A Flashback to 2009

Occasionally I attempt to sound as if I have read something - generally when applying for a teaching position.  Here's an attempt from 2009.  Odd as it sounds, I actually believe this...

Some Thoughts Regarding Education

Through the education of others we educate ourselves. It is the responsibility of each member of any given profession to relay not merely the facts of the profession to the next generation, but also the evolved understanding that experience engenders, to put flesh to the skeleton; an over reliance on desiccated scholastics will create a generation lost in a sea of unprecedented knowledge, uncertain of goals, frustrated and rendered cynical by the journey.
The professional must, however, develop the tools to communicate the knowledge. The initial training process in any profession can be, in itself, a Byzantine maze that precludes the time necessary for introspection. The how is learned by rote; the why must come with experience; it becomes a challenge to communicate the why. Peering into such an abyss tempts the abyss to peer back--easier to follow the advice of Candide and "tend to the garden" than to show the future generations that the sun also rises for every sunset.
So with the rigors of one discipline we must consider the addition of another. After a time of working our craft, we must again put to work on framing it for others to see, or better, to understand. The talent is not always innate; creative approaches often need to be scavenged with truncheon and guile. But once honed, the new talent cannot help but enrich the base of the original profession.
Certainly, there have been those for whom education has been for its own sake, an insular amusement designed to foster a patronized derision of others. May they be content in their solitude, for a secret not shared is lost, and a perception not spoken is stillborn.

John Dewey felt that education should be life itself, not a preparation for living. Now, having poured over many a forgotten volume, having made lapses great and small, having the germinal understanding gained by every misstep and every success, I turn to the second phase of my responsibility–to educate others so that I may continue to educate myself.

McPharmacy on Youtube

This is rather a classic, from Youtube via Xtranormal, and it pretty much sums up a week in a retail pharmacy setting....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOzRt1x2FPk

Video Memorial for Harry Middleton, Part 2

Material mainly from 1987-2007....

Video Tribute #1 for Dad

This is a youtube link - this runs about 7 minutes - and WHOA just realized I have a box of about 500 SLIDES to transfer too.... anyway, this is material from about 1928-1985.

Harry Middleton Remembered 2011

3am phone calls are never good news, and so came the announcement that my father, in decline for several years and hospitalized while in Mexico since late April, had died following a heart attack.  He would have been 83 this July.

Our family has never been one for funerals, so we will be coordinating a memorial either in or near his Michigan home sometime soon once arrangements can be made to transport his ashes back to the States.  Our concerns and cares are now for his widow, my stepmother Irma, who has been at his side for nearly 25 years.

Harry Middleton, age 82, went to tend his final garden during the early hours of May 31. After several years of declining health, he died of a heart attack in Puerto Vallarta, several hours from his Mexico winter home in Cuernavaca, Morelos.

He married Winifred in 1953 and with her had two sons, James Harry of Battle Creek, and David Alan of Grand Rapids, Michigan. They both survive. A stepson from Winifred’s first marriage, Robert Albright of Lindsay, Ontario, also survives. Winifred succumbed to cancer in 1986.
His subsequent marriage to Irma Woo of Mexico City was a triumph of perseverance over challenges of communication and distance, aligned with a desire to live where, if one mentioned snow, "they never heard of it, and if you mentioned ice, they put it in a glass." Taking on the new role of grandfather, he especially encouraged the education of "Monstero," now Dr. David Rosas. Irma, her three daughters, and their children also survive.
Harry attended college at Ferris and the University of Kansas before beginning his career with the Michigan Consolidated Gas Company (now DTE Energy), starting as custodian in Big Rapids and working his way up to district manager in Escanaba, and finally, regional manager of the Taggart Field gas storage facility at Six Lakes, Michigan. He retired from there in 1978, following several years of increasing blindness due to macular degeneration.
Harry had been a member of the Big Rapids Elks Club, was a long-time member of the Lakeview Lion’s club, and he loved gardening, recycling, sharing a story, and tipping waitresses with tiny onions. In keeping with his wishes, there will be no funeral.

An openhouse/memorial celebrated his life in 2011.

A facebook page has been created in his memory, for the comments and reminiscences of friends and family: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002542415970

Site A - Mt Carmel, Big Rapids:

Site B: Lakeview Cemetery, Lakeview, Michigan:

And there was wicked weather the evening of the memorial...but the sign remained lit!

Memorial Day, 2016:

 Sparrow salutes Sgt. Middleton

And 2018:

 2019:

 

And 2022: