World AIDS Day

I may not have noted the World AIDS Day had it not appeared in my inbox from Apple or for the fact that Chris Martin sang with U2 in Times Square for a Bono who is recovering from a nasty spill. Yeah, Chris Martin. I haven't been much of  a Coldplay fan, and I especially didn't appreciate the comment that Martin said about being bigger than U2. Really?! I never gave them any respect and certainly didn't listen to any of their music as a result of that ridiculous comment. Be famous? fine. Be successful? fine. Sell out huge stadiums? fine too. But who are you to say 'better?' Can't you all be great? Chris Martin turned my dial off with that statement.

But ... he may have made amends by standing in for Bono in a time of need. I can forgive him for his past indiscretions for this alone. And hey, he wasn't half bad belting out tunes that he didn't write. Maybe I'll have to give the old Coldplay a listen.

This brings to mind this: a student said to me Friday that he was glad that he had given me a second chance because I was really cool. I had noticed a change in him this week. He seemed more pulled in to what we have been doing in class. I didn't ask him why he didn't like me at first ... I'm not sure that there is ever a reasonable explanation for something that may just be ... an impression. Some need direct attention, and maybe his card came up, and I was able to give him the kind of attention that he needed to form an opinion that was more than just that initial impression. The second chance, which for me was not apparent, grew out of the first chance that I had a minute to spend with him one-on-one.

Maybe that's the thing to remember from this because I'm certainly guilty of resting on a first impression: always wait for the second moment to show itself. It may be the one the wins you over and makes you available as a friend, a mentor, a fan.

Chris Matin. Who would've thunk.