I didn’t know if I was doing it “right” or if Miss J was getting the nourishment she needed. After all of that, I had little faith in my body’s ability to do what I hoped it naturally should.Īs I sat in the hospital bed wearing an eye patch to protect my paralyzed eyelid, I tried to breastfeed Miss J and like many new mothers, I felt clueless. Miss J came into this world through vacuum extraction. Late in the pregnancy a sudden paralysis hit one side of my face, which necessitated induced labor. During the pregnancy with Miss J, I had pre-eclampsia. Her birth followed years of fertility issues including six pregnancy losses, seven abdominal surgeries, many related medical procedures and in vitro fertilization with its accompanying hormones and shots. I was sitting on my hospital bed soon after giving birth to our first child, Miss J. One choice I made mattered significantly in my life even though I didn’t know it at the time. This sends the message that our choices do matter. ![]() In this case, the two roads are similar, but Frost recognizes that by taking one, he may never get the opportunity to take the other. Some are monumental choices and others are small. We are all confronted with daily choices, and these choices bring us to where we are today. This person is confronted with a choice between two roads. The poem begins with a person walking in the woods - one of my favorite things to do. Because of these memorializing experiences, I’ve spent more time pondering the poem’s application in my own life. Reading this poem as a part of a person’s “soul sketch” - stories that speak to who they were and how they lived their life - makes its meaning palpable. Several times those words have been Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken.” Let’s all strive to do the right things.When I have the privilege of officiating at funerals and memorial services, I am honored when I get to share some of the deceased’s own words – or words that were special to them. Maybe, I will just end by saying that I (and perhaps you) should consider if this was to be our last day on earth, is it better to look back on our time here and feel good that we did things right or that we did the right things. “The strive to gain, the push for power, and this will fail you in your final hour”. I was struck by a line written by Edward Crawford during a Ted Talk. I do not know if there is a summary for my ramblings. Is the conflict today – what is in it for me versus the greater good? They encourage looking beyond the present moment to a future worth striving for (described about Lincoln in the book by Doris Kearns Goodwin – “Leadership”). Transformational leaders inspire followers to believe in something larger than themselves. Peter Drucker and others have talked about the difference in doing things right (more transactional) as opposed to doing the right things for your organization, people, etc. Bass, in 1990, said transactional leadership is grounded in reciprocity. In the business & political world transactional leaders look to motivate by understanding the self-interest of their followers using carrot and stick. That might have rung true in 1900 but are we buying it in 2020? Are we not in conflict, as a society, between what is in it for me and my people versus what is best for people at large? Conflict – 2020 has brought out the best in us and the worst in us.Ĭonflict – Transactional leadership and transformational leadership. Teddy Roosevelt is credited with saying – “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care”. I suppose the real question is could more people go back to work while less people are losing their lives from the virus? How are decisions being made and what is the motivation for those decisions? Conflict – if a vast majority of the scientific community are telling us that wearing a mask is saving lives, why would anyone say it is a personal choice to not wear a mask? Then again, if people are not working, they could lose everything. Think of it as wiping out every man, women, in child in the city of Providence, Rhode Island. ![]() ![]() ![]() COVID-19 has wiped out over 180,000 people in the USA. Not to be so profound, but where are we heading as a human race? What we do or don’t do is amplified due to the 2020 environment. Today, we are all sitting at a crossroad. If I extend this thought it seems to me this could be about right and wrong and good and evil. It also represents conflicts all of us have regarding the decisions we each make. I don’t presume to have any special expertise to interpret the deepest meaning of this Robert Frost poem, but since I have the power of the pen, for me today, it speaks volumes about the choices that we make in life and the resulting impact of those choices.
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