Have you seen the movies “The Perfect Storm” or “Restrepo”?

Sebastian Junger wrote them both. Now he has a new book, “Tribe, On Homecoming and Belonging.” It presents a new interpretation about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and why our soldiers are coming home with it at a greater rate than ever before.

His book resonated with me for two reasons.

First, I have a cousin who served as a Green Beret in Cambodia during the Vietnam War. He has Multiple Sclerosis now due, he thinks, to the effects of Agent Orange, an herbicide that he was exposed to during that war. When the first Gulf War happened, though, he longed to go. His eyes still light up at the mere thought of it, not because he wants to kill, but because he wants to be with his troop, his group, his tribe again.

The second reason, “Tribe” resonates with me is because it reminds me of a book written by a friend of mine, Mike Mazarr. In “Unmodern Men in the Modern World,” Mazarr talks about the soothing, sheltering solidarity of communal life as a reason why young men who otherwise feel ineffectual or purposeless, join ISIS.

Junger turns that same illuminating insight onto us. His purpose is to help us understand the true value of social solidarity and sacrifice, something our troops find in the trenches but do not find at home. “Tribe” is short, punchy and persuasive. It honors our veterans in a very different way. It is also a searing critique of our modern society.

The message is simple: It’s not too late. We can still change what Junger says needs changing.

The news about the mass shooting in Orlando earlier this month was horrifying. It’s an event that nearly everyone finds impossible to have imagined. Now, its reality is very hard to integrate into our psyches.

Jeremy West

That, in part, is why I am so proud of our EHE team who walked and worked the Columbus Pride Festival and Parade last weekend.

I especially want to call out EHE graduate student Jeremy West for recognition. Currently a master’s student in the Family and Consumer Sciences Education program, Jeremy single handedly organized an impressive showing not only for our college but also for EHE’s Phi Upsilon Omicron honorary.

The parade is over. The cause is not.

 
It is extremely important for all of us in EHE to stand up for the civil rights of all human beings, all of the time. Social justice is just two words on the lips of many; let us make sure that we live and work as socially just individuals every day. I mourn for the LGBTQ community and am sensitive to bigotry perpetrated against all of our marginalized communities.

I invite everyone to join me in stamping out hatred, intolerance and discrimination. As educators, we simply must. We are the role models, the teachers, the researchers and professionals most engaged with our broad community.

Let us join Jeremy and “walk the walk.”

Poetry is almost religion for me.

I read some nearly every night. So, when I read about Ohio’s first poet laureate (who is also a radiologist) in the May 2016 issue of Columbus Monthly, I had to go out and buy Amit Majmudar’s book, Dothead.

I am so glad I did.

I read Dothead three times through. Every poem contains a surprise, an energy and imagery unique unto itself, a satisfying aha or hah! at the end.

This little book of 100 pages and 64 poems is diversity personified. It is a cultural tour by one who has felt the questions, hurts and challenges of everyday discrimination, one who reified these into meditations on the ironies and beauties of everyday life, and who has finally melded the myths and insights of religions he was and was not born into to create new meanings for things you never thought possible.

I shall remember his “Crocodile Porn” with a smile, his musings on Michelangelo “In a Gallery” with a sharp intake of air, his ode to heme iron in FE through the line, “this iron oar of the Ferryman” with envy.

Consider this line, “How much salt must a lover sweat to earn his sugar?”

Read it and see.

Every other year for the past ten years, I have served as the lead trainer at the Mid-Career Academic Leadership Institute sponsored by the Dannon Institute. Every time I teach it, I love it even more.

Targeted at food and nutrition professionals, this four-day intensive training program was created to provide an opportunity for participants to determine if a leadership role in their field might just be a perfect fit .

I give event participants these four solid reasons to invest in leadership courses:

Four reasons leadership courses are necessary

1. Because leadership is a good thing and it’s in short supply.

2. Because leaders are not born; they are made. [attributed to Vince Lombardi]

3. Because leadership is central to the success of any organization.

4. And finally, because leadership is not the same in academe as it is in business.

Leadership is no different than most any other kind of human activity. It is informed and improved by learning. In academe, we don’t have the time or space to stumble through our challenges. We need effective actors to act now.

Whatever any of us might have done to become a successful and accomplished academic or professor will not be the same skills needed for us to become a good leader. Most of our academic leaders today have learned by trial and error.

Yet, experience alone is a hard and often costly taskmaster. It might not even produce half of what is needed.

Instruction, coaching, reading, role modeling, reflecting and observing are skills learned through leadership courses that can save time, pain and failure.

Educational workshops or seminars on leadership are key because they can provide the help that you need to build a support system, leverage your own and others’ experiences, give you a jump start, and soften the hard knocks.

I encourage you all to join me in participating in as many leadership opportunities as you can to develop your own skill set.