The Troubadour: Life's Great Successes, One Milk Carton at a Time. And the Imaginarium.

Hello Troops,
And a double Hallelujah and Amen to the illustration above. Take it from someone who has experience in the subject. I've had my fair share of failures for every success.

Writing Space Center missions is one example of how failures can lead to success. For every successful, popular mission I've written (Shadows for instance), I've written a couple real stinkers that cause myself and the staff great amounts of grief (Saladin for instance). Each failure taught me something I wouldn't have known had I not failed.

The key to success is to never give up on an idea that has merit. You've hear people say NEVER GIVE UP! I disagree with that statement. A successful person knows when to quit and move on to the next idea. Quitting has a place in our lives. Ask a smoker :) A successful person knows when to hold 'em and when to fold.

I regulated the mission Saladin to the trash heap of failed Space Center missions after giving it everything I had. There are times you lick your wounds, admit the world doesn't revolve around you, admit that you DON'T have all the answers, accept a healthy dose of humility and MOVE ON.

Speaking of not quitting, today at Shelley Elementary a young 1st grader walked up to me during lunch. I was doing what I do every day between 11:00 A.M. and 12:00 P.M.; I monitor the lunchroom, seat the kids, and do my best to convince them to eat something off their lunch trays.

"I opened my own milk for the first time!" the young boy said enthusiastically. His blue eyes twinkled and a smile stretched ear to ear.

"For the very first time ever?" I asked over the boisterous lunchroom.

"Yep," he answered.

"Good Job!" I patted his blond head and sent him on his way to the playground. He took a few detours on this way to the exit - stopping to tell the school's custodian and one of the lunch ladies.

His victory came at a great cost to dozens of innocent and unsuspecting chocolate milk cartons. Every day, until today, he'd wave at me from his table to open his milk carton after he'd mangled and deformed it in an attempt to get at the milk. I'd have to pinch and squeeze the carton to force an opening.

"I'll do it," he'd say the moment the barrier was breeched and a crack appeared exposing the chocolate 2% to the outside world. He'd pull the carton from me and finish the job by inserting his straw.

Aren't life's little victories the best? I think I experienced a similar bout of joy the day I learned how to drive a stick shift.

And for every child who learns to open his own milk, there are dozens of others in my cafeteria at Shelley who still rely on me to open their bags of chips, gogurts, drink cartons and thermoses. What an interesting change it is from the Space Center.

And now, More from the Imaginarium..

How Other Witches and Wizards get to school.

Platform 9 1/2 is great for those with magical inclination in the United Kingdom,

but what about young wizards and witches in other parts of the world?