Personal Change

Kids on a Plane

jbloustein — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:32:09 -0500

Odd things happen to me on airplanes—and surprising lessons too, sometimes.

Not long ago I was flying to a conference. I’d lobbied hard to get an aisle seat so I’d have a little more room to work. I was just settling in when on they came—a stampede of alarmingly energetic children swarming the rows behind me, their parents barely able to get the pandemonium under control.

As they stuffed the overheads and bickered over who would sit where, I fumed silently, They better chill out…

To Whom Much Is Given

jbloustein — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:52:30 -0600

Leigh Anne Tuohy is just like any other mom in Memphis, Tennessee...if those moms have Sandra Bullock portraying them in a major motion picture opening this month.

The Blind Side tells the story of how the Tuohy family adopted homeless African American teenager Michael Oher, who became a football prodigy and a first-round draft pick by the Baltimore Ravens.

Grandma's Stories

jbloustein — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 10:07:07 -0500

I’m a teacher, and I like to arrive at school early to get ready for the day.

But one day last fall I pulled into the parking lot and sat, thinking about what I’d heard.

For the last few years I’d listened to a National Public Radio program called StoryCorps. It’s a series of intimate, taped interviews—daughters interviewing mothers, wives interviewing husbands, all just average Americans listening to stories told by the most important people in their lives.

Mr. Thanksgiving

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:11:40 -0600

Thanksgiving eve, Bob Vogelbaugh, owner of a small grocery store in Moline, Illinois, was bagging Rose Hanson's purchases. "Hey, there's no turkey here," Bob said. "My family's all grown," Rose said. "Why bother with dinner? It's just me now."

That got Bob wondering. Were there other folks in the same boat as Rose? He asked other customers that day about their holiday plans. "My kids have moved away." "It's too far to travel just for dinner." "Why go to all the trouble?"

Places of Peace

admin — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 15:32:15 -0600

I graduated high school in the midst of World War II, and immediately signed up as a medic and paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division. We were among the first to hit Normandy on June 6, 1944.

In September of that year I was in the Netherlands, as part of the massive and ill-fated attack known as Operation Market Garden, made famous by the film A Bridge Too Far.

A Change of Heart

jbloustein — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:49:30 -0600

Thamail Morgan was a star high school football player who messed up.

During his junior year at Newport High School, in Little Rock, Arkansas, he broke team rules and was suspended for a year.

“He made a poor choice,” is all his coach will say.

The only one hurt by Morgan’s poor judgment was himself. Football was his best chance at going to college, and overnight all the schools that had been recruiting him—Arkansas, Ole Miss and Florida State—walked away.

Paint the Town!

jbloustein — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:03:47 -0600

I taped the Christmas cards from that day’s mail around the doorway leading to the kitchen.

The entryway was almost filled with cards and I stepped back to take them all in. Baby Jesus. Mary and Joseph. Angels. An entire Christmas pageant.

Christmas in Iraq

jbloustein — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:46:43 -0600

7:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve. Contingency Operating Base Speicher near Tikrit, Iraq.

I sat in a metal chair at a long conference table in my usual spot as Logistics Officer. At the head of the table, the Colonel called our weekly staff combat operations briefing to order. No sentimentality. No Christmas decorations. Certainly no Christmas carols. Stick to our mission and take care of serious business. That suited me just fine.

City Sidewalks

jbloustein — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:14:05 -0600

I can’t remember whose idea it was, but the notion of singing Christmas carols on the streets of New York seemed kind of odd to me, if not a bit crazy.

I mean, it’s one thing to go caroling through a small-town neighborhood—I’ve done that—where people gaze out from behind curtained windows and welcome you in, if you’re lucky, with hot chocolate and cookies, listening in rapt wonder to your renditions of “Good King Wenceslas” and “We Three Kings.”

Sweet Dreams

jbloustein — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:22:04 -0600

Like a lot of people, I moved to New York City to chase my dreams.

I wanted to be a fashion designer, and New York was the place to begin. That’s what I had in mind in 2003 when I said goodbye to my family in California.

But here I was, a year later, my dream turning into a nightmare. The fabrics, the designs were dazzling, but the job, as a fashion assistant, was demoralizing and paid next to nothing. I had to get a second job as a waitress.