City of Meadowlakes
Some 20+ years ago, I volunteered to work in the Junior Achievement program. This program is designed to educate grades K-12 about entrepreneurship, work readiness and financial literacy through hands on programs.
I occasionally was assigned to work with younger students, around third grade.
One of the exercises I liked to use was to give the students the choice of opening one of three hypothetical businesses: an ice cream business, a pet shop or a babysitting service.
Instead of naming one of the businesses and asking them to raise their hands if that was their preference, I designated three areas of the classroom and assigned one of the businesses to each location.
Then I asked them to walk over to the area (business) that they wanted to open. They liked getting out of their chairs.
Invariably the same phenomenon would occur. The youngsters would scatter to one of the areas begin to look around. Then they would see where the apparent leaders landed and they would shift to that location. As a few started to change their minds and go to the leaders’ spot, even more followed.
Then it was my turn. I reviewed what I just saw.
They wanted to be like the others instead of using their own judgement and choosing their own preferences. I asked them whether they wanted to follow the leader or be a leader themselves without being unduly influenced by others. Teachers would often reiterate what was just said, sometimes more bluntly.
Throughout our own lives we see ourselves following trends, checking out what others think, and ignoring our own instincts.
Easter Thoughts
As we approach Easter, we are reminded of the ordeal Pontius Pilate struggled with. He believed that the charges against the accused were the result of a mob getting itself worked up over the definition of a king. Pilate vacillated between light and darkness, truth and falsehood.
One account I read recently is that he shuttled back and forth seven times between the Praetorium and the outside where the blood thirsty crowd stood. He is depicted in Luke as a reluctant and conflicted executioner. We know how the story ended. Pilate ultimately followed the will of the crowd after all the wavering was done.
I feel that this time of year, it is timely to use Pilate as an example (along with those third graders) to demonstrate how we, too, do not actually lay down our own pathways and often let others set our life’s agenda.
These are just my observations. It is not my intention to sound preachy.
Future Power Needs In 2024, The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) estimated the electricity demand that the state will need by 2030. A similar estimate has recently been developed in 2025.
What is interesting is that the 2025 estimate increased 40% over the 2024 estimate. The largest reason is the growth in the state’s data center footprint. Another reason is the development of artificial intelligence.
The Texas Demographic Center also estimates that by 2030, the population will grow by three million people. Of those three million, 300,000 move into Texas each year.
The remainder of the additional three million people (by 2030) will come from the difference between births and deaths of people already living in Texas. While most of the growth in raw numbers is attributable to large metropolitan areas, Midland and Odessa rank 8 th and 9 th in percentage growth in the nation.
