No walking today for me. I'm in a reflecting and sharing mood because
of what one professor wrote me. I'll just say that I have found that there is
a great concrete value, void of fluff, to meditation and mindfulness for the
classroom. Meditation is about becoming mindful of myself, others about me,
and my surroundings. The purpose of mindfulness is to be unconditionally
caring, kind, loving, hopeful, believing, supporting, and encouraging. And,
the meaningfulness of being mindful is, therefore, about seeing beauty, without
conditions or judgment, in everyone and everywhere. Beauty, then, is not
just a word, but the actual consequence of thinking, feeling, and doing. You
see, everything and everyone we see doesn't come through the eyes, what we hear
doesn't come through the ears, what we feel doesn't come through the skin. We
see, hear, and feel is comes to us through our subjectively filtered
perceptions, assumptions, presumptions, and expectations. How we see
ourselves, who we think we are, who we think we can be, how we see others, what
we think of them, what we think they can be, how we prioritize, especially
teaching with research and publication, is all determined, shaped, explained,
and understood by our perceptions, assumptions, presumptions, and expectation.
But, we not imprisoned by our impressions and interpretations. To
uglify or to beautify, that is our choice. When we uglify ourselves with "I
can't" or "it's not me" or "I'm afraid," or "what will they think," when we
uglify others with "they don't belong" or "they're letting anyone in," or
"they're not capable of," or "they're not worth my time," when we uglify things
around us with "I don't have the time for" or "I have better things to do," we
uglify our world; when be beautify ourselves, others, and things around us, we
beautify the world. To make the choice between uglification and
beautification, we have to have the courage to admit that we don't like being
seen and commented on by others the way we too often see and comment on others,
especially students. I'll repeat that because it's worth repeating: To make
the choice between uglification and beautification, we have to have the courage
to admit that we don't like being seen and commented on by others the way we
too often see and comment on others, especially students.
Calling upon my philosophy minor in college some 50 odd years ago,
beauty, for Plato, was one of the three values that were guides to goodness,
both personal and communal. Now, I'm not talking about the kind of glamor
you'll find in Elle or Vogue. The beauty I'm talking about is what Joseph
Campbell and Viktor Frankl have said, calls to us. It has the power to pull us
out of the rut of our self-serving routine, stop us in our tracks, make us
notice and intensely peer at, be awed, get into, soak up, feel more alive in
its presence, put something of our spirit into, make us glow, and influence us
to begin to think and feel differently in a way that is almost on a sustaining
and elevated transcendental level.
In that sense, to see unconditionally the sacredness, uniqueness,
nobility, beauty in each student, beauty is subversive on several levels.
First, it is subversive because is challenges us to sift through our
perceptions, assumptions, and expectations, modifying some, discarding some
others, accepting some new ones. Second, it is subversive because it can
lead us not just to our unconditional faith in, hope for, and love of each
student, but because it has the power to awaken within each student a sleeping
faith, hope, and love. Third, it is disruptive because it walks hand-in-hand
with imagination and creativity; because it makes us imagine a classroom
deeper, brighter, and bigger, and higher than we have hitherto seen; and,
thereby, because it demands a creativity for converting that dream into a
reality that is worth the taking the risk to reach for. And finally, it
undermines our existing priorities, demanding a rearrangement of them.
Think about it. What would happen if we made our hitherto impervious
mental models susceptible to alteration? What would that do to our classroom
climate, then, if we beautified instead of uglified, if we nurtured in each
student an exciting hitherto undiscovered vibrant garden in what we once were
convinced was as a numbing, desolate wasteland? What inspiration would
blossom from an awareness and appreciation of the beautiful unique potential in
each student? To what heights would we aspire if we reminded ourselves of what
and who really mattered in that classroom, if we gave the classroom a far
higher priority than acquiring tenure, lengthening our resumes, getting that
grant, presenting a paper at that conference, researching and publishing that
article or book?
The most incredibly powerful tool for such change, then, is our
attitudes and feelings. They are not to be dismissed, for we can choose
attitudes and feelings that will work to change our prevailing attitudes and
feelings. So, if we accept the challenge and explore how to change, changes
can occur! To do that, we can have a constant dialogue with such reflective
exercises I have mentioned earlier. These exercises can circle back and
influence our feelings, thoughts, and actions if we allow ourselves to hear and
listen to them.
Now, there's no quick, easy or safe way to do this. It's neither a
waving of a magic wand, a stroll in the park, an off-the-cuff enthusiasm, or
the mere proclamation of nice words. It is challenging; it is uncomfortable;
it is inconvenient; it is risky; it is time consuming. In fact, as I can
attest, it takes courage, the courage of having an open mind and heart, and
just being open. That is, it'll take you to the testing point, for you can't
truly alter your perceptions, expectations, feelings, and actions without truly
altering your life's outlook and, more importantly, your life style.
Each of us can live our right livelihood. Each of us can find our
place in the very place we presently are. Trust me, I know. I did. Worth it?
The likes of Rosette and Katie say it is. Let me leave you with some words of
the late Irish poet, John, O'Donohue, that I read: “It’s lovely when you find
someone at work who’s doing exactly what they dreamed they should be doing and
whose work is an expression of their inner gift. And in witnessing to that gift
and in bringing it out, they actually provide an incredible service to us all.”
Make it a good day
-Louis-
Louis Schmier
http://www.therandomthoughts.edublogs.org
203 E. Brookwood Pl http://www.therandomthoughts.com
Valdosta, Ga 31602
(C) 229-630-0821 /\ /\ /\ /\
/\
/^\\/ \/ \ /\/\__
/ \ / \
/ \/ \_ \/ / \/
/\/ / \ /\ \
//\/\/ /\ \__/__/_/\_\/
\_/__\ \
/\"If you want to climb
mountains,\ /\
_ / \ don't practice on mole
hills" - / \_
---
You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected].
To unsubscribe click here:
http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=46361
or send a blank email to
leave-46361-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
