Healthy Disruption

Warning: This post has no useful information pertaining to the actual election. This one is just about the experience from my POV. It’s also gonna be a long one, so it’s OK to skip.

Shani and Alex went to Boston for the weekend to tour colleges and see my Uncle. This meant I was home alone and all clear to do my own thing. This would typically mean…

Get up, quick breakfast, head to the Lehigh Valley or North Jersey for a long hike, maybe meet a friend for an afternoon beer, then kick back and watch a whole baseball game that night without a single interruption.

But this weekend? I’m delivering signs, dropping off packets to volunteers, meeting a former board member for coffee, training #SlayTeam doorknockers. It’s a whirlwind.

Before the election, I would get up every morning, sip my coffee, do the Wordle, watch baseball highlights. 

Now? Forget the Wordle. I have about a dozen apps I need to check every morning. Social feeds, money stuff. And the correspondence is incredible. Texts, emails, instant messages. People telling me I have their vote. (Thanks! Make sure you are registered!) People with questions about my position on all kinds of things. (Do you think RULER is really the best vehicle for curriculum? Where do you stand on funding for the crew team? What would you do if there was another pandemic?) People with questions about my opponent. (No, he was not one of the people handing out those letters. Well, he used to speak at board meetings about his issues with books and curriculum, but he stopped doing that once he started running for office.)

Then the #SlayTeam – good gravy! Their chatter is endless. Sometimes I wake up to find 200+ messages. Sorting through that to figure out what they need from me makes my head spin.

So anyways…this morning I got up at 4:15, made a whole pot of coffee, sat on the couch with the dog against my feet, and took a step back to breathe. I spent a solid two hours writing in my journal (I’ve kept a journal since I was 22). And I had kind of and aha moment.

The disruption is good.

All the new things I’m diving into and the discomfort that comes with them – it is decidedly good. Breaking my routine is good. It will lead to new routines and force me to let go of habits I didn’t even realize I had.

I wrote a book back in my 20s called Lummox (tragically unpublished). It was about a guy who quits his job to go and try to win a race called The Trash Dash, where you push a car for three days. And the theme was about choosing passion over comfort. I hadn’t thought about that in years, but suddenly here I am living right in the middle of that very theme.

Pretty terrific morning.

I finally got up, had breakfast, walked the dog, and got ready to head out and get to work.

Oh, but I did stop for a second to do the Wordle.

BOOM! Solved it in 2!

MIKE NUCKOLS FOR SCHOOL BOARD!