Bored in the Crazy World

In my life, I am getting bored. Late 40's, can do what I want, pretty much spend what I want within normal human limits. I entered local politics because I believed that respect and empowerment could cure the problems in our local education system, and amazingly enough, they did. When I joined our Board of Education my goals were simple, bring back respect and give the teachers the tools and freedom they wanted to teach. In my heart I believed that making them partners in the process would eliminate alot of the problems we had internally; it is hard for partners to cast stones at each other and look each other in the eye everyday.

Our teachers were in up roar, they came to a BOE meeting the spring my first year in a fighting mood; almost all of them. On the warpath. I waited another year, learned the ropes, then fought for the position of Chair. I then saw the problem was the Supt. in part, the other part was the unreasonable expectation of staff. I'd fix that once I took care of the other part of the equation. So, over the course of 2 years, we eased our current Supt into retirement. He wanted to be part time after he retired, and many in our town wanted only a part-time supt, so he maneouevered himself to be the natural choice. I outmaneuvered him. We got a full-time supt, young, vibrant, who I and only one other member saw was the perfect choice, so we fought that battle as well, and won.

Here we are 3 years later, it seems all the battles are fought and won. Everyone loves him, everyone respects him, and everyone trusts him. Suddenly, the staff problem went away. I insisted that staff make up the budget for a year, not the admin. So they did, and they saw there was no place to make cuts that did involve them. They were full participants in the process and now trust that process. They did this the year BEFORE we did negotiations over a new contract; no, that was not a coincidence. When we negotiated, we agreed fairly quickly on our contract, we all knew the constraints and there was no 'hidden' money. Staff became a partner, and thus, it became hard to throw stones. We now concentrate on things like learning and teaching, curriculum and best practices. Boring.

Now, no one attends out meetings, there is no controversy. The community knows it is listened to, the taxpayers groups trust our open budget process, staff contributes positively to management, the kids learn better. But, it is now boring. It is funny how making things work gives great satifsfaction but leads to boring. God, please let it continue to be boring!

Even the practice of law is boring. LEt me tell you something, in litigation, especially labor litigation, every body lies. The employers lie to minimize their liability, employees lie about being the best employee since they last invented sliced bread. So, after a while, the faces change but the reality of humans fucking with each other does not. Americans are an interesting lot, we are just a bloodthirsty as the islamic terrorists, we have just sublimated the blood lust into the litigation lotto.

I am not willing to claim by married life is boring, since, well, it may get real exciting here soon which I am not looking forward to, but one never knows. I hope my new rekindled friendship with M does not result in my abusing that friendship since, our friends only know one side and I know I am not and never have been an angel. Faithful and honest perhaps, but an angel, never.

As a cynical optimist, I truly always hope for the best from human nature, which always expecting the worst, and while never being surprised, I can still be disappointed. Friends have told me of the complex nature of that response, and call it interesting 'for a man.' In my younger days disappointment led to anger and frustration. In the last 6 months it has led merely to bemusement, that humans just are what they are.

Tomorrow I'll tell you how and when I became kinder and gentler. It may surprise you.