Week 3-Comment

Week 3 Reading - Art of Possibility

I was intrigued by the author’s hypothesis that our long childhood and the personality that develops in defense can get us out of childhood in one piece, but underneath wreaks havoc with our adult psyche. As I’m currently at a workshop where we are learning to teach children to write about the “small moments” in their lives, I decided to see if I could pull up one of my own early introductions the calculating self. The act of writing this story about a time when the spiral into a dim situation with the "calculating self" was cathartic. Recalling rule number 6, I lightened up trying for humor and read it to my peers here at the workshop hoping that the "central self" of those around me would hear the transformation seeking whispers of my own small moment.

“Tra la la boomsi eh…I got my tits today” he sang, chanted, taunted as he dodged before and away from the beeline I was making from the school exit to the playground. “You think you’re so funny, don’t you?” I yelled back while the tears threatened. Why me? I thought, why do I have to be the only girl in third grade with boobies. It isn’t fair. I was itchy and hot despite the temperate weather, it was only April in Kansas and the horsetail clouds easily beckoned the others to a game of kickball. If only they would swat at Chris Ridder like the nasty horsefly he was. Kooite-ridden knat! Oh, why me? I needed to get away from Chris so he wouldn’t see me pulling at the bras already two sizes too small. Those, my feeble attempt to disguise my womanly demeanor. When at last, he ran to the field to join the others in the footie version of baseball, I surreptitiously snuck a hand under one of the two bras that I’d strapped on that morning to hide behind and relieve the pain. In that brief moment, I could tell that the skin under my enormous bosoms at the end of the day would look like the tops of my calves at the end of gym class. You remember, when we would all pull off those elastic-man tube socks and sigh in unison? Why is it that they say, those lines are caused by water retention? Did we actually retain water in grade three? Yet another thing that was unfair about grade school!Being present to the way things are, what is happening and present to our reactions, no matter how intense is probably the most challenging thing that our transformative selves attempt. If I had a dollar for every time I said, I was going to try and live more in the moment, well let's just say, I'd be rolling in it. I love the author's advice that the simple question, What do we want to do from here? be our new mantra when faced with adversity (as was the case with the rained out golf vacation.) I imagine such a query would open up a world of possibly. Following the week's reading, I will endeavor to be satisfied with the few dollars already in my pocket as I picnic in the present.

Source: Creative Commons playground image http://www.flickr.com/photos/enerva/4359850130/lightbox/
Rose available for free download from dreamstime.com http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photography-rose-rimagefree17567066-resi3743232

1 comments:

Cheryl McGovern-BookWorm said...

Christina: Thanks for sharing your story. We as teachers need to be reminded to stay vigilant about children teasing, as we need to help nip it in the bud when possible. No one is immune to this. I fell and broke my nose in the 4th grade and they taped a white x across my face. It was extremely humiliating, and I heard about it for the rest of my school years. Very traumatic. Accepting what we have now, and understanding that it is the way things are and what we do from here is up to us (rule 6) is sound advice.

August 17, 2011 3:28 AM

Week 3-Reading

Well, week 3 and it is chapters 5-8.  There were many tidbits that I picked up from this reading of "The Art of Possibility".  I will share my favorites with you.  The first major ah ha moment for me came when the author told about getting in the taxi and the passenger tells the driver to hurry! They need me everywhere!!!! This is so true in life.  As a mother or father, you are needed everywhere all of the time! You wish you could grow 8 arms and 8 legs.  As a teacher it seems that every student needs help at the same time on a different problem.  The next one that struck me was that power is the ability to make other people powerful.  This thought we have heard before, but maybe not in this way.  We may have heard it as give a man something to eat and he eats right then, teach him to grow his own food and he will be forever full.  Here is another: grab what you love and give it everything.  So often we tend to meander through life, giving what we feel comfortable giving, but to give it everything possible leaves the possibilities completely open!  As I continued to move through the reading I came to a spot where the author asks us to think about putting Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" before every remark we make.  Can you imagine? The last chapter was all about letting go.  That is where this week's picture came from.  We have to jump without worrying about every little thing to reach the highest and furthest that we can.  I think of the movie "The Great Outdoors".  We often forget that very simple command to let go.  John Candy is water skiing and after giving his son lessons on safety and letting go of the rope if you get into a situation, he totally forgets this himself and his son is screaming for him to let go of the rope but he doesn't.  I hope all of of us this week can let go of our ropes and travel further and accomplish more than we or anyone else could ever expect! Have a great week! Cheryl

Week 2-Free Post

This week is a week where everything gets started and in motion (including me)! I have officially started my new position as a County Media Specialist serving the 3 high schools in this county.  The students will be back in a little over a week, and the frenzy has begun.  I hope that all of my fellow EMDT program people have a wonderful week, and I wish everyone a positive, successful school year. 

Week 2-Comment

Here is my comment to Sheri's blog:

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Wk 2 Reading

Image by Sheri Brinkerhoff

All of the structure and ideals we use to bind ourselves into our lives are invented.  Only looking beyond the proverbial box can help us see beyond our immediate world.  I have often thought about how we create our own world based on our experiences. “The Art of Possibility” by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander is one of the most amazing book I have ever read. Unleashing the possibilities within should be the goal of every person.  It really is all invented.  Someone created the ideas we use to guide our lives.  What could we accomplish if we did not know fear?  Assumptions are the biggest hindrance for me in opening up to the realm of possibility.  It is so easy to make a judgment about someone or a situation.   

During the last week, I have focused on trying to stop making assumptions about situations.  I find that when I do this I have an easier time giving someone an ”A.” I have found that I have more patience with people because I try not to make assumptions or judgments about behaviors and actions.  It helps to think about how you are contributing on a daily basis.  I loved that the idea of being a contribution releases one from the cycle of success versus failure.  The chapter where the author describes his class after giving everyone an “A” is very intriguing.  I have toyed with the notion of presenting this idea to my students.  Though I do not think my administration would be receptive to the idea, I like the affect on the students.  It releases them from the cycle of success versus failure and brings them to a place where they can focus on their personal journey.   

An excellent education teaches students how to live beyond the course material.  This class is an excellent example of the concept.  Though the course is titled “Media Asset Creation,” I feel as though I have learned more about how I want to live my life.  Lessons taken from this week’s reading have affected my personal thinking in ways that will extend beyond the course itself.

 

2 comments:

Marcos Alvarez said...

First of all I want to say that that picture you took is beautiful. Assumptions truly can hinder a person and it can even make them prejudice. When I was doing my practice in education I was warned by a couple of “professionals” to be careful because the school that I was going to was right between two residential housings for underprivileged people. They would have comments like, “you know how those people are with their addictions” or “keep your wallet close at all times” and “you can never be too careful around those people”. Once I got there I found that those kids were the most loving and kindhearted kids I had ever met. They would spend there lunch hour with me and tell me all sorts of stories. Sometimes we are too quick to judge and never really give the others an opportunity.

August 10, 2011 6:59 PM

Cheryl McGovern-BookWorm said...

Sheri: I agree with you that a teacher takes their students beyond classroom learning. I can also see where administration would frown upon giving all students an "A" to start out with! Could you just see their faces, and the faces of parents? If you could film those reactions, you could make millions off of that video! Creating our own lives through experiences would really put a new perspective on things for many people. I have long believed that life is what we make of it! Cheryl

August 10, 2011 7:13 PM

Week 2- Comment

Here is my comment to Richard's post:

My thoughts on the book The Art of Possibility/ Week 2 reading

The Art of Possibility  a nice book by Rosamund Zander and Benjamin Zander.

 I love the fact that this is not a how-to book or a happy feel-good book. The book is a little difficult to describe but I believe the author puts it best by saying; “…the object of this book is to provide the reader the means to lift off from the world of struggle and sail into a vast universe of possibility.”

I also love the fact that this book is written by the perspective of two different people, one a music conductor and the other a therapist. The conductor makes it great point about practice. In today’s society we do not need to practice much of anything anymore. Everything today is almost instantaneous, if you need to look something up you go to the web. Besides, music, dance, sports, and theater we as a society do not practice much of anything before we go out and do it. Here is another excerpt from the book that explains practicing. “ What? You been practicing it for 3 minutes, and you still can’t play it? Our practices will take a good deal more than 3 minutes to master.” This is a great rule of thumb, life and goals require little more than 3 min. a day of practice before we can master them and put them into our repertoire.

 The therapist also makes some great points, I love her analogy of “ out of the boat”.

“ Out of the boat could refer to something as simple as losing all memory of ever having been on exercise program, or could referred to floundering in the wake of a management shakeup.” It also refers to not only being off-track, but it means you don’t know where the track is any more. The therapist goes on to say that you’ll need to call on something that has been established in advance, like in oar, friends, or catchphrase, like “toes to nose”. I believe the idea is twofold, we all need help once in a while and that we all need to step back her once in a while to regain our point of reference.

 The next several chapters go on to discuss how her brain works and how people can view the same situation totally different. They discuss the shoe salesman’s in Africa which is a cute story. They also discuss the 9 dot puzzle which I had forgotten about as a child. The highlight for me was an old quote from one of my favorite artists Pablo Picasso. “Recognizing Pablo Picasso and a train compartment, a man inquired of the artist why he did not paint people the way they really are. Picasso asked what he meant by that expression. The man opened up his wallet and took out a snapshot of his wife, saying, that’s my wife. Picasso responded, isn’t she rather small and flat?”

I love this picture. It is a picture my wife took of my youngest son Nealon and I found it to be a great example of what the authors were talking about in The Art of Possibility. Some find the picture disgusting and ask, why would we let him put a frog on his face? Others thought what a great picture of Nealon having fun with nature.

 I hope you enjoyed the first five chapters as much as I have. Let’s hope that the rest of the book is as much fun as the first chapters. I look forward to next week discussion.

1 comments:

Cheryl McGovern-BookWorm said...

Richard: You took some great parts of the reading to write on! I love the fall out of the boat part also. Especially because I tend to fall out of the boat frequently! (eating chocolate, buying fabric and books, procrastinating cleaning for computer Solitaire) I also like the 3 minutes. There is no way that anyone can master something in 3 minutes, but as a whole we are training children that they don't have to wait for anything! I liked the picture of your son. I think he is totally brave, as I can't even begin to think about a frog on my face! I would totally flip out!

Week 2-Reading

This picture depicts this weeks reading exactly as I interpret it.  Life is what we make of it.  We choose the direction.  There were many things in the reading that I enjoyed.  I loved how the author described success and failure as a two sided coin, but if we choose contribution instead, it is a one sided coin and therefore a win-win situation for all.  I also loved the wording well heeled and down at the heel. I had never heard that before.  It must be the way that other countries describe the highs and lows of life.  Something else that would do us all good to remember is to "engage people in your passion for life", and "don't speak to cynicism, but to passion" (Art of Possibility).  I try to envision a world where there was no cynicism, only passion for life, and it is definitely a mind blower! The thought of giving all students an A the first day of class was awesome! Can you even begin to imagine the look on a bunch of kids faces the first day you handed out all A's? Talk about a jaw dropping experience! The thought of throwing your arms up in the air and exclaiming "how fascinating" when you make a mistake is also cute.  All in all, I think that this weeks reading had the intended effect on me.  It got me thinking, and at just the right time. School is beginning and this was a great reminder that life is all a story, and it is all in the way we choose to tell it! Have a great day!

Week 1-Free post

I want to comment on this assignment.  I have had to comment on blog posts before, but I think they were the same ones every time.  This time I am going to select them at random each week.  I really enjoyed getting some new information on some of my classmates.  A good example of this was Missy Cooper's blog post.  I visited her blog this week, and what an awesome picture she had on there.  As I read her blog, she mentioned that she is an artist.  If I hadn't read her blog, I may have gone through this entire year long program without knowing this about my classmate.  I am looking forward to reading the different ones now and seeing what I can learn!