Tradition: Every Easter my adult daughter still comes over to decorate eggs for that day and the week that follows. Last year the older grandson wanted to crack one open and eat it as part of Easter dinner at our place. And for one week in the year, there are a variety of egg lunches for immediate family.
Thou shalt always carry a smartphone in thy hand everywhere thou goest in public.
The continuing saga of how two governments have agenda-edly decided to limit the educative possibilities of all individual students in the province.
This began under the Conservatives who began introducing their ‘how to make money’ agenda with units on how students could become bean-counters, techies (foreshadowed by such events as the closing of the textbook bureau), and entrepreneurs (Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every student went into business and opened a lemon-aid stand of their very own?). Their focus was just about making money, and grooming future voters to vote P.C., the party of business in this province.
And now, of course, we have entered the “Love everyone else and nature while learning to make money” reductionist-era of the NDP. What had once been primarily a progressive, subject-centered curriculum which promoted serious reading, open-minded critical thinking, books, and critical writing has become a limited/limiting politically-correct massage of agenda-ed, student-centered, technological-centered slush.
“How can we make it easier for kids, make it softer, more gentle” has become one of the main mantras of the curriculum review. Why that’s easy: do away with content and subject matter. Who needs facts, a wide variety of information, irony, ambiguity, symbolism, themes, ideas, conflicts, critical thinking, essay-writing, books, and that old nuisance senior-high subject English that lowers final grade 12 marks with irrelevant stuff like Shakespeare and poetry? It’s time to destroy any vestige of literature, history, the past, and that nasty old curriculum. Keep language, thought, and content simple. Real simple. Boil it/everything down.
No, Hamlet, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, Othello, and Romeo and Juliet should not be studied; they have nothing to say to us anymore: we who are so wise and all-powerful with our machines and phones. Kids don’t need to think about life (in any broad sense), evil, human nature, power and control, agendas, using and manipulating people, virtue vs. vice, stereotypes, discrimination and prejudice (ironically, despite the pc agenda), idealism, love and hate, irrational feuding, crime, murder, death, the individual vs. society, the importance of individual choices, and a zillion other significant themes.
Far be it that students in AB today should be challenged, should be raised and lifted beyond the limited commercials/ads level of response on all technological platforms today. Teachers in AB should just reinforce and support kids and let them explore whatever they choose and want. Keep it simple: keep ’em cozy and comfortable. (John Lennon’s “Nothing’s going to change my world” comes to mind.)
And how awful it is that students should learn to write legibly and clearly by hand so that others can read their scrawl or that they should declare themselves independently (without a machine) and responsibly in their own writing without a technological device!
No, life and education should just be about math, literacy exercises, and knowing how to make money, apparently. And we just need less content and subject matter, the minimally 50% ‘what’ of learning! By gar, that’s the solution! Less subject-centered (home)work and more focus on catering to student imagination and curiosity with kids running the classroom. The recent dumbing-down, which started under the PCs, has turned into an NDP runaway train with agenda-flags righteously waving. No, this is not education in the traditional or truly progressive sense of the word; this is just narrow-based propaganda and various agendas, nothing else. And Lord help and pity any kids in the ill-conceived, impoverished, debilitating, superficially `populist` line of fire that is selling true education and Alberta children so tragically short in this province.
(the art of presence and vitality: William Blake’s “Glad Day”)
Simply put, someone or something either is or isn’t. He, she, or it exists and has being or doesn’t. You’ll recall that life starts and ends that way in the form of presence or non-presence. In school, students were either present or absent (that is, not-present). A feeling went with that. One either felt like one was there (in class) or wasn’t (as we or someone else noted an empty desk). In some cases, we were the ones who were not present–at home with the mumps, skipping class, and so forth.
But with the experience of being absent from the group at school came another impression and that was that presence was a subjective state and that one could still experience presence and the presence of absent others and other situations even when in a changed scene or setting. Presence was potentially something one felt, imagined, and experienced all on one’s own.
As well, presence was not just something experienced in relation to environments. One could be thought of as a presence within a family, experiencing the presence of parents and siblings. Or one was aware of the presence of animals via owning a pet or visiting a zoo. Perhaps one experienced the presence of nature, as in the morning when stepping out into the freshness of morning air or when travelling to a memorable place such as the mountains or seaside. Poet William Blake said this best, perhaps: “To see a world in a grain of sand,/ And a heaven in a wild flower,/ Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,/ And eternity in an hour.” To know presence, then, is to connect and possibly transcend.
Most of us know, though, that presence is often or mostly transitory and ephemeral. And it is dependent ultimately on the presence of whichever people you choose to consider, including yourself. One day someone is there, another he or she is not, and connections and entire worlds are suddenly, conspicuously absent, vanished, or blotted out by absence, death or memory losses. There is great value, meaning, and purpose in the simple fact of lived, shared, and experienced presence, a fact often only fully known, understood, missed, and appreciated belatedly. As Joni Mitchell once put it, “you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”
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No connection is possible without others, without presence. Wherever each of us is, our presence is capable of being experienced by others.
But do e-mails, text messages and social media network sites do justice to presence? (For one thing, they significantly omit the physical human voice which is our main, unique, expressive, identifying self.) Are they as good, strong, or personal as a phone call or a Skype communication (the latter with the extra advantage of mediated visual presence)? When it comes down to it, would you rather talk to someone via mediated electronic forms or spend time face-to-face with the presence of the same live in-person human being? What does live in-person presence give us that other mediated communications can’t?
It was time now for love’s new song. His salvation lay far beyond her imagined graces. It was time now to give thanks, to burn all mementos. He would sing of her praises beyond their conclusion. It was time at last for a song beyond seasons. A song beyond the knives and ashes of particular loves. A song beyond death, unwitholding and dazzling in its hopeful affects. In solitude once more, they withstand the changes in tides and reason, begin again the pas de deux of dream and spirit, resplendent like the dancing waves, strength unto strength. May this, their lost joy illumine forever some blessed isle or quiet hill. The spirit of forgotten seeds shall whisper now. Hear it speaking to the many–“Cast aside thy lowliness and be magnificent once more. Though their shadows be gone, their vision remains like remembered touch or stained glass moment. Life, breath and firmament shall make anew the greenness that hath faded from their fields. Gather unto thee another and sing glad the praises of the love-fallen saints. Come now to know this way, this bliss, this peace, this sacrifice, this touch, this wonder, this undying faith, this goodness, this heart and exaltation, this henceforth and forevermore, this beauty and its beholding, this spring promise and new awakening, this imagination and most humble blessing, this beatitude and prayer, this grace and glory, as it was in the beginning, in this world without end…”
You ask for the dream
like a child
set on ice cream
at a Saturday circus
You yearn for old
calendars, broken clocks
& promise to keep
your corner clear of webs
You want to retell
your famous life-story
to poets & editors
recorders of time
But most of all
you ache inside
for the touch of
someone else
nestled close beside you
breath warm along your hair
whispering dark wishes
in the still nights
of your room
(Highly recommended–left: A classic film by Robert Redford–Columbia DVD, Brad Pitt’s best-ever performance; right: the interesting making of the film–DML DVD)
:Our earliest sense is that of being simultaneously connected and removed. Attached, literally, to our mothers, and yet somehow, separate, living separate lives especially from the point of umbilical cord severance. We go on from that critical physical juncture –experiencing and feeling a combination of the two states.
In our childhoods, we become known by our unique names, as separate entities, and, indeed, we are conscious of such from a very early age, what British philosopher Alan Watts called the “skin-encapsulated ego”. For many, that is our essential separateness with the attendant separate sense of consciousness that goes with personal identity and individual personality. We often feel and think differently from others, experiencing things differently and uniquely. “Although we know that on some level we are always connected, our most common experience is one of estrangement.” (Margot Adler)
And yet there is a basis for connection between us all because of our common humanity–gender, ethnic, racial, and physical differences aside. We have many characteristics in common because we are all homo sapiens. And, for many of us, there is a desire to connect or to experience connection as much as possible. This is reflected in our common need for family, friends, mates, role models, and heroes. For some, the connection may be to a religion, to a political/social model or philosophy, or to nature (Shakespeare’s “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”). Often the search for connection is for one person or thing that gives us a feeling of fulfillment, and a sense of life purpose.
The states of being connected or removed, two ends of a continuum, so to speak, also lead to conflicts, often irresoluble conflicts or binds. We talk of having mixed feelings about something or someone, sometimes to the point of being removed or separated from that which or those whom we love very deeply. And, within ourselves, too, we may one day find and come to recognize that we are, after all is said and done, mostly removed or connected by nature, living out a removed and connected ‘dance’ between opposites that never ends and is, in some ways, the most puzzling human paradox of all.
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Pretty basic, but potentially illuminating in a given moment as to how we feel about someone or something else. I think our ‘skin-encapsulated ego” often gets in the way of connection with others; it’s just the way we’re biologically built. Ego and ego-consciousness removes and separates us from others, especially from others’ experiences, which we can never totally understand since we are not them, so to speak.
At best, we can only empathize and identify with others which is usually as good as it gets in matters of connected connectedness. Having said all that, yes, we have a common humanity and common structures and behaviors that fundamentally connect people (and animals).
No doubting we spend a fair bit of time seeking and maintaining connection; something there often is which does not like removal or the state of being removed. Mixed feelings enter into the picture sooner or later. At any given moment, we are either connected or removed, and satisfied or restless about that relative condition.
In A River Runs Through It, for instance, Norman’s conflicts about his brother Paul exemplify the two states. He would like to stay connected with Paul and help him, but his brother has a penchant for being an individual and going his own way as well as a desire to keep his life separate from and removed from his brother and family. Removed is simply who and what he is as a person. As is also pointed out, despite his tragic removedness, his family remains mournfully connected to him with their various unresolved feelings of neverending connection.
As in that book and movie, connected and removed states constantly play out themselves in most family or personal relationships. And so there are usually mixed feelings about these states as they pertain to ourselves and the many others in our lives.
“After love, book collecting is the most exhilirating sport of all.”
–A.S.W. Rosenbach
You were the rarest book of all,
for me, the ultimate edition.
Much of you had been unread
though you remained in great shape,
unfaded and unmarked.
Crisp and fine,
inscribed to me only,
a true collectible.
Bibiliophile that I am,
I had never come across
such definitive copy.
Nothing chipped or shelf-cocked
about you.
A trim folio, unpaginated,
with no slipcase.
Your spine sunned,
but binding intact.
I had no blurb to go by
but dedicated myself
to your sole acquisition.
Your front matter
and end-pages skim-read
as I turned you
over in my hands, savouring
each distinguishing point.
Your non-gilt edges
and errata were all forgiven.
I loved most your imprint
your laid-ins
and variant proofs.
And so for me, as issued,
you were First Thus.
No bookplate ever
for you, o precious tome.
(one of my ongoing processes: connected consciousness and connected sensibility with my daughter)
E. M. Forster’s “Only connect” is probably the truest two-word statement ever uttered. And one can connect on many levels: between oneself and others, between one and nature, and between one and any work of art, be it film, book, painting, or piece of music.
Connection is a state that starts as early as a baby returning a parent’s gaze. We also feel connection to family, others, and our various environments before we begin attending school. Connection usually means that one consciousness recognizes the existence, presence, and consciousness of others. In that sense, there is an inner connection, not just the exterior connection or superficial glancing off ‘the other’ like a couple of billiard balls on the table of life. One of the challenges of living is the extent to which we can connect with the consciousness of ‘the other’, whether in the form of person, situation, object or surroundings.
Our minds and egos typically predispose us to living mostly in terms of self; as expressed by songwriter Paul Simon–“I am a rock. I am an island.” Most of us live inside ourselves and see and relate to the ‘outer world’ in terms of our selves. The challenge often is to recognize the common humanity of other people or our similarity to other species such as animals struggling to survive possible ecological disaster or planetary crisis. There is, then, a large central bedrock of consciousness that connects everything on Earth, and it is that basic field of consciousness recognition that holds the possibility of significant individual growth and positive personal learning.
For instance, when you read a book and are moved by the experiences and ideas of real people or fictional characters, you and your awareness or consciousness are changed by that process. You may end up feeling as if the characters or people are you and feel an indefinable or inexplicable close connection to them. Likewise, if you are on a team that wins a championship, there is a bond between the team members that connects them in a lasting, significant way. Much the same thing happens when people go to a school reunion and remember and relive those old days, roles, and events. There is a sharing of consciousness that accompanies the reconnection.
Hence, consciousness is potentially the important aspect of connection. Just consider the perceptions, awarenesses, recognitions, knowledge, understandings, insights, impressions, and appreciations that occur in such key, moving, and memorable moments.
“Making mental connections is our most crucial learning tool, the essence of human intelligence to forge links; to go beyond the given; to see patterns, relationship, context.”
(Marilyn Ferguson)
And, too–returning to Forster’s quote about relationships–the best of what happens between any two people is often simply the agreements and connected consciousness—the shared experiences and mutual learning that occur in those very close ties. It is the connected consciousness that is the greatest value of whatever significant connections.
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It is difficult to talk about connection without mentioning consciousness. When we seek to connect, we seek to know more about who or what we are connecting with. We seek an awareness that is a vital part of connection. And to a large extent, our connections won’t happen or be significant unless they presuppose imaginative empathy or sympathy, other forms of knowing, other forms of consciousness.
Ideally, some of the best connections with other people will arise from talk and ‘comparing notes’. In those exchanges of feelings and ideas, we may potentially experience similarities of feelings, thinking, and experiences that create the bridges of connection and, in turn, connected consciousness.
Over the days and years, our consciousness alters and, hopefully, grows. We learn more about others, ourselves, human nature, nature, society, and the world. As Ferguson suggests, learning occurs through our ability to make connections whether studying a person, a mathematical theory, a period of history, and so forth. Those connections become a part of us as much as we may, as Paul of Tarsus said, become a part of someone, something else, a process–of who and what we know.
Above all, shared consciousness and the seeking of common ground remain basic to one’s fulfillment as a person and as an individual.
“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.“–Albert Schweitzer
