On Purpose

Earlier in the week, during an indoor recees, I heard a student exclaim with gusto, "You did that ... ON PURPOSE!"

After helping to deflate the debate over how we share dominoes in our room, the words ON PURPOSE still lingered in my mind.  I wasn't thinking so much about how kids, or adults, intentionally do things to annoy each other.  Which considering the lack of civility in our society right now, that would have been an easy mind trip for me to take.  The itch in my brain was more related to the purpose of education in general.  

I flashed back to a recent discovery of a call to action by some UK educators at the site pupose/ed.  When I found this site over a month ago, it was late one night and I read several posts thinking not only about the purpose of education, but my purpose.  Somehow I forgot about it and didn't go back.

The recess comment, remembering the website and then a question at lunch the next day sparked connections that made my brain go into full double esspresso mode.  The innocuous  question, "What is the purpose of flour in cookies?"  came from a student who was reading the ingredients of his Oreo snack pack.  I quickly replied, "I think it's probably the ingredient that holds everything together.  But I'm not sure so let's check."

Another student who Googled, "What is the purpose of flour in cookies?"  the first hit was from wiki.answers.com

Flour is in cookies to add mass and also the yeast in the flour turns into gluten which rises.

Not the best answer nor did it confirm my thinking, but "Shazam and thank you very much!" Through connecting some rather strange dots (really thought provoking website ... two students arguing over dominoes ... the purpose of flour in cookies) I saw a very simple answer to a question that I have pondered for a while.  What is my purpose?  And thankfully it is not to add mass.  I have done enough of that in the last year already.

I  and, I imagine we all, could create a I-haven't-been-to-the-grocery-in-a-month length list of our purposes.  Things like:

Loving parent, spouse, son, daughter, sibling

Protector

Mentor

Learner

Friend

Shoulder to cry on

But when I saw the phrase, "which rises" I somehow knew that my primary purpose was to rise to greater things and help others rise to greater things.  I need/want to be like all-purpose flour. Well not the bleached and pre-sifted parts, but the enriched parts that help cookies to rise.

I wrote recently about the desire to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly.  I think I have been doing a better job of that (with the exception of some twitter taunting with dear friends).  This idea of "rising" like flour in great home-baked cookies is very interesting to me.  I know I am rambling and maybe losing my audience by this time, but when I can focus my energies on one big idea instead of the gazillion little things that fill my day, I am usually in a better place.

So what would it take for me to be a little more like the all puporse flour pictured above and RISE?  I am not quite sure.  But I am going to start with making sure that I actively seek some new challenges and actively help those around me rise to a place they might not have thought was possible ON PURPOSE.

Later,

Tony

 

 

Comments

[Mandyrobek]

Tony, I loved your journey this evening and thinking today. Thanks for sharing.

[Karen Terlecky]

Loved this analogy! I like the idea of finding the ingredient in myself that allows me to "rise" to the best level I can. From your rambling comes great thinking. Thanks.