I’ll be posting different careers for our youth to think about and you adults out there that feel you are stuck in a rut!

“You must learn a new way to think before you can master a new way to be.”                [M. Williamson, 2014]

A SCRUM Master

(Might sound kinda funny but… it’s new world out there with new ways of doing things)  a better way of working –

There is a defined curriculum for all Professional Scrum courses and certifications.What is Scrum? Scrum is a way for teams to work together to develop a product. Product development, using Scrum, occurs in small pieces, with each piece building upon previously created pieces. Building products one small piece at a time encourages creativity and enables teams to respond to feedback and change, to build exactly and only what is needed.

More specifically, Scrum is a simple framework for effective team collaboration on complex projects. Scrum provides a small set of rules that create just enough structure for teams to be able to focus their innovation on solving what might otherwise be an insurmountable challenge. 

However, Scrum is much more than a simple framework. Scrum supports our need to be human at work: to belong, to learn, to do, to create and be creative, to grow, to improve, and to interact with other people. In other words, Scrum leverages the innate traits and characteristics in people to allow them to do great things together. read more at   https://www.scrum.org/Courses/Scaled-Professional-Scrum

Her name is Lyn Messersmith and her  weekly column appears in two local papers, Sheridan County Journal Star, and Valentine Nebraska,  Midland News. Once a month in Cattle Business Weekly

She’s an excellent writer, and It’s my privilege and honor to have her permission to  reproduce her writings from time to time.

Here’s her 2/25/15 Post

The Lay of the Land

By Lyn Messersmith

Judgment Calls

My friend and I enjoy interacting with audiences after presenting programs for the Nebraska Humanities Council. Often we hear pioneer tales or are reunited with people from our pasts, and whenever we mention the places we hail from, somebody asks if we know this or that person in those hometowns.

Recently, during a story about lady bronc rider, Tad Lucas, I added that I too am a native of Cherry County. A frail looking woman came up later to tell me her daughter had connections with a family in Cherry County.

“Yes, I know them,” I replied, preparing to add what good folks they are. But she wanted to convey a message of her own.

“Well, they’re Catholic, you know,” she said. “I’m a Protestant. My faith has kept me going through the loss of my husband, but my kids, well, some of them are following the right path but others… I’m working on them.”

It was hard to listen politely as her discourse became even more judgmental.  But, I’ve learned that when someone so opinionated gets going, about all that’s required of me is an occasional; “Hmmm, I see,” or, “I’m sure it will turn out ok.”

Then, a man approached Deb with a response to her mention of having taught school on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

“Those Indians, they don’t believe in God, do they?”

Deb has a profound respect for Native Americans and their spirituality. As she carefully began to explain some of those concepts, the man interrupted her several times.

“I mean they don’t believe in God the right way, not like we do, isn’t that right?”

Eventually, I think both of them called a truce, knowing this wasn’t going anywhere good. We usually come away from a performance energized and uplifted, full of new ideas, and reassured that, after all, is said and done, humans are more alike than different. This time felt like we traveled home under a cloud of sadness. But nothing happens by mistake, and the lesson I took from those encounters is this.

Most of us take for granted that everyone else thinks like we do, or if not, then they are wrong, and we argue our points. We apply this to virtually all aspects of life. It’s the reason we say things like, “How could she do that?” “I can’t figure how they live that way,” or “It’s about what you’d expect of a …” (fill in the blanks with Republican, Liberal, Hispanic, lawyer, teenager, man, blonde…)

When we say those things, we reveal ourselves, our conceit, prejudices, ignorance, arrogance, and most of all, our fears because, above all, we fear being different. In our minds, different equals wrong, and in order for someone to be right, someone else has to be wrong. The rise of global terrorism undoubtedly bears that mark.

The woman who fears Catholicism, never thought to wonder if I might be Catholic, and if so, whether her comments would hurt me. The man who denigrated Native American spirituality might well have been speaking to someone of that descent. Deb’s hair and eyes are dark, and she carries herself with that sort of proud grace common to our First Nation friends.

I’ve been in groups with someone whose family members live an alternate lifestyle while a person in the room made scornful comments about gay marriage. I also listened to rants about low life criminals, knowing that the woman in the seat next to me has a  incarcerate son.

Surely we can be true to our personal values without making mean-spirited comments. I’m still a little off center by recent encounters with judgmental people, likely because I too need to work on self-righteousness.

My children’s father had a saying, not letting one’s mouth overload another part of the anatomy. We all do that. We can all do better.

Birth Anniversaries: February

19 Feb
Albert D Thompkins – 1922
Tennessee ‘Tennie’ Elizabeth Miser – 1872

21 Feb 
Beatrice Mitchell – 1936
22 Feb
Dennis Elehugh Walker – 1972
Philip Amos Johnston – 1929
Samuel Richard Robbins – 1910
G. William Cross – 1887
Samuel Richard Robbins -1910 
G. William Cross – 1887 
Lt George W Hatter – 1846
23 Feb 
Amy Ross – 1893
25 Feb 
Clifford L Tymony Jr – 1984
Louis Hale Morton – 19**
Barbara Ann Hatter – 1942
Leroy Haynes  – 1898
26 Feb 
Gerald H Tymony – 1987
27 Feb
Kelly Ray Brooks – 19**
Fanny “Ethelda” Robbins – 1920
Mary Alice Beaird – 1892
Catherine Louisa Hatter – 1871
28 Feb 
 Rochelle R. Watkins – 19**
 Norman Hatter – 1906
 Henry DePriest – 1865
 Charlotte Riley – 1929
 Norman Hatter – 1906
 Henry DePriest – 1865
 Silas Y. Birch – 1858

Wedding anniversaries

24 Feb                                                                                                                                                                               Tip Brooks & Roxie Woodson – 1973                                                                                                                    Boris & Kelly Ferrell – 1997

25  Feb                                                                                                                                                                          Kenneth Marvin Hayes & Georgia Jewell McAfee – 1947

28 Feb                                                                                                                                                    Samuel Emanuel & Laura L Kersey – 1875

Death anniversaries

18   Feb                                                                                                                                                                       Roberta A. Beaird – 1999

22  Feb                                                                                                                                                                        Dennis Elehugh Walker – 1972                                                                                                                  Philip Amos Johnston – 1929 

24   Feb                                                                                                                                                                     Mary Ellen Pegg – 1956

25  Feb                                                                                                                                                                           Clifford L Tymony Jr. – 1984                                                                                                                    

28 Feb                                                                                                                                                           Charlotte Riley – 1929