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Elbert County News 5
April 11, 2013
OpiniOns / yOurs anD Ours
Author helps light up book club
I was excited to learn that last month, said local author Laurie Marr Wasmund would nderattend the Kiowa Book Club meeting and comparticipate in our discussion of her first published novel, “My Heart Lies Here.” I be a had met Ms. Wasmund earlier at a book our signing when her book first came out last SecSeptember, and we do enjoy supporting the our local authors. Discussion was lively and went back nded and forth between discussion about the oper book and about the writing process. “My Eric Heart Lies Here” is historical fiction about the events of the Ludlow Massacre in 1914 undin southern Colorado. Ms. Wasmund spent ssues several years researching the book, visiting o the the Trinidad area and learning more about aking the people who lived and worked in the olice mines. She created fictional characters to lives bring the story to life, and interwove them viowith historic figures from the time. also Rep.
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Will the Rockies be improved this season? several south metro-area locations if they thought the changes would help the Rockies play better baseball this year.
Weiss will bring more energy to the team and I think they have made moves that have strengthened the pitching staff.” —Trevor Johnson, Denver
“I guess I think the Rockies will be better this season because I am always optimistic at the start of the season. I really like the attitude Walt Weiss has brought to the team. … I think they will win more than half their games this season.” — Brian Ewert, Centennial
“I do think they will be improved. Several top players are back from injuries and they have some new people on the roster. Also, Walt Weiss as the new manager will teach them to improve on the little things they have to do to win games.” —Tom O’Connor, Englewood
“I think the Rockies will do all right .... Pitching has improved and I believe Manager Walt Weiss will have the players working on fundamentals and he will show them how not to do those little things they do when they beat themselves.” —Doug Severinson, Elizabeth
April, don’t be cruel I like April. I think April is a month of optimism, which is saying something, because I humbug just about everything. “If anything can go wrong, it will.” If I dropped 100 slices of Wonder Bread coated with peanut butter, 98 of them would land peanut butter down. I know it. I’ve known two girls named April. Both of them were beautiful. Maybe that has something to do with it, why I like April. One of them was named April May. I think she was a June bride, and took the name of her husband, which messed up one of the greatest names ever. I guess April May sounds like it could be the name of an adult film star too. T. S. Eliot wasn’t as thrilled with April as I am. He wrote “The Waste Land” in 1922, and it starts this way: April is the cruellest month, breeding Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing Memory and desire, stirring Dull roots with spring rain At the time Eliot was writing “The Waste Land” his marriage was failing, and he was suffering from a nervous disorder. Of course he’s not going to write “April is the coolest month” if he is miserable. He could have been referring to Tax Day-month too. Income tax became permanent in 1913 with the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and income tax day typically falls on April 15. I always enjoy seeing stories about people who file at the last minute, driving to the post office, and saying, “Whew!” I finish my tax returns in February. I have an accountant, a great accountant. “Why don’t you just use TurboTax?” I was asked. “Because I have a great accountant,” is always my answer. My accountant and his daughter have been doing my taxes for over 20 years. I would miss them. I am right-brained, so tax codes and forms are a foreign language. My accoun-
portrayal of an immigrant culture was compelling. We don’t always have the author at our book club meetings, but we do always have lively discussions. New participants are always welcome, so please check our calendar online, grab a book, and join the discussion. The Elizabeth Book Club meets the third Tuesday of the month at 7 p.m. The Kiowa Book Club meets the fourth Monday of the month at 7 p.m. And the Simla Book Club meets the first Saturday of the month at 9 a.m. Call your local branch for more information. Kari May lives in Elizabeth and is the director of the Elbert County Library District. She can be contacted through the library at director@elbertcountylibrary.org. Visit the library at www.elbertcountylibrary.org.
Finding the right level of tolerance
questiOn Of the week
ot to ored gislawork The Colorado Rockies have a new manama’s ager and have brought in a number of new players for this season. We asked people at what “I believe they will be a better Coloteam than they were last year. And I I believe new manager Walt ould
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The group was fascinated to learn more about the writing and publishing process. Ms. Wasmund decided to self-publish her book using the Amazon platform, and she said it was quite easy. Her book is available through Amazon both as a physical book and as an eBook you can download to your Kindle. She was supported by her husband and by a circle of writing friends who encouraged her to publish, and some who
provided valuable editing skills. One of the things I enjoyed most about the book is the main character — and narrator — Christian, a young immigrant from Scotland, who arrived in Colorado with her father and brother. Her father gets a job in John D. Rockefeller’s mines, a job that he was promised would bring him riches but only brought misery to him and his family. He dies from the mine environment, and son Alex takes his place. He and Christian struggle to make their way. Christian is a strong, independent young lady, forced to grow up when she is not even a teen. She falls in love with a Greek man; the Greeks are not respected in the mining town. Alex falls in love with Pearl, an orphan girl who literally blows onto their doorstep one night when she is running away from her past. The intricate
tant approaches taxes very differently than I ever could. He works with numbers the way I work with colors. I have decided that I will paint for another 10 years, and then quit. And then there will be no more deductions for paintbrushes and stretcher bars. I might be able to do my own taxes again, like I did when I was in college. Clip a W-2 to a one-page form, and be done in five or ten minutes. I’m giving April the benefit of the doubt, and I doubt everything. I think there are crueler months, for one thing. July and August? You can have them. If I had to live in St. Louis in July and August, my poem would start out, “July and August are the cruellest months, and the Cardinals are 16 games back.” April is OK with me. It’s impossible to be a total grouch when things are blossoming. The derivation of the name is uncertain, but the belief is it comes from the Latin aperire, “to open,” which makes sense, because it’s the season when trees and flowers begin “to open.” Ironically, April is “National Poetry Month.” Somewhere a poet will recite “The Waste Land” to an audience, that might not agree with her, because right outside the lilacs are lilacking away. Craig Marshall Smith is an artist, educator and Highlands Ranch resident. He can be reached at craigmarshallsmith@comcast. net
What is an acceptable level of tolerance? I guess the answer is really situational, as in some instances we can be or become extremely tolerant and in other cases find our patience tried and maybe even fried. Thresholds vary based on our personality and are shaped by our life experiences. For example, someone who has been living with chronic pain or frequent injuries may have built up a tolerance to pain. Treatments and therapies that used to be exceedingly painful have become more tolerable. Aches and pains that were so severe that they sidelined us from life’s activities have given way to our desire to do more. I know many people in this very situation. They are suffering from bad backs, hips, knees, cancer, diabetes and other debilitating diseases. I have seen these same people rise to the occasion and get themselves to an acceptable level of tolerance associated with their pain. The pain or hurt doesn’t go away, it’s just that over time they have conditioned themselves to accept as much as they possibly can. What about at work? Where do we draw the line and hold people accountable for performance and productivity? What is our acceptable level of tolerance when either our staff or our managers are not working at the expected level of performance? We can choose to ignore it and hope it will get better, which never works, or we can have a calm and productive discussion and re-set expectations for everyone. I know for me personally, as a leader or manager and even as an employee, I always felt like others were not keeping up with my pace. In this case it was not a matter of having a discussion with others and re-setting expectations, it was about me realizing that I needed to adjust my acceptable level of tolerance. Once I made that adjustment and got to that point of acceptance, I became less resentful and much more productive.
Elbert County News 9137 S. Ridgeline Blvd., Suite 210, Highlands Ranch, CO 80129
gerard healey President and Publisher ChriS rOtar Editor SCOtt gilBert Assistant Editor eriN addeNBrOOKe Sales Manager audrey BrOOKS Business Manager SCOtt aNdrewS Creative Services Manager SaNdra arellaNO Circulation Director rON ‘MitCh’ MitChell Sales Executive
How much are we tolerating in our relationships? Do our partners, spouses, children, parents, and friends support us and do everything they can to make us feel appreciated, respected and loved? And if not, do we accept that, sweep it under the rug, and again hope that it gets better? It never works. We need to share with everyone what we are willing to accept and tolerate and what we are not. And as difficult as that may sound, once the conversations have happened in most cases things will begin to get much better. And as a consumer, as a customer, what is our acceptable level of tolerance? We can choose to continue to shop or eat or drink at places where we don’t feel appreciated and receive poor service, or we can decide that there are probably better options. The point is this: We are in control. We get to determine what we will accept and what we will not. We set the thresholds of tolerance, not anyone else. It is a freeing and liberating feeling when we finally get to that point and our opportunities to enjoy life increase proportionally. What are you willing to tolerate? I would love to hear all about it at gotonorton@ gmail.com, and my hope is that this will be a better than good week for you. Michael Norton, a resident of Highlands Ranch, is the former president of the Zig Ziglar organization and CEO and founder of www.candogo.com
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