Sunday Reading - 2007-05-20

It finally rained this week, though not the torrential downpours that some parts of the country experienced. The rain brought with it cooler weather, so much cooler that one morning I had to clean frost off my car. The rain was kind enough to leave in time for Nationality Days, a festival held in Ambridge, Pennsylvania every year that attracts thousands who really do come for the food. This year we had the opportunity to donate the auditorium of our theatre for a slideshow presentation of Ambridge’s history in pictures.

Some of our local regulars decided it would be fun to help us promote our upcoming presentation of the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie by dressing the parts and wending their way through the crowds giving away pirates’ gold. The result - Captain Zack and the Pirates of Ambridge.

I love our customers! This shows why I enjoy the running the theatre.

But, it was still a long day. So I turned on the television before going to bed. I caught Mr. Holland’s Opus. If you’ve never seen the movie, do so. Glenn Holland is a composer, a man whose love is music. His goal is to write the great American symphony, but he marries and has a child. To meet the necessities of life he takes a job as a high school music teacher, a position he keeps for 30 years. In one respect, his life is a disappointment to him. His child is deaf. He never writes the great American symphony on paper, though he does write and his symphony is performed. But on another, more basic level, he is always working on his mission in life. He writes his symphony in the souls of the students he touches. As one of his former students says

We are your symphony Mr. Holland. We are the melodies and the notes of your opus. We are the music of your life.

Aaron Potts has published the results of his Simply Successful Secrets project in Simply Successful Secrets Roundup! He mined the articles for the top 62 tips from the 152 posts the meme generated. Aaron, you have more patience than I have. The top five practices -

• Practice a healthy lifestyle.
• Read.
• Control your time.
• Lead a balanced life.
• Focus on what you are doing.

Participants created some excellent articles. Spending a couple of weeks reading through them is time well spent.

Lorelle has done a fabulous job of rounding up all the post-SOBCon07 commentary, impressions, images, and conference notes in SOBCon 2007 Remembered and Recommended. If you weren’t able to attend, here’s your virtual opportunity. If you were able to attend, here’s a conference scrapbook.

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