.  Self-interest, self-preservation, and racism make us unwelcoming at times. 

Can we make a major national mental shift?  Can we begin concentrating on what unites us, not what separates us or makes us different?  Can we start in the first grade of school and carry that message to the graduate school level?  Can we have laws that ensure equal treatment, justice administered with a blind eye?  Can we ask companies to actually hire diverse groups of people, not just say they try?  Can we ask cable news shows and talk-radio to be more even handed in their discussions?  Can we embrace change rather than fight it?  Can we accommodate the new immigrant?

The Census Bureau counted 84 people in my hometown who still speak some French at home, down from nearly 2,000 a hundred years ago.  We can lament the loss of a unique culture, or we can rejoice in the strong sense of unity that exists in a commonality where, over time, the people become one while being many, celebrating their own culture.  Diversity is, I’m convinced, our strength when we share it with others.  I can give up the melting pot metaphor.  I think the potluck dinner is more accurate.  What do you think?

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[i]Jacqueline Thomsan – The Hill – 12/08/2017

[ii]Shakespeare -Hamlet – Act III, Scene I

[iii]https://www.census.gov/quickfacts

[iv]Israel Zangwill – The Melting Pot – Play Staged in 1908

[v]National Review – July 1, 2015 –Examples of Racial Microaggressions

[vi]The End of the Melting Pot – Mark Friedman – April 5, 2006 – Fiscal Policy Studies Institute

[vii]Maisha Z. Johnson – 4 lies you’ve fallen for if you think the US is a melting pot – Everyday Feminism Magazine – 8/29/2016

[viii]Jacobellis v. Ohio 1964 – Justice Potter Stewart - Concurrence

[ix][ix]Motto of the United States – Original

A Stomach in Knots!

My high school social studies teachers taught the value of citizens being aware of current world events.  Mr. Pierce required weekly reading of Newsweek magazine.  It helped you pass the Friday quiz.  Mr. Plummer used the newspapers, mostly, but still had the Friday quiz.  I caught the bug early and “political junkie” continues to this day. 

I carry strong memories of my parents listening to the news each evening before dinner.  We watched the radio as we listened to Gabriel Heatter tell us about the war in Europe and the events in Washington.  The daily newspaper, read front to back, provided more information.  Later, television provided a choice of three news reports each evening.  Five if you count the two channels from Montreal in English or French.  The weekly newsreels at the movies showed the world in motion.

It was a simpler time.  Keeping up was simpler.  Reporting was simpler.  Our presidents were pictured as men of integrity, who had toiled long hours and years to achieve the most powerful position in the world.  They did it with dignity for the most part.  Even Nixon had the dignity to resign.  Ford forsook his legacy to unite the country.  Kennedy asked what we could do, sent out a Peace Corp, and stared down a nuclear holocaust.  Reagan called for demolition of The Wall.  Obama brought a first step to healthcare sanity for the poor.  If we agreed with the policies of our presidents or not, we knew we had leaders with integrity, who knew the awesome privilege of the office and brought dignity to their efforts.  For me, that changed last year.  It really changed last night.  My stomach was in knots.

 New Presidents come into office with the promise of change.  They get to implement their ideas.  I get that, and give Mr. Trump a lot of slack in that area.  I don’t agree with most of his policies, but, he was elected and those I supported, were not.  That is not the issue.

Yesterday, in a meeting with congressional leaders, The President referred to people of other countries, here in our country under special protection programs, in the vilest terms ever uttered at the White House.  The President castigated anyone from the 54 countries of Africa, most of Central America and the Caribbean and wondered why we couldn’t have more white people from Northern Europe.  That was the last straw.  My stomach is in knots.

Our nation fought bigotry throughout its recent history.  People marched to Selma to end bigotry.  People marched on Washington to end segregation.  Now we have a President who encourages bigotry and racism.  There is no denying that assertion.  He is shredding the fabric of the country.  In one afternoon meeting, with one comment, oft repeated, he brings shame to the Office of the President.  He brings shame to the country.  He isolates us from the civilized worlds. 

On the weekend in which we celebrate Martin Luther King’s birthday, vile, contemptible words of hate emanate from the halls of the White House.  It is a disgrace to the office, it is a disgrace to the country, and it is a disgrace to the American people irrespective of their political persuasion.  How much more must we endure?  This can’t become the new norm.  We can’t sit back and tell people to ignore the tweets or the comments.  Our President is a racist, a xenophobe, and a man ignorant of his role as a leader of the country and the world.  He brought disdain to our nation.

He needs to go on nationwide television and apologize to the American people and the people of all the nations he injured and held in contempt.  Otherwise, he needs to resign the office. 

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Awake From Your Slumber!

Christmas is my favorite holiday.  Isaiah is my favorite Old Testament writer.  I was a Lector at church for over 25 years.  Most years, at Midnight Mass, I read from the Old Testament, always Isaiah.

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwell in the land of gloom a light has shown.  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given."[i] 

What a wonderful way to be awakened in the first hour of a wonder-filled day.  Isaiah, throughout his writings, exhorts us to awake and to rise up.  In the KJV, he tells us to wakeneth.

I haven’t been to Midnight Mass in a few years.  The next generation isn’t interested in a midnight service, the earlier one at 7:00 pm is preferred, if they go at all.  But, I still read Isaiah’s words every Christmas Eve.  

Years ago, I spent the very early hours of Christmas morning working on toys labeled “some assembly required.”  In what seemed only an hour or two later, little people were jumping on the bed, waking us, who didn’t want to be woken so early, to start the morning’s festivities.  Even after all these years in retirement, I still seem to wake early, before most others on Christmas morning.  By the time they show up, in new pajamas and robes, I’ve showered and dressed for the day.  I get odd looks all around.  It doesn’t take long for presents to be passed around and opened.  Is that the end of Christmas or the beginning? 

Christmas is really a religious season, which commemorates the birth of a believed God, not just a one-day event set aside for gift giving.  It comes after four weeks of Advent preparation and continues until Epiphany, twelve days later.  It is a time when the words of the traditional hymn urge to “awake from your slumber, arise from your sleep, for the Lord of our light and our love has turned the night into day.”[ii]  Not enough of us, believers or not, have woken to the real opportunity to spread that light to others.  The promise of Christmas, on a grand scale, hasn’t been met; too much night and not enough day.

In small ways though, in small communities and small gatherings, maybe we do awake to a new dawn.  Families gather to celebrate together, some wake early to serve at food-kitchens for the homeless, others contribute to Toys for Tots , or invite in those who would otherwise be alone.  Maybe the light does shine brighter when people keep the Christmas “feeling” throughout the year and not just on one day.  I like Christmas.  I like Isaiah.  I wish I could awaken my light to shine brighter for others.

  

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[i] Isaiah 9:1,5

[ii]Dan Schutte – City of God - 1981

Where are you from?

I’ve lived in California for almost 45 years, but ask me where I’m from and I’ll tell you I’m from Vermont; I’m not so sure that’s true anymore.  I moved about my home state for a few years, working as a teacher, and then I moved to Missouri because I could make more money as a teacher.  A few years later, I moved into the business world, working as a teacher and training manager.  I worked for three local companies as a teacher before I moved to California to direct the training group of a large corporation.  It turns out; I’m not so much a Vermonter as I am an Anywhere.   

David Goodhart’s new book; The Road to Somewhere   helps crystallize the “why” of recent elections in the U.S, Britain, Poland, and other nations.  He talks about the Somewhere’s and the Anywhere’s.  There are many theories about the last election, ranging from the quality of the candidates to the feeling of many mid-Americans that they have been shut out of the economy and their well-established culture.  They say that they don’t recognize their own country.  This is when you witness the rise of Populism.  It got me thinking about the last election and the ones coming up.

Who are the Somewhere’s?  Generally, they are from smaller Middle-America rural towns and small cities.  They are people willing to work hard.  Their experience, however, is likely in jobs that require repetitive actions, as on assembly lines, or retail clerks and other positions that don’t require higher cognitive skills.  The plants are closed, the stores shuttered and jobs requiring higher technical skills too far from home.  They are rooted in their comfortable environment, near family and friends, the local church and their shared culture, often an example of White privilege.  They like people like themselves and don’t want large and fast immigration into their world.  They are generally conservative in their approach to life and don’t like liberal overreach.  They are, to a certain extent, the victims of technological advances that stripped them of jobs they once knew how to do.  Essentially, they have never left home.  The “educated elites,” technology, or the massive influxes of immigrants, are blamed for much of their angst.  Does it matter?[i]

Yes, it matters.  The Somewhere’s are the foundation of Populist movements.  Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump represent the two ends of the spectrum.  The Somewhere’s don’t like what is happening to their life or to their country.  The nation is in the middle of a sea change and they see themselves as victims; moral standards dissolving, college education unaffordable, lack of low skill jobs, uneven wealth distribution, a tax system that favors the rich, and too much power in too few hands.  To make matters worse, Somewhere’s and Anywhere’s don’t talk to each other, don’t live among each other and don’t want to be near each other.[ii]   “A nation divided against itself cannot stand.”[iii]

Yes, it matters.  The middle-class that grew during the 19^th and 20^th centuries has stopped dead in its tracks.  The change was under the radar to the people on the coasts.  The urban areas with highly educated populations, creators, innovators, and early adaptors of technology created, unintentially, a chasm between the two groups.  The Anywhere’s are dedicated to their profession, their skills, and are willing to go anywhere to practice their craft: financial brokers, bankers, teachers, professional managers, researchers, lawyers and doctors, engineers, programmers and technology experts, traditionally favoring the urban areas of the country.  They come from anywhere and settle in until they move again.  The Somewhere’s have had it with the Anywhere’s. 

Yes, it’s important.  The tribulations of small town America, the middle of the country, the Red States, continue to increase.  The rich are getting richer as middle and lower economic cohorts stagnate.  Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Jeff Bezos have an accumulated wealth equal to about 50 percent of the rest of the country.  Think about that, three people have more wealth than 150 million people do.  The breakdown of wealth in the U.S. makes the country look more like an oligarchy than a democratic-capitalistic society.  The top one percent of the country controls more wealth than the other 99%.[iv]That divide spurs Populist enthusiasm. 

It matters, because the political landscape is really changing.  The divide is massive.  The Somewhere’s don’t like the elites from the coasts and big cities and are acting on their feelings.  According to a recent article in the Washington Post, 30 states, mostly Somewhere’s and Red States, have cut funding to state universities and colleges by nearly 30%.  Too many Somewhere’s don’t believe that elitist, politically correct institutions of higher learning provide the practical skills needed in the job market.  They believe that colleges and universities provide students with “junk degrees” that have no value in the work place.  Tuitions have soared and student debt is out of control.[v]

Yes, it matters.  Eight states account for about 51% of the U.S. population, yet have only 16 of the 100 Senators.  In other words, 50% of the population controls 84% of the Senate and represent Somewhere’s for the most part. 

Yes, it matters because the divide is about to get wider.  A new McKenzie Company study indicates that tens of millions of jobs will be lost in the U.S. in the next 10-12 years due to automation and artificial intelligence.  The 160-page report estimates that 60% of all jobs have a 30% automation possibility.  The lost jobs will be those that don’t require higher cognitive skills or much human interaction.[vi]  The country’s educational establishment hasn’t even begun to deal with the issue of massive unemployment’s need for new training courses.

State and Federal governments haven’t begun to deal with the challenges of large numbers of people under-trained in the new skill sets, office buildings that will stand nearly empty, or factories devoid of workers.  The reality of undereducated populations with no work opportunities increases the drift toward Populist movements, and history tells us that that leads to Nationalism.  It leads to blaming others or our problems.  Do we want Nationalism of 1930’s Germany to be gauge by which we can measure our future?  Let us hope not.

The rise of Populism and Nationalism should be a warning to the leaders of any country.  The U.S., however, is currently lead by people who promote Populism and Nationalism.  They couch it in terms like America First, but it is the same thing.  What can we do about it?

Most important we need to want something better for everyone.  We need to stop lying to the Somewhere’s about old fashion jobs coming back; they won’t.  We need to reconsider our college-only school curriculums that deprive nearly 70% of our children from learning meaningful skills.  We need to redesign our skills training ability so that people can qualify for high-level technical jobs and jobs that involve working with people.  We need to find a way to convince the heads of major corporations to share the wealth of the nation with the people of the nation.  We need to stop lying to the people about a tax revision plan that increases taxes on the poor and middle class but reduces taxes for the more wealthy.  We need to put an end to the oligarchies and restore regulated capitalism to the nation’s economy.  We need to maintain controls on the banking and finance systems of the country to avoid another major recession that wiped out the savings of millions of people.  These steps would constitute a good start at restoring the nation.

If you are a Somewhere, what can you do to unite the country?  If you are an Anywhere, what can you do to unite the country? 

A nation divided against itself cannot stand!

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David Goodhart – The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics – 2017 – C. Hurst & Co.

[ii]PEW Research Center – October 5, 2017

[iii]Abraham Lincoln – House Divided Speech – Springfield, Illinois -  June 16, 1858

[iv]Grace Donnelly – Fortune – November 9, 2017

[v]Elitist, Crybabies and Junkie Degrees – Washington Post- 11/25/2017

[vi]McKenzie & Company – Jobs Lost, Jobs Gained, Workforce Transitions In A Time of Automation – December 2017 

Joined-up handwriting

Joined-up handwriting

I know kids who can’t read cursive writing.  Oh, the horror of it! 

Nothing sets older traditionalist and younger futurist on an opinion-laden trip like the cursive vs. manuscript writing style.  The English call it joined-up handwriting.

One friend, a retired elementary school teacher, regularly posts an item on Facebook looking for “likes,” confirming that we should teach all kids cursive writing.  I never respond because I don’t agree.  

 When I went to school, and this dates me, there were two major writing programs in elementary schools: Zaner Bloser and Palmer Method.  Emphasis was on how to hold your pen, angle of the hand, how to sit properly, and how to draw circles by moving only your hands.  Through college and beyond it was the “normal” way to write.  In the 1980s, the desktop computer took center stage and everyone had to become proficient on the keyboard.  Cursive writing is no longer the de rigueur of writing.  When one does write, today, manuscript is the norm. 

Some people argue that without cursive writing skills we won’t be able to sign our name to a letter or a check.  Maybe that’s true, but very few people have or use checks anymore and all our computers have electronic signature capabilities.  When my signature is required, most times I’m asked to print it out as well.  Most “writing” is digital, isn’t it? 

I’m convinced that taking 15 minutes a day for six or seven years of elementary school to teach a skill no longer used is a waste of time.  That’s my opinion.  The data about the advantages and disadvantages of kids learning cursive handwriting is mixed.

Steve Graham, a professor at Arizona State and a top U.S. expert on handwriting instructions says that he has heard every argument for and against cursive.  He says that “The truth is that cursive writing is pretty much gone, except in the adult world for people in their 60s and 70s.”  At least 41 States do not require the teaching of cursive reading or writing.  The new standards promote keyboard skills.  A recent article in BBC News noted that when people read cursive and manuscript pages in an MRI machine, the cursive lights up the reading sections of the brain more than manuscript does.  Cursive is generally faster when taking notes, but computer apps take notes now.  Older people like cursive because that is what they learned and used most of their lives.  We remember our mother’s beautiful handwriting and our founding documents written in cursive.  We hang on to nostalgia rather than practicality. 

More than just writing skills changed over the last twenty years.  Homework assignments are submitted on -line, books are on-line, tests are taken on computers, many courses, especially at the college level, are taken on-line, with test monitoring on-line. 

I’m sticking with my original opinion:  Teaching cursive is a waste of time.

Commercials - who needs them?

Commercials – who needs them?

I mute television commercials.  I listen to NPR because its commercial free and PBS News Hour because it’s commercial free, except during Pledge Week.  I mute the begging.  I pay a little extra each month to enjoy Pandora commercial free.  Cable TV is expensive enough, but I would consider paying a few more dollars a month if I could stream my favorite shows without commercials, as Pandora does.

I understand the need for commercials.  TV and radio stations need the revenue and advertisers need to convince us to purchase their products.  It must work because companies keep advertising, people keep buying, and there are correlations that show the relationship of one to the other.  That doesn’t mean I have to listen.

I record most of the shows I want to watch on a regular basis.  That way I can watch them on my schedule and speed through the muted commercials.  I can also binge watch a whole season of episodes in a couple of evenings.

Local TV news shows advertize themselves during their own shows.  They would reap more watchers if they advertised to the people who watch afternoon shouting-match shows: Maury Povich, Gerry Springer, Judge Judy, and the like.  Their audiences really need to learn what is going on in the world.  Why advertize to me?  I’m already watching.  It’s one of my biggest peeves.  It’s my opportunity to make tired but true stale snide remarks like older people do.  Besides, commercials ruin cocktail-hour. 

Today most people carry a computer in their pocket, which lets them see the news as it happens, or within seconds.  I can remember that as a kid we would sit in front of the radio to listen to the evening news: Gabriel Heater, Lowell Thomas, H.V. Kaltenborn, and others were must-listen-to-news years ago.  The reporters were famous in themselves and they reported the news down the middle.  “This is Edward R. Murrow reporting from London.  The noise you hear in the background is from German bombs exploding all over the City.”  I like my news straight up, no ads!

Every day, usually during the news programs, pharmaceutical companies tell us to ask our doctor if we should take their medicine.  I don’t go to the doctor very often, so when I do go the list of medicines I need to ask about is pretty long.  The last time I did that, the doctor’s reaction was as scary as the side effects listed at the end of the commercials.  I mute those commercials now.  It’s better for my health.

Highly creative people cobble together short messages that will convince me to change my life style, buy a new car or a better toilet cleaner.  Advertising wants to make it easy for me to choose a particular product, to distinguish it from the other twenty-two competitive products.  It’s a $190 billion segment of the economy.  In fact, I guess I just don’t like the commercials, on any program.  All that creativity wasted. 

Maybe I have too much time on my hands.

Four Quarters or 100 Pennies?

Four Quarters or 100 Pennies? [i]

“What will you accomplish in the next ten years?  The instructor posed that question in a management seminar nearly forty years ago.  We all gave the usual and expected answers.  We younger managers spoke of promotions to vice-president, gaining a patent to cure an exotic disease, or writing the definitive textbooks about plant management.  More seasoned members of the seminar had already achieved those goals and spoke of running large enterprises, influencing legislatures, or passing on their expertise to the likes of us.  One manager stood out.  His goal was simple: have five good friends before he died.  That seemed odd to me at the time, yet I still remember that afternoon

Social media alters our definition of friend.  How many “friends” do you have on Facebook?  People ask us to “friend” them?  Most of my friends on Facebook aren’t really friends.  They’re acquaintances.  I wish Facebook would let us acquaintance people, instead of friending them.  Why can’t we ask people to acquaintance us?  It would be fun to see who has the longest list of acquaintances or how many of us have mutual acquaintances.

I’ve met thousands of people over the years, worked closely with hundreds of others, and enjoyed the company of many.  A few of us became close friends.  We still are.  A few have passed.  Of those that remain, some are nearby, others across the country.  Some of us have the same political convictions and others diametrically opposed.  Some are affluent, some on the edge.  It doesn’t matter if you’re friends. 

Growing up in a small town made it easy to make friends.  Schools were small, churches were close-knit communities, youth groups plentiful, and everyone knew each other.  They also knew your mother.  If you got into trouble, she knew it before you got home.  It was easy to build friendships in that environment.  I’m still friends with kids I went to grade school or high school with.  Most, however, are folks we’ve met through our kids’ school life or community involvement wherever we lived.  Parent clubs, fundraising events, and volunteering brought many of us together, and we stuck. 

My Facebook account has a list of hundreds of acquaintances but only a few friends.  Four quarters are always better than 100 pennies.

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[i]Steve Maraboli 2017