As a child of the 80’s I was/am a fan of the culture of that time. One of my favorite things was the music. INXS was one of my favorite of the time. They were fronted by Michael Hutchence (see picture abve). I have vision of sitting in front of the television watching MTV, back when you could watch MTV, back when they showed videos, and singing along with INXS. Michael unfortunately died in 1997, his voice is missed. His family has created a memorial website here.
As a 40+SAHHM (for those of you who need that decoded… Over 40 years old year, Stay at Home Homeschooling Mom) I enjoy being goofy online
with other SAHHM (I don’t ask their age). In our goofiness the other night I was thinking of this INXS song.. Mediate.... (click title to watch video)
Tolerate and educate were pulled from another message left. In my best INXS lingo I came up with Accomplishate. Not a word, at least my word document is begging me to spell check. I teased that we should adopt it as our motto and thus a revolution has begun. (I hear another song in my head now, but totally different band, so it will have to wait)
What do these words mean? Why do they work? Why are they important for homeschooling families?
TOLERATE: It’s what we give towards others, our children, and ourselves. I think we are all like ice cream. We all come in different flavors. Some of us have had a rocky road, some of us are a little nutty, some are fruity, and some are smooth and creamy. I think of myself as chocolate and peanut butter ice cream, yummy. How boring it would be to go to the freezer case and find only one flavor.
EDUCATE: As homeschooling parents it’s what we do. We take our jobs seriously. I have one child and I have a full time job making sure he is properly educated. I take the time to educate myself as well, making sure that my son’s growth is never hampered by me not knowing what to do next.
ACCOMPLISHATE: (It is officially a word now. I just added it to my word dictionary.) Accomplishment, we all want it for our children. Accomplishate is simply a derivative of that word. Every day we are accomplishing something. We may not see it, we may feel like we are moving backward, but we do something great everyday. We are building people. When you look at a thing of beauty what do you say? Wow? Does your jaw drop in the awesomeness (also a word of the 80’s) of this beautiful thing? Whether it was created by nature or by man, beautiful things take time. Beautiful people don’t grow overnight, like gardens they have to go through an ugly phase sometimes. So never forget on this journey that we are on, that everyday we are placing a brick in the foundation of whom our children are to become. Even if it is one brick a day, that’s enough. One brick could be a hug, a smile, an encouraging word, or even asking for forgiveness.
So let’s all TOLERATE, EDUCATE, ACCOMPLISHATE. Why? Because as the late Mr. Hutchence would say, “You’re one of my kind.”
As a 40+SAHHM (for those of you who need that decoded… Over 40 years old year, Stay at Home Homeschooling Mom) I enjoy being goofy online
with other SAHHM (I don’t ask their age). In our goofiness the other night I was thinking of this INXS song.. Mediate.... (click title to watch video)
Tolerate and educate were pulled from another message left. In my best INXS lingo I came up with Accomplishate. Not a word, at least my word document is begging me to spell check. I teased that we should adopt it as our motto and thus a revolution has begun. (I hear another song in my head now, but totally different band, so it will have to wait)
What do these words mean? Why do they work? Why are they important for homeschooling families?
TOLERATE: It’s what we give towards others, our children, and ourselves. I think we are all like ice cream. We all come in different flavors. Some of us have had a rocky road, some of us are a little nutty, some are fruity, and some are smooth and creamy. I think of myself as chocolate and peanut butter ice cream, yummy. How boring it would be to go to the freezer case and find only one flavor.
EDUCATE: As homeschooling parents it’s what we do. We take our jobs seriously. I have one child and I have a full time job making sure he is properly educated. I take the time to educate myself as well, making sure that my son’s growth is never hampered by me not knowing what to do next.
ACCOMPLISHATE: (It is officially a word now. I just added it to my word dictionary.) Accomplishment, we all want it for our children. Accomplishate is simply a derivative of that word. Every day we are accomplishing something. We may not see it, we may feel like we are moving backward, but we do something great everyday. We are building people. When you look at a thing of beauty what do you say? Wow? Does your jaw drop in the awesomeness (also a word of the 80’s) of this beautiful thing? Whether it was created by nature or by man, beautiful things take time. Beautiful people don’t grow overnight, like gardens they have to go through an ugly phase sometimes. So never forget on this journey that we are on, that everyday we are placing a brick in the foundation of whom our children are to become. Even if it is one brick a day, that’s enough. One brick could be a hug, a smile, an encouraging word, or even asking for forgiveness.
So let’s all TOLERATE, EDUCATE, ACCOMPLISHATE. Why? Because as the late Mr. Hutchence would say, “You’re one of my kind.”
11 comments:
Wow! N*ps are great things, huh?! It's good you typed this on your blog and not in that thread, because this thing's FULL of s*bst*nc*, baby!
I guess I missed that thread. I've been trying to spend MUCH LESS time on-line. Some days I accomplish this, others . . . well . . . not so much.
Anyway, I love this song and I loved INXS. I think that's a wonderful new mantra you created.
Let's all jump on board!
Beautiful. Just beautiful. Brings tears to my eyes.
Beautiful summary of what we strive for every day. Catchy, too!
I know everybody uses the word "tolerate" to mean accepting differences. Honestly, I cringe whenever I see it. The word gives me the sense of enduring things we really do not like. We "tolerate" pain. I, for one, would hate to be "tolerated".
For this reason I don't teach my kids "tolerance". I teach them to Love, even those who make loving difficult. Though I realise the word "love" doesn't "ate" quite so nicely. :-)
Beans
Beans, I understand about the word tolerate. I view it as the opposite of intolerance. I have been deeply saddend over the last several months to see glaring examples of intolerance on the web. Not just "enduring things" but real lashing out at people who are different from us(us in general, not as a collective).
Ironically some have used "love" as their weapon. IE: "I love you so much, so I'm going to tell you why you are so wrong." There are places and times where that statement is good, true, and warranted. However, I have seen it overused to apply to people whose beliefs are only different, not harmful.
I do agree we should teach our children to "Love your neighbor as yourself".
Thanks for adding your view on the word Tolerate, I had not seen it in that perspective. ...Paula
I finally clicked on the link to this. Okay, I've had wine, and I'm PMSing, so please take that into consideration when you read this.
I already told you your saying made me truly LOL. I dearly loved INXS. I loved Michael Hutchence. I cried for days when he died.
Now I see why others have been putting your mantra in their sig. I am so there ... as soon as my head clears enough that I can remember how to do it ...
I love it Paula! Thanks for the well thought out mantra. You've summed up how I feel about our family's homeschool journey! I'll have to put it in my siggy! ~Angie~
Beautiful! ~Caroline
I love it! You've done a great job at giving us a peek into your life!
This is a great post. I loved INXS. Love the Mantra. There's a lesson in there for all of us. Thanks for making me think. I love it when that happens.
Many Blessings.
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