Reasons Like Seasons

I have a friend, a newly married young man in his early twenties, who's a Friday. When asked how much he loves the day, he replied, "I actually love Fridays so much that many times I prefer Thursday to Sunday." Great. He looks forward to the weekend like I look forward to arriving early at a doctor's appointment: when else do I get to sit quietly and enjoy someone else paying for my wi-fi? But I digress. When I get home on Friday afternoons, I am faced with at least a week's worth of laundry and dishes and two little boys who want to jump on all the furnature. Today, for example, I had the pleasure of washing six loads of laundry and digging under a giant pile of half-empty plastic children's cups in search of a fork that didn't require attention from a biohazard team. That was after I got to clean up the pound of salt Boy 2 dumped on the floor, but before the nightmare which was brushing Boy 1's teeth. I imagine my friend mentioned above went home a...

One of my middle school students wrote me an email explaining that a member of her team would not take the role of secretary to take notes for her group. Here was my response: Dear Student, Thank you so much for the wonderful job you have been doing leading your team for our play. I am pleased with your leadership and proud of your developing skills. As a leader, sometimes other people are difficult to deal with. Sometimes they can't do the jobs we want them to, and sometimes they can but choose not to. If one of your teammates will not complete a certain job despite repeated requests, I suggest you ask her which role she would like to take, and if it is reasonable, then let her take that role instead. All people are not good at all things, and I expect you will feel better and find more success if you allow you team to build on its strengths rather than focus all of your attentions on its weaknesses. Thank you, again, for all of your work. Sincerely, Mrs. Lydon  ...