John Oliver Smith
Bio
Baby, son, brother, child, student, collector, farmer, photographer, player, uncle, coach, husband, student, writer, teacher, father, science guy, fan, coach, grandfather, comedian, traveler, chef, story-teller, driver, regular guy!!
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Stories (118/0)
Essential Services
During these challenging times surrounding the dangers and effects of the Covid-19 virus, many have commented that it may now be possible to exist in the world without some of the pleasures we once knew to be positive enhancements to living. Some have said that the world has survived without baseball and hockey and basketball for all these months and they know now that they were not essential. Others explain that this period of time without movies, music concerts and other forms of art and entertainment has shown the world that we don’t really need those “extras” in order to survive. Operative words in these arguments seem to be ‘existence’ and ‘survival’. Without sports, music, movies and entertainment arts generally, we are only a step above the primitive ancestors from whom we evolved. Those that make this argument are somewhat oblivious to the fact that these are the very features of living, not mere existence or survival, that make us truly human. These could be the same people that would also support the elimination of sports and arts programs from schools and universities during tough economic times. As a former teacher of Physical Education, Music, Art, as well as the Sciences, Maths, History, Languages and the Practical Arts, I know and have lived with the firm realization that in order to educate the entire human being and in order to nourish and enrich the souls within all of us, it takes contact with all disciplines. In order to be a true citizen of the planet we need to have taken part in as many possible challenges and learning styles as we can. In order to understand each other and to positively develop the human condition and make the planet livable and safe for everyone we cannot let any already-conceived program slip through our grasp. Every one of us has a responsibility to bring as much to the table as we possibly can in order to make the world a better place to be. Contrary to what some may think, Covid-19 has not shown us that sports, music, movies and the entertainment arts are non-essential, but rather the opposite. Check out the world right now, it is in dire need of those very aspects of life. I believe we need them more than ever. Covid-19 has shown me that we cannot “LIVE” without them. I would suggest that those individuals who claim that they do not need sports at all levels, music and concerts, entertainment and the arts, should first give up their televisions, computers, cars, boats and motor homes for they also must be considered as frivolous and non-essential. Some of us may not think we need these supposedly non-essential programs, but if nothing else, there are world-wide, millions and millions of support staff workers (not just players and performers) who directly and absolutely DO need these aspects of life. They have gone without work for the last 15 months and now they deserve the same back-to-work opportunities as the rest of us. (For further information on the benefits and positive economic impacts of a professional sports team on a community please refer to What Are the Benefits of Hosting a Major League Sports Franchise? By Jordan Rappaport and Chad Wilkerson.) These authors refer to the fact that each professional sports team around the world creates anywhere from 5000 to 10000 full time jobs depending on the sport, the location and the size of the stadium. Even some minor league and university sports teams create nearly as many jobs. Even the building of a sports stadium or arena creates thousands of jobs for several years. Professional sports teams and University sports teams, other major sporting events, music concerts and arts entertainment spectacles can boost local economies by as much as $10 million dollars per single game or event through not only spectatorship, but secondary and tertiary services like restaurants, vendors and hotels as well. The New York Marathon, for example pumps over $350 million dollars into the New York economy every year.
By John Oliver Smith3 years ago in Motivation
How Things Work
At the height of the initial wave of the Covid Pandemic in March and April of 2020, I organized some thoughts about what was happening in the world. I think those thoughts are still valid, or at least, valid for a time when another such pandemic rocks our world.
By John Oliver Smith3 years ago in Humans
On the Radio
I remember Memory Almost Full. With the release, subsequent purchase and the hardly-wait-until-I-can-get-it-out-of-the-stupid-cellophane preview of Paul McCartney’s new album came a torrent of thoughts, emotions, ideas and yes – memories. Memory Almost Full was exactly what I needed from Sir Paul at that juncture of my life. It felt like the Beatles, of course, because to me Paul was the Beatles. I mean, I loved the other Beatles too but Paul was always the Beatle (if there can be such a thing as a singular Beatle). The Christmas before that, I had purchased a Remix of Beatles songs in an album entitled, simply, Love. I wore it out, of course. I cherished everything by the Beatles. But Memory Almost Full was different. It is like the old days. There wasn’t that mixing hand that showed through with Love. Love was everything about the Beatles, but Memory Almost Full took me back. It was au natural.
By John Oliver Smith3 years ago in Beat
Getting to the Point
As a father of teenage children who seem to be involved only in video games, marathon telephone calls, television and hanging out in the mall, it is refreshing to find that my son and daughter have become interested in the game of darts. That’s right, darts – the game that I once played with red and blue plastic-winged projectiles in pubs on Saturday nights. I have always imagined this as a past time reserved for big-bellied British sheep farmers and aging war veterans. However, the local Legion Hall has, on Sundays, become the venue for several of the local youth in our community to get together and compete in an afternoon of darts. Teenagers clad in non-traditional darts garb complete with low hanging, baggy blue jeans, backward baseball caps and long untucked sweaters and shirts have become uncharacteristically focused in their attempts to succeed at this centuries-old game. Occasionally, a mini-van full of school-aged children from a neighboring center will unload at the hall and the afternoon becomes flavored with town-to-town rivalry as the missiles take flight at those modern-day log-ends.
By John Oliver Smith3 years ago in Families
Stress Reduction Tips for Secondary School Teachers
My life in education began at the ripe old age of five. On a sunny, late-summer, prairie day in September, 1958 I was preparing to enter a school building for the very first time. As I recall, I was afraid for my life, but my mother assured me, as I climbed into the family Chevy, that this was something that everyone did and that it would be the first day of the greatest adventure on which I would ever embark. She held my hand as she pulled me out of the car and ushered me up the worn wooden steps into, what I later learned was, a vestibule – a word I have never forgotten and that is now as synonymous with education for me as any of the thousands of others I have studied in my decades in the business. Anyway, the vestibule spilled into my first ever classroom, which seemed like an airport hanger in size, covered with color and pictures and charts and blackboards and alphabets (though I didn’t know what an alphabet was at the time). I met new earth people like Wendy Gill and Jordy Merrick and Ivalee Nayko and Donnie Wilson. Donnie Wilson was on his second tour of duty in Grade One, so he was the go-to guy whenever I needed important information about what was going on. Anyway, I have been pretty much going to school ever since – almost 60 years – and my mother was right. It has been a most excellent adventure. I finished high school in 1970 and then went on to University where I obtained my B.S. (and everyone knows what B.S. stands for). I then left the school system for awhile and farmed but during that time, I took courses in coaching and in agricultural production so really, I was continuing a formal education as well as taking part in the whole experiential process of farming. After seven years on the farm, I returned to university a second time and I got another type of B.S. Many of my friends referred to it as simply a finer form of the original B.S. Feeling that regular B.S. was not enough, I went on to garner my M.S. which as you may or may not know, stands for More of the Same. Many years later I completed my PH.D. which stands for the fact that the B.S. was Piled Higher and Deeper!! Regardless, I was by now a true advocate of formal education at any level. I longed for school and the school environment whenever I was away from it. I yearned for the smell of classrooms and gymnasiums, the magic of the first day in autumn and the relief and sense of freedom that came with the last day in June. I have loved over 3500 Fridays and fought depression through nearly the same number of Mondays. School has become and always will remain a grand part of who I am. But, with all that wonder and amazement also comes a great deal of stress from time to time. The stress of heavy responsibility; the stress that comes when it is time for supervisory evaluation; the stress of job security; the stress of constantly managing student behavior as superiors and colleagues dictate it should be managed. It is difficult to control these stressors because they are often out of our control and within the pay-grades of some administrator or supervisor working great distances from the front lines of educational realism. The stress of marking student work and reporting student progress, however, may be within our wheelhouse of control, simply because we are often allowed to put a bit of our signature on these practices from time to time. And with these thoughts of teacher stress resulting from marking and reporting of student work and progress, I now address the causes and remedies of such in the essay that follows.
By John Oliver Smith3 years ago in Education
Time to Act
With news of the effects of second and third and even fourth waves of the COVID-19 virus and probable variant strains becoming more and more alarming everyday, there should be now no doubt that all of us live on one planet. We live on a planet that no longer has political borders. We are not citizens of this country or that country or this state or that state. We are indeed global citizens whether we want that or not. The Corona virus will not pull over for the guards at any national border-crossing to have its belongings checked or to have its intentions weighed carefully by some officious immigration officer. No, it will blow right on by and keep going until it has achieved its biological mission of infecting a host and splicing itself into the genetic material of that host’s cells so that it can keep on reproducing. This virus depends on all the negative human traits and characteristics that we can muster in order to survive and to continue being productive and successful with respect to its own simple definition of success and productivity. This virus depends on human pride and greed and stupidity in order to keep going. This virus will win this war if we continue to act like the proud, greedy and stupid humans we are so good at being. In order to win this “war” we have to stop acting like we have acted for so long now and start acting like cooperative, kind, helpful and caring human beings. We have to think and act intelligently. We have to be smarter than the virus which is depending on us not to be smart. We have to think and act at least as well as the virus itself. No more blaming, nor more finger-pointing, no more scape-goating. This is not the Wuhan virus or the Chinese virus or the Italian virus or the New York virus. It is the 2020 COVID-19 WORLD virus. If we think about it in any other way or if we think suspiciously about our Asian and/or world neighbours or if we fail to act more intelligently than the virus itself, we are only going to see things get worse. It is indeed time to act. And, here is my plan:
By John Oliver Smith3 years ago in Longevity
Pulling the Plug on a Mislocated Toe
When atmospheric pressure drops quickly before a summer storm, a number of interesting things happen. For one, dish-rags used in the kitchen sink, take on a rather putrid odor. Apparently, the bacteria living in the cloth, have a very small window of tolerance for sudden changes in air pressure, so when the pressure drops by more than a couple of mm-Hg, they collectively die and their dead and decaying bodies start to smell. Another trivial tidbit has it that certain body parts – especially those already compromised, will expand slightly in lower pressures, thus impinging on neighboring nerves and pain receptors. For example, people suffering from an inflamed bursa in the knee (bursitis) will complain more about pain prior to a storm where abrupt drops in pressure occur. As further testament to this, if you severely stub a toe or bruise a fingertip with a hammer, such an injury will be just a little more painful in times of quick shifts to lower atmospheric pressure.
By John Oliver Smith3 years ago in Confessions
Life In the Green House
I closed the greenhouse after an arduous day of picking tomatoes and cucumbers. I had impure thoughts today as I picked cucumbers. Each cucumber was so long and massive and firm – obscene really. I couldn’t even imagine having a member that size. What would I do with it when I wasn’t using it? Where would I put it? I wouldn’t be able to buy jeans that would fit. I’d have to wear a kilt, a long kilt. Women would love me though – at least, I think they would love me. I feel quite undersized and inadequate when I am around cucumbers. What guy wouldn’t feel inadequate? Nobody could measure up to even the smaller ones that aren’t ready to pick. They just hang there. They have to hang there I suppose, because that’s gravity man.
By John Oliver Smith3 years ago in Filthy
One Tough Woman
Dear Auntie Jean, How have you been? Sorry I haven’t written before now but I got busy with life after you left. I thought I should sit down and catch you up with a few of the thoughts that I have had about you over the last 60 years or so. I don’t exactly know where to start so, I will just jump right in – sort of like you would do.
By John Oliver Smith3 years ago in Families
Yes, I Know - But Will It Kill You?
Australia is a land of rare and immense beauty – rugged most of the time, and unique all of it. It is also a land of unexpected treasures. At times one can look out from a moving train window or hop out of a car at a petrol station (and they are called petrol stations as opposed to gas stations or service stations) or take a walk along a beach or a hiking trail and see nothing in nature that looks the least little bit familiar to that to which we have become accustomed. From a moderate distance (like from an airplane flying at 35 000 feet coming into Australian air space from Singapore), trees still look like trees and birds still look vaguely like birds – I mean they fly (some anyway) and all of the normal things that birds do. However, that’s where the similarities end – the trees each have their own individual character and on seeing them they immediately demand your attention. For example, I took my first photograph of an Australian eucalypt (Gum tree) on day one of our journey Down Under and, then my last of 4398 “tree” pictures, 58 days later – and that final shot was possibly of the same tree I took in the first picture (they all look so different from each other and even from previous images of the same tree) - all of this despite being residents in a forest where that character could easily be lost – lost, of course, if it weren’t for the fact that the trees themselves have branches that can’t decide which direction to grow and that have the same diameter as the trunk.
By John Oliver Smith3 years ago in Humans