New Year and 2010

To start the New Year properly, I want to thank all those hardworking care givers out there, including pre-school teachers, elementary school teachers, nursing home personnel, and other senior care workers, especially those Nancy and I met during 2010 as we made over 90 trips to places where I performed over 60 shows for over 3500 children and adults.

(Now I can willingly go on to thank high school teachers, fire-fighters, law enforcement personnel, and snow plow workers, etc. but, you see, I'm limiting this discussion to those workers we meet on our visits.)

It's always easy to criticize, and one doesn't have to wait too long during any given day to hear a negative comment about "nursing homes" or "those teachers."
But I proclaim that at every place Nancy and I visited we saw children or older folks being treated with love and respect; we saw smiles; we saw workers who like what they do and are darn good at it. We saw proud professionals who face hard challenges every day as they teach our young people and care for our aged.

At the schools, the kids and their teachers gave us more inspiration and energy than we could possible give to them; and at senior care facilities, staff members and residents never failed to delight us with their stories and humor.

On every trip, Nancy and I rediscovered that doing our shows at schools, libraries, senior/community centers, museums, etc. gave more to us than we gave to them. We look forward to another year of the same.

Nancy and I wish to salute those workers and wish them a Happy New Year and continued success in their professions!

And although we hope to be invited to do our show at many, many new places in 2011, we also hope to be invited to return to those places we visited in 2010.