Buffy’s On A Plane!!-Part II

About two years ago I wrote this post about Buffy’s first time on a plane and how taking dogs on a plane works. This was a nerve-racking experience but we felt that it was worth the extra stress and since then we have continued to take Buffy on trips with us. A couple weekends ago, Buffy completed her tenth plane ride, flying a little bit more the 14,500 miles total.

Flying on planes and airports are stressful and adding a dog into the equation doesn’t help. One of the biggest concerns about taking a dog on a plane is the dog’s need to go to the bathroom. Most airports have some green space around the terminal that dogs can use to go, but none of these places are past security. Buffy is usually so excited at the airport she rarely goes at these places before flights. So usually right before we drive over to the airport, we try to time it so Buffy goes and she usually does.

When we get off plane we hustle to get outside of the baggage claim so Buffy can do her business. Sometimes she has more of a desire to run in circles and stretch her legs out than actually going potty, but after a couple minutes she usually does.

Walking through the airport Buffy is greeted to “ahh’s” and request to pet her. Airports can be such a bleak and depressing place and it’s really amazing to watch how Buffy can bring a smile to the face of bedraggled travelers.

Buffy’s presence seems to invite people to tell us about their dogs. Many people relate how they are looking forward to going home to their puppy and we are asked often about the logistics of having her on the plane.

Airplane employees have a variety of responses to Buffy. Most are so enamored by her cuteness that they simply ask to pet her. Many flight attendants don’t mind if during the flight she sticks her head out the top of her bag while others are really strict about her being completely in the bag.

We did have one horrible incident when we were about to board a plane. One of the ticket agents thought we were being cruel to Buffy by making her be in a bag that was too small for her. Diana and I are very conscientious about this and Buffy is in regulation for the bag we use to carry her. This flight was already late and numerous airline employees had seen Buffy, checked her in and made no comments about her bag being too small.


This situation escalated until a manager had to be called in who really didn’t care about Buffy being on the plan. She let us on the plane to the objections of the one ticket agent. Even though I was angrier during the confrontation than I had ever been at an airport, Buffy quietly sat in her bag the entire time.


Probably my favorite thing about flying with Buffy is when Diana carries her down the aisle to our seats. We are usually part of the last group to board. So as Buffy’s head sticks out from the top of her bag and we make our way to our seat, almost all of the passengers turn their heads to watch Buffy go by. Some people smile, others point Buffy out to people they are traveling with, while a chorus of “ahhs” accompany Buffy as she passes by.

Buffy is much better traveler than most people.  She doesn't get stressed out, pushy or irritable like many of us do when we get on plane flights.  She makes being at an airport and a plane, somehow not as bad for the people who encounter her.

In the past ten plane flights with Buffy, she's never given me a reason to feel stressed out, she's only given me reasons to be proud of her and love her even more.

Year 2: Week 19 – What Diversity Means In Education-Part II

Last spring I made a post of diversity in education. I didn’t really draw any conclusions in this post. I reflected on my own life and told a story about talking about my background enrich my students’ lives.

This week as I sat on a sub-committee at my school focused on the issue of diversity, I realized that I actually did have a strong idea of what diversity in education meant in education contrary to my conclusion in my earlier post on the subject.

“Diversity” is a huge buzz word not only in educations but in many corners of our world. The idea is that somehow, whatever business or group is more diverse is better. Why? A more diverse group of people brings more perspectives and abilities and is therefore more relevant. There’s almost a “political correctness” to the idea of being more diverse to the point that anyone who asserts the opposite is offensive.

As someone who brings diversity as an Asian American into most of the situations in my life, I like diversity. Because I am diversity. However I understand reservations about putting such a focus on being diverse especially if it’s at the cost of other things. Should a university be more diverse if it means the academic standards drop? No, I’m not talking about simply minorities here, I’m talking about all of the differences in our culture: gender, sexual-orientation, location in the country, socio-economic level, religion to name a few.

Not everything is better by being made more diverse. How strong can a Catholic Church community be if people of many religions come to the services with no intention of converting? There’s a place for a level of homogeny, but I think American education isn’t one of those places.

One of the things that I point out whenever someone asks me what I think about the fact that some countries like Japan and in Northern Europe have much higher test scores then American students is that their student population is much less diverse. If our goal as educators really was to teach math and reading, then we should segregate the schools by gender, languages they speak at home, learning styles, and of course ability. While you find schools that do separate their students by some or all of these ways, most schools don’t.

American education believes that it’s worth having lower test scores if students learn not only have to work with people who are different than them but embrace those differences as an asset.

Diversity isn’t just about specific differences in our country like race or gender. It’s not even about preparing our youth for a more global economy in the future. It’s about teaching students a paradigm that valuing diversity, differences in our world is what helps us understand each other.  In recognizing the differences and accepting them, we see the similarities that we all share and in those connections we find the moments that make life worth living.

My Love Is Your Love by Whitney Houston

This is how I like to remember Whitney Houston.



With brilliant production by Wyclef Jean and simple but beautiful lyrics, Whitney proved in 1998 after years of controversy that she still had it.  She started in 1987 simply wanting to dance with somebody. . .



While this song is fun, that hair . . .wow.



Of course there's her unforgettable cover of Dolly Parton's "I Will Always Love You."



I guess I go back to "My Love Is Your Love" which is one of my favorite songs of all time because it feels so much more real.  There's a warmth and relaxation in her voice and an honestly.  It's hopeful, where as "I Will Always Love You," really is a break-up song.   There's something so profound she captures in the second verse that gets to me every time I hear this song.   

If I lose my fame and fortune,
And I'm homeless on the street.
And I'm sleeping in Grand Central Station,
It's okay if you're sleeping with me.

 While you imagine the loneliness and despair of this situation, her voice is liarms warm embrace.  

We Take Care Of Our Own by Bruce Springsteen

Starting with a snarl of angry guitars and unforgiving drums, Springsteen starts "We Take Care Of Our Own" with an spite and frustration. When we feel this way, we have a choice: either dwell in the darkness of our feelings or work towards something better. What is Springsteen's answer to these emotions? In the shining guitar chords, singing violin and sparking bells that enter next, we hear hope.

The opening guitar riff doesn't disappear with the other instruments but remains as a reminder of the darkness that leads to hope. These layers, the chords, the melody and the colors are a sonic landscape that is uniquely Springsteen and uniquely American which fits these simple but profound lyrics of Springsteen's newest anthem.



"We Take Care Of Our Own" is Springsteen's first single from his upcoming album Wrecking Ball, which comes out in early March. On its surface this song appears to be an almost Toby Kieth-esque patriotic rock anthem. With a chorus "wherever this flag is flown, we take care of our own," there's an illusion that Springsteen is simply trying to milk patriotic emotions out of his audience. However like many of Springsteen's greatest songs, this song is so much more than it appears. "Born In The U.S.A." was about the burdens, not the pride of being born in America, "Dancing In The Dark" is an examination of the loss of ones identity, not a frivolous 1980s dance song, and "We Take Care Of Our Own," is not a simple patriotic anthem, but rather a critical examinations of the values that we hold dear and the promises of our country that for many are simply illusions.

The first verse is a journey, searching for something that is missing, something that has been lost. Good intentions now seem meaningless. The second verse explores the corners of America, some full of glory but others full of shame. He brings up the Superdome alluding the the catastrophe of the Hurricane Katrina and the horribly inadequate response to the disaster using the Superdome as an evacuation center. Then in the third verse Bruce starts asking questions. These are questions we've all asked ourselves more and more as our country has suffered through some of the it's most challenging times in the last four years.

These questions lead up to one final passionate call to us all, "where's the promise from sea to shining sea." The repetition of this line drives this questions home as one of the central lines in this song. More importantly it invites us all to sing along when he eventually performs this song live.  Imagine 20 thousand people singing this line in unison. Think about all the frustration, the struggles, the loss our country has gone through in the past four year and imagine the being able to yell out this question as a united people.

We need this in America right now, but what we don't need is for these emotions to turn into anger, and Bruce immediately reminds us that regardless of what our government does, no matter how bad times get, we take care of our own. Or do we? But that is not the question that this song is really asking us. It's forces us to focus on the central questions the nature of our country, our community and our citizenship: what does it mean to take care of our own?

Who is our "own"? Are people who are on death row our "own"? How about unborn fetuses, illegal immigrants or the homeless guy I drive by every day on the way to work? Does taking care of someone means saving their soul, if you believe that living a certain lifestyle will get them to heaven even if they don't? Does taking care of someone mean giving a person food or does it mean making them feel the pangs of hunger to motivate them to work?

In one statement Bruce has summarized the entire current political discussion and brings it into focus. Yes there are songs that Springsteen has recorded that have a clear political bias and Bruce himself regularly campaigns for Democrats. However this song is truly apolitical because it doesn't make assertions about taking care of our own.  It simply raises questions about what we value.

This isn't a liberal or conservative thing to do, this is an American thing to do as one of our greatest freedoms. It is the amazing feeling of being in a country that values reflection which is expressed in the shear joy of this song.

Bruce Springsteen doesn't state that he's proud to be an American, instead he reminds us why we should feel proud to be one.

Year 2: Week 18 - Why A Teacher Is Not A Friend

"No, I'm not your friend."

Usually when I say this to one of my students, I'm joking around. But every once in a while I need to have a conversation with one of my students when they get too comfortable with me and I need to explain to them the nature of our relationship. A teacher is a lot of things, but a friend is not one of them. Every time this topic comes to mind I think about Katya.

Katya was one of my students when I was student teaching. She was a sophomore flute player and she quickly became comfortable confiding in me. Every day she would come to band, walk by the desk and give me an enthusiastic greeting and fill me in on the events of her day.

One of my jobs as a student teacher was to enforce the students’ marching band dress code. This was important to set and standard for the band and create a uniform look which helped during competitions. One of the requirements was that all of the students had to wear black socks.

At the end of one football game, I walked by Katya as the band was lining up and deciding to be cute she said "hey Mr. Tang, check out my socks." Looking down I noticed that she was wearing pinks socks.

"Katya, you know the deal, anything but black socks are going to be points off your grade." I told her.

"You're not going to report me, c'mon Tang" she said smiling back at me.

But I did report her to my supervising teacher, and Katya got called and had to deal the consequence of her actions. The next week Katya walked right by my desk instead of stopping to say hello. In class she was polite to me, did everything I asked but it ended right there. No more happy greetings, updates of her day and asking me for help with issues with her life,

That's how it was between Katya and I for the last half of my time student teaching at her school. I missed the relationship we had developed but I knew I did the right thing. Even though we had become friendly, my job was not to be her friend. Her "liking" me simply
wasn't as important as being fair. I told myself all of this but it didn't change how I missed seeing her smiling face greet me every morning.

On my last day student teaching, I sat in the office during lunch finishing up some work and I heard Katya's voice greeting me. She didn't greet me the way we did before I reported her but there was warmth to her voice beyond simply acknowledging my presence. She sat down, told me about her day and what had been going on her life. Then she told me that should would miss me and said goodbye.

Somehow in that moment I knew we had an understanding even though we never talked about what happened. Her goodbye was the way that Katya showed me that and with her simple words she helped me finally feel that I had done the right thing.

A teacher's relationship with a student is a difficult thing to define. It's relationship that has certain strict boundaries but others that we have to define for ourselves.

If we base our decisions as teachers on being a friend we are doing a disservice to our students and ourselves. This is something that students rarely comprehend and almost never thank us for, however every once in a while a student will let you that they understand.

The Beatles are tired and so am I. . .

While most the Beatles' catalog are songs about love, they understood music's ability to express the spectrum of the human experience.

Including being tire:



And sleeping . . .



Now I'm not someone who whines about being tired or obsesses about sleep, but man, I could use a nap.    Like all great music, the Beatles remind us that we aren't the only ones who sometimes feel tired.  This doesn't make me feel any less tired, but hey at least I know someone out there understands.

All I Need by Matchbox Twenty

Once upon a time, iTunes wasn’t a store. It was simply an application used to play CD’s. It wasn’t until a couple months into using it that anyone I knew started using this program to import songs onto their computers (We’re talking about the early 2000s here). iTunes was far better at not only organizing music but also burning music CDs.

Before iTunes you had to import the songs, arrange a playlist, create an image and then burn that image onto a CD. Most of the time this two-hour process would mess up and you’d have to restart. iTunes slimmed this process down and it opened up the world of making mix CDs. All you had to do was drop some songs in a playlist you had previously uploaded and press burn and in about 45 minutes you would have a personalized audio CD.

I really loved making these mixes for people. I tried to create something that expressed the way I felt about them and also gave a joyful to experience. Most of the time I started the mix with faster music and ended with slower and more introspective tunes. I didn’t really try to send subliminal messages through these mix CDs. Most of the time if there was something that I wanted to say through a song, it was pretty explicit like with “Bobby Jean” by Bruce Springsteen, which I discussed in this post.

When I set out to make the first mix CD I ever made for Diana,  I spent a lot of time figuring out which songs to include. One of the first songs that came to mind was “All I Need” by Matchbox Twenty.



This song is probably the most joyful song that this band ever recorded. Released in 2002 from their third album, Matchbox Twenty leaves behind the brooding darkness of many of their hits embracing a hopeful joy.  There’s an 1960s feeling in this song even featuring a quote from The Buckingham’s hit “kind of a drag” in the bridge.



Within this shiny soundscape the lyrics talk about difficult times and people with “a sinking feeling” and being “down on themselves.” Thomas’ reaction to this in the chorus is that all he needs is someone to lean on.  It’s such a simple sentiment but at that time it was exactly how I felt about Diana. All I felt like I needed was someone to lean on and in some ways that has never changed.

Putting “All I Need” on that mix CD forever connected this song with that time in my life and the feelings I had for Diana.  When I talk to my students about music, this idea that you can create a group of songs for about how you feel is lost on them.  We don't have any more as people share songs more than playlists.

Music isn't just about how we feel about ourselves, but also how we feel about each other.  Mix CDs communicated my feelings to other people and while I haven't made a mix CD in a while, whenever I hear "All I Need" that reminds me of the joy creating one.  As dorky as they may seem, mix CDs were awesome and I wish we could embrace this unique gift of music once again.