Teaching Teachers to Teach

The other day I read an article about a teacher who was giving a lecture and fainted, once he recovered, he tried to return to his agenda but his speech was slurred.  The audience of college students sat and watched...their computers, iPhones, or whatever apparatus they had as they were trying to get this information out through the social media network. It took 10 minutes for someone to contact help on the outside.

Last night a friend and I stopped by a well-known hamburger diner before going to a movie.  Neither of us eats much meat (trying to be better) but thought there must have been something fowlish added to the menu at some time over the past 10 years.  The counter was crowded and the menus where strategically placed where they always are in counter seating...held on those prong things on the opposite side of the counter where one would either have to reach through a diner or ask for assistance in having a menu passed to us. We chose the route of least resistance...at least that is what we surmised...by asking a young lady with burger, fries and a shake if she would please pass us a menu. 

You would have thought I had asked her to hand me over the Holy Grail that she had just uncovered after years of searching.  The look on her face was "what are you thinking, I'm eating my fries!" to which I quickly dismissed and reached around with an ‘excuse me’ with another patron and took a menu as I turned to thank “Fry-girl” for her valuable time and courtesy.  Argggg!

Now, these two isolated incidents may not add up to a hill of beans when they are standing alone but if you add them to the growing pile of narcissistic behavior that is flooding our world this kind of attitude has already become the icing on the cake WITH the cherry on top.

So what do we do about this?  Where in the world did we go array when it came to the teachings of compassion and respect to and for our fellow human beings? Where are the teachers of etiquette that are here to pass on their knowledge of simple acts of kindness to each new generation?  Is it our fault, us adults, to have forgotten that we have a responsibility not to allow these actions of social absence to ooze and fester into the universe?  Are we not heeding to the simple core values of ‘do NICE unto others’ and passing them on to our children, to anyone? 

One factor may be that we have been negligent in the usage of our listening skills and communication for many, many years and technology is helping to make it almost obsolete for some.  And in today’s world many have tried to compensate in some quick-fix ways for not being home because both parents have to work. I had a client of mine say that because he and his wife have less time for their kids that the easiest thing to remind their kids that they are loved is to buy them what they whine for.

But, how about a chat? I think the writing is on the wall…we are finding it difficult to remember what it means to do our life with more grace, consciousness, connection and gratitude.

Schools are demanding more from the children as far as homework; teachers are underpaid, and schools are losing their funding so kids have to share books (or computers); after-school activities have the parent running to a fro the music classes to soccer to cheer-leading to who knows what else.

What is going on here!!!  Are we not as out of control as the rest of our financial world?  Are we not energetically adding fuel to the fire and continuing to ignite bad behavior on behalf of all human kind?

My take on this that may not have been made clear yet, (ya think?) as a life coach in Los Angeles is that it is up to us to make a concerted effort to become the teachers once again.  It is up to us to say "Whoa, Nelly, tighten those reins and bring simple and clear and concise one on one lookem in eyes with truth and compassion, bring them into the light, come to Momma talks.” 

As things are changing minute by minute…wait, second by second... then it is time we took a good internal look at what is going to be for the best and highest good of all concerned and start reeling the net in.

Core values are what societies are based on and what we may have lost sight of them.

But first we have to bring our own Self into a place of awareness to make note as to what that something is that is out of alignment and bring the two N’s back into the equation; nurturing and nourishing.  We are all running around like chickens and not getting the appropriate rest and relaxation that the body needs to function in its most healthy capacity, mind-body-soul.

Nurturing ourselves and our soul is the number one priority to get rebalanced and focus into our life once again and to not deplete our energetic resources.  Without focus we get scattered then frustration sets in and then we start to realize that through all the smoke and mirrors we are no longer feeling relevant.  We are in an auto-pilot mode of Being.

Lump that together with not seeing clearly that we must simultaneously nourish our soul with peace and quiet, healthy foods, one-on-one time with Self and some good, serious sleep and yes, meditation.  And if all this seems daunting you might want to seriously consider getting an objective opinion to set you on the right track again…like a life coach or if you need to go deeper, a therapist.

If we want to be a driving force in the world we must first learn how to set our own internal engines to a place of normalcy and from there go forth and not only carry a big stick as Theodore Roosevelt said but carry the sacred staff of our core values of truth and loving from which we all were born.

I have been around long enough to know the rights and wrongs that get our society out of kilter.  Human beings must have basic rules and regulations that help keep us from going into chaos. The fact that we all have the ability to be conscious and aware of our inherent core values isn’t something one has to teach because they are in each and every one of us.

However, we must be the ones to remind those who sit there with fries or an iPad in their hands and act as though the world revolves around only them that there is something so much more important and integral that will keep the glue that is faintly holding our world together now, together.

It isn’t about us as one, alone, but it is about all of us together.  It is OUR world/our community. It is OUR responsibility to stop our world from ungluing.  And it can restart with us as ONE teaching responsibility, commitment, grace and gratitude one individual at a time.