We all have baggage....

What does one do on vacation when it is raining?  Write a blog...

Last weeks gospel was from the book of Luke.  The story is the one in which Jesus was recruiting followers.  Many of the followers were giving reasons as to why not to follow Him immediately.  One said, "Lord, let me go first and bury my father."  Another said, "I will follow you, but first let me say farewell to my family at home."

Jesus is very blunt with both of these followers.  The first He says, "let the dead bury their dead."  The second, He replies, "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind..."  Both of these responses are refering to the non-believers as the dead.  The family members that do not believe are also dead.  Many might think Jesus is being tough on them.  This is showing, more and more, the world today, the all about me, or the what's in it for me mentality.

The one thing I got out of the sermon was baggage.  What baggage am I holding onto that is keeping me from His eternal kingdom?  I could sit here and list item after item, but I think we all get the picture.  Holding onto earthly things will only keep us from reaching that eternal kingdom.

As a Catholic man, I have been more than a little troubled by the things that have been going on lately in the media.  I am being portrayed as a man who doesn't understand the plight of those who don't believe marriage is between a man and a woman.  I am being portrayed as a person of hate and anger.  This baggage has consumed me, constantly having to explain myself and my beliefs.

Trying to remove the baggage I have, so I can get to the heavenly realm is getting tougher and tougher.  I just want to give up and seclude myself, with my beliefs, and hope that God will accept
me someday(all about me).  While I know that most of the things of this world will not get me into heaven, I want to crawl into my own world and live my life, as best I can, according to His will.

My question to you is, what are you holding onto, or looking back at, that might be keeping you from this heavenly realm?  Are you willing to forgo them, even though today's laws tell you it is okay?  It is a difficult world we live in and the battle is the Lords, so give your struggles to Him, ask for guidance.  Let go so God's peace can come into your life.

8th grade graduation speech

Part of the reason I decided to blog again was this year's 8th grade graduation speech.  I started with a poem and then added my words.  After the graduation, many parents asked me for a copy of the speech, and many of them said I should put it on my blog.  So, below is my speech given to the 2013 St. Charles 8th grade graduating class. 

Poem:  The Bottom Line

                    Face it
    Nobody owes you anything.
What you achieve, or fail to achieve
                 in your lifetime
         Is directly related to what
               you do or fail to do.
No one chooses his parent or childhood,
But you can choose your own direction.
            Everyone has problems and
                  obstacles to overcome,
But that too is relative to each individual

             Nothing is carved in stone!
     You can change anything in your life
            If you want to badly enough.
Excuses are for losers!  Those who take responsibility
                              for their actions
                    are the real winners in life.
              Winners meet life challenges head on
              Knowing there are no guarantees, and
                              give it all they've got
                          and never think it's too late
                                       or too early
                                           to begin.
                             Time plays no favorites
                 and will pass whether you act or not.

                             Take control of your life
                        Dare to Dream and take risks.....
                                         Compete!
              If you aren't willing to work for your goals,
                               don't expect other to.
 
                             BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!!

Speech:

Part One:

This first section reminds me of the many obstacles you have overcome in the many years you have been at St. Charles:  sports teams, lots of homework, higher standards.  Think back to the many goals you have set for yourselves, did you accomplish them?  If not, are you on the way to accomplishing them?  What obstacles have you overcome?

Part Two:

This second section makes me think of the life challenges you have faced in your years at St. Charles, and the many life challenges you will face for the rest of your life.  Did you meet those challenges, head on?  Are you prepared to face those challenges that are coming down the road?  When you face that challenge are you going to jump off the road and let life pass you by, or are you going to meet that challenge?  There are few guarantees in life, but one guarantee every parent, teacher, adult will guarantee, is you will be met with a challenge and I believe you all have been given the skill to meet any challenge.

Par Three:
This last section almost give s me shiver down my spine when I read it.  I feel that we have prepared you all to take control of your life.  We have prepared you to dream big and shoot for the stars.  If you do not reach the stars, maybe you can land on the moon.  As you leave St. Charles, you will have new horizons to pursue.  I hope you will chase your dreams and goals.  I hope you will take the risk.

The very last sentence of this poem is "Believe in yourself!"

I want you to think back to every teacher at St. Charles that graced your path, From Mrs. A in preschool to Mrs. G in 8th grade.  Are you thinking?  Every one of those teachers believe that you have what it takes to do whatever you want in life.  Chase those new horizons, shoot for the stars, believe in yourself, and live your dreams.  It has been my honor to have such a wonderful 8th grade class.  Good Luck in all you do.

I'm Back....

All,

Well, I am back.  Just recently, I have been asked, by many people, if I am going to start blogging again.  After much thought and prayerful consideration, I have decided to start up again.  I have noticed that I have gone over 3000 hits to this blog.  Almost 1000 have come since my post stating, "I am taking a break."  Wow!!  You all have spoken.

I am not going to promise a weekly post, so if you do not want to check out my post every week, only to find out nothing has changed, I would suggest you sign up for email alerts.(See the right hand margin).   I hope to keep this post informative, inspiring, and occasionally funny.  As far as funny goes, I have only one rule:  If it makes me laugh, it is funny.                                         Sign up here.-------------------------------------------------------------->

Thanks for all the support over the last couple of months.  Your words of encouragement has led me back to the blogosphere.  Hope I can inspire you, inform you, or make you laugh. 

YIC

Alec

Going to rethink this...

All,

I want to thank you for the support over the last 20 blog post.  I really appreciate those that take time to read what I have to say.  I must say that I am a little surprised at the number of people that have logged into my blog for whatever reason.  I have said it before, and I will say it again, I never thought I had anything worthy of a blog, but you all have proven me wrong.

I have come to the conclusion that I need to take a hiatus from blogging.  I am taking this time off for two reasons.  The first reason being I have not been able to keep my goal of blogging once per week.  I have many ideas in my head, that I would like to share, but to be a good father, husband, principal, etc., I feel that I cannot give this endeavour the appropriate amount of time, I wish I could. 

Another reason I have decided to rethink this blog, is what I am actually blogging about.  I have been asked, by the higher ups, to remove a blog for certain reasons.  It was stated that I should keep any type of blog to my area of expertise, as not to polarize folks.   

Let me be perfectly clear, I am not mad about this.  I am not going to complain and say this is a violation of my first amendment rights.  I am not going to get into the idea of you against me, as these thing can often turn into, because I believe that when someone in a position of authority and I respect, ask me to do something I will, whether I agree or disagree.  Just to state it very clearly, I agree with removing the post.  

When asked to remove the post in question, which I did immediately, I read the post again and I must say, I was not very proud of myself.  In this post, I made an assumption.  When I hear a news story, I often take the information given with a grain of salt.  Based on my own experiences, I know the press can take liberties to spin a story and make it news worthy.  I never want to do that with this blog, and I feel, after reading the blog in question, that I was indeed doing the same thing, making assumptions.  It is for this, that I am not proud of myself and it is time for me to rethink.  The authority was completely correct, and I thank them for bringing this to my attention.

It is time.  Time for me to rethink this idea of being the blogging principal.  It is time for me to get a better handle on the task I have created and decide if I can do this with the proper perspective.  Can I continue to blog on things that I know, with the Christian perspective?  I have plenty to pray about, and contemplate, before I pick up the blogging again. 

I am humble that I have over 2100 hits, on this site.  I certainly hope you all understand the decision I have made.  I will spend some time in prayer and thought, and if the good Lord puts this on my heart, you can bet I will start again.  I know what it is like to ignore His calling for me, and quite frankly, I do not want to be in that spot again.

I will keep you all in my prayers, and I ask that you do the same for me.  Until we meet again....

YIC

Alec Mayer

This guy has the right idea

My last post was regarding the tragedy of Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.  In that post, I discussed many issues related to this tragedy.  The one that is the most pressing, in my opinion, is human dignity.  We have to start teaching our young people that they are worth something.  They must know that they are loved.  If a person has dignity for the human life, they would not do the horrific things like Connecticut. 

Below is a video I saw in one of the blogs that I read.  This is a video of a public school Physics teacher that teaches his students about "love for one another."  To be honest, I am somewhat suprised that someone has not stepped up to the plate and tried to shut his message down, because he talks about his faith.  I have watched this video about ten times now and I am amazed of the topic, the personal feelings shared by the teacher, the stunning looks on the children's faces.  It just goes to show you that if we love one another, sound familiar, maybe a tragic event like this could be prevented.

Please share this with as many people as you can.  We have to start changing the thought processes of people in this world.  We have to teach dignity for human life, including our own individual lives.  Know that you are loved, by many, but most importantly, by God. 

Again, I am not the most technology savy person, so you might have to copy and paste this link into your search engine.

Thank you to Deacon Greg Kandra of The Deacon's Bench blog.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=9bSu_Snlbsw

What else can we do??

I will not be posting anymore this year.  As a school principal, I will be on Christmas Break, and since I do not have a computer at home, because I do not want to do any work over Christmas Break, I will not begin posting again until sometime in January.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, especially in this time of sadness.


I am sure you will not be suprised.  I am sure you are expecting my thoughts on the Connecticut School Shooting.  Every blog I read, religious or not, has taken time to share their thoughts on this horrible, despicable, unthinkable tragedy.  As you read this, keep in mind, I am a Catholic School Principal, and like every other school principal, we are feeling the pain and agony of the Sandy Creek Elementary community on a different level.  I have purposefully waited to get other perspectives on this tragedy.  So, I finally think I have heard enough that I will give you my opinion.  Remember, it is my opinion, I am entitled to it, and you do not have to like it.

When a tragedy, such as this, occurs, we often wonder why?  Who could do such an unthinkable thing? What would possess someone to do this?  Of course, from the get go, the media takes hold of the story and off it goes.  We get every point of view, from the first responders, to the victims family and friends, the shooters ex next door neighbor from 10 year ago, and on and on and on...

Let's talk about some of the issues being discussed:

Gun Control
The government wants a tighter ban on gun control.  The opponent says take away guns and only criminals will have guns

Drugs
In the world today, we could talk about controlled substances or illegial substances.  Either way, if we have any issues today, there seems to be a drug to cure it.  Have you seen the television commercials lately?  There is a drug for heartburn, male enhancement, acne, dry mouth, dry eye, restless leg, the list is endless.  Listen to possible side affects of each drug.  Really, may cause thoughts of suicide!!!  Not to worry, because there is a medicine for that as well.  We have our society so drugged up, that I cannot figure out how any doctor or pharmacist can keep up.

Alcohol
How many stories of drunk driving ending in death have we heard in the last couple of weeks, especially in the NFL.

Sex Abuse
Do I even need to explain this?

Violent Video games
Today there are games that teach children to go to war.  They can develop strategies to clear a building or start and finish a war.  How is that a good idea for a 14 year old?

Poor Parenting
We here the stories of abuse and violence in the home every day.  If every parent were adequate, there would not be a need for the Department of Child Services, or Court Appointed Special Advocates.

Mental Illness
On a side note, the shooter was said to be diagnosed with Aspergers, which is classified on the Autism Spectrum.  I feel so bad for the negativeness that will come out towards Autism.  Rest assured, I have dealt with many students with Autism, and I would believe there is not one iota of a connection between students with Autism and violence. 

Bullying
Students come back to school and figure out a way to stop the bullying, or to get back at the bullies at school, by inflicting a violence we cannot even fathom.

Violent Movies and Televsion shows
I cannot tell you how many times I have had to change the channel because whatever was on TV was inappropriate for my children, at least in my opinion.  I am sick and tired of movies and television programs portraying parents as idiots and easy to manipulate, especially dads.

A couple of blog posts ago, I mentioned a qoute from Pope Benedict XVI:

"So many young people, today, have no meaning in their lives."
 

With all that I listed above, and the quote from Pope Benedict, do you all see the common link?  The common link is dignity.  In this particular case, human dignity.  If our children, today, had dignity for the human person, things listed above would not even be mentioned.  Students would not do it to themselves or to others.  People who abuse drugs and alcohol, have no dignity for their life.   People who kill others and then themselves, clearly have no dignity for human life, especially their own.

But in today's world, we do not teach dignity for humans.  I know taking the 10 commandments out of goverment buildings and public squares is a hot-button topic today.  But in reality, what group or organization does not agree with "Thou Shall Not Kill."  If we do not teach them this commandment, then how are they going to have dignity for the life they are taking.  But because God said it, we cannot teach it.  How absurd is that?  I am sure God will be glad to remove his name as author of this commandment, if we it would lead to change in our world. 

How do we do it?  How do we change our world?  As an educator, I would like to have a program that teaches students about human dignity and that their life and others, have worth.  I would love to close all institutions that deal with people because they attempted to commit suicide, because they have human dignity and would never dream of doing this to themselves.  I would love to see a change in television programming and movies, because children have human dignity, that they would not want to watch such hate and violence.  How do we do it?

A barrier that we face is the lack of patience.  We are a "need it now" society.  Changing the way people think about human dignity is a long term process.  If I started today, teaching about human dignity, I would probably never see the results in my lifetime.  It is something that would take generations to evolve.  We cannot let that stop us.  We hear, over and over, that the children are our most precious resource, let's start nurturing this rescource, giving it wisdom and knowledge that will allow them to see the dignity of every human person, including themselves.


In an effort to keep this blog short, I will end here.  I could write about this for pages and pages and pages, but much like the blogs I read, if they are too long, I cannot keep focused, and I lack the patience, as mentioned above, to finish the entire thing.  Please feel free to comment about anything I said, especially if you have any ideas, how to get the idea across to children, they are worth it.

Recycle



I must be in a mood lately.  If so sorry.  I just could not pass this up.  You may be wondering what is going on in the above picture, sorry I am not a photographer.  The main point of the picture is the black recyclable bag.  Look closely.  I believe we have just defeated the purpose. 

 

Does anybody find it odd that the black recycle bag, has a brown grocery bag in it? 

 

I thought the point was to use the black bag because it is recyclable.  Am I wrong?