I remembered vividly tonight a lesson that I never believed I learned. Bev Hamilton told me a story about a school she put her son in, about a way of teaching without can'ts. A school where the student only "can do" things and each time he learns something new it is one more "I can". There is no negative connotation or knowledge of "I can't" in this school.
Well with the strange exception of the belief that the human soul can't travel faster than 60km/h...but we should allow for eccentricities.
Anyway, I thought the whole school was very strange, but now I think this is wonderful. Students are taught that each time they reach a barrier, limit, challenge they feel that can't do NOW, they should say to them selves. When I started here I thought I couldn't ___________________, and now I have done it. For example I thought I couldn't climb to the top of the jungle gym, and now i can. Then they say to them selves, now I think I can't overcome this task, so I will try, but it is okay if i can't do it now, i know that I can.
And moreover it isn't just the students themselves who promote and practice this thought pattern, to a much greater extent the teachers promote it, reminding students when they over come a challenge, and helping students recognize and appreciate (and be thankful for) their "I cans."
Particular this school works on integrating rather than segregating students. Exceptional kids (like Bev's son) work with regular kids and with other exceptional kids. So while Bev's son at 5 might look at himself and say I can read all the books in the book box. And then look at little ADHD Stevie and think he is so dumb because he can't. A teacher will intervene and say, when Stevie started here he couldn't sit still for five minutes and now he can sit and read a whole book.
In this way students are taught to see not what their classmates can't do, but what they can. What a marvelous lesson! To look at and examine what those around us can do. I have been practicing it recently, just quietly with myself, thinking about what i can do in class that I couldn't do in September. What I can speak and understand in Japanese that i couldn't do in August. And when i am frustrated with a student, I look at and remember what they can do, and refocus my energy into what we can do together.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
I want to write
I want to write, and this kept turning into a story so I had to move it onto "Without Ethnicity" the nonfiction blog...uh I mean the fiction blog...this is the one for nonfiction...
So today`s topic: action, agency, activity and the letter A.
I don't have many books, but for some reason, that I haven't quite sorted out yet, the Book of Mormon is among the books I do have. So, for lack of something more stimulating, I was reading a little theology today and thinking about action and agency. I am thinking about what motivates us to move or act or do or try things in our lives. And after a lot of thinking about the question of why...why does fear motivate us, why does love motivate us, why does public opinion motivate us, why does a gym membership not motivate us, why should i keep reading this book, why should i write a new story, why shouldn't i cry it is tuesday...I was never much good at Tuesdays ... these kinds of whys, I think that why doesn't really matter.
I think it is time to stop needing reasons to act.
In a way this compulsive justification is stiffling our freedom to act as free and autonomous beings. I used to write because i was justified in writing. I had to write an assignment, I had to find out what a game was called, I had to tell someone a good recipe for a ham sandwich, I had to had to had to. i had so many reasons why i should, could, would, and did write. And then, I think, one day those reasons disappeared. And this became the first step in my great block.
I didn't think I had a reason to write. I didn't think I had something to say, didn't think I wanted to. I graduated, so I didn't have professors to read my writing. I have told the world about ham sandwiches. I got rejected by a couple journals (rejection sucks) and was just left with you (friends and strangers) -- and you are very busy people I shouldn't write you things to read unless they are very funny or important or or or-- and I didn't think you really wanted to read my writing. and even less want to talk about words written in a fictional space. So the block grew bigger.
And it grew and grew and I started to feed it, and I had really great justifications for why i didn't, couldn't, wouldn't, shouldn't write. And i started scratching out big crosses and black marks in my writing, every time i wrote anything it became a big hole of frustrated justification.
And then, I don't know why, but it stopped mattering. All the editing and self aborting ideas stopped being aborted, and now i am running out of notebooks. But its all poetry now, so I think Splot is going to get pretty quite now. Don't worry I haven't gone far.
So today`s topic: action, agency, activity and the letter A.
I don't have many books, but for some reason, that I haven't quite sorted out yet, the Book of Mormon is among the books I do have. So, for lack of something more stimulating, I was reading a little theology today and thinking about action and agency. I am thinking about what motivates us to move or act or do or try things in our lives. And after a lot of thinking about the question of why...why does fear motivate us, why does love motivate us, why does public opinion motivate us, why does a gym membership not motivate us, why should i keep reading this book, why should i write a new story, why shouldn't i cry it is tuesday...I was never much good at Tuesdays ... these kinds of whys, I think that why doesn't really matter.
I think it is time to stop needing reasons to act.
In a way this compulsive justification is stiffling our freedom to act as free and autonomous beings. I used to write because i was justified in writing. I had to write an assignment, I had to find out what a game was called, I had to tell someone a good recipe for a ham sandwich, I had to had to had to. i had so many reasons why i should, could, would, and did write. And then, I think, one day those reasons disappeared. And this became the first step in my great block.
I didn't think I had a reason to write. I didn't think I had something to say, didn't think I wanted to. I graduated, so I didn't have professors to read my writing. I have told the world about ham sandwiches. I got rejected by a couple journals (rejection sucks) and was just left with you (friends and strangers) -- and you are very busy people I shouldn't write you things to read unless they are very funny or important or or or-- and I didn't think you really wanted to read my writing. and even less want to talk about words written in a fictional space. So the block grew bigger.
And it grew and grew and I started to feed it, and I had really great justifications for why i didn't, couldn't, wouldn't, shouldn't write. And i started scratching out big crosses and black marks in my writing, every time i wrote anything it became a big hole of frustrated justification.
And then, I don't know why, but it stopped mattering. All the editing and self aborting ideas stopped being aborted, and now i am running out of notebooks. But its all poetry now, so I think Splot is going to get pretty quite now. Don't worry I haven't gone far.
Thursday, January 01, 2009
The last
So long a silence. I've been blocked. By fear. and a certain lacking of bravery. and a Japanese internet company that didn't want me accessing the internet when in such a shy state.
Anyway. Canada didn't suffer the coup d'etat. Shame. but its a good thing. We chose the more rational calm path of suspending parliment. Waiting and deliberating a bit before we make the easy move.
That's what i want to talk about today. it's funny to say that ending something is the easy move. That choosing to walk away, to over throw the government is the easy choise. But it is. Its far easier to say its all rubbish, throw it all away, than to admit our mistakes, than to try things we doubt we have the bravery to do.
I thought i would just quit on Monday. Say I can't do it. I can't make a life here. And i should go back to Canada, where at least i don't have the excuse of a language barrier stopping me from doing what I want with my life. Then i wondered about what i wanted to do. I didnt come up with much, so then i got depressed. Then i started looking for things to blame, the language, the food...the shy people and it occurred to me that i myself hadn't really even tried to go out. to try to do things i might enjoy. I was waiting for someone to pick me up and take me there. take me to something i would like to do. To introduce me and make me go.
And i thought about the piano concert. About the lesson there...I went to a masterful performance of Chopin on piano, and half the audience was asleep. it occurs to me that you, as a performer, cannot force the audience to stay awake. this isnt even like or dislike, but you can force them to even listen to you. All you can do is invite them. All you, the performer, can do is be there doing something you want to do. If that is play Chopin, or breathe deeply, or watch dancers, or listen to good music, or sing, or travel, or take pictures, or write love letters...that is all you can do.
And that, I think, is enough. Even if I do it alone, I can go out to a cafe. I like Cafes, the smell, the noises, the music... And even if i don't fall in love while I'm there, or write a great novel, or get a dream job, or muse quietly to myself... Even if it ends in awkward silence, I can start a conversation. Even if they don't become boon life companions, i can make a casual friend. i can invite them to come in for tea, or to a movie, or to a cafe...
Even if I'm scared that it will cause pain, that it won't make my life better, that I won't make other peoples lives better...the truth is just be living bravely, but trying to interact with the world it can only create good...i hope. I love you all. have a wonderful new year.
Anyway. Canada didn't suffer the coup d'etat. Shame. but its a good thing. We chose the more rational calm path of suspending parliment. Waiting and deliberating a bit before we make the easy move.
That's what i want to talk about today. it's funny to say that ending something is the easy move. That choosing to walk away, to over throw the government is the easy choise. But it is. Its far easier to say its all rubbish, throw it all away, than to admit our mistakes, than to try things we doubt we have the bravery to do.
I thought i would just quit on Monday. Say I can't do it. I can't make a life here. And i should go back to Canada, where at least i don't have the excuse of a language barrier stopping me from doing what I want with my life. Then i wondered about what i wanted to do. I didnt come up with much, so then i got depressed. Then i started looking for things to blame, the language, the food...the shy people and it occurred to me that i myself hadn't really even tried to go out. to try to do things i might enjoy. I was waiting for someone to pick me up and take me there. take me to something i would like to do. To introduce me and make me go.
And i thought about the piano concert. About the lesson there...I went to a masterful performance of Chopin on piano, and half the audience was asleep. it occurs to me that you, as a performer, cannot force the audience to stay awake. this isnt even like or dislike, but you can force them to even listen to you. All you can do is invite them. All you, the performer, can do is be there doing something you want to do. If that is play Chopin, or breathe deeply, or watch dancers, or listen to good music, or sing, or travel, or take pictures, or write love letters...that is all you can do.
And that, I think, is enough. Even if I do it alone, I can go out to a cafe. I like Cafes, the smell, the noises, the music... And even if i don't fall in love while I'm there, or write a great novel, or get a dream job, or muse quietly to myself... Even if it ends in awkward silence, I can start a conversation. Even if they don't become boon life companions, i can make a casual friend. i can invite them to come in for tea, or to a movie, or to a cafe...
Even if I'm scared that it will cause pain, that it won't make my life better, that I won't make other peoples lives better...the truth is just be living bravely, but trying to interact with the world it can only create good...i hope. I love you all. have a wonderful new year.
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
A Novel Idea Canadia...
Okay fine, Dion, Layton, et al. You have lost confidence in the government. As has most of the disenfranchised population of Canada...uh...wait a moment...you are the government. So you have lost confidence in yourself and are therefore agreeing to get along to put yourself in the top spot...um...okay that is creative. I give it 8 points for style (and 2 for Jack Layton's Johnny Hancock).
In simple terms its a great idea, parties with different platforms agreeing to work together to find ways to bring up and empower our country! Rock on! I love it. It is so Canadian. It reflects beautifully on how democracy (not political democracy, but the democracy of life) works in Canada. All over the country divergent groups work in so many different ways (at hospitals and schools, in the entertainment industry, in the factories and on reserves) to help bring up and bolster our beautiful home.
But I have an even better idea...why not recognize and include the whole of the government you have lost faith in. Why not ally with the conservatives, use all the elected officials and rather than throw out the government, throw out the opposition.
Who needs an opposition anyway. I understand that its supposed to be a check and balance to be sure that decisions affecting Canada aren't made in haste without proper thought for all the implications and possible alternatives...but come on...We have been in a political stalemate for half a decade now...Canada is stuck because no one (not one leader in the opposition or in the current government) is fit to represent all Canadians. But we must be represented, we need our government to help spend our money and make our lives compicated so we have a reason to watch the news or something to talk about at the office.
Really, it is high time for political revolution. But rather than throwing out the old, lets shape it up, let's ally our whole government to one purpose (not multiple campaign platforms, not empty election promises) to serve the interest of our country. To build up foundations that will see Canadian prosper, not economically we have plenty of money even if on paper it looks like less money than this time last year, but morally, socially, let Canadians prosper as a people. Let our health prosper. Let our hearts and minds prosper. Let our whole government be one team.
Suggestions of how to do this. The PM should appoint Cabinet ministers from the whole government, not just his own party; every Cabinet should have some members that are of each political persuasion; rather than having strict seating, you sit with your party, have people sit freely with whom they wish to speak most closely to; and encourage the flinging of marshmallows during session. its the only way. well thats my dream anyway.
In simple terms its a great idea, parties with different platforms agreeing to work together to find ways to bring up and empower our country! Rock on! I love it. It is so Canadian. It reflects beautifully on how democracy (not political democracy, but the democracy of life) works in Canada. All over the country divergent groups work in so many different ways (at hospitals and schools, in the entertainment industry, in the factories and on reserves) to help bring up and bolster our beautiful home.
But I have an even better idea...why not recognize and include the whole of the government you have lost faith in. Why not ally with the conservatives, use all the elected officials and rather than throw out the government, throw out the opposition.
Who needs an opposition anyway. I understand that its supposed to be a check and balance to be sure that decisions affecting Canada aren't made in haste without proper thought for all the implications and possible alternatives...but come on...We have been in a political stalemate for half a decade now...Canada is stuck because no one (not one leader in the opposition or in the current government) is fit to represent all Canadians. But we must be represented, we need our government to help spend our money and make our lives compicated so we have a reason to watch the news or something to talk about at the office.
Really, it is high time for political revolution. But rather than throwing out the old, lets shape it up, let's ally our whole government to one purpose (not multiple campaign platforms, not empty election promises) to serve the interest of our country. To build up foundations that will see Canadian prosper, not economically we have plenty of money even if on paper it looks like less money than this time last year, but morally, socially, let Canadians prosper as a people. Let our health prosper. Let our hearts and minds prosper. Let our whole government be one team.
Suggestions of how to do this. The PM should appoint Cabinet ministers from the whole government, not just his own party; every Cabinet should have some members that are of each political persuasion; rather than having strict seating, you sit with your party, have people sit freely with whom they wish to speak most closely to; and encourage the flinging of marshmallows during session. its the only way. well thats my dream anyway.
Friday, November 14, 2008
the epoch changer
I find it interesting that Mr Obama is being called an epoch changer, when he hasn't done anything. It is the "we the people" who should be getting credit for this positive vote on epochal changing...it is the citizens of America who chose to vote, and who chose to vote for a democrat who have instigated the possible change we see looming like a great lumbering shadow.
I forgot about shadows for a while.
I forgot about shadows for a while.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Symbols
Symbols are wonderful things. Don't doubt that. They capture for us the emotions, meanings, ideas, desires, dreams and intentions in just, well a symbol. In one susinct space they communicate so much than these phonemes strung together will.
Today I am struck by today's remarkable symbol and the irony and the implications of its association with today. That is, of course, the rememberance day (Armistice Day) poppy. It is iconic for me and many Canadians (I'm sure for many other people around the world too, but I'm learning in my travels not so universally as I once misbelieved), and brings to mind that John McCrae poem. And school assemblies where we sang the national anthem and gave wreaths to old people.
But more than that. The poppy evokes devotion, bushido, duty, honour, a willingness to sacrifice the self for an idea. The poppy evokes a debt, a living challenge, and a call to action. The poppy is a we must and a we will.
But how ironic that the poppy would become the symbol of this late November holiday. A flower that blooms in the spring. A flower that is fragile flower; their blooms last only a few days. And yet this flower, which you will never see in November (except perhaps somewhere in Australia...but who wants to go to Australia to see a poppy...aside from an Australian), which is so subtle and lilting and delicate is the hardend symbol of memory, or respect and thankfulness to those who came before us. Is this emotive symbol. I think that is wonderful!
If you have ever touched a poppy, gotten its purple pollen on your fingers, you know how it can mark you. If you have seen a field of them you know the silence and contemplation they can evoke. But study them, the symbol itself, and we can respect the implication and impact of this flower. We should listen to the fragile things. We should hold them dear, and let them represent us. We must protect them, lest they are forgotten and carelessly destroyed. We must honour them, lest they are neglected and dismissed.
Poppies are slow things, that in this every accelerating world should not be missed or forgotten.
Today I am struck by today's remarkable symbol and the irony and the implications of its association with today. That is, of course, the rememberance day (Armistice Day) poppy. It is iconic for me and many Canadians (I'm sure for many other people around the world too, but I'm learning in my travels not so universally as I once misbelieved), and brings to mind that John McCrae poem. And school assemblies where we sang the national anthem and gave wreaths to old people.
But more than that. The poppy evokes devotion, bushido, duty, honour, a willingness to sacrifice the self for an idea. The poppy evokes a debt, a living challenge, and a call to action. The poppy is a we must and a we will.
But how ironic that the poppy would become the symbol of this late November holiday. A flower that blooms in the spring. A flower that is fragile flower; their blooms last only a few days. And yet this flower, which you will never see in November (except perhaps somewhere in Australia...but who wants to go to Australia to see a poppy...aside from an Australian), which is so subtle and lilting and delicate is the hardend symbol of memory, or respect and thankfulness to those who came before us. Is this emotive symbol. I think that is wonderful!
If you have ever touched a poppy, gotten its purple pollen on your fingers, you know how it can mark you. If you have seen a field of them you know the silence and contemplation they can evoke. But study them, the symbol itself, and we can respect the implication and impact of this flower. We should listen to the fragile things. We should hold them dear, and let them represent us. We must protect them, lest they are forgotten and carelessly destroyed. We must honour them, lest they are neglected and dismissed.
Poppies are slow things, that in this every accelerating world should not be missed or forgotten.
Monday, November 10, 2008
I have to find or write a poem
I don't know how i feel about that...
Marvelous. I'm perfectly giddy with this right now. I just stumbled by a little friends Facebook page and saw one of her other friends had posted that on her wall. "i have to find/write a poem for writers craft...I don't know how i feel about that"
It's possible she was talking about two different things, as often conversation is a multitasking activity. It covers many topics simultaneously without warning (particularly the online conversations of adolescents and extra particularly of adolescent girls) so its possible they were unrelated comments. But that is the most marvelous little observational poem you have read in a while.
I have to find or write a poem...and i don't know how i feel about that.
Wonderful... i love it!!
Marvelous. I'm perfectly giddy with this right now. I just stumbled by a little friends Facebook page and saw one of her other friends had posted that on her wall. "i have to find/write a poem for writers craft...I don't know how i feel about that"
It's possible she was talking about two different things, as often conversation is a multitasking activity. It covers many topics simultaneously without warning (particularly the online conversations of adolescents and extra particularly of adolescent girls) so its possible they were unrelated comments. But that is the most marvelous little observational poem you have read in a while.
I have to find or write a poem...and i don't know how i feel about that.
Wonderful... i love it!!
Thursday, November 06, 2008
We have no idea what is going to happen
I was in a stationary store walking through an aisle of notebooks. Thinking how nice they all looked. Clean, organized, potential. Isn't it? A notebook is that potential. What could I do in that note book? As though the many notebooks I already own could never live up to that potential...they couldn't I think I know, because I have already used them, and nothing great has come of them. At least so I delude myself to believe, when walking through an aisle of delightful shiny new red notebooks.
And it reflects on life, I think. We are so ready to throw away perfectly good and usable tools for a newer shinier version of the same because for some reason we believe the newer shinier version of the same will give us more potential, greater potential, and maybe this time help us actualize that potential into heaps of money happiness ego satisfaction etc etc...
But in reality we have no idea why we are compulsed to want and want that newer newer thing.
I think this is about hating my cell phone. I really didn't want to buy it. Really didn't want to need it. But bought it believing that somehow owning one would make my life better. And well now i see that it is a lie. That it was a waste of time and money and that really only I can improve my life. Can change my life. Can inject and actualize potential. Not this piece of garbage cell phone.
Sigh, life is a little more transparent today.
And it reflects on life, I think. We are so ready to throw away perfectly good and usable tools for a newer shinier version of the same because for some reason we believe the newer shinier version of the same will give us more potential, greater potential, and maybe this time help us actualize that potential into heaps of money happiness ego satisfaction etc etc...
But in reality we have no idea why we are compulsed to want and want that newer newer thing.
I think this is about hating my cell phone. I really didn't want to buy it. Really didn't want to need it. But bought it believing that somehow owning one would make my life better. And well now i see that it is a lie. That it was a waste of time and money and that really only I can improve my life. Can change my life. Can inject and actualize potential. Not this piece of garbage cell phone.
Sigh, life is a little more transparent today.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Moral Ambiguity
Some time ago I wrote an entry about make it a law. I don't remember what the law was about or the entry, just that it was extolling the powerful effects making laws have on us. At the time I didn't have much to say about why that might be, just that it could be a very good think, and so we should think about stop thinking about things and just make nice laws to follow.
The post never quite sat right with me, but perhaps I have muddled out why. It is this question of moral ambiguity. Laws eliminate moral ambiguity. In many ways. They set out what we should think, do, how we should and shouldn't act etc. They take away the doubt that our actions are morally dubious. Law is affirmation of our discomfort with moral ambiguity.
Recently there was a court ruling in the UK, or rather an upholding of current law, regarding assisted suicide. The case I'm fuzzy about, but for me it has raised curious questions about the moral ambiguity of life.
Isn't life a morally ambiguous thing? This must be why we want so many laws to help us sort through these various ambiguities--to help us cope with the ambiguities. And this comes just over a month before the 60th anniversary of the UN Declaration of Universal Human Rights. An important milestone, as many different parties are trying to use it to add new and expand existing human rights. The call is for the UN to declare and add to the Declaration the moment of the beginning and end of human life.
Of course the implication of stating in perhaps scientific or legal ways will end the debate and the ambiguity in questions of euthanasia and abortion. At least so many people believe. If we can finally legal decide life and therefore human rights begin at x and ends with F then F(x) would be the duration of life, the time during which an entity has UN charter rights. Therefore during that time no measures can be taken to end or stop that life. It would be a violation of human right.
But this is a bit of a call for moral ambiguity. It is from ambiguity that we find freedom. That we find creativity. And that we enjoy life. From trying to sort out for ourselves each of us individuals where our internal moralities fit into the complex web that is a moral philosophy of humanity. If we end that ambiguity we face the danger that we will stop asking certain essential questions about our being. There are some who will not wonder what am I...they will see according to law from F(x) they are human with certain inalienable rights. Rights they have legal recourse to enforce justice when violated.
It is difficult to say it is okay to end a life or prevent a life...and I don't think that is what I am saying. (at least that isn't the intention of this post) rather that each time we are uncertain about the moral position we should have the freedom to assess and examine it. to consider and dissuade the particulars of each situation. (dissuade is the wrong word....hmm...it's something like dissuade)...that life itself is different in every case, that the point of being human is more than a mathematical start and end point. [i hope]. and that moral ambiguity, while creating mostly all of the conflict in our world, is necessarily good for our continuation, our growth and development.
So i guess this is my request, not to end ambiguity. Embrace it, even though it is confusing and difficult. Cherish and nurture it, even if you are repulsed by it. It is a great source of inspiration and creativity. Be generated in it. I know I am.
The post never quite sat right with me, but perhaps I have muddled out why. It is this question of moral ambiguity. Laws eliminate moral ambiguity. In many ways. They set out what we should think, do, how we should and shouldn't act etc. They take away the doubt that our actions are morally dubious. Law is affirmation of our discomfort with moral ambiguity.
Recently there was a court ruling in the UK, or rather an upholding of current law, regarding assisted suicide. The case I'm fuzzy about, but for me it has raised curious questions about the moral ambiguity of life.
Isn't life a morally ambiguous thing? This must be why we want so many laws to help us sort through these various ambiguities--to help us cope with the ambiguities. And this comes just over a month before the 60th anniversary of the UN Declaration of Universal Human Rights. An important milestone, as many different parties are trying to use it to add new and expand existing human rights. The call is for the UN to declare and add to the Declaration the moment of the beginning and end of human life.
Of course the implication of stating in perhaps scientific or legal ways will end the debate and the ambiguity in questions of euthanasia and abortion. At least so many people believe. If we can finally legal decide life and therefore human rights begin at x and ends with F then F(x) would be the duration of life, the time during which an entity has UN charter rights. Therefore during that time no measures can be taken to end or stop that life. It would be a violation of human right.
But this is a bit of a call for moral ambiguity. It is from ambiguity that we find freedom. That we find creativity. And that we enjoy life. From trying to sort out for ourselves each of us individuals where our internal moralities fit into the complex web that is a moral philosophy of humanity. If we end that ambiguity we face the danger that we will stop asking certain essential questions about our being. There are some who will not wonder what am I...they will see according to law from F(x) they are human with certain inalienable rights. Rights they have legal recourse to enforce justice when violated.
It is difficult to say it is okay to end a life or prevent a life...and I don't think that is what I am saying. (at least that isn't the intention of this post) rather that each time we are uncertain about the moral position we should have the freedom to assess and examine it. to consider and dissuade the particulars of each situation. (dissuade is the wrong word....hmm...it's something like dissuade)...that life itself is different in every case, that the point of being human is more than a mathematical start and end point. [i hope]. and that moral ambiguity, while creating mostly all of the conflict in our world, is necessarily good for our continuation, our growth and development.
So i guess this is my request, not to end ambiguity. Embrace it, even though it is confusing and difficult. Cherish and nurture it, even if you are repulsed by it. It is a great source of inspiration and creativity. Be generated in it. I know I am.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Moral Progress
I am currently wondering about the growing lethality of hatred. I had a strange dream last night about being trapped in some situation and the only way I could think to get out of it was through violence. It was a very impotent dream as well, in that in not wanting to act violently I continued to be stuck in the situation I didn't want to be in. Which is fine seeing I wasn't actually aware of what the situation was, I just knew I didn't want to be in it.
For me this is nice, it comforts me that, in my dreams at least, I won't go nuts and kill a bunch of people. Well in the case of this dream. Dreams are funny things. Even that we call them dreams is funny, considering some of the other connotations of the word dream. Anyway... lethality as I was wondering.
Thinking about moral progress, that move over that past several thousand years--I don't really know time wise how long it took so i just throw out a large amount of time--the move from when someone not in my family wasn't human, to when everyone from my city state was human but someone not from my city state wasn't (as we might consider the case between Sparta and Athens); to the time when someone not from my country is not fully human, to maybe blacks or Jews or midgets weren't fully human, to our (i think) current condition where more or less we pretty much agree that every person is human. Maybe the nuances of that statement are somewhat problematic...what is a person? but whatever it is I will take it to be human...at least I can say for sure that every human is a person and more or less you will agree.
What does that mean? That somehow we have evolved morally to recognize that those people around us in some way deserve to live as we do. That in the same way we don't much want to be murdered, tortured, raped, abused, outcast or neglected we can see they don't either.
This is big progress! But now what has gone along with this moral progress? At every step, war, and increasingly more lethal war...but perhaps even as war has become more lethal it has become less violent.
Demographically more people are involved in war than ever before. This is necessary there are just more people around nowadays. Perhaps if we looked at the total percent of the global population involved in war, we could get a better idea of the comparison. Although even then it is difficult to say, the very definitions of, motivation for, and practice of war has fundamentally changed. I don't know I have never experience war. But it seems setting lookouts for the Mongol Hoard only to be overrun by fire arrows, raped and butchered as they sweep past is more violent than silently huddling in houses as bomb fall about like rain drops.
The aggressor in the first act is enacting far greater violence against another human than the latter aggressor. Even though the latter aggressor may be more effective and more lethal, maybe cause greater trauma in her actions that the case of the Mongol aggressor. She doesn't act in violence, she is calculated, strategic, planned, and approved through a complex chain of authority in her act.
I think the Mongols considered their opponents to be human, they must have because of their acts of colonialism. You wouldn't ask non-humans to join your human kingdom. And I know soldiers today try to dehumanize targets but always struggle with the knowledge that they are enacting aggression again other morally human entities like themselves. So we can make the comparison.
How is the latter act less violent? I think in increasing efficiency in warfare the need for individual aggression has far diminished. Lately I have been reading a fair amount of novels from the Forgotten Realms. In these stories often individuals with less efficient weapons are forced to dig deeper into themselves to find the will, the strength and the ability to continue enacting violent acts against those who threaten their existence.
As was has become less violent though it has increased in the weight of moral responsibility it thrusts on those involved. That is knowing that war is more lethal we are (or should be) more hesitant to engage in it. Our moral positioning in the world should stay our fingers and force us to look for other ways to resolve our conflicts. And don't we? internationally we work to help countries resolve conflict, to force countries to desist hostilities and to help other nations grow up survive and eventually thrive.
War may be more lethal, but we now strive to avoid it. It is when hatred enters the scene that we now need to progress our morality. With violent acts so efficient and lethal as they have become can we justify this hatred. Can we find no otherway to sublimate its effects? We must try. As we work into Humanity 2.0 we must continue ou progress, and expand our ever growing morality.
For me this is nice, it comforts me that, in my dreams at least, I won't go nuts and kill a bunch of people. Well in the case of this dream. Dreams are funny things. Even that we call them dreams is funny, considering some of the other connotations of the word dream. Anyway... lethality as I was wondering.
Thinking about moral progress, that move over that past several thousand years--I don't really know time wise how long it took so i just throw out a large amount of time--the move from when someone not in my family wasn't human, to when everyone from my city state was human but someone not from my city state wasn't (as we might consider the case between Sparta and Athens); to the time when someone not from my country is not fully human, to maybe blacks or Jews or midgets weren't fully human, to our (i think) current condition where more or less we pretty much agree that every person is human. Maybe the nuances of that statement are somewhat problematic...what is a person? but whatever it is I will take it to be human...at least I can say for sure that every human is a person and more or less you will agree.
What does that mean? That somehow we have evolved morally to recognize that those people around us in some way deserve to live as we do. That in the same way we don't much want to be murdered, tortured, raped, abused, outcast or neglected we can see they don't either.
This is big progress! But now what has gone along with this moral progress? At every step, war, and increasingly more lethal war...but perhaps even as war has become more lethal it has become less violent.
Demographically more people are involved in war than ever before. This is necessary there are just more people around nowadays. Perhaps if we looked at the total percent of the global population involved in war, we could get a better idea of the comparison. Although even then it is difficult to say, the very definitions of, motivation for, and practice of war has fundamentally changed. I don't know I have never experience war. But it seems setting lookouts for the Mongol Hoard only to be overrun by fire arrows, raped and butchered as they sweep past is more violent than silently huddling in houses as bomb fall about like rain drops.
The aggressor in the first act is enacting far greater violence against another human than the latter aggressor. Even though the latter aggressor may be more effective and more lethal, maybe cause greater trauma in her actions that the case of the Mongol aggressor. She doesn't act in violence, she is calculated, strategic, planned, and approved through a complex chain of authority in her act.
I think the Mongols considered their opponents to be human, they must have because of their acts of colonialism. You wouldn't ask non-humans to join your human kingdom. And I know soldiers today try to dehumanize targets but always struggle with the knowledge that they are enacting aggression again other morally human entities like themselves. So we can make the comparison.
How is the latter act less violent? I think in increasing efficiency in warfare the need for individual aggression has far diminished. Lately I have been reading a fair amount of novels from the Forgotten Realms. In these stories often individuals with less efficient weapons are forced to dig deeper into themselves to find the will, the strength and the ability to continue enacting violent acts against those who threaten their existence.
As was has become less violent though it has increased in the weight of moral responsibility it thrusts on those involved. That is knowing that war is more lethal we are (or should be) more hesitant to engage in it. Our moral positioning in the world should stay our fingers and force us to look for other ways to resolve our conflicts. And don't we? internationally we work to help countries resolve conflict, to force countries to desist hostilities and to help other nations grow up survive and eventually thrive.
War may be more lethal, but we now strive to avoid it. It is when hatred enters the scene that we now need to progress our morality. With violent acts so efficient and lethal as they have become can we justify this hatred. Can we find no otherway to sublimate its effects? We must try. As we work into Humanity 2.0 we must continue ou progress, and expand our ever growing morality.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Lost and Found
Can you imagine a world without strangers? Would you know what to do without a computer? Could you last a day, a week, a month without a phone?
What would you do with one litre of water? What would you do with one set of clothes? What would you do with one meal a day?
What would you do for an hour without electricity?
What an innovated person you could be! I recently started a "What would I do?" challenge. Each week I ask myself "what would i do if..." And i think of one of the luxuraies in my life. Then I try for a week to be without that luxury.
The most amazing thing has come of it, too. After the week ends, and i start to think of the next luxary I am finding I don't need to return to that old habit.
It all started when I was posed the question: What would you do for one hour without electricity? It is a great environmental campaign started in Sydney Australia call Global Earth Hour. I challenged my students too it, to great sucess. And myself too. Now At least once I week, I try to live one hour (after dark) without electricity. I go for walks, or bike rides, I do yoga, or talk with a friend under the moonlight. It has become great fun.
But after GEH, I started asking myself what other things might I give up for one hour? Well I found the time constraint less important. And tried things like, what would I do with 1 litre for bathing per day. An amazing experiement that has seen the amazing revitalization of my skin and hair, as I use far fewer commericial chemicals now allowing my body to be responsible for oil levels etc.
Then I asked, what would I do without cars, buses or taxis. While this one is difficult because sometimes my friends aren't comfortable with my "making my own way there," I have astonished myself with 10 and 20km bike trips in 30 minutes, with the development of wicked legs and improvement of overall stamina.
Next I asked, what would I do without an alarm clock. I set myself the challenge to wake up at 6:15 every morning without an alarm, and am astonished to find not only can I wake up at 6:15 without the alarm, but i can wake up at 6:30, 7:15, 5:49 and many other times fairly precicely (and well rested) simply by planning before i go to sleep when I want to wake up and what i want to do when i wake up. Of course it helps that it is summer time so I have the sunrise to help me, it will be interesting if the training will stick through the winter months (I'll let you know).
Of course there are dietary things too. I am told we only need about 8 oz of protein a week. So I tried. I left of pork, then beef, then chicken. Now i eat meat about once a week, and am seriously enjoying the improved health, weight loss, sink condition and bank account for the simple shift in diet.
Same went for alcohol, chocolate, coffee...juice, PET bottles. It is amazing how easy it is to let go of these things...just try one. Ask yourself. What would you do for one week without spinach? then experiment...and find out.
What would you do with one litre of water? What would you do with one set of clothes? What would you do with one meal a day?
What would you do for an hour without electricity?
What an innovated person you could be! I recently started a "What would I do?" challenge. Each week I ask myself "what would i do if..." And i think of one of the luxuraies in my life. Then I try for a week to be without that luxury.
The most amazing thing has come of it, too. After the week ends, and i start to think of the next luxary I am finding I don't need to return to that old habit.
It all started when I was posed the question: What would you do for one hour without electricity? It is a great environmental campaign started in Sydney Australia call Global Earth Hour. I challenged my students too it, to great sucess. And myself too. Now At least once I week, I try to live one hour (after dark) without electricity. I go for walks, or bike rides, I do yoga, or talk with a friend under the moonlight. It has become great fun.
But after GEH, I started asking myself what other things might I give up for one hour? Well I found the time constraint less important. And tried things like, what would I do with 1 litre for bathing per day. An amazing experiement that has seen the amazing revitalization of my skin and hair, as I use far fewer commericial chemicals now allowing my body to be responsible for oil levels etc.
Then I asked, what would I do without cars, buses or taxis. While this one is difficult because sometimes my friends aren't comfortable with my "making my own way there," I have astonished myself with 10 and 20km bike trips in 30 minutes, with the development of wicked legs and improvement of overall stamina.
Next I asked, what would I do without an alarm clock. I set myself the challenge to wake up at 6:15 every morning without an alarm, and am astonished to find not only can I wake up at 6:15 without the alarm, but i can wake up at 6:30, 7:15, 5:49 and many other times fairly precicely (and well rested) simply by planning before i go to sleep when I want to wake up and what i want to do when i wake up. Of course it helps that it is summer time so I have the sunrise to help me, it will be interesting if the training will stick through the winter months (I'll let you know).
Of course there are dietary things too. I am told we only need about 8 oz of protein a week. So I tried. I left of pork, then beef, then chicken. Now i eat meat about once a week, and am seriously enjoying the improved health, weight loss, sink condition and bank account for the simple shift in diet.
Same went for alcohol, chocolate, coffee...juice, PET bottles. It is amazing how easy it is to let go of these things...just try one. Ask yourself. What would you do for one week without spinach? then experiment...and find out.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
It is always the wrong choice.
My friend messaged me with a dilemma. She is one of four sisters. Third from the top. Her sisters get along like sisters, fighting as often as they play together. And she is scared to get stuck in the middle (or third from the top of) a brewing feud betwen her two older sisters).
The story: Her second sister just broke up with her long term partner. And not two days later her eldest sister has set up a date with the ex.
Ladies...this is always the wrong decision. There is only one exception, which I will get to. But please, for the sake of everyone everywhere, accept that this is always the wrong choice. In this situation, sisterly fialty wins...
Your sister needs your support. And also she needs space and time to heal after the fracture of a long friendship. Everyone needs that. It isn't fair to force your hurting sister to be happy for you and your new beau. And for those other siblings who get trapped in the feud...ie my friend, tell your sibling that they are being blinded by temporal desires and potentially creating a lifelong schism in a family to satisfy a temporary curiosity...Of course this is the place of exception.
If it turns out that your sister was dating the one true love of your life, and you marry her/him and spend the rest of your days in loving blissful paradise, make beautiful babies and bring joy and happiness through your union to those around you and the rest of the world. This is absolutely possible, and in the event that this is the case, then you have made an acceptable decision and in time the goodness of your love will heal the wounds of betraying your sisterly obligations...this is the only exception. (Oh this and if you are from an inbreeding family where the ex is also a brother or first cousin yada yada yada...)
But to the second sister, there is little to say...her relationship is ended. If the partner goes on to do whatever its not really her concern...the relationship is ended. Express your feelings, your hurt and frustration, followed by a long silence until the sister in the wrong either apologies or marries the ex and makes beautiful babies and heals all the world with her love...
Right. Enough gossip column for one day...
The story: Her second sister just broke up with her long term partner. And not two days later her eldest sister has set up a date with the ex.
Ladies...this is always the wrong decision. There is only one exception, which I will get to. But please, for the sake of everyone everywhere, accept that this is always the wrong choice. In this situation, sisterly fialty wins...
Your sister needs your support. And also she needs space and time to heal after the fracture of a long friendship. Everyone needs that. It isn't fair to force your hurting sister to be happy for you and your new beau. And for those other siblings who get trapped in the feud...ie my friend, tell your sibling that they are being blinded by temporal desires and potentially creating a lifelong schism in a family to satisfy a temporary curiosity...Of course this is the place of exception.
If it turns out that your sister was dating the one true love of your life, and you marry her/him and spend the rest of your days in loving blissful paradise, make beautiful babies and bring joy and happiness through your union to those around you and the rest of the world. This is absolutely possible, and in the event that this is the case, then you have made an acceptable decision and in time the goodness of your love will heal the wounds of betraying your sisterly obligations...this is the only exception. (Oh this and if you are from an inbreeding family where the ex is also a brother or first cousin yada yada yada...)
But to the second sister, there is little to say...her relationship is ended. If the partner goes on to do whatever its not really her concern...the relationship is ended. Express your feelings, your hurt and frustration, followed by a long silence until the sister in the wrong either apologies or marries the ex and makes beautiful babies and heals all the world with her love...
Right. Enough gossip column for one day...
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Giving thanks
I am not sure where it came from, but this morning I noticed it, sitting by my desk while I was wondering what to do with myself. All things are heading madly off in all directions. Life is full of bumps and jumps just now and it is really very hmm, challenging. And I was sitting at my desk, and suddenly the feeling of being watched, and then of watching.I thought for a moment I was having a dream about my mum. It felt like I must be looking at my mum. But I wasn't...I was looking at someone else. It was me. I was sitting there, but I looked so exactly like who I thought I was. It was a strange sensation. To see myself, and to see what I expected. And in that same moment be entirely thankful for the strong and beautiful woman I am becoming.
I have a big exciting move ahead of me in the coming weeks. I'm relocating from Korea to Japan. I am so sad to leave Korea. I have met some inspiring people, and really started to mak such a wonderful home here.
Last spring I had many conversation about finishing school. About how while at school my ultimate goal was to build my mind and develop my intellectual self. Further, that upon leaving school it was time to turn to my other selves, to build my emotional, spiritual and physical selves. At first, this quest created great anxiety for me. Particularly, since I moved to Asia alone, without any teachers by my side, and had to spend much energy and time finding new teachers and guides, new advisors and advesaries.
Now I am sad to so quickly leave my new friends and family, and to strick out again into the world. But in that eerie moment this morning, I knew it was right. That as this time drifts past I am who I think I am.
I have a big exciting move ahead of me in the coming weeks. I'm relocating from Korea to Japan. I am so sad to leave Korea. I have met some inspiring people, and really started to mak such a wonderful home here.
Last spring I had many conversation about finishing school. About how while at school my ultimate goal was to build my mind and develop my intellectual self. Further, that upon leaving school it was time to turn to my other selves, to build my emotional, spiritual and physical selves. At first, this quest created great anxiety for me. Particularly, since I moved to Asia alone, without any teachers by my side, and had to spend much energy and time finding new teachers and guides, new advisors and advesaries.
Now I am sad to so quickly leave my new friends and family, and to strick out again into the world. But in that eerie moment this morning, I knew it was right. That as this time drifts past I am who I think I am.
Monday, June 09, 2008
Busan the balancing city of the south
What an appropriate weekend vacation, That felt like a month-long retreat in my physical, emotional, spiritual being! I travelled with some friends to the south coast of Korea for a surfing adventure in Busan. And in three short days I feel like I have rejuvenated my mind, body and spirit with months of meditation, relaxation and stress/worry free living.
I am definitly taking pages out of this weekend's diary to help me reorganize the next two months of potential anxiety. The choice between staying and going has been on my mind for months. Since I arrived in Korea, I have battled with myself over whether to stay here or not. I have embrassed so much here and been shy of many other things because of the fear of estabilishing attachments I intend to break. And in the past two months I have had dreams and nightmares almost nightly over the decision to stay where I am, to explore here more, or to move on to Japan. About two weeks ago I made my decision, and it seems since then all parties on all sides of that decision have been trying to convince me otherwise.
It is a hard decision to make, and even more difficult to explain. It doesn't mean staying or going, but my decision is to act in ways to fulfil my desires. And it is hard when I am constantly butted with the wishes and desires of others. I like to make people happy. I like to help others fulfil their dreams. It is one of the greatest joys of my existance. I like to help others succeed, and if I believe my presence can do that, it is hard for me to withdraw.
Anyway, this weekend let me finally feel free to make my own decision. I was finally free to enjoy my life today and not worry and agonize over tomorrow. What I can do tomorrow to help those around me feel the joy of this life will be sorted when tomorrow becomes today.
It's not that it was breath-takingly beautiful, or that I had an epiphany, or that it was mind-blowingly awesome, it wasn't an adventure to end all advenutres where friendships and loves were forged stronger than ever before. It was just a weekend, in another country, in a different place. Surrounded by the familiar and unfamiliar. Water and air, cars and people, music and earth, couples shirts and bikinis, skinny dipping and hypothermia. Just a weekend away.
And I think the turning point was this hanja (kanji...).
Which has appeared several times in the past few weeks. But, I saw it again this weekend and it just made sense. It just looked balanced. It, I guess, has many meanings but literally can be the middle. Our centre, our in between, the division in half, half way...this sort of stuff. 중 or naka in Korean and Japanese...But it also looks like a dragonfly. An important symbol of balance, guidance and fear of the unknown. It just looks right. and it's a great meditation point for me. i think.
So there it is. Balanced. Centred. So stop asking about what I am going to do. I am living. And it feels good.
I am definitly taking pages out of this weekend's diary to help me reorganize the next two months of potential anxiety. The choice between staying and going has been on my mind for months. Since I arrived in Korea, I have battled with myself over whether to stay here or not. I have embrassed so much here and been shy of many other things because of the fear of estabilishing attachments I intend to break. And in the past two months I have had dreams and nightmares almost nightly over the decision to stay where I am, to explore here more, or to move on to Japan. About two weeks ago I made my decision, and it seems since then all parties on all sides of that decision have been trying to convince me otherwise.
It is a hard decision to make, and even more difficult to explain. It doesn't mean staying or going, but my decision is to act in ways to fulfil my desires. And it is hard when I am constantly butted with the wishes and desires of others. I like to make people happy. I like to help others fulfil their dreams. It is one of the greatest joys of my existance. I like to help others succeed, and if I believe my presence can do that, it is hard for me to withdraw.
Anyway, this weekend let me finally feel free to make my own decision. I was finally free to enjoy my life today and not worry and agonize over tomorrow. What I can do tomorrow to help those around me feel the joy of this life will be sorted when tomorrow becomes today.
It's not that it was breath-takingly beautiful, or that I had an epiphany, or that it was mind-blowingly awesome, it wasn't an adventure to end all advenutres where friendships and loves were forged stronger than ever before. It was just a weekend, in another country, in a different place. Surrounded by the familiar and unfamiliar. Water and air, cars and people, music and earth, couples shirts and bikinis, skinny dipping and hypothermia. Just a weekend away.
And I think the turning point was this hanja (kanji...).
Which has appeared several times in the past few weeks. But, I saw it again this weekend and it just made sense. It just looked balanced. It, I guess, has many meanings but literally can be the middle. Our centre, our in between, the division in half, half way...this sort of stuff. 중 or naka in Korean and Japanese...But it also looks like a dragonfly. An important symbol of balance, guidance and fear of the unknown. It just looks right. and it's a great meditation point for me. i think.So there it is. Balanced. Centred. So stop asking about what I am going to do. I am living. And it feels good.
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Stop making school easier, please.
Is this the danger of naming things? The more names we have for things the more effort we have to put into learning things names, rather than learning things. But at the same time, it can be fairly easy to learn a list of names, and it's dangerous because to often we stop at learning the name and don't go on to learn the thing as well.
We came up with a name for the faculty of inquiring, asking questions, genuinely wondering...we called it critical thinking. We reified the faculty, made it into a thing we can post on blogs and in mission statements and then forgot to figure out what it means and even worse forgot that this faculty is most exciting and intriguing in our educations in the world.
We want to categorize and label, list and stabilize knowledge, but forgot that the concrete concept-word refers to an unstable thing: to an idea, a flow of energy or sound, or communication. Education is dumbing down into these stabilized things, becoming a learning about what it is to have an education, and less about inquiring into the world. Not that Emile had an ideal education, of course such an education can hardly be mass produced or made available to everyone (or can it? Don't knock it till you have tried it...); but there must be balance, and time and space to inquire. Not to learn the concept-word inquire: how to spell it, what it means when calling the phone company. But, to actually just ask, wonder, be amazed.
But, still the move (caused largely by unqualified teachers like me teaching in standardized settings--rather than organic setting where our lack of qualification/knowledge about how to teach, is made up for by our natural knowledges and abilities to inquire) to replace education with test prep is the greatest tragedy of our generation. More and more courses dictated, replicable, equal opportunity, the same experience repeated and repeated. Stamped, standardized we can now compare what we know this year to what student knew last year, and if the program is really old to what students knew the year before.
But standardized, curved and fitted so we never have a real measure of growing knowledge. Children are our greatest sources of novelty and yet we are putting them through 15 years of replication to stamp out all that novelty.
Education should be a vehicle, not number. It should be a blank sheet, not a letter of congratulations. Education should be life long, not hold your breath and wait to finish puberty...This is one under qualified and over-frustrated teacher.
We came up with a name for the faculty of inquiring, asking questions, genuinely wondering...we called it critical thinking. We reified the faculty, made it into a thing we can post on blogs and in mission statements and then forgot to figure out what it means and even worse forgot that this faculty is most exciting and intriguing in our educations in the world.
We want to categorize and label, list and stabilize knowledge, but forgot that the concrete concept-word refers to an unstable thing: to an idea, a flow of energy or sound, or communication. Education is dumbing down into these stabilized things, becoming a learning about what it is to have an education, and less about inquiring into the world. Not that Emile had an ideal education, of course such an education can hardly be mass produced or made available to everyone (or can it? Don't knock it till you have tried it...); but there must be balance, and time and space to inquire. Not to learn the concept-word inquire: how to spell it, what it means when calling the phone company. But, to actually just ask, wonder, be amazed.
But, still the move (caused largely by unqualified teachers like me teaching in standardized settings--rather than organic setting where our lack of qualification/knowledge about how to teach, is made up for by our natural knowledges and abilities to inquire) to replace education with test prep is the greatest tragedy of our generation. More and more courses dictated, replicable, equal opportunity, the same experience repeated and repeated. Stamped, standardized we can now compare what we know this year to what student knew last year, and if the program is really old to what students knew the year before.
But standardized, curved and fitted so we never have a real measure of growing knowledge. Children are our greatest sources of novelty and yet we are putting them through 15 years of replication to stamp out all that novelty.
Education should be a vehicle, not number. It should be a blank sheet, not a letter of congratulations. Education should be life long, not hold your breath and wait to finish puberty...This is one under qualified and over-frustrated teacher.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
A Serious Case of the Wonkies
I think it would be pretty funny to have a case of the Wonkies. Who knows what it could involve. Maybe one leg would spontaneously grow two inches longer, while the opposing are become 2 inches shorter. Maybe one foot would grow wider while on hand narrower. Or maybe all your clothing would change in this manner while the rest of you stayed just as you are. The result would no doubt be an amazing eye opener for some and mostly a confusing (and possible expensive) inconvenience for others.
If I had a serious case of the wonkies, I know I would spend a lot of time thinking about how my body was fitting the world in a different way. As I learned to do things in new and better ways, I would wonder how I had ever managed before. When my hand easily slips down the drain to reach a lost ring, or my foot helps propel me like an platypus through the water at swimming, what fun it will be. As I spend time cutting up old strangely shrunken misshaped clothes to make new exciting apparel inventions, I'll wonder why I hadn't done it sooner.
Why wait till you catch the wonkies to fit in the world in a different way. Maybe the wonkies is one of those illnesses that is just in your mind, but better than schizophrenia or something you gt to control it. It might be the worlds only enabling disease, well the wonkies and sickle cell anemia...
Just imagine.
ps. I fell out of bed this morning. Surely an early symptom of the wonkies.
If I had a serious case of the wonkies, I know I would spend a lot of time thinking about how my body was fitting the world in a different way. As I learned to do things in new and better ways, I would wonder how I had ever managed before. When my hand easily slips down the drain to reach a lost ring, or my foot helps propel me like an platypus through the water at swimming, what fun it will be. As I spend time cutting up old strangely shrunken misshaped clothes to make new exciting apparel inventions, I'll wonder why I hadn't done it sooner.
Why wait till you catch the wonkies to fit in the world in a different way. Maybe the wonkies is one of those illnesses that is just in your mind, but better than schizophrenia or something you gt to control it. It might be the worlds only enabling disease, well the wonkies and sickle cell anemia...
Just imagine.
ps. I fell out of bed this morning. Surely an early symptom of the wonkies.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Sorry Guys but Viacom is right...sort of
Viacom's lawsuit that supposedly threatens the web is hopefully finally going to help us face facts about what and how we should access information on the internet. The lawsuit is against YouTube over copyrighted material that is uploaded on the website.
Obviously, Viacom made this stuff and as things have worked until now if you make something it is yours and if you want to share it you are allowed to charge or not as you feel fit. To make a profit and be able to survive in the world. Well obviously this is true and Viacom is right, people are regularly violating the company's copyright on the web in general, but particularly through web services like YouTube.
But the question is, what should be done? YouTube asks you if you have copyright of what you post. They close accounts of people who violate copyright laws. Both users and YT employees can flag videos for removal. But there really is little way to hold users accountable for their violations. Not only should accounts be closed but fines against violaters be levied. Repeat offenders should face jail, like current copyright laws dictate (nb. I don't know if copyright laws ever say jail is required, but perhaps if fines exceed ability to pay a person goes to jail...I don't really know)
However, I don't think YouTube should be responsible for this prosecution (in the same way record companies can fine DJs for playing music at a wedding for which copyright isn't paid). But YouTube should perhaps develop a mechanism to make it easier for record companies to track down where their music/movies etc are being used/distributed illegally. And contact those users who are violating copyright. I know perhaps it begs some interesting privacy questions, but IP addresses can be tracked, so personal computers can be found (i think). If you're breaking the law, tough shit. Don't break the law and you don't have to worry.
But maybe, media companies need to be more proactive about the whole Web 2.0 revolution and find ways to get their media available for people who want to watch tv on the subway or listen to Canadian Indie Music in Khazakstan. The fact is it's easier for people to move around this vast globe of ours and we clearly want to take our media with us. Companies like Viacom should stop bitching and get to work, from grammaphone to CD through what ever music/media transmission is now (I'm still at somewhere just after CD but I know my luddite ways have kept me well behind current trends) keep innovating new ways (like YouTube) to share media, to be creative and entertain each other. And people will pay for it, but you need to be proactive about it, the fact is if 1.5billion people are watching a film (you have already made a profit on) you can't possible expect them to even pay 1$ for that privelege. Perhaps membership fees, limited access to certain stuff.
I think the porn industry has it about right. Access to a certain amount of media, some free stuff, but membership fees to those who want to use their services heavily. I mean, come on people.
Obviously, Viacom made this stuff and as things have worked until now if you make something it is yours and if you want to share it you are allowed to charge or not as you feel fit. To make a profit and be able to survive in the world. Well obviously this is true and Viacom is right, people are regularly violating the company's copyright on the web in general, but particularly through web services like YouTube.
But the question is, what should be done? YouTube asks you if you have copyright of what you post. They close accounts of people who violate copyright laws. Both users and YT employees can flag videos for removal. But there really is little way to hold users accountable for their violations. Not only should accounts be closed but fines against violaters be levied. Repeat offenders should face jail, like current copyright laws dictate (nb. I don't know if copyright laws ever say jail is required, but perhaps if fines exceed ability to pay a person goes to jail...I don't really know)
However, I don't think YouTube should be responsible for this prosecution (in the same way record companies can fine DJs for playing music at a wedding for which copyright isn't paid). But YouTube should perhaps develop a mechanism to make it easier for record companies to track down where their music/movies etc are being used/distributed illegally. And contact those users who are violating copyright. I know perhaps it begs some interesting privacy questions, but IP addresses can be tracked, so personal computers can be found (i think). If you're breaking the law, tough shit. Don't break the law and you don't have to worry.
But maybe, media companies need to be more proactive about the whole Web 2.0 revolution and find ways to get their media available for people who want to watch tv on the subway or listen to Canadian Indie Music in Khazakstan. The fact is it's easier for people to move around this vast globe of ours and we clearly want to take our media with us. Companies like Viacom should stop bitching and get to work, from grammaphone to CD through what ever music/media transmission is now (I'm still at somewhere just after CD but I know my luddite ways have kept me well behind current trends) keep innovating new ways (like YouTube) to share media, to be creative and entertain each other. And people will pay for it, but you need to be proactive about it, the fact is if 1.5billion people are watching a film (you have already made a profit on) you can't possible expect them to even pay 1$ for that privelege. Perhaps membership fees, limited access to certain stuff.
I think the porn industry has it about right. Access to a certain amount of media, some free stuff, but membership fees to those who want to use their services heavily. I mean, come on people.
Monday, May 19, 2008
The drug that's got to go
More and more I am finding myself surrounded by and deeply effected by alcohol. And I have had just about enough of it. I look at my aging generation and all I see are a bunch of kids who can only entertain themselves with this drug. And my regular choice of sobriety is further and further alienating me from my peers.
It's frustrating because I am the one who gets ragged on for "not having fun" hanging out with a bunch of borderline alcoholics. Get chastised for only attending daylight rugby festivities, or opting to stop dancing and catch the last train home (for $1.60) rather than anti-up the $25 cab fare. I talk with friends online and can smell their acrid breath over the internet they are so stinking drunk. And it's just gross. And I have had enough of it.
People say, it's not just your generation, alcohol has always been used like it is now, it's just that now you are old enough to be part of it. Further, people always died of all sorts of liver disease and alcohol related stuff, but before it was called demons, a weakness of spirit, or just accounted to whatever, "God said it was his time." And these are very true and valid point, of course I was never part of the alcohol using society until 19 or there abouts, so I am fairly new on the scene.
But its getting gross. The NHS in England is stepping up efforts to help people drink smarter not harder (uhh...) so I guess I'm being exposed to a lot of media just now about alcohol, use and abuse. Media that is of course affecting my thoughts about the drug. But I'm sure that there is more going on in my life and the worlds of my close friends than media hysteria. It's difficult to gage, knowledge, surveys, stats can be overwhelming without help interpreting them, putting them in context and stuff.
But even this media is troubling. It talks about younger people being admitted to hospital with various liver diseases etc, about how much different age cohorts drink and how it compares to surveys from the past. And it talks about what individuals should do. Of course William Pitt, the youngest Prime Minister of England, died of "liver disease."
Unfortunately NHS's advice is know your limits and know your units. But there seems to be very little suggestions about what to do with this knowledge. It's great to know I drank 15 units of alcohol last night; sweet some kids will think, I'm going to see if I can beat it. And what are "my" limits? Most people think of a limit as the outward boundary, the final edge of ability. Feeling hungover or puking might be, by some, considered a limit, but it can often take more than 15 units of alcohol for people. This 15 units seems like way over a healthy intake limit. Becoming so drunk as to fall and get injured, or get alcohol poisoning and require tax-payer dollars in medical establishments to have bones set and stomaches pumped, is definitely a sign that you have had too much to drink and "reached your limit". But again this is takes well more than the recommended 4 units a day. So talking about limits should not really be about the limits of your body.
Rather it's a long term limit these media watchdogs are referring to. Maintaining a level of consumption that will not cause long term irreparable damage.
Really the message needs to promote and build up people's strength to make a choice. To choose to drink less. To choose to engage activities that are not consuming drugs and sitting around. To choose to support their friends and family members who want more from a clearer vision of the world. One that is unblocked, unfuzzied by drugs. Maybe even empower us to choose to drink. For too many it isn't even a choice, its just a default state of being.
I think globally we need to help empower each other to recognize that we get to choose. We get to choose to pray. We get to choose to work. We get to choose to dance on Fridays. We get to choose to find means of empowerment. And we don't have to fully bend to the will of other people choice, that we can choose to find out more about other peoples reasons. Other people choices.
But we need to begin freeing ourselves from the attitude "I'm free to choose how I live my life and you can't belittle me for that choice, and you can't take the choice away from me" If our choices are affecting emotions on other people, so strong that they would take legal measures to take away your choice, you should think carefully about how you force others to live with your choices.
It's frustrating because I am the one who gets ragged on for "not having fun" hanging out with a bunch of borderline alcoholics. Get chastised for only attending daylight rugby festivities, or opting to stop dancing and catch the last train home (for $1.60) rather than anti-up the $25 cab fare. I talk with friends online and can smell their acrid breath over the internet they are so stinking drunk. And it's just gross. And I have had enough of it.
People say, it's not just your generation, alcohol has always been used like it is now, it's just that now you are old enough to be part of it. Further, people always died of all sorts of liver disease and alcohol related stuff, but before it was called demons, a weakness of spirit, or just accounted to whatever, "God said it was his time." And these are very true and valid point, of course I was never part of the alcohol using society until 19 or there abouts, so I am fairly new on the scene.
But its getting gross. The NHS in England is stepping up efforts to help people drink smarter not harder (uhh...) so I guess I'm being exposed to a lot of media just now about alcohol, use and abuse. Media that is of course affecting my thoughts about the drug. But I'm sure that there is more going on in my life and the worlds of my close friends than media hysteria. It's difficult to gage, knowledge, surveys, stats can be overwhelming without help interpreting them, putting them in context and stuff.
But even this media is troubling. It talks about younger people being admitted to hospital with various liver diseases etc, about how much different age cohorts drink and how it compares to surveys from the past. And it talks about what individuals should do. Of course William Pitt, the youngest Prime Minister of England, died of "liver disease."
Unfortunately NHS's advice is know your limits and know your units. But there seems to be very little suggestions about what to do with this knowledge. It's great to know I drank 15 units of alcohol last night; sweet some kids will think, I'm going to see if I can beat it. And what are "my" limits? Most people think of a limit as the outward boundary, the final edge of ability. Feeling hungover or puking might be, by some, considered a limit, but it can often take more than 15 units of alcohol for people. This 15 units seems like way over a healthy intake limit. Becoming so drunk as to fall and get injured, or get alcohol poisoning and require tax-payer dollars in medical establishments to have bones set and stomaches pumped, is definitely a sign that you have had too much to drink and "reached your limit". But again this is takes well more than the recommended 4 units a day. So talking about limits should not really be about the limits of your body.
Rather it's a long term limit these media watchdogs are referring to. Maintaining a level of consumption that will not cause long term irreparable damage.
Really the message needs to promote and build up people's strength to make a choice. To choose to drink less. To choose to engage activities that are not consuming drugs and sitting around. To choose to support their friends and family members who want more from a clearer vision of the world. One that is unblocked, unfuzzied by drugs. Maybe even empower us to choose to drink. For too many it isn't even a choice, its just a default state of being.
I think globally we need to help empower each other to recognize that we get to choose. We get to choose to pray. We get to choose to work. We get to choose to dance on Fridays. We get to choose to find means of empowerment. And we don't have to fully bend to the will of other people choice, that we can choose to find out more about other peoples reasons. Other people choices.
But we need to begin freeing ourselves from the attitude "I'm free to choose how I live my life and you can't belittle me for that choice, and you can't take the choice away from me" If our choices are affecting emotions on other people, so strong that they would take legal measures to take away your choice, you should think carefully about how you force others to live with your choices.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Mareux update
My poor puppet, I think she is more than a little shell shocked after her hostage situation. I thought she was just tired, but she isn't talking or anything. Just lying on the chair watching the sky. But it is a bit rainy today so maybe its just a grey day.
Anyone got any tips for picking up a depressed puppet let me know.
Anyone got any tips for picking up a depressed puppet let me know.
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Honk Kong Debrief
So Hong Kong was pretty sick. Absolutely gorgeous, packed sweaty filled-to-the-brim skyscrappers 7th story gardens, wrap around sidewalk escalator alley ways through the third story of the city of new old colonial futuristic nonscape and land sences twisted like emotions in every direction. Wow. What a ride.
So we lost, but it was bound to happen. I'm not to impressed with my play. Totally not seizing the opportunity on the field, conserving too much energy and not communicating well. But a good game. Saw some great ideas, nice thinking and good development.
Highlights: picking up jellyfish, pouncing Mel (the pillow thrower) in the middle of the morning, singing, shopping (not that I did much of it), dancing, hanbok wearing, eating chicken butt (I heartily do not recommend it), junk boat tour (sweet food, people and a boat to jump off and swim with), swimming, totally sweet ginger pineapple smoothy, did I mention rugby...oh yea...RUGBY!!! totally sweet.
Only one minor incident involving a terrorist attck and hostage situation. But I think Little Roo will pull through. She was pretty quite when we got in this morning, but I think she was probably tired of all the trravelling, and with having to deal with the stress and anxiety of being taken hostage so far from home.
Oh, tip for anyone carrying sweaty rugby kit through customs, sniffer dogs do not like sweat...so our kit bag got a big buzzing pad lock on it. So I took it for Xray where the man put his hand into the twoday old sweaty kit and pulled it out quick saying eerr...before i could explain it was two day old sweaty kit...oh well.
Another great weekend for the books.
So we lost, but it was bound to happen. I'm not to impressed with my play. Totally not seizing the opportunity on the field, conserving too much energy and not communicating well. But a good game. Saw some great ideas, nice thinking and good development.
Highlights: picking up jellyfish, pouncing Mel (the pillow thrower) in the middle of the morning, singing, shopping (not that I did much of it), dancing, hanbok wearing, eating chicken butt (I heartily do not recommend it), junk boat tour (sweet food, people and a boat to jump off and swim with), swimming, totally sweet ginger pineapple smoothy, did I mention rugby...oh yea...RUGBY!!! totally sweet.
Only one minor incident involving a terrorist attck and hostage situation. But I think Little Roo will pull through. She was pretty quite when we got in this morning, but I think she was probably tired of all the trravelling, and with having to deal with the stress and anxiety of being taken hostage so far from home.
Oh, tip for anyone carrying sweaty rugby kit through customs, sniffer dogs do not like sweat...so our kit bag got a big buzzing pad lock on it. So I took it for Xray where the man put his hand into the twoday old sweaty kit and pulled it out quick saying eerr...before i could explain it was two day old sweaty kit...oh well.
Another great weekend for the books.
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