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Sunday, May 31, 2009

The thrill of the hunt

One of my favorite stories of all time is the short story by Stephen Vincent Benet, By the Waters of Babylon. I try to use the story to inspire others to do things beyond what they have been presented with in life. The main character in the story also discovers that what is sometimes held as valuable in life is that way based on something that at one time was true, but not true any longer. By the end of the story, he gets to lead a whole tribe of people into a new reality based on new values.

During the story, the father of the boy, who is a priest for the tribe, prepares his son for the rite of passage into adulthood and, consequently, for the priest position to follow. The boy is sent out to commune with the ancestors and to return full of wisdom. But, the boy follows his own path to find out the truth about life. When he returns, he tells his father of the truths that he learned while gone. The father doesn't really like the truths the boy has learned, so he tells the boy, "Truth is a hard deer to hunt," and later, "if you eat too much truth it will kill you."



I have always identified with the boy in the story because truth has always seemed a little relative to me. People have told me the same thing that the father told the boy. So I have pushed to find more realities, more truths, more wisdom. And while too much truth has not killed me, it is true that I find myself siding with the minority at times, or being ostracized at times, or standing with those who advocate radical change at times because of questioning reality. And while that hurts on occasion or causes turmoil, it is deeply satisfying to go to the nth degree to find what is true and what is not.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Noticing more


Dan Brown wrote a book called Angels and Demons. It shows the contrast of good and evil in a variety of settings, but it is about humans, not beings from another dimension. I only bring that book up to show that people put life matters in diametrically opposed positions often. I, too, am guilty of seeing life as a dichotomy.

It is not. There are so many facets to life. It is more analogous to a diamond which has much to admire in it, flaws too, but so much beauty. We have many activities, those we care for have many activities, those we see very little have many activities. Life is multi-faceted, multi-dimensional. But, that makes it enjoyable. If it is a diamond, we get to see the red spots, the yellow, the blue. We get to see the lines, and the flaws. We get to see the clarity and the spots of cloud. We get to feel its hardness and strength, but also get to admire the polished, lovely sparkle.

Diamonds are a whole more like life than Dan Brown's book. Even though there are contrasts of good and evil in life, it is all the other shades and sparkles that make it worth living. Loving life is a many splendored thing.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Pure pleasantry


It's raining outside now.  I hear the thunder, see the lightning, and feel the energy.  The air is electric.  It went with the whole day, particularly the drive home from work.  Instead of listening to the radio, I listened to the part of my playlist on my MP3 player that had emotional intensity in its songs.  I got home recharged instead of tired, not knowing it would be a precursor to the evening.  I relish drives home that merge into enjoyable evenings.

Whatever is on the horizon ahead has faded into oblivion - at least for now.  Tonight nature is surrounding this place with its particular brand of peaceful energy.  Long live special drives home from work and pleasant evenings to match.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Know when...

Poker is a game that anyone who has to work in a political environment recognizes as having great lessons worth learning.  I would recommend to anyone working in management or in an administrative position to listen to Kenny Rogers' very old song, The Gambler.  It has just the necessary advice to navigate the political waters semi-successfully (for no one ever navigates through political waters unscathed).

You gotta know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
know when to play
You never count your money
While you're sittin' at the table
There'll be time enough for countin'
When the dealing's done.

Great advice!  Each one of the lines will be experienced by someone who stays in a position for any length of time.  And each time a hand is dealt, a person has to play it through to the end - unless, of course, (s)he wants to get washed out to sea.  Thank you Kenny Rogers for helping me navigate the cards that have been dealt to me.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Mental frame


Robert Collier 
You can do anything you think you can. This knowledge is literally the gift of the gods, for through it you can solve every human problem. It should make of you an incurable optimist. It is the open door.

I forget from time to time that this philosophy is true.  If I begin to see some closed doors, I just need to let my tongue recite this idea for it truly opens doors.  If I begin to see problems rather than solutions, I need to shake my mind until it reflects on the gift of the gods for the saying creates solutions.  In most matters, thinking you can is the magic wand.  It is representative of what the pharaohs of Egypt used to command when a scribe was writing her or his words: "So let it be written, so let it be done."  I will keep these 8 words in the front of my mind this week because at least once this week, someone or some circumstance will allow me to think I have failed of my own doing.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Believing in forces of change


One of the boons and the banes of reading widely in a particular field is that knowledge chips away at and replaces notional thinking.  It's good, I guess to have specific knowledge, but it is a curse at the same time.  It's nice to know, for example, that schools in Canada can teach in a dual language setting all day long and successfully graduate students year after year from their version of elementary school.  Journals are replete with examples from other countries as well, like the Netherlands and South Africa, of successful methods of dual language teaching that turn out students annually fluent in two languages.  

Then I hear a principal of a Texas school say that she can't guarantee that a student will know one of the languages in her dual language setting after going from 1st through 6h grade.  I can't even bear the thought of such gross negligence on the part of general practitioners who are in charge of something that they have only notions about.  And in the case of this prinicipal, she doesn't even know that she should be able to accomplish year after year the feat she is in charge of.  Something is really fouling up the air here.

Other examples exist.  I hear of state standards that dictate to teachers, and thus make them think it is possible, to instruct their students in oral conventions of a language.  Linguistic literature is again replete with studies showing the variational nature of language.  Language is not static and has conventions that are dictated by its speakers.  Conventions are not dictated by laws and school instruction and standards and tests.  But general practitioners don't even know to make a cursory scan of any research and try what is doomed from the start because it is not the way language works.
 
Other disciplines face the same problems.  It's just amazing that any semblance of learning takes place in American schools.  But then, in another 20 years, I think the notional approach will begin showing up because our country is ever increasingly competing in a global marketplace.  Students emerging from schools in other countries don't have such systems and practitioners that ignore substance or specific knowledge in favor of notional teaching and incomplete learning.

But I believe in the adaptability of the human spirit.  By 2017, this problem will be spotted and the current system will have given way to something so much better.  We will see that we are headed for second world status and take a course of correction.  Those stuck in the current system will be bitter, but the nation will move forward. Children below grade 4 are in for some great times ahead.  I look forward to putting the future in their hands for they will take civilization to a whole other level upward.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

The sound and feel of gold






One of my favorite poems is by Stephen Crane.




A man saw a ball of gold in the sky,
He climbed for it,
And eventually he achieved it -
It was clay.

Now this is the strange part:
When the man went to earth
And looked again,
Lo, there was the ball of gold.
Now this is the strange part:
It was a ball of gold.
Aye, by the heavens, it was a ball of gold.

It is a great statement about appearances versus reality.  It also has an application about discernment. Unfortunately, there have been times when I bought into appearances and let discernment go by the wayside.  Fortunately, good judgment is based on experience, and experience is based on bad judgment.  Now discernment is part of my experience.

When I was in school I used to have a teacher that gave tests about the logic of statements.  He would have these possible multiple choice answers: A) True; B) False; C) Part A is true, B is false; D) Part A is false, Part B is true; E) Statement is true, underlying premise is false.  At the time I hated these tests.  But it has helped so very much in life and in my life's work.  People tend to seek their own advantage at the expense of others, so they deal in answer choices C), D), and E) most of the time, making discernment a necessary tool to the successful navigation of life. 

There is a certain sound and feel to the real gold in life.  Hollow is easy to detect these days.  Clay can be sized up in a hurry.  And even though golden opportunities don't come around often, I know them when I see them and tightly grip them so they don't escape. 


Thursday, May 21, 2009

Enjoying moments, not striving

I was watching a special about the concept of time tonight. It was very good. The special is in 4 episodes; this one was #2. It dealt with the age of the earth and where in the scheme of earth's history human beings appeared. I've covered the idea many times, but the vastness of time still amazes me. Humans have just not been around that long.

That thought alleviates a lot of human striving and brings more happiness my way, more times to enjoy the moments that make up life.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Images of a night vision


I was visiting with a friend tonight.  He doesn't live in the English world, so he hasn't had exposure to the creativity and the wit that writers and poets have.  We were speaking about imagery in particular although we were not using that word.  Imagery is one of the coins of currency writers have in their coin purse.  They use it at will and don't hesitate to use it whenever they can because they know they have to captiviate readers.  My friend was in doubt that people could create images without an underlying experience.  I dedicate the lines below to my friend Billy to assure him that people do indeed write creative images without having to have the experience.  This one is a beautiful image of how people feel when they are not heard like the hippies felt during the Vietnam War era. 

Simon and Garfunkel
The Sounds of Silence
(Verse one about a light splitting the night with a vision)

Verses 2 and 3
In the naked light I saw
10,000 people maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
No one dare disturb the sound of silence

"Fools," said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you."
But my words like silent rain drops fell
And Echoed in the well of silence

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Same song 500th verse


It's good sometimes to lapse into what has been familiar.  I happened across Led Zeppelin on VH1 and watched about 30 minutes of the concert.  While watching, the band played my number one rock hit of all time (and in reality it is close to that) - Stairway to Heaven.  It is chock full of allusions and Heaven is an inner state, not a place in the afterlife.  It was just good to move into a relaxing inner state, have thoughts of what the song was saying, which was automatic because I have heard this song so many times, and enjoy watching the band's nuances of movements that they added to the words.  Sometimes automaticity is relaxing and needed.  Familiarity has a place in life.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Keepers of the mind



Steven Pinker, a neuro-scientist and psycholinguist, wrote a book called How the Mind Works.  Of course, it is something not read by most educators, which is ironic since they are considered by most of the public to be the keepers of the mind in our society.  Below is a quote by Pinker from this book.

The payoff for the long discussion of mental computation and mental representation I have led you through is, I hope, an understanding of the complexity, subtlety, and flexibility that the human mind is capable of even if it is nothing but a machine, nothing but the on-board computer of a robot of tissue.  We don't need spirits or occult forces to explain intelligence.  Nor, in an effort to look scientific, do we have to ignore the evidence of our own eyes and claim that human beings are bundles of conditioned associations, puppets of the genes, or followers of brutish instincts.  We can have both the agility and discernment of human thought and a mechanistic framework in which to explain it.  (p. 93)

If educators would jump on board with Pinker, then they could get past the labeling that they do of children, past the idea that children have a finite capacity for learning, and past the ridicule that gene pools are shallow for some kids.  They need to see that minds are agile and discerning.  They need to study to know how to teach to the complexity of thinking and crack the code of how to make learning fit into that complex.  They need to continuously refine their knowledge of the mechanistic framework and know that monstrous repetition is the worst offender of that mechanistic framework.  Then maybe they could really be considered the keepers of the mind. 

As it is, educators are in caves and study little about the mind.  Some still hold the archaic and inane notion that people only use 10% of their brains.  There are not words to utter how closely that resembles the notion of the earth being square and having four corners.  So be it.  The dinosaurs of teaching are about to experience the asteroid that will kill the current structure.  There's a KT boundary just about 5 years upline from now.  They won't make it past that.  But Pinker is right, and education will adapt to it through a whole different means.  The new keepers of the mind will have learned the secrets of the agile, complex, flexible, and discerning mind.  Natural selection strikes again.  Goodbye dinosaurs!

Monday, May 11, 2009

Words, equality, and language behavior


Just a small note about words.  Words are created equal, like people.  It's the environment that people and words operate in that make them different.  Immediately upon saying this all manner of thoughts come to mind.  One thought is that some words build up, others tear apart.  So, how can words be equal?  I think it is not the words themselves that build or destroy.  It is the total environment they are spoken in.  What was the tone of voice used?  What was the accompanying body gesture used?  How did the eyes appear as the words were spoken?  Was there hesitation before speaking?  Was there a redirection of thought?  What was the cadence for the words?  All of the answers to these questions help to give meaning to the words.  Something simple such as "Sure, I was paying attention," can have at least 4 meanings even though the words are all the same (or equal).

And words can have two or more meanings. It's always a matter of interpretation for a listener when he arrives at the gist of an utterance.  Pragmatics is all about the environment words operate in?  Sometimes words require implied knowledge or background about the topic at hand for accurate message meaning rather than the concrete meaning of the words.  If the listener has incomplete knowledge or only partial background of the topic, then meaning is skewed.

Finally, values are brought to the table by people.  Values force people to make choices among words.  This creates the notion that some words are worse or better than other words.  It's an illusion, though. Why do some people think the word "fox" is sly, crafty, or crooked while others think "fox" refers to a seductive or beautiful woman?  Why is a "dog" used pejoratively when applied to humans?  Why is "snake" thought of as evil outside of its literal meaning?  Why can I make a hierarchy of words for body parts based on values brought to the table?  For example, it's OK to say "seat," "rear-end," or "buttocks," less OK to shorten to "butt," forbidden in some circles to say "ass," but playful to say "backside" and endearing to say "buns?"  All those terms refer to the same body part.

All words are created equal, but environment, pragmatics, and semantics keep us from saying some words in some places.  Is it prudence or hypocrisy that allows environment, pragmatics, and semantics to dictate word choice if all words are created equal? Some people opt for prudence, others for hypocrisy.  That is why there is diversity.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Favored by fortune

Much of life takes place at a level that can't be seen.  This is certainly true in biology.  What takes place at the molecular level has to have special instruments to be seen and understood.  Astronomy, too, has forces affecting earth, like solar winds, that can't be seen and yet still influence how people communicate and travel in space.

People's language has a kindred link to biology and astronomy.  Although there is much that can be seen and heard, there are areas that operate below the surface.  So much of the time, words gloss what people truly think.  So, since the beginning of language use for communication eons ago, people have learned to "read between the lines."  Some people are good at this.  Others never catch the logic of it.

It is so very refreshing to find people who catch the logic of language.  They can understand the depths of meaning or the limitations of meaning of any given conversation.  They know when to move on or when to linger on ideas embedded in conversations.  When they want to enlighten themselves, they know which questions to ask and can easily skirt the superfluous tidbits of conversation.  Deep understanding is the result. It is refreshing to be with someone like this because the daily exchange of shallow pools of conversation cannot reach understanding. 

 

One can count the number of people they meet in life on one hand who can engage in conversation with the deeper ends in mind because of the symbolic logic it requires.  I am fortunate in this regard.  I am daily able to move below the shallow pools of conversation. 


Come to the table


For me, music feeds my soul.  It often heals.  It certainly expresses emotions that sometimes fail to get put in words.  And it always brings thoughts, feelings, and adrenalin together.  Tonight I was able never to leave my living room and experience a musical feast.  That feast included many delectable songs.  That's what feasts do best - appeal to the palate.

Several of the songs I had to listen to again, and even again.  My mind is still flashing around the various tunes.  I am mulling the meaning of them all, but I can still find immediate enjoyment in them.  Like a feast, the palate registers different bursts of taste from the different foods offered.  And like a feast, too, there's more available than one can ingest in one sitting.

I am going to bed full tonight.  My gratitude and compliments to the chef!!!

Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Morning Episode


I passed a young man on some stairs today.  I was going down, he was going up.  He limped and had this look on his downward cast face as if to say, "I know you won't say anything to me because I am crippled, but it would be nice if you would."  I spoke to the young man about the same time that I realized the meaning of his look.  He answered back rather shyly, with a wry smile.

My day was made from that point on.  It was a particularly busy day, and I didn't have too much time to reflect on the morning stairway episode.  But, I am a better person tonight because of a shared moment. I was just as needy as he was.  I received a lift from him when he answered me because he was not expecting the greeting he got.  Many blessings to this young man.  I hope he will realize the treasures he holds.

Monday, May 04, 2009

3 lives touching many


The picture above is of a Pame woman weaving.

What a great weekend.  There's nothing like face-to-face meetings with friends that you haven't seen for a while.  A group of 4 linguists sitting around visiting for 4 1/2 hours is some kind of experience.  We have been doing that on a regular basis since the year 2002.  It's good to see how each of us has taken the schooling that we have received and applied it in our vocational endeavors over the last 7 years.

The phonologist among us has lived with a group of indigenous people in the central region of Mexico working to preserve, at least for the historical record and hopefully in reality as well, the language of about 6,000 speakers of Xi'iuy (pronounced Shi-yu-ey).  He has worked diligiently to reduce that spoken language to writing.  He invented a new system of writing, since they had none, with the speakers of Xi'iuy.   Those people are now a very proud people to have a written language.  Believe it or not, these people have no adjectives in their language.  Discoveries like this make lingusitics so stimulating.

The Semitic/Semantics scholar among us is working hard to keep people trained in linguistics to send them to the field and continue working among people who have either no written language or only crude writing systems.  He has fought ill health to stay at the Graduate Institute of Linguistics just so he can teach Amharic, the predominate language of Ethiopia, and semitic semantics and a few sociolinguistic courses to kindred spirits to keep his learnings alive.

The discourse analysis scholar among us is about to depart to Nigeria after making his mark on the TESOL program at UT Arlington.  He will be teaching in a graduate institute in Nigeria to thirsty souls who want to learn how to analyze their own language more systematically.  Many of those languages don't have very many speakers of them.  Some don't have a written code.  I look forward to the articles he will write in the future about applying discourse analysis to some very obscure languages.

4 1/2 hours with these guys makes my head spin.  I love their stories.  I admire their accomplishments.  I am awed by their ambitions.  I am privileged to associate with people who help so many others in ways that few people can.  My hat is off to my 3 good friends.  I wish them a prosperous future and look forward to our next meeting next February.  As a really special friend of mine would say, "U Rock, guys!"


Sunday, May 03, 2009

Ending in Smiles


On two occasions tonight I had to answer the hard question.  Earlier in life I would have deflected, not given the best, the most honest answer.  But now, I find that Maya Angelou had it right.  It's the people who care to overcome barriers that ask the hard question, and the answer is honest because it invites those caring people past the barrier.

And even though I am in Dallas tonight, a friend from Mexico and a friend from Odessa wanted to slip past a barrier in separate conversations and ask me why something was.  So I thank my two trusted friends tonight for making me better, for knocking down a barrier that kept them one step more distant from me and me from them.