The Art of Being Human

  Setting limits is one of the best things we can do for ourselves and each other. It is an act of love. Setting limits means saying, no. No is a complete sentence. Try that on for size. “No.”   But, I’m a woman and that means that sometimes I don’t say no when I should.   I say “No, because____”   I say, “Fine,” with an exasperated sigh.   I say all the things women say when they want to say no, when they should say no and don’t.   I’m pretty good at saying no. Sometimes I say it just to say and because it makes my students laugh.   “Can we go to recess?”   “NO!” “Can we sit on the rug?” “NO!” “Can we do math?” “NO!” “Can we do our homework?” “NO!”   A few minutes of this and we all laugh and then we go to the rug and out to recess and they do math.   Anything for a cheap laugh, it’s the secret to my success, that and a song for any occasion.       I don’t say no when I should some times because I’m tired, have ...

    I work with a number of women who are ten and twenty years younger than me.   They add a nice counterpoint to my life, a sweet to my salty.   They keep me honest and make me laugh.   They also remind me why I have a refrigerator magnet that reads, “Honey, you couldn’t pay me to be twenty again.”    Some times they make me crazy, all I can do is shake my head and bite my tongue.   Occasionally their lack of respect makes me want to smack them into next week.   When that happens I throttle back and regroup because I know that my irritation says more about me than them.     Mostly I like their perspective of things even when you can’t tell them a dang thing. The biggest difference I see between our generations is that they aren’t fighting anything. They aren’t tilting at windmills . Women of my generation were the generation of change.   We were part of the woman’s movement, the peace moment and the civil rights movement...