Disney Leadership Keynote Speaker
Five daily blogs about life's 5 big choices on five interconnected sites.
Retired Disney Institute Keynote Speaker and Prolific Blogger. Five daily, differently-themed personal blogs (about life's 5 big choices) on five interconnected sites.
How does a person see what they can’t see?
Sounds confusing.
But it’s really not.
Our challenge is to not deny we have any unproductive blind spots, but to seek and destroy them.
It takes a very strong, determined and humble person to succeed.
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Lorie Sheffer is back with her enlightening look at fast food and happiness:
Happiness is as a butterfly which, when pursued, is always beyond our grasp, but which if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you. – Nathaniel Hawthorne
I dreaded going to the nursing home. The 80 days of visiting my dad in the hospital and the two weeks in the rehabilitation hospital were draining at times, but not as depressing as the nursing facility. Insurance for hospitalization has ended now, but thankfully he can finish recovering in a nursing home where he can get the minimal care he still requires and the physical therapy he desperately needs. We can’t worry about the atmosphere at this stage. It is difficult for him, psychologically, to be there, but it is temporary and we have no choice. I try to think of things to lighten the mood and to make his stay as normal as possible. He refuses to eat in the dining room. Maybe just having lost my aunt to Alzheimer’s a few years ago, he is not ready to be in that setting, especially considering all he has been through. Interacting with the residents is too emotionally draining for him at this point.
Driving across town gave me time to think of something to do for him. Harley Davidson had just ended its shift and traffic was almost at a standstill. He hinted to me more than once that he enjoys Wendy’s baked potatoes and chicken sandwiches more than restaurant food. I think this comment was in response to my raving about Thai food I had one afternoon. Continuing west on route 30, I saw the giant inflatable Frosty perched atop Wendy’s, and my decision was made. When I got to the drive thru, confusion set in. There are several types of chicken sandwiches from which to choose. Knowing my father as I do, I immediately ruled out the spicy one, and then just randomly guessed at which to choose. Homestyle; that sounded like Dad. But I also decided to get a deluxe cheeseburger just in case. I agonized for the 5 minutes it took me to get to the nursing home. What if I got the wrong thing? He was sitting in his room, alone, waiting for the staff to bring his tray of soup and sandwich. The residents eat their main meal at noon and just have a light dinner. When he saw the Wendy’s bags his eyes lit up. My guess about the chicken was correct, so now I had a cheeseburger left in the bag. The nurse came in and smiled that Dad was getting some “real” food. I asked her if she knew anyone who was interested in a cheeseburger. She said she didn’t think so, but then she got an idea. Apparently the lady across the hall refuses to eat. Sometimes her family brings things in for her. They have to coax her. The nurse took the bag across the hall. She came back with a huge smile on her face. “You just made her day!” I never saw this lady, but I got the report that she ate the entire burger and she enjoyed every bite of it.
When I got into my car later that evening, I didn’t feel the anxiety and exhaustion I normally feel. I had a smile on my face. I was happy that I was able to take something in for Dad, but I was thinking more about how I was able to randomly do something nice for someone who I have still never even laid eyes on. Something as small as a cheeseburger, which was an afterthought that I would have thrown away had nobody wanted it, had meant that this elderly lady could enjoy a taste of the outside world. Maybe sometimes we just over think things, assuming it requires some grand gesture to make people happy, when in fact we can make someone else’s day for the price of a fast food burger.
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“A man’s health can be judged by which he takes two at a time – pills or stairs.” – Karen Irizarry
Our attitude, our mental responsibility – what we watch, read, listen to, who we hang out with, our language.
Simple choice. Seek positive outcomes (against the odds) or dwell on things and people that bring us down.
Lane 8, the Next Blog, has the same approach, but for our body.
PS. Lorie Sheffer returns tomorrow.
They say things happen in threes. Self-fulfilling prophesy probably. All but two of nine cab rides last week netted great mental stimulation. Two rides were less than one mile. We barely got started and the ride was over.
But the last ride (35 min) was with Joe, from Togo (Africa). Joe is the Father of 17, 13 and 9 year old children. He worked in banking before the economy tanked. Charlotte is second (behind New York City) in US finance industry.
Without me asking, he cleared the front seat and invited me up front. Joe is finishing school to become a CPA.
Life gives you in direct proportion what you ask from it. Even if you’re just another cab driver.
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It happens often. Deep in conversation, we reach a point where we don’t know what to say. Remember the last time this happened? It was my 6th flight last week.
If you fly (or bus, subway, train), do you like to talk, or cringe at the thought? It’s a funny thing, isn’t it? Sometimes I don’t say a word, sometimes we talk for a minute or two just to be nice, and sometimes we talk the whole flight.
She was upset that her friend was diagnosed, at 50, with pancreatic cancer and died three months later. She was upset that her mother died when she was very young, and that her ex-husband was an alcoholic. And at 53, she’s never worked harder, and with a 10% pay cut.
Not knowing what to say, I said, “Maybe you have been blessed with these terrible experiences so that you can help young girls who don’t have a Mom, or women married to alcoholics who feel desperate…”
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