Kids and adults can get all sorts of awards and prizes these days.
Most of them reward them for some sort of excess, obsession or deviation. …Doing something WAY too much for anyone’s good.
So I have the idea of an Integrated Achievement Award.
Martha says it’s another bad idea of mine.
The “IAA” would reward and award those who have made something of distinction of themselves in terms of everyday living, covering all the bases fairly. It’s not the same, though, as a “Best in Lots of Fields” award. I’m sure there are plenty of all-A’s, all-conference athletes out there. No, this would be someone who’s contributing somehow in an actual way. And someone who is doing really well with the resources they have. Grades and sports aren’t the way that hardly anyone achieves and excels, especially in real life once they’re grown up (and then we wouldn’t use money as the standard, would we?).
Leadership is an interesting angle, but it too can be expressed in many ways. I’m not sure that either the political, business, military, or religious arenas are the best places. Ha! What’s left? Who knows!
For the “IAA” I’m not sure you can apply or be nominated. Hmmm, I guess it’s an anti-award. Maybe it’s a “call it as we see it” award.
Leadership in any area, grades, sports, earnings, it all can count — along with everything else.
Maybe that’s the thing that’s missing today: the everything else.
And I guess we better create an application and also let folks nominate (each other).
Basically it would award someone who was doing just the right things based on who they were. Who was rising to their call of duty. And who wasn’t falling down on one duty while attending to another. Such a kid (or college student, or adult) would clearly be learning the most and moving forward in perhaps the realest way. To what? To some score or measurement? Hmmm… No, to themselves. So what are people supposed to be, anyway? Actually, that doesn’t seem all THAT tough to figure out. But maybe it is.
