Mollie Mines

Historically, the phrase "It takes a village" has been said to indicate that a child or person is perceived to be difficult and that it takes multiple people to raise them or deal with them. Last weekend, while attending Nashville Ballet's Carmina Barana with my mom at the Touhill Performing Arts Center, I had a moment of clarity in which I realized that being raised and supported by a "village" is not a negative thing at all but in fact the best way for anyone to grow up and have the best chances of success. My mother is the Education and Operations Director of Dance St. Louis, a non-profit arts organization in St. Louis, Missouri that brings in dance companies from around the world to perform and teach in the inner city schools and give the performing arts back to the community. As part of her job, my mom oversees a program for talented high school dance students in low income areas that helps them with access and funds for dance classes and helps them through...

I recently went home to St. Louis, Missouri to surprise my dad for Father's Day. I took him and my mom to spend the day in the old mining town of Bonne Terre, Missouri which is part of the Old Lead Belt. The highlight of the day was our tour of Bonne Terre Mine. The mine was the first in the network of St. Joe Minerals lead mines that led to Missouri producing 70 percent of the United States' lead. Neither of my parents had been to a mine and I wanted to them to have an understanding of the environment I spend a lot of my time in. One of the neatest things about Bonne Terre Mine is that three levels are underwater which is used for scuba diving. We did the combination walking and boating tour. The method of mining used at Bonne Terre was room and pillar which is essentially a large cave like room with pillars of rock left to prevent the mine from caving in. The tour took us to a portion of the mine where we were able to see old remanants of mining equipment and natually occurin...

I believe that everyone experiences multiple moments of clarity throughout their lives that determine the path they walk in life. I currently find myself in the midst of a lot of change in my life and keep thinking about those moments of clarity that got me here. Those moment of clarity that I can clearly remember are: 1) Watching my first re-run of Rin Tin Tin K-9 Cop as a child and deciding I wanted to be a police officer when I grew up 2) Being in the middle of a sparring match in the police academeny and realizing that perhaps my short stature didn't make a very good match for the career I had chosen 3) Walking down the aisle at my wedding when I was 22 and thinking that I was probably making a big mistake 4) Thinking that the professor of my Introduction to Occupational Safety and Health class at Murray State University, Dr. Fender, was crazy when he started the semester by blaring the 80's song The Safety Dance from his computer before the first class yet being strage...