Youth Advocacy

May 30

Youth Advocacy

Year 3, Week 05 (159 total reports)

10.05.2023-16.05.2023

REVIEW and ANNOUNCEMENTS

A trip to Amsterdam, reflections on the Anne Frank House, North Holland planning water tables three generations ahead while the US can’t pass a debt ceiling for the end of the week.

This Week’s Top Links

This week, my blog takes a little bit different turn. I just returned (to the Yucatan) from a trip to Amsterdam with my wife and brother-in-law. While there, we visited the Anne Frank House. I couldn’t help but reflect on the similarities between the Nazis and the authoritarian right in the US at this time. Simultaneously, my wife and I are watching the wonderful series, “A Small Light,” about Miep Gies and the Frank Family. It is amazing how little Miep and her husband, Jan Gies, felt they were doing to support the Jewish people in the face of Hitler’s Facist Regime. Yet, it was that one “Small Light” that provided hope to the Frank family and to Anne Frank herself. It was chilling to listen (and watch images) of Adolf Hitler while reading the news of the Trump’s latest antics.

I once wrote a theme song for a National Youth Convention called, “Candleflame.” The words of the chorus, “Though it may be weak and feeble, it may be small and dim, but the smallest candle still dispels the night. So, let us bear it proudly, our tiny dancing flame, it may be all we have but it’s enough to bring some light. And to a world needing hope it will seem bright.”

Whatever your small light is, bear it with dignity…

We also took a bike trip to the Amsterdam suburbs. Our guide was speaking about how the people were working on creating a water plan that would keep North Holland safe for the next three generations. It struck me deeply as the US government was facing a debt showdown to get through the end of the week. What a contrast.

30.05.2023

Why You Should Set Your Sights on Fulfillment Rather Than Happiness

https://lifehacker.com/why-you-should-set-your-sights-on-fulfillment-rather-th-1850473197

I could not read more than two paragraphs into this article before I needed to stop and reflect on the Author’s insights. The goal of our society is so wrongly placed when the focus is on happiness—especially personal happiness. It makes us so vulnerable and easy to manipulate. Part of this is the trap laid by consumerism and the deception of every ad that blatantly or subtly begins with, “You would be beautiful if…” Oddly enough, this is not different than the temptation Satan presented to Jesus, “If you were loved by God…” Happiness is a trap that first deceives by threatening our internal dignity. To find meaning and fulfillment should be the focus of our education system and all of our work with young people. Or, as Abraham Maslow would direct us; not self-fulfillment, but self-transcendence.

29.05.2023

How to be happy without relying on others

https://www.fastcompany.com/90898894/how-be-happy-without-relying-others

Happiness or even fulfillment that relies on others is a setup for losing control of our lives. There is a difference between relying on others for our internal affirmation and being a member of a vibrant, supportive community. We all need community, but if that community requires we forego our boundaries and values; then it is a cult, not a community.

26.05.2023

20 Years From Now, the Only People Who Will Remember That You Worked Late Are Your Kids

https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/20-years-from-now-only-people-who-will-remember-that-you-worked-late-are-your-kids.html

This statement was not something I heard when I was growing up and the lead belief purported, “The busier you are, the more important you are…” I look back and regret the time I spent away from my children and the personal cost that a life “on the road,” required of me. Hopefully, this article and the thoughts expressed within it will remind people that we are not WHAT we do, we are WHO we love.