Thrive

Thrive

Adult nonfiction
All my life I have been different. The stuff we're supposed to
salivate over like wealth, status, and fame leaves me cold.
Solidarity, learning, intuition, joi de vivre, volunteering, and
stopping to smell the roses or write a poem about an albino leaf
hopper...much more at the center of things. I cannot think
incrementally. To do lists feel suffocating. The biggest thing I've
learned in this decade of my life is to openly embrace my inner
dynamics rather than feeling left behind.
So imagine how I felt when I read Thrive and learned that none
other than Arianna Huffington feels that more people should be joining
me. How about that?
In 2007 Huffington had an epiphany caused by a serious fall. As
she travelled from doctor to doctor she began to wonder about the life
she was leading that gazillions of people probably coveted. She was
succeeding by all outward standards but not experiencing balance. She
made changes in her life that transformed her entire perspective. Her
book, Thrive, can help you do the same.
Basically Huffington has decided that society's current markers
of success, money and power, are not sustainable for either people
struggling to fight their way to the top, their families, or the
communities they are part of. She feels that lives truly worth living
must have room for well-being, wisdom, wonder, and giving. The rest
of her book is divided into four sections--one for each pillar. Each
is a delightful blend of personal narrative, research citations,
encouragement, and suggestions.
Thrive is one book I would urge basically every person to read,
particularly those who are at transition points in their lives: my
younger daughter and her peers edging closer to graduation, their moms
(like me) dreading their nest leaving, my across the road neighbor who
just lost her beloved husband... It was conceived when Huffington
wrote a speech for Smith College's 2013 commencement. She urged them
to change what we see as success rather than blindly striving, to
change the world rather than joining its already established elite.
Sounds like a plan to me.
On a personal note, I seem to be trying the patience of University of
Maine education department graduate school people. They all agree
that I have what it will take to succeed. But I don't fit any of
their tracks--guidance, teaching, or admin. If I were to become a
superintendent like my mentor, Dr. Betsy Webb, whom I think the world
of, I would be too busy selling budgets to town council and general
public, keeping up with all the latest in legal and financial matters,
attending meetings, and running the schools to do what I want to do
which is be a significant part of the brewing revolt against
standardized test based McEducation pushed by industrialists and
politicians who don't have a clue what real learning is about. Our
children deserve much better and, as a mom and veteran school board
member, I have a vision of what much better looks like. I'll be
gaining credentials and knowledge, to help change education, not join
its elite. I do believe Arianna Huffington would see that as a good
thing.
A great big shout out goes out to people at every level who are doing
their best to educate our precious children.
Julia Emily Hathaway


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