Beverly Flaxington's blog

Last week I was driving my 14-year-old daughter and her friend “Joan” home from school. They were chatting about different people and my daughter told Joan about a mutual friend of ours who had seen Joan’s sister. She said, “He couldn’t believe how fat your sister was!” (Joan is a very thin and tall girl). Joan replied by saying, “I know! My sister is so fat.”
 

I traveled to Philadelphia on business this week – planes, trains, taxis and my automobile. I made it a goal to watch the activity of everyone around me – people I interacted with along the way. In my quest to help people to understand one another more effectively, I like to sometimes practice what I preach and step out and observe! As a “people-person,” I have to make a conscious effort to do this, but I always learn something when I do.
 

My eldest child started high school this year. I thought the amount of papers she brought home before was intense, but we’ve reached new levels! One of the pages from her Social Studies class caught my attention. It was a list of what the children need to bring to class – bring pencils, bring a 1-inch binder, bring highlighters, bring an open mind. Wait. What? Bring “an open mind?” As I was trying to make a list for shopping at Staples, this item caught me in my tracks.
 

I am very fortunate to live near where I grew up, so I am able to periodically see friends from grammar school and high school. We get together in the town we all lived in when we were kids, and have been very supportive of one another – especially when we lost one of our group to a sudden heart attack a couple of years ago.
 

I was reading an article this weekend in the paper about politicians getting together to discuss the decline in traditional values. The article made me think a lot about the “traditional values” that have declined or have been entirely eliminated from our culture.

My son has to read a book called “The Revealers” for summer reading. We like to take turns; he reads a couple of chapters to me, then I will read one to him. It makes the story come alive and gives us something to do together. This book has intrigued me because, so far, it is about Russell, a boy who is bullied. He seeks out other bullied kids to try to figure out how to push back on the bullies.