TLT-SWG-50:  Thanksgiving Message

(11/26/02 TLT-SWG #50 Approx. 1 page from me.

I’m rushing to finish the last few items before I convert completely to Thanksgiving holiday mode.  This rushing is a symptom of the flood of information, obligations, and opportunities that too many of us let sweep us along. 

I’m trying to switch over to thinking about all that I have to be thankful for.  In the most important ways this has been a wonderful year for me.  Each of my children has grown and accomplished something important.  My wife has helped make the TLT Group a happier and more reasonable place, especially in how my partner Steve Ehrmann and I work together and how we’ve begun to work with others better, too.  Sally and I are discovering we can cope with living in a mostly “empty nest,” and we’ve begun to learn to make more time for being with people who matter most – and there are many - both within and outside our family. 

In spite of the craziness of international strife and national economic problems, our organization continues to provide me with opportunities to work on mostly fascinating tasks with mostly wonderful people;  but I understand more fully now that choosing to run a small non-profit is just selecting a set of problems that is a better fit for me than the sets associated with other kinds of work.  Everyone has problems.  Everyone changes all the time.  The lucky ones are those of us who can occasionally find some comfort and satisfaction in what we do at home and at work.  If our kids are doing so well, we must have done something right!

Below is a Thanksgiving excerpt/modification from my updated “Brief, informal bio” – for full version, see:

<<http://www.tltgroup.org/about/stevegilbert.html>>

and please see our Thanksgiving Website. 

<http://www.tltgroup.org/Thanksgiving/Community2002.htm>

I need to add a few more of the quotes and recipes that have been coming in the last few days – but I may not get to that until after we pick up our son at the airport this afternoon.

I hope you all have a wonderful, peaceful holiday.)

Steve Gilbert =============================================

Excerpt: 

On January 1, 2003 the TLT Group will be five years old, and we will move our offices to a building much closer to some of our homes (me, Steve Ehrmann, and Sally Gilbert) in Takoma Park, where we will have windows that we can open.   Of course, we'll miss the closer contact with many of the friends and conveniences available at One Dupont Circle - especially AAHE -  but we'll only be a 20 minute Metro ride away. 

I'm very proud that we've managed to survive and grow during this turbulent period.  Now we almost know what we're doing!

2003 is the year when I look forward to exploring "Education, Technology, and the Human Spirit" - what that means to me, and what that means to you.   What does it mean to you?  [We’ll begin with an exploratory “Online Brown Bag Lunch” on Dec 12.  See: 
<http://www.tltgroup.org/Events/BrownBags/Calendar.htm>

I’m very grateful for the opportunities I have for working with hundreds of wonderful people – the “Compassionate Pioneers” -- in higher education and elsewhere who share my commitment to building more “nurturing communities.”  Wherever we can.  When possible, through improving teaching and learning with technology.