Be Cool To The Pizza Delivery Dude
Sarah Adams - Port Orchard, Washington
As heard on NPR’s All Things Considered, May 16, 2005
If I have one operating philosophy about life it is this: “Be cool to the pizza delivery dude; it’s good luck.” Four principles guide the pizza dude philosophy.
Principle 1: Coolness to the pizza delivery dude is a practice in humility and forgiveness. I let him cut me off in traffic, let him safely hit the exit ramp from the left lane, let him forget to use his blinker without extending any of my digits out the window or towards my horn because there should be one moment in my harried life when a car may encroach or cut off or pass and I let it go. Sometimes when I have become so certain of my ownership of my lane, daring anyone to challenge me, the pizza dude speeds by me in his rusted Chevette. His pizza light atop his car glowing like a beacon reminds me to check myself as I flow through the world. After all, the dude is delivering pizza to young and old, families and singletons, gays and straights, blacks, whites and browns, rich and poor, vegetarians and meat lovers alike. As he journeys, I give safe passage, practice restraint, show courtesy, and contain my anger.
Principle 2: Coolness to the pizza delivery dude is a practice in empathy. Let’s face it: We’ve all taken jobs just to have a job because some money is better than none. I’ve held an assortment of these jobs and was grateful for the paycheck that meant I didn’t have to share my Cheerios with my cats. In the big pizza wheel of life, sometimes you’re the hot bubbly cheese and sometimes you’re the burnt crust. It’s good to remember the fickle spinning of that wheel.
Principle 3: Coolness to the pizza delivery dude is a practice in honor and it reminds me to honor honest work. Let me tell you something about these dudes: They never took over a company and, as CEO, artificially inflated the value of the stock and cashed out their own shares, bringing the company to the brink of bankruptcy, resulting in 20,000 people losing their jobs while the CEO builds a home the size of a luxury hotel. Rather, the dudes sleep the sleep of the just.
Principle 4: Coolness to the pizza delivery dude is a practice in equality. My measurement as a human being, my worth, is the pride I take in performing my job — any job — and the respect with which I treat others. I am the equal of the world not because of the car I drive, the size of the TV I own, the weight I can bench press, or the calculus equations I can solve. I am the equal to all I meet because of the kindness in my heart. And it all starts here — with the pizza delivery dude.
Tip him well, friends and brethren, for that which you bestow freely and willingly will bring you all the happy luck that a grateful universe knows how to return.
Sarah Adams has held a number of jobs in her life, including telemarketer, factory worker, hotel clerk and flower shop cashier, but she has never delivered pizzas. Born in Connecticut and raised in Wisconsin, Adams now lives in Washington where she is an English Professor at Olympic Community College.
Independently produced for NPR by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman with John Gregory and Viki Merrick. Edited by Ellen Silva. Photo by Nubar Alexanian.
There is No God
Penn Jillette - Las Vegas, Nevada
As heard on NPR’s Morning Edition, November 21, 2005
I believe that there is no God. I’m beyond atheism. Atheism is not believing in God. Not believing in God is easy — you can’t prove a negative, so there’s no work to do. You can’t prove that there isn’t an elephant inside the trunk of my car. You sure? How about now? Maybe he was just hiding before. Check again. Did I mention that my personal heartfelt definition of the word “elephant” includes mystery, order, goodness, love and a spare tire?
So, anyone with a love for truth outside of herself has to start with no belief in God and then look for evidence of God. She needs to search for some objective evidence of a supernatural power. All the people I write e-mails to often are still stuck at this searching stage. The atheism part is easy.
But, this “This I Believe” thing seems to demand something more personal, some leap of faith that helps one see life’s big picture, some rules to live by. So, I’m saying, “This I believe: I believe there is no God.”
Having taken that step, it informs every moment of my life. I’m not greedy. I have love, blue skies, rainbows and Hallmark cards, and that has to be enough. It has to be enough, but it’s everything in the world and everything in the world is plenty for me. It seems just rude to beg the invisible for more. Just the love of my family that raised me and the family I’m raising now is enough that I don’t need heaven. I won the huge genetic lottery and I get joy every day.
Believing there’s no God means I can’t really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty memories. That’s good; it makes me want to be more thoughtful. I have to try to treat people right the first time around.
Believing there’s no God stops me from being solipsistic. I can read ideas from all different people from all different cultures. Without God, we can agree on reality, and I can keep learning where I’m wrong. We can all keep adjusting, so we can really communicate. I don’t travel in circles where people say, “I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith.” That’s just a long-winded religious way to say, “shut up,” or another two words that the FCC likes less. But all obscenity is less insulting than, “How I was brought up and my imaginary friend means more to me than anything you can ever say or do.” So, believing there is no God lets me be proven wrong and that’s always fun. It means I’m learning something.
Believing there is no God means the suffering I’ve seen in my family, and indeed all the suffering in the world, isn’t caused by an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent force that isn’t bothered to help or is just testing us, but rather something we all may be able to help others with in the future. No God means the possibility of less suffering in the future.
Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-O and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have.
Penn Jillette is the taller, louder half of the magic and comedy act Penn and Teller. He is a research fellow at the Cato Institute and has lectured at Oxford and MIT. Penn has co-authored three best-selling books and is executive producer of the documentary film, “The Aristocrats."
Independently produced for NPR by Jay Allison and Dan Gediman with Emily Botein and Viki Merrick.
My father told me I was fat
Cherie - Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin
Entered on April 7, 2006
My father told me I was fat. And lazy. And stupid.
I combated my father’s words with words of my own, hiding in my room while my chubby eight-year old fingers scribbled out poems and stories. The words I’d written would lay about me on my bed – my shield and protection to help get me through the night.
But by each new morning, my father’s words would shake me awake. The words fat, lazy, and stupid would echo through my head, until I finally opened my eyes and saw that they were true. I would hurry out of bed and destroy all the words I’d written the night before.
This same routine of verbal assault went on through my teens, and into womanhood. They shaped my mind, spirit, and vision. When I looked in the mirror I really did see that stupid, lazy girl my father saw.
And yet each night, I would write. I’d write as if my life depended on it. From time to time I would even read over my words and think they were pretty good. But as soon as this thought fought its way into my brain, my father’s words would chase it away.
And yet each night I would find comfort in the words I’d write. As if all my emotions could be wiped clean with a stroke of my pen. I carried self-doubt with me like a favorite blanket. I wrapped myself in it each time I met a new man or had a new opportunity pass my way. And I still destroyed my writing, because that way, I told myself, no one could tell me how bad I was.
The possibility that it might just be my father who had the problems didn’t occur to me until I was 31, and received a phone call that after years of alcohol abuse he had taken a gun to his head and ended his life. He was gone, in an instant.
His words remained behind, but I knew then they didn’t have to define me. Like I had done so many nights before, I sat down and wrote. I filled notebooks upon notebooks about my father, my life, and my faith. And this time, I awoke in the morning to read them again. I decided it was silly and shameful to throw my words away.
As years went by I was amazed at how prolific a writer I really was. I decided that I would publish my poetry just for the sake of showing myself that I was over my father’s words, so much so that I was willing to put my most private emotions on paper for anyone that cared to read them. I knew then it didn’t matter if people didn’t like what I wrote. I’d still just keep writing.
And this I believe: That my father’s lie has vanished, and that fat, lazy, stupid girl has an intelligence, spirit, and beauty all her own.
The Battle of Hastings
This game is about the 3 battles of 1066, the victory of when Harald Hadrada got to England, the battle of Stamford bridge, and the battle of Hastings.
I enjoyed when I won, it is a really fun game, and when you do win there is info about the wars on the bottom.
I didn't really learn much, because my humanities teacher had taught me all of it, and I did skip the videos.
At the Battle of Hastings, William the Duke of Normandy fought Harold Godwinson, who was tired, and had to walk about 50 miles a day to get there. When Harold did get there, he had to fight the Normans. Harold created a shield wall to fight off the Normans, and Harold had the advantage of being uphill. William was smart, he sent groups of people around the shield wall to attack, people also had shouted WILLIAM IS DEAD, but William took off his helmet and proved he was alive his men turned around and killed hundreds of English. William thought this was a good tactic therefore he did it a few times more. William was said to be killed by a arrow to the eye, and the war ended. William didn't go straight to London after the battle, he went to some other shires along the way, and he burnt them down to be feared. He was then crowned on Christmas Day, December 25.
This game would be valuable if we did this first before anything else, and the students shouldn't skip the movies, because I had known it all, it didn't help much, it was kind of a revision of what happened in 1066.
Catherine Called Birdy
The story Catherine Called Birdy made by Clarion Cushman takes place in the middle ages, where there is a major lack of hygiene, this may be caused because they mostly focused on their religion, and their religion had most of the power at the time. Catherine is a very noble girl, she did have a bit of a lack of hygiene, but she was told to shower when she was told. She had a real belief in religion, she had done a lot of things to do with religion in the book, she goes to a lot of feasts, and she tries to listen to mass. The power of the church overtook the power of mostly everything else, this is because almost everyone in England believed in it and trusted it. Catherine Called Birdy did a lot of religious things, she wasn’t really lacking in hygiene, and her beliefs in Christianity had been spoken of a lot in her diary.
Holocaust questions
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005175
What does the word antisemitism mean?
What were launched against Jews, and who encouraged it?
What was the voelkisch movemen made up of and what did they view?
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005204
In the photograph what do you think Hitler is trying to do? Why?
What did the Nazi’s eliminate?
In the first two years of his chancellorship what did Hitler follow? What is it?
Who died on August 1934, and what did Hitler do?
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005263
In the picture who do you think the people wearing the suits are?
What does the term concentration camp refer to?
Reading these articles about WWII how do you think we could prevent another race from extinction? Why?
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. The problem is that intentions which are based on faulty assumptions are doomed to failure.
This man named Steve McCurry is known worldwide, he has won awards, and his pictures are absolutely out of this world. He was born in Philadelphia 1950. He had a dream to be a filmmaker, after he had graduated he had joined a newspaper company, His career took him to Pakistan, and he went to the border of Pakistan and crossed into Afghanistan. Steve McCurry's theme is of war, bad times, sometimes good times; he goes around in Afghanistan hiding and taking pictures of what is happening there. "In India in particular, where millions have no home but the streets, virtually every life event is carried out in public: prayer, eating, sleeping, nursing, crude dentistry, even bodily functions. In the secular West, where nothing is sacred, everything seems hidden; yet in Asia, where nothing is hidden, everything is sacred." – Steve McCurry
This man’s eyes stand out the most, I think that Steve McCurry is trying to show people what people’s feelings are in Afghanistan, he is showing that this man doesn’t have a very good life, his wife or children have probably died in the war, his life is hard there because of the war. His positioning looks sad, he is frowning, and the background is quite dark, so it seems like the man has a very bad past. His turban make this look less obvious because it is the lightest thing in the picture, and there looks like there is only one OK part in his life, the hat’s positioning is almost straight.
This photo shows what his feeling is towards Afghanistan; it shows that he is sad, he hates what is going on, this man could have been in the war, he could have killed and he didn’t want to, he has very little good times in his life, but almost everything else is very bad. I have learned that people all around the world have hard lives, that positioning, and facial expressions mean something in photos. Photography can bring out the change in people’s feelings, and also bring out change in what people do to others, and also change in a decision. What makes a great photo is when the person is showing what he/she is feeling in body language. What creates a photo painful are the person’s feelings towards what is happening in bad times. You read a photo just by looking at the person’s body. His work reflects a journey in two ways, one he went around the world and two he went through a personal journey, he went through a personal journey by experiencing other people’s feelings, what they were doing and how lucky he was to have his life of knowledge and education.
Jason and the Argonauts
As we finish our myth unit with the Jason and the quest for the golden fleece, consider how well he fits the cycle of the hero as developed by Joseph Campbell.
Jason was born and he had been taken because there was a war, he was raised in a cave, on the online page it says that the hero was raised or born somewhere instead of a city. Jason had returned to a city so he could become king. Jason had defeated something and had retrieved the golden fleece so he could become king. Jason had A LOT of help along the way, but he managed to get the golden fleece. The climax of the story was the Jason and his crew defeating the cyclops. Jason had to do many different quests to please his kingdom.
Watch the videos. How accurately have they represented the characters from the myths you have read?
Become familiar with the myth again from:mythweb
I don't really think the youtube video's is like the actual story, I think its exaggerated a lot, and it doesn't tell the story properly, I would prefer to watch the original one.
What events in the story of Jason and the Argonauts do you believe to be factual? Support your answer with evidence.
While we were watching the movie of Jason and the Argonauts we had to take down factual notes, to see if this myth was true or false.
Like many myths I thought this one was false, but because I don't believe in religion I don't believe in any of the myths, but when I looked at our evidence I thought again.
My first piece of evidence said Jason created the first shrine in a museum. I thought that this was false, but in the documentary it showed the shrines. I don't think Jason created the shrine, I think it was some other man or woman. This is because I don't think Jason did create much things apart from alliances.
My second factual evidence says that a man called Pheanes was blinded by the gods. I don't believe in gods, so I think this part was false. There could have been a man called Pheanes that had been blinded by looking into the sun too much but, I don't think the gods would blind him.
My third piece of evidence says that there was bear sea in front of them. There is an island where they were at, and in the documentary it showed the place they were at and there was bear sea in front of them, but this doesn't really show me much because almost everywhere has bear sea in front of it.
Another piece of evidence says that Jason had traveled to the "land of Iron people". This part was strange to me. There was Iron on the floor, but I don't think that people would be made out of Iron. This is a confusing place, I don't believe in it, but it could be possible.
I have MUCH MUCH more info but, I would have to write A LOT more. The last thing I will say is, Jason could be true, but to me, Jason is another false myth because Jason's myth doesn't have enough factual evidence to be true, especially the part with the Iron People.
Paragraph of Myths
Why do those in power punish the curious? The African myth Orphan Boy, and the Greek myth Pandora both show us warn us how curiosity can be dangerous to those in power. In the African myth the old man was to curious of the Orphan Boy because of what he did (do the chores quickly). One day the old man followed the Orphan Boy and so when the Orphan Boy saw the old man when he was using his "power" and their trust fell apart. In the Greek myth Pandora she was given a box from Zeus and she was so curious that she opened it and all these monsters came out. This shows that some of those in power punish the curious.
The quote "curiosity killed the cat" must relate to these myth's because both Pandora and the old man are REALLY curious to find out what the 'secret' is. Pandora was so curious that she opened the box and bad things happened to earth. In Orphan boy the old man saw what the boy was doing and so his curiosity gave him the punishment of having nothing and so he pretty much died.
http://www.runawayhusband.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Pandoras_Box_MMV_oil_painting.jpg
My NAME XD :) OMG!!
My real name sounds like an old man's name to some people. My name is old English and it has many contrast meanings, like ead, prosperity, rich, and wealthy guard. (more meaning) It's also a kings name, like the rest of my siblings, apart from my sisters, they have queens names.
The chances are you have already guessed my name, seems quite easy to guess doesn't it? Anyway my mum went to Whales to find a name for me in the "Book of Names". She fancied the names Kennya or Sebastian I think. In the end my dad said "ahh lets just call him Edward." So they did and I became Edward Ralph Williams, the wealthy guard.
People call me Teddy because it's a nickname for Edward like Ned, Ed, or Eddy. Sometimes people call me Teddy Bear, but I don't really care. Call me what ever you like, at least i would have a name. Someone asked me to change my name from Edward to Teddy on facebook. Apparently it was a cuter name then Edward, I do agree. My name is my name, I will grow up as Edward/ Teddy, and i will die as Edward/ Teddy. Unless they make something that makes you live forever!
Nature
I think this picture shows a journey because it’s a forest, and people journey through forests. I also think it’s a journey picture because of the beauty of it, mostly when you journey through places there is beauty of the nature.
