The Human Community

Part I

Raising a child is hard. It is one of the biggest undertakings in life. As a father, I am very aware of the onus I have in raising a responsible, compassionate, loving, forgiving, and happy person in my son. Everything that he encounters will impact his life, society, and the planet. Granted, there are very important jobs that people do that impact the same; however, you can't become an adult without going through childhood first. Therefore, being a parent is the most important role in human life. The second most important role is teacher. Everyone of us is a teacher, whether you realize it or not. It is the teacher aspect that molds and defines the human community. We as human beings need to take our blinders off and stop treating life as a soliloquy and start paying attention to each other.

Currently, my son is four; the world is full of new discoveries every second. Due to life being a gambit of bridges and obstacles, conflict resolution is something that comes up frequently. Naturally, I am a human being, so I'm not infallible; yet, I still make the effort to guide my son. There are times when my son is playing with friends or with a group of playground mates and a conflict arises. Early in fatherhood, I would step in and try to stay the disagreement; however, upon sage advice from my wife, I now let him and the other children 'figure it out' among themselves. 80% of the time, all is well. The other 20% is a major factor in shaping how your child responds to conflict and stress. I believe, that if I continually jump in the middle of my son's conflicts with other children, then he will never learn how to resolve them. He will not learn how to compromise, deal with his anger, or even seek help. Helping children with conflict resolution is an obvious way to circumvent bullying. The only time I step in is when it is obvious that the conflict will become physical. Sadly, our children do not experience bullying only from their peers, sometimes they experience it from their parents, other family members and other adults. In part two I will go into what I believe that parents, other adults, and peers can do to be teachers.

Edmund

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2013 Personal Challenge

The Journey Continues

Part of my personal challenge of 2012 was to give up ice cream for the year. I am happy to say that I was successful in doing just that. Another was to lose 20 lbs. Unfortunately, I fell short of that goal. Honestly, I got lazy and complacent with my eating and exercise. Just as with previous years, I will give up an indulgence for the year, but I am also going to commit myself to getting healthy in my eating and regular exercise. My son is getting older and I want to be around when we are attending his children's weddings. I don't know what I will be giving up for the coming year, but I do know that I am going to commit to exercising a minimum of three times a week, gradually cutting out foods high in preservatives and unhealthy fats, pursuing endeavors that enrich my life and following my dreams.

I owe this to myself, my family, and to people who look to me as an example-good or bad. This coming year, I'm not going to focus on a number with relation to weight loss, but more on being healthier. I have a number I want to get to, but I'm going to make decisions based on enriching my life and showcasing me as an example to my son and others.

Godspeed and thank you for support; past, present, and future. Join me on my journey. I would love to hear from you and what your journey for 2013 will be.


You can follow me online via these links: Google+: +Ellison S., Twitter: http://twitter.com/vicavicmusic