I wrote about paradox in Warrior’s Quest and part of the motivating force was this poem. It takes real courage to accept paradox and hold the tension. The hole in the whole completes the whole.
Thirty spokes
meet in the hub.
Where the wheel isn’t
is where it’s useful.
Hollowed out,
clay makes the pot.
Where the pot’s not
is where it’s useful.
Cut doors and windows
to make a room.
Where the room isn’t
there’s room for you.
So the profit in what is
is in the use of what isn’t.
Lao Tzu
Annie Dillard is a wonderful writer whose prose has a great poetic quality. Her words ask me to find quiet and solitude provided on the Sabbath. In that quiet, I go deeper and seek peace among the turmoil.
“In the deeps are the violence and terror of which psychology has warned us. But if we ride these monsters deeper down, if you drop them further over the world’s rim, you find what our sciences cannot locate or name, the substrate, the ocean or matrix or ether which buoys the test, which gives goodness its power for good, and evil its power for evil, the unified field: our complex and inexplicable caring for each other, and for our life together here. It is given. It is not learned.”
Take care and see you Monday.
I made a promise coming into the school year. I would keep my head, do only what I can, and not flounder. I won’t let things get me down. I find solace in writing, nature, with Kathy, and in reading poetry. Some days I just open a book and find a poem which speaks to me in such a clear voice I think the poet stands or sits across from me sharing their words. That is what happened with this poem by Vaclav Havel.
It is I who must begin,
Once I begin, once I try—
here and now,
right where I am,
not excusing myself
by saying that things
would be easier elsewhere,
without grand speeches and
ostentatious gestures,
but all the more persistently
—to live in harmony
with the “voice of Being,” as I
understand it within myself
—as soon as I begin that,
I suddenly discover,
to my surprise, that
I am neither the only one,
nor the first,
nor the most important one
to have set out upon the road.
Whether all is really lost
or not depends entirely on
whether or not I am lost.
I struggled today. Starbucks’ Internet was intermittent and my day was cleaved in half with an appointment. I reflected on what my blogging and there has been a substantial change in the tone and voice of the blogger. When I began, I was doing it for all the wrong reasons and was driven from ego. Transformation is about my self and not about what goes on outside me.
I influence the world and as Gandhi wisely said, “Be the change you want to see in the world” is important.
Change
Occupies an idle mind.
Denies, oppresses
Another self.
Transform
Inner terrain.
Who is this self?
What life does this self live?
Mature
Through life.
Define
the self who lives this life.
Emerge
from chrysalis each day.
Present
A thoughtful gift
Transform my self.
Reveal through selfless acts
Flourish beyond rhetoric
Beyond fad.
Journey with others
Appreciate
Valorize.
This recent think-piece in The New York Times argues that we have:
At home, families sit together, texting and reading e-mail. At work executives text during board meetings. We text (and shop and go on Facebook) during classes and when we’re on dates...
We’ve become accustomed to a new way of being “alone together.” Technology-enabled, we are able to be with one another, and also elsewhere, connected to wherever we want to be.
Really, it was not me unless…
Some days you just have to have some fun!
A question was posed about the role of eloquent questions and how they might apply to the concept of Godly Play. I chose to flesh out my thinking on eloquent questions in that context. Eloquent questions lead inquiry into what is important within a community and shared by a community, big or small. Access to the wisdom of past generations gained through questions posed by members of a group. Gadamer in Truth and Method suggested the prudence and eloquence derived from eloquent questions “gives the human will its direction, is the concrete universality represented by the community of a group, a people, a nation. … [Therefore, its] youth demands images for its imagination and for forming its memory.”
I am not expert on the concept of Godly Play, but the questions posed by children in that setting could be understood as eloquent questions. Eloquence, as it relates to language, suggests capacity to articulate questions about those things that are important and people are curious about in their lives. Yes, it could mean being persuasive and convincing, but I think as it applies to inquiry, eloquence has to do with articulating questions crucial to the existence and survival of the group. With this curiosity and wonder, children participating in Godly Play are encouraged to ask wondering questions and are provided with open-ended response time. This last description suggests there is time to consider answers and, over time, to reconsider them.
Gadamer proposed that prejudice guides understanding, but we are aware of the prejudice and the role it plays in understanding. An open-minded stance allows people awareness of their prejudices or personal agendas and not be attached to them. We stay open to accepting new evidence and there is a constant maturing of views and understanding of the world. This stance brings to mind the Buddhist concept of the Beginner’s Mind which Senryu Suzuki defined as “in the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities.” Children benefit from the beginner’s mind and constantly seek to make sense of the world while remaining open to the many possibilities the emerging world holds for them.
This openness and questioning stance leads to the prudence or wisdom that is important to the existence of the group, not only in its present form, but recognizable with each ensuing generation. St. Thomas Aquinas considered prudence in this sense as benevolent and based upon a supernatural good. The community hopes that the children, through their inquiry, will gain the prudence and wisdom to sustain the community through the rhetoric and the words they speak and the intent of their actions. Prudence is not driven by self-interest. That is deceit and cunning. Prudence takes the form of actions that would be well-intended and for the greater good.
Although I lack in-depth expertise in both eloquent questions and Godly Play, Godly Play does seem to encourage children to ask eloquent questions to better understand their community and grow with their community in a prudent way.
