The Red Pencil
Newsletter of Watauga County Retired School Personnel
Vol.XII, No.5 May 2010 ntn1066@hotmail.com___
May Meeting
When: Thursday, 20 May 2010
Where: Deerfield Methodist Church
How much: $10, check payable to Watauga County NCRSP
What: Annual presentation of scholarship – La Verne Franklin
Memorial service – Pegge Laine, Susan McKay, Nanci Tolbert Nance
Installation of officers – Ben Strickland
Bring medicine bottles and any food staples you wish, especially powdered milk, canned soups, and cereals. Add a jar of peanut butter or two to your donation! The need at the Hunger Coalition has never been greater. And, AND, AND don’t forget our furry, hairy friends. Pick up a bag of cat or dog food for our four-legged friends in the animal shelter.
If your caller has not contacted you by the 16th of May, call Margaret Sigmon at 264-2036 or email her at margaretsigmon@bellsouth.net.
Remember to wear your little gold apple pin, the sign of your membership in the Watauga County Unit of North Carolina Retired School Personnel.
President’s Message: WHERE DID IT GO? I have followed all the footprints backwards for the last four years looking for Time, but all I could find were the footprints we all made as we journeyed together on the trail with our Watauga County Retired School Personnel. As we walked along, we saw the Watauga High School students who received our scholarship, the families that had survived because we sent food to the Hunger Coalition, the students who were helped by the school supplies we gathered, the charitable organizations that benefited from our volunteer service, the entertaining/informative programs, and the joy and support that we gave to one another. Time cannot be captured in a bottle, but the precious memories of my four years of serving as your vice-president and president will be with me forever.
As our year ends, our amazing Executive Board will be going to workshops and planning for next year. Our way is not always soft grass but a mountain path that goes upward, forward. As we journey toward the sun, we will be walking together and experiencing the Power of One.
Thanks for the memories,
Beth Carrin
Quick Reminder, Membership Division If you did not renew your membership this year, please come to the May meeting anyway and be thinking of renewing your membership in August when the new year begins. Remember, too, that membership can now be pro-rated for new members.
Quick Request, Membership Division If you know of educational personnel who will be retiring at the end of this year, please send their names to Membership chairs, Roland and Barbara Moy or to Dot Barker, Treasurer, and give them a personal invitation to the first meeting of our new year, the August breakfast. We can never overestimate the power of reaching out to former colleagues in our schools and telling them about the value of this organization.
Dorothea Brande was an American writer and editor, well known for her books Wake Up and Live and Becoming a Writer (a useful resource for writers, by the way).
In Wake Up and Live, she suggests twelve mental exercises to make your mind keener and more flexible. These exercises are meant to pull you out of your usual habits and to put you in situations that will demand resourcefulness and creative problem-solving. Brande argues that only by testing and stretching yourself can you develop mental strength.
Even apart from the goals of creativity and mental flexibility, Brande's exercises make sense from a happiness perspective. One thing is clear: novelty and challenge bring happiness. People who stray from their routines, try new things, explore, and experiment tend to be happier than those who don't. Of course, as Brande herself points out, novelty and challenge can also bring frustration, anxiety, confusion, and annoyance along the way; it's the process of facing those challenges that brings the "atmosphere of growth" so important to happiness. (It's the First Splendid Truth: to be happy, you must think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.)
Here are Dorothea Brande's twelve mental exercises. You may need to adapt of few of them to your own circumstances, but hold on to their spirit and intent.
1. Spend an hour each day without saying anything except in answer to direct questions, in the midst of the usual group, without creating the impression that you're sulking or ill. Be as ordinary as possible. But do not volunteer remarks or try to draw out information.
2. Think for 30 minutes a day about one subject exclusively. Start with five minutes.
3. Write a letter [or email or text message] without using the words I, me, mine, my.
4. Talk for 15 minutes a day without using I, me, my, mine.
5. Write a letter or email in a "successful" or placid tone. No misstatements, no lying. Look for aspects or activities that can be honestly reported that way.
6. Pause on the threshold of any crowded room and size it up.
7. Keep a new acquaintance talking about himself or herself without allowing him to become conscious of it. Turn back any courteous reciprocal questions in a way that your auditor doesn't feel rebuffed.
8. Talk exclusively about yourself and your interests without complaining, boasting, or boring your companions.
9. Cut "I mean" or "As a matter of fact" or any other verbal mannerism out of your conversation. [2010 update: “You know,” “Like,” and any form of “go” instead of “say.” Also eliminate “awesome.”]
10. Plan two hours of a day and stick to the plan.
11. Set yourself twelve tasks at random: e.g., go twenty miles from home using ordinary conveyance; go 12 hours without food; go eat a meal in the unlikeliest place you can find; say nothing all day except in answer to questions; stay up all night and work.
12. From time to time, give yourself a day when you answer "yes" to any reasonable request.
District 3 President Phyllis Little shares a word of wisdom with the unit’s executive board in April at the Sagebrush Restaurant in Boone. Attending from the Watauga Unit were Beth Carrin, La Verne Franklin, Eula Mae Fox, Billy Ralph Winkler, and Nanci Tolbert Nance.
Make your computer your new NCRSP friend. Save our unit approximately $1 a copy by receiving The Red Pencil via email. Give your address to Nanci at ntn@skybest.com. Keep up with programs, news, events, and colleagues in the Watauga County Unit by logging on to the chapter website, http://wcrsp.blogspot.com, created and updated by Lee Stroupe. Email and blogspots – we’ve entered the brave new world! Additionally, the editors of our state publication, Panorama, are planning to offer an email/online edition and have asked our permission to use the Watauga Unit as their test audience. If you are on the Red Pencil email list and DO NOT want to receive Panorama electronically, please email ntn@skybest.com.
Keeping Up With Those Volunteer Hours, AGAIN Do you keep a calendar? One with space for the appointments in your life? Add something new, a notation of how you volunteered your time. If you have an appointment with a committee or at church or have plans to run errands for a friend or deliver Meals on Wheels, take a second when you return and jot down the number of hours that event took. Circle it. Later, when the time comes to fill in your Volunteer Hours Form, just add up the circled numbers!
In Memoriam At our memorial service at the May meeting, we will remember Harlan Ledford, Lucy Luther, Andy Reese, and Gaynelle Wilson. As is our tradition, a contribution to the Scholarship Fund has been transferred from our general fund in memory of each member. Additionally, we have received contributions to the Scholarship Fund in memory of Harlan Ledford, Joe Winkler, son of member Ann Winkler, and former member Ruth Brooks.
The Watauga Unit of NCRSP extends its deepest sympathy to Janice Burns on the death of her husband, Jerry.
Incoming unit president La Verne Franklin and NCRSP Executive Director Pam Deardorff at the NCRSP state convention, Winston-Salem
Join your friends and hers to wish Jonnie West a happy 80th birthday on July 11 at Appalachian Brian Estates from 2 to 4:30. No RSVP necessary.
2010 Scholarship RecipientAt this time, the recipient of our annual $1000 scholarship has not been selected by the WHS Scholarship Committee. Once chosen, our recipient and his/her parents will be invited to our meeting at Deerfield Methodist Church.
Contributions/Suggestions/Email Edition of The Red Pencil, Anyone? ntn1066@hotmail.com or ntn@skybest.com or snail mail to
Nanci Tolbert Nance, P.O. Box 188, Blowing Rock NC 28605
