George hears the chanting and cheering on Joy's bus as he walks to the bus stop, and is naturally curious. When Joy explains the rationale (letting positive energy overtake the negative) George is somewhat skeptical. He thinks the practice of chanting and cheering makes sense, but it is "corny". Joy agrees, but poses a question to George: Would you rather be corny and happy, or cool and unhappy (paraphrasing)?
I went a long time trying to be the coolest kid in school. Occaisonally I will see a student exhibiting similar behavior, and it pains me...not just for the ramifications for the student in front of me, but also because I remember some traits and behaviors from my youth of which I'm not proud. The Energy Bus would have been great material for me to read between the ages of 16-25...but I would have been too cool to read it. I would definitely have seen this book as corny and I waste of my time, either as a student or a young teacher.
As I have matured I have learned the benefit of letting my guard down a little and not focusing on the cool factor as much. And I have to say that I am a happier person now than I have ever been. I've learned that it is indeed OK to be happy, even when much of life is giving me reasons to be unhappy. I've allowed myself to read a book like this and realize that, though some will scoff, I will benefit from focusing on its message.
What about you? Do any of you feel like you've had to make a similar transition as you've matured?
For some of us, being the coolest kid was never an option - ha! Having to deal with bullying, nerd-dom, and just plain eccentricity, I have had to keep my guard up against negativity and learned that you can't let extrinsic negativity affect your insides. It is easy to say and very hard at times to achieve, but if we walked around reacting to all of the outside stimulus (mostly negative) we would never have time to be happy.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about the heart being 5000 times more electromagnetic than the brain (I'm researching that next), but I do know that we decide (with our mind) to take in or leave negativity at the door. Brain research suggests that "sensory gating" (the need to block redundant or damaging stimulus) is vital to our mental health. People who cannot successfully do this are our schizophrenics and autism spectrum disorders. Keeping one's mind from the pollutants around us is how I would paraphrase what Marty was trying to say in chapter 23.
I don't know about my own transition, but I do see what you are talking about with some students in our school. They exhibit behaviors that make them seem more confident than they really are. I try to understand this and not become frustrated by their behavior, and definitely not encourage it. But, what I really want to do is concentrate more on those students that are quiet, shy, stand-offish, or soft spoken, who also don't feel confident in themselves. I want to focus my energy on them more. They tend to be overlooked and the "cool" kids seem to get all the attention. I hope that makes sense.
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