President's Message

I don’t know about you, but I am certainly much busier and more easily fatigued than I was at this time last year. Our economy and businesses are recovering faster than our bodies and minds. Just a few short weeks ago, many of us looked forward to spring with renewed hope for a chance to regroup, and recharge. Today, millions of Americans have discarded their armchair public health degrees and started studying armchair military strategy. What new dystopian hellscape waits in the wings? Even angrier Murder Hornets? Zombie Apocalypse?

For my seventh-grade daughter, it is homework, not masks (in fact, she reports the kids do not even notice who wears a mask and who does not). Margaret and her siblings came home from school on Monday, and the house was once again filled with joyful noises. We had just turned the clocks ahead an hour, and late afternoon was decidedly sunnier. I think I smelled spring rising from the mud. Feeling a foreboding silence growing in the house As I prepared snacks and dinner, I breathed a sigh of relief as I saw the younger two playing quietly together. My heart dropped when my oldest daughter buried her head in her homework and started quietly crying.

Margaret had just begun a module on dystopian literature (think Animal Farm, 1984, Brave New World) and, while this would normally energize her, she found herself inexplicably paralyzed when she discovered that she had left the assignment at school. Once we finally downloaded the assignment, the tears started to flow again as she struggled to answer the questions. I turned off the stove and ordered pizza.

Working through the questions with Margaret, I showed her the picture that hangs on her on her wall (see above). It reads, “if you get tired, learn to rest, not to quit.” We ate some pizza and played some piano. Margaret decided it was time to return to the homework and even found enough energy to do some extra work.

Today, in the midst of a waning pandemic, an escalating global military crisis, and the demands of a chaotic legislative session, I have learned a lesson from my daughter: sometimes the best way to get the work done is to take a break and rest.

As always,

Bruce