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Thought of the Week Archives
December 1998
December 7, 1998,
The first thing we notice in a creative act is that it is an encounter.
Artists encounter the landscape they propose to pain -- they look at it,
observe it from this angle and that. They are, as we say, absorbed in
it. Or, in the case of abstract painters, the encounter may be with an
idea, an inner vision, that in turn may be led off by the brilliant colors
on the palatte or the inviting rough whiteness of the canvas. The
paint, the canvas, and the other materials then become a secondary part
of this encounter; they are the language of it, the media, as we rightly
put it....
The encounter may or may not involve voluntary effort -- that is, "will
power." A healthy child's play, for example, also has the essential features
of encounter, and we know it is one of the important prototypes of adult
creativity. The essential point is not the presence or absence of volutary
effort, but the degree of absorption, the degree of intensity; there must
be a specific quality of engagement. [Bold face mine -- editor]
Comment
If interpreting literature and film, or the process of writing, are
creative acts, then it must be an encounter between student and material.
More importantly, according to May, is the degree of absorption the student
has in the material. The student must get beyond abstracting the material,
putting it "out there," and involve himself or herself in the experience
of the reading or viewing. Engagement must precede creativity.
December 14, 1998
Ideas can easily float by, cover up, or even substitute for reality....Ideas
are as dangerous as techniques as substitutes for real experience [because]
they tempt us with their clarity and clear-cutness. Thus we fall into
the "magical" pitfal of equating knowledge and being, understanding and
action, utterance and effectiveness. And yet, there is nothing else that
we have but ideas and techniques, and we must accept that what serves
us can also put us to sleep and take our place.
Claudio Naranjo
- Gestalt Therapy
Comment �
- by Reg Harris
This sounds like a description of much of our school system: so bogged
down in ideas and techniques, plans and outcomes, assessment and evaluation
that it no longer addresses the reality of experience -- and many of our
students know this.
The latest "cure" is technology is just another diversion, keeping
from facing the reality and irrelevance of much of what we do. What is
reality? That's too complex for simple, clear-cut fixes. What is relevant
education? Education in the Latin sense of the word ("ex-" = out + "ducare"
= to draw), which is the education of the individual, not the training
of the indivudal. Give students time, perspective and means to develop
a philosophy of living and learning will grow from them, without our need
to "motivate" or "entertain."
A first step might be to understand that literature or film, in a real
sense, does not exist independently of the observer. Literature
consists essentially of a set of abstract symbols printed on paper. It
is the human mind which interprets those symbols, the human mind which
(if we are doing our job) sees through the symbols to the experience beyond.
It is the combination of the symbols and the interpretation of and reaction
to the ideas presented in those symbols which constitutes literature.
Abstract analysis of literature without first experiencing the literature
can be an avoidance of reality, a culturally acceptable (even respected,
like the workaholic) way to avoid the responsibility for the genuine experience
of the literature -- which means experiencing aspects of our own existence
mirrored and explored in the story.
Pie in the sky? Blowing smoke? If you feel that the only learning which
is legitimate is that which we can quantify on a test or in an essay,
then I am blowing smoke. If you feel that intiuitive understanding and
an awareness of self as experience are real, then I'm really blowing away
the smoke.
December 21, 1998
Today, science, psychology, and other behavioral sciences which are
examples of the evolution of western thought and ideas, seek to discover
such things as origins. They seek to explain the unknown. These sciences
are considered to be separate from the religious life of the scientists
who study them and who perform the experiments.
Because of this there is an attempt by many people and societies today
to dominate and control the unknown, to overcome human frailty or weakness.
This has begun to destroy certain balances and relationships that exist
in the world and its ecosystems. By destroying balances of this kind people
destroy alternatives--they make it more and more difficult to adapt to
change, to crisis, and to the unexpected.
Peggy V. Beck, Anna Lee Walters, Nia Francisco
The Sacred: Way of Knowledge, Sources of Life
Comment
One aspect of the Hero's Journey which is often neglected is the need
to remain flexible, adaptable and open to opportunities and change. When
we seek to control a system (a process, our environment, and even our
lives and future), we fix in our mind a vision of an "end." By fixing
on that vision, we upset the natural flow of the journey, and (because
of the narrowed focus) we block our awareness of options which might be
better suited to our needs and growth.
Indeed, to set a goal is to say--even before you have gone through
the growth experience--that you are in a position to know what will be
best in the future, even though you lack the greater vision and maturity
the journey will bring. Such goal-setting is primarily a western mode
of thought. Eastern philosophies, especially Taoism, have much to tell
us about living as part of a system rather than seeing ourselves separate
from it, of navigating through life rather than trying to control it.
Gaining and being in control is not part of the hero's journey. If
it were, the experience would not be a journey.
- Reg Harris
December 28, 1998
Generally, people won't pursue their callings until the fear of doing
so is finally exceeded by the pain of not doing so, but it appalling how
high a threshold people have for this quality of pain. Too many of us,
it seems, have cultivated the ability to live with the unacceptable...
Perhaps the main reason that we ignor calls is that we instinctively
know the price they'll extract. ...to become authentic, we're going to
have to give up something dear: a job, a house, a relationship, a belief,
a lifestyle to which we've become accustomed, the prestige of being a
big fish in any size pond, security, money, precious time, anger
at somebody, or just the pleasures of cynicism.
Gregg Levoy
Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life
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