Abraham Lincoln: Children’s Book Challenge Day #11

We’re more than a third of the way there now. We’re getting into a rhythym, though this clearly was a big challenge to bite off for our first. We generally end up working on it for an hour to an hour and a half after we put the kids to bed. We’re definitely getting less sleep. The last three days were filled in with:

• Jacques Cousteau – Day #8
• Mother Theresa – Day #9
• Martin Luther King Jr. – Day #10

We decided to follow up Martin Luther King Jr. with someone who helped pave the way for him, Abraham Lincoln. What did we learn? The Civil War was largely a result of Lincoln getting elected. After he won the electoral vote, the South said they would secede from the Union. I had heard some inklings that Lincoln wasn’t as committed to opposing slavery earlier in his political career. If Wikipedia is accurate, that’s not the case. There were many times where he spoke out against slavery and acts that would promote its spread. In fact, he probably lost two separate elections to the U.S. Senate as a result of his polarizing views on the subject. To this day he remains one of the greatest U.S. Presidents… and one of the few guys who can rock the chin strap beard.

 

Cliff Young: Children’s Book Challenge Day #7

Day seven and we’ve managed to stay on course with our challenge:

• Jackie Robinson – Day #4
• Helen Keller – Day #5
• Jane Goodall – Day #6 (We went to the zoo earlier in the day, so this seemed like a good idea.)

Day seven was particularly difficult since I was on a business trip to Vegas. Since Jill had the kids, I ran with it. That allowed me to choose one of my favorite stories, that of Cliff Young. Cliff was an Australian farmer that at the age of 61 showed up to an ultra-marathon, a 540 mile race between Melbourne and Sydney. Clad in rain boots and overalls, most of the participants thought he was joke. This was a race for 5-6 days, racers were running for 18 hours and sleeping for 6. Once the race started Cliff quickly fell behind with his “shuffle.” His feet barely left the ground as he ran. Five days later Cliff had won the race, set a new record time for the run between Melbourne and Sydney, and become an Australian cult phenomenon. His trick… he didn’t sleep. He’s got a pretty fascinating story. If you want to learn more, check out Cliff Young’s wikipedia article.

 

Charles Lindbergh: Children’s Book Challenge Day #3

Another late night makes for three straight days of creating a childrens’ book. We’re ten percent of the way there. Wow, that feels underwhelming. It does, however, feel great to have made it to three: one foot in front of the other, right?. It should get much more difficult at the end of this week when I leave for a business trip in Vegas, so we’re going to have to make a plan for distant production.

Since we had already crossed the Atlantic in our day 2 book, with Amelia Earhart, it seemed an easy extension to devote day 3 to Charles Lindbergh. His story is pretty interesting. What you probably don’t know is that six men died trying to be the first to fly from New York to Paris before “Lucky Lindbergh” pulled it off. At that time the amount of gasoline that the airplanes had to carry for a trip from New York to Paris was enough to crash two of the six men before they were ever able to take off.

His luck did run out. His infant son was later kidnapped and murdered in what was dubbed the “Crime of the Century.” As a father of an infant and a toddler, it’s hard to even imagine how that would have impacted him. Part of me wonders if he ever regretted his fame or blamed it for what happened to his son. Now excuse me while I go hug mine.

 

Amelia Earhart: Children’s Book Challenge Day #2

It’s only day 2 of the book challenge and we’re already uncovering that this is a big undertaking. After spending the day with my parents, we had to start our project on the drive home with two sleeping kids in the back. We decided we needed someone that would be fairly easy. For us that meant someone whose major life accomplishment was pretty cut and dried. We chose Amelia Earhart, even before discovering that it was actually her birthday.

As it also turned out, she did much more than just simply become the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. Her actual story is much more interesting. Her first trip across the Atlantic was only as a co-pilot. She didn’t actually fly because she didn’t know how to work the instruments in that particular plane. When she landed this is what she said, “Stultz did all the flying—had to. I was just baggage, like a sack of potatoes.” She added, “…maybe someday I’ll try it alone.”

Amelia returned to the States to much fan-fare, but didn’t seem to be content with the partial accomplishment. Instead she made plans to fly the trip solo and accomplished it less than four years later. Along the way she promoted womens’ right, sponsored a fashion and luggage line and raced competitively. So much for picking someone with an uncomplicated list of contributions to the world.

 

Mohandas Gandhi: Children’s Book Challenge Day #1

For the first day of our Childrens’ Book challenge, we selected Gandhi. What did we learn? Turns out Mahatma is actually a nickname that means “Great Soul.” I guess Mohandas is not as memorable.

We also learned, rather reinforced, that everyone has their quirks and faults. Gandhi was patient, tolerant and inclusive of people. Yet there were times in his life where his writings could certainly be perceived as discriminatory. He also had some beliefs around testing his own commitment to celibacy that would have created a whirlwind of negative PR in today’s day and age. Luckily for him, he lived 100 years ago.

TIME named him the 2nd most influential person of the century and it’s easy to see why. He not only became the Badu (father) of the nation of India, but also helped inspire others to seek their own forms of freedom and independence. Nelson Mandella and Martin Luther King Jr are just a few of the many that stand out.

Perhaps the thing that our family found most compelling about him was his commitment to simplicity. For a man who could have had just about anything he wanted, given his influence, he lived a very simple life. No expensive perks. He lived what he believed. That’s certainly something to which to aspire.

 

Write a Children’s Book Everyday

Tomorrow we begin our first 30 day challenge as a family. The theme for the next 30 days is LEARNING. We’ve chosen a pretty big challenge to start this journey:

One of Jill’s dreams has been to write children books that help teach values through the stories of real life people. So, we’re going to use our first challenge to help jumpstart that dream. Starting on our anniversary tomorrow, we are going to write a children’s book that tells the story of a real life person EVERY DAY for the next 30 days. It’s highly likely they won’t all be good, but getting started is always the hardest part. It will require us to learn about a new person each day. Regardless, it should be an adventure that will help Jill see where she may want to take this dream.

Wish us luck!