Wk 3 comment on Christina Schraeder

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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

WK 3- comment on Cheryl McGovern

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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

Edwin Moy said...

I enjoy your insight to the reading. I agree there are many ah-ha moments throughout the book and how you relate them to life is similar to how the authors do the same in the book as well. I would like to hear more about your thoughts about putting "I have a dream" in front of everything we do. Would we all work with more passion or would the saying feel diluted similar to the words like or cute? I like how you end your blog as it is a challenge for all of us to break free of what challenges us.

WK 3- Reading

Photo by benny7am via Flickr

Timing is everything.  That can be said for the week I've had and reading The Art of Possibility is the perfect timing for me to write this blog.  So I will start with the way things are.
When your computer's hard drive crashes and the program is about technology you have different ways to react.  I could have freaked out and stressed all day and night until I the computer got fixed but I thought about each aspect of school and solutions to each task instead of what I could not accomplish without my laptop that had everything on it.
That's where I think the reading is beneficial to the class and program as it gets me to think outside of the norm and not to take myself that seriously about things I may not be in control over like my hard drive crashing.  The book points to thinking in a spiral that will only lead to one direct or for different solutions.  The way the authors write their examples help to relate the story to the reader. 
The more I get into the book the more I think about a post I read last week from Bruce Kramer in his blog last week.  Since the book offers no tools but your mind and self thinking there are times that you feel a lack of control if you are not in a position to make changes.  With the state of the world it is today we are often worried about how to pay to survive instead of living.  I know this sounds pessimistic or a talking in a downward spiral, but as humans we do have emotions and worries.  All too often it revolves around money.  I start to think about this similar to putting the cart in-front of the horse and then I think about so the horse in now pushing the cart instead of pulling so in the end I answer my own concern about we can stress about all aspects of our life or we can look at each individual problem separate from each other and find solutions piece by piece.

Week 2 Wimba Archive

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Wimba this week helped me understand parts where I was confused about copyrights from last weeks blog posts.  In watching the archive I really have to express my apprieciation to Rick Stemple for all the questions he asked because those are relevant questions that I had myself.  All the explanations from purchasing liscenses for home use to fair use really helped me understand the reading. 

The biggest learning that I will pass along is, "I will always ask permission to use" this will help me avoid copyright issues and help me protect the company I work for.   If the the company is large enough to have multiple entities under the parent is there a copyright issue for one section to use another?  I guess legal may be getting a call in the morning.

Week 2 response to Bruce Kramer

This book is dangerous! Why? Because, it does an excellent job of defining and inspiring the uses of creative practices. So why is that so dangerous? Well the focus is so much on the practice of creativity and how to do it and do it better that the purpose of creativity is put aside or takes a back seat to just the practice of it. So the danger of this book is its potential to be taken out of context of the bigger picture of life. Let me clarify with an example we EMDT students can understand. We are learning great techniques at Full Sail on how to use state of the art media to improve our delivery of education. The danger of focusing so much on the techniques is that we can miss out of the purpose of why we are educating in the first place and what is it that we want our students to learn. So it is with this book, when the practices of creativity become more of the priority then the purposes, the proper order of approach gets turned around.

For instance, the first chapter “It’s all invented” is a great way to examine your presuppositions to your outlook on life and prepare yourself to change, that which is only your ideas or your culture’s. The danger is that believing “ALL” is invented and treating it as such will undermine the truth of that which is created and the reason for which it was created. Of course the solution to this dilemma is quite simple. Just remember to place the context of this book’s teaching in it proper place as a tool for learning the process of examining our concept of the truth instead of elevating the process as the truth itself. It is in that way we can work with the idea that “It’s all Invented” and protect the truth that some things are created for a purpose.

With this approach it become beneficial to examine the measurement systems we use and determine which are healthy and which need to be removed. That choice can be made having the understanding that some measurement systems are in place for a reason. So when we have the grace to give ourselves and others an A, we can see it is something to live up to and live into, instead of saying I am an A now… I don’t have to do anything since I already have it. From this line of reasoning, we can now make it possible to become contributors to the life we live around us.

Edwin said...

Bruce, You points are very interesting and makes me think about it compared to the book. I agree that one needs to understand the reason before you can move and create. I do think that your example for the program is partially accurate. We all have our learners in mind to what we need them to learn but that is different for each one of us in the program. We arm ourselves with the tools to make those education possibilities reality to our learners. I do agree that saying I am an A can be dangerous for those that cannot control the power that the concept may have but we as the guide must set some boundaries to keep them grounded on the true intention of why you are an A.