A Day of Healing
It is early Tuesday morning now, and I will try to catch up on Monday's blog.
I had a terrible case of insomnia Sunday night. Just before bedtime I drafted a proposed message to the entire faculty and staff urging restraint and calm. Perhaps the tension about that situation kept me up all night. It might have been other personal problems. My sleep patterns has been getting worse and worse, but Sunday night was the worse in years. I was still wise awake at 4:30 a.m.
After a brief nap I got up, took Jesse to school and met with her to plan her fall class schedule. Then I taught my mass communication class. I also met with another students in that class and answered some questions for her. I had sent my proposed message to other members of the NCBI team (We are the National Coalition Building Institute -- a conflict resolution group. ) It was well received, and I forwarded the message to the whole college community. For the most part the response was good. This is what it said:
To the college community:
The five of us, as students of the National Coalition Building Institute, hope to promote civil discourse, reconciliation, and an awareness of what we all have in common. The last 10 days have been difficult at Cape Cod Community College. A very divisive issue has separated members of the administration from members of the faculty. In small meetings, large eetings, personal conversations, and e-mail exchanges, there have been some harsh personal attacks. Several people feel deeply hurt. There is a natural human tendency to want to strike back in such situations. We believe any ontinuation down the road of animosity and attack will hurt our students and the college in general. None of us wants that.
We believe it would be helpful if we all refrained from taking any precipitous action for at least a week. Let's put a hold on this disagreement until cooler heads can prevail and it can be discussed in a manner that won't threaten to tear the college apart? We strongly urge everyone to refrain from making any personal attacks on any other member of the college community. We are not asking people to compromise their principles, we are just asking people to stop, think and then look for ways to advance those principles in a constructive,collegial manner.
It was generally well received, and I think it did some good. There were several more meeting that day, analthoughht eh conflict remains, it appears that both sides have backed down a little bit. I am pleased about that.
I missed the union meetinbecauseue I went to my doctor's for a follow-uappointmentnt about my diabetes. The new medicine is working well, and we are both very pleased about that. She also gave me some medicine to help with the insomnia, and we had a wonderful long talk about my life in general -- what a terrific doctor.
A friend who read my blog made a wonderful suggestion of something she thought I must be thankful for, and she is absolutely right!
I had a terrible case of insomnia Sunday night. Just before bedtime I drafted a proposed message to the entire faculty and staff urging restraint and calm. Perhaps the tension about that situation kept me up all night. It might have been other personal problems. My sleep patterns has been getting worse and worse, but Sunday night was the worse in years. I was still wise awake at 4:30 a.m.
After a brief nap I got up, took Jesse to school and met with her to plan her fall class schedule. Then I taught my mass communication class. I also met with another students in that class and answered some questions for her. I had sent my proposed message to other members of the NCBI team (We are the National Coalition Building Institute -- a conflict resolution group. ) It was well received, and I forwarded the message to the whole college community. For the most part the response was good. This is what it said:
To the college community:
The five of us, as students of the National Coalition Building Institute, hope to promote civil discourse, reconciliation, and an awareness of what we all have in common. The last 10 days have been difficult at Cape Cod Community College. A very divisive issue has separated members of the administration from members of the faculty. In small meetings, large eetings, personal conversations, and e-mail exchanges, there have been some harsh personal attacks. Several people feel deeply hurt. There is a natural human tendency to want to strike back in such situations. We believe any ontinuation down the road of animosity and attack will hurt our students and the college in general. None of us wants that.
We believe it would be helpful if we all refrained from taking any precipitous action for at least a week. Let's put a hold on this disagreement until cooler heads can prevail and it can be discussed in a manner that won't threaten to tear the college apart? We strongly urge everyone to refrain from making any personal attacks on any other member of the college community. We are not asking people to compromise their principles, we are just asking people to stop, think and then look for ways to advance those principles in a constructive,collegial manner.
It was generally well received, and I think it did some good. There were several more meeting that day, analthoughht eh conflict remains, it appears that both sides have backed down a little bit. I am pleased about that.
I missed the union meetinbecauseue I went to my doctor's for a follow-uappointmentnt about my diabetes. The new medicine is working well, and we are both very pleased about that. She also gave me some medicine to help with the insomnia, and we had a wonderful long talk about my life in general -- what a terrific doctor.
A friend who read my blog made a wonderful suggestion of something she thought I must be thankful for, and she is absolutely right!
- I am thankful that Jill Carroll, The Christian Science Monitor reporter who was held captive for three months, was released unharmed Friday. She ian excellentnt, dedicated journalist working for the benefit of all of us. And that newspaper, The ChristiaSciencene Monitor, is -- I believe -- the best newspaper itheeh world. It is not a religious publication. It is an excellent, fair, objective, independent newspaper. www.csmonitor.com.
- I am thank foor my physician, Dr Carol Topolewski, who itheeh best doctor I have ever met. She is a family physician who treats our whole family with compassion, care and skill.
- I am thankful for my friends. I havsomeoe wonderful friends -- too many to name -- but I hold them in my heart and value them.
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posted by jwkoncape | 6:30 AM
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