False quality

I stopped at a convenience store today to get something to drink and to use the restroom.  Oh, the restroom... what a room that was.  On the mirror over the sink was a sign saying that if the restroom wasn't clean to contact management because they wanted only quality restrooms.  A quick survery showed stains of coke drips all over the inside of the door.  The floor around the toilet was littered with toilet paper.  The sink had not been cleaned in a while because drink stains were all over it.  Water drips appeared all over the floor, not merely around the toilet.  A cardboard core of a roll of toilet paper was uncurled and half-floated near the bottom of the water in the toilet bowl.  Plaster splotches adorned the walls of the small room.

I'm not sure why management bothered with the sign on the mirror.  But then, part of the work I do is exactly like this scene - figuratively speaking - so I understand the need to keep up an image.  People's rhetoric is one thing, but if one takes a look around the words that are spoken, such as people's actions, or their words in other circumstances, one finds that the pledge to be a decent person is mere talk, empty words.  I try hard to expose people's stories that don't match their rhetoric.  It's not that hard either, and I have found that people whose lives don't match their rhetoric are habitually out of kilter.  If I were to stop at this convenience store again, I am quite certain that nothing will have changed.

It was a good snapshot to remind me, coming into a new year, that people live behind images created by words, their facades, and surveying the environment will bear out the emptiness of the words being used.

Looking ahead from the mist

The night was dark.  Street lights lit the street, but could not be seen easily since the fog hid all but the bright orb around the light.  A light mist lived in the fog, so the next morning's early drivers would have to scrape a light layer of ice from their windshields.  The wind would make the chill in the air 10 degrees lower if anyone were to get out in it.

All the people in the house were sleeping already, resting in order to be ready for the next day's activities that would start in the pre-dawn hours.  So, the night hours yielded a lot of time for the one person who remained awake to review the year's twisting path. In many ways, the path had led by "still waters."  Yet, it had had moments of unpleasantness, and one moment that meandered across the edge of "the valley of the shadow of death."

In two days the year would end.  So, in the late hours of this night, the lone wakeful person tried hard to see where the trail would lead him over the next 365 days.  Of course, there was no way to tell.  But, his greatest hope in life he would keep as his priority.  He wondered where the peaks and valleys would occur, knowing that he would see both.  And, short of death, he knew that next year at this same time, he would have a chance to review the year again.  And, maybe, just maybe, the fog would not be hiding the street lights, the wind wouldn't further chill the freezing air, and mist would give way to dry ground.  It would certainly be a welcome change.

Among those shining stars

Depending on how you look at it, humanity's records of itself have either been kept a long time or they are a recent development of the our race.  Somewhere between 3500 BCE and 2800 BCE records began being kept.  The records of Sumer are the earliest records found (although the Chinese say differently, they are not forthcoming with their earliest records).

These early records record a god named Enki.  He later was more famous under the name Ea, but he was the keeper of life because he was in charge of life-giving water.  Also, in the ancient world, celestial observers tended to let things on Earth become reflected in the skies.  So, in ancient astrology, there is a portion or field of the sky known as a water area.  In this area, Ea's area, there is a faint constellation. Stars in the galaxies of this field of the sky range from 39 to 340 light years from Earth.  It is the second faintest constellation from old, but it is one of the original constellations, one mentioned in the ancient Babylonian astrological records.

Ea had a number of different symbols for himself but two of the most enduring ones were the sign of the fish because it was a sign of water which symbolized life and the other was the sign of life on Earth, fertility. The symbol for this was the goat.  Goats sustained the people and multiplied easily.  The two signs combined to represent him.

The constellation now is represented, after all these years, still by the mountain goat and the fish, the head of the goat, the body of the fish.  It is best seen in the sky from December 22-January 21.  It made its way into the zodiac under the sign name of Capricorn (Latin for goat horn).  The people born under this sign are said to be some of the best, brightest, most surefooted, regal, brilliant, ambitious, discrete, and dependable people on the planet.

So, I look to the skies every single night of this Capricorn cycle, and I see the stars of Capricorn in the sky, think of the ancient meanings and signs, try to see the star that is 340 light years away, and then change my thoughts to one who was brilliant in every way, whom I enjoyed more than anyone else in my life, who was truly regal, dependable, and ambitious.  I say, "Shine brightly" aloud to myself as I stare upward.  And each night among those shining stars, I see face and a person's unforgettable form, I hear a laugh and the sound of a voice, and I bring to mind the happiest scenes of my life.  My next 30 nights give me pleasant, peaceful rest.

I still wish

The year is about to end, and it is at this time that I reflect on the year behind and look at the hopes I have for the next year.  It seems that this year my goals were accomplished at about a 50/50 level, half accomplished, half not.  Disappointed? Not at all.

Life is not a fair playing field.  And, sometimes there are so many factors entering into accomplishment of a goal that it is hard to know which one contributed the most.  And, when a goal hasn't been accomplished, it's not always apparent what happened exactly to cause the goal from being fulfilled.  My number one goal for the 4th straight year was not realized.  I still wish for it to happen.  I am hoping that what will broaden my horizons and make me the happiest man alive will happen this year.  As far as assets go, there was a mixed bag.  50%.  Job related goals and personal health goals were above 50%.

For the hope of next year?  I have two great hopes - one financial, one personal.  We'll see.  I have learned that there are bound to be some twists and turns this next year.  I'm never ready for those.  But for those that I have a hand in, I will work hard to make them come to pass.

So here's to a good year.

Next December I want to write that all my goals have been realized.  There is always hope and faith, and I still am holding out both.

Another year-turner

Every 12/24 starts with a single-minded thought.. happy birthday to a person who achieves the highest of ambitions, both for herself and in what the world has to offer.  When the room is stale or dark, she brightens it.  When people have lynch mob mentality, she quells it.  When people are sad, she consoles them.  And when a situation needs someone to figure out an answer to a difficulty, she produces the solution.

She's an amazing person, worthy of accolades in so many areas of life.  One day her children will find out what a tremendous mother she has been to them.  Everyone else already knows this quality in her.

Nothing but the greatest of birthdays for this, your day!

Breathing good air

It's the eve of the eve before Christmas.  All through the house everything is stirring, even the mouse (I killed one in the garage recently. Who knows but that there might be another one).  My daughter just finished building a 108 piece kitchen for her 2-year-old.  There is a lot of satisfaction in the air tonight.

And maybe that is the best contribution of Christmas each year.  It gives a sense of satisfaction to everyone.  People are in giving moods, pleasant moods.  The air around town is much easier than at other times of the year.  I certainly like sleeping on a night when satisfaction, giving, pleasantness, and ease have filled the air I breathe.  For tonight, my soul rests,

Child's play

"Stanford University:2013"

That was the caption that started the segment on the science channel program Futurescape.  What followed surprised me.  I'm not usually surprised.  I work hard to recognize trends so as not to be surprised in the next moment or two.  The program was called How to be Superhuman.

Yeah, I was expecting that too.  Another program on how bionic replacement of human parts makes humans superhuman.  Oh, but not this program.  The narrator went on to show the research and conduct interviews with the researchers about his statement that followed the caption of the segment.  DNA can be added to because now there is a micro thinking machine (I doubt the word computer will ever be used here) made from bodily membranes that can retrieve and store files from within a  DNA splice.  The genes can now hold any information that can be digitized, which is nearly all information.

That's not bionics.  And, it opens up a whole new world of possibilities for how people will look and act in the future because the information is not externally controlled anymore but internally.  Even behavior can be programmed.  One experiment with mice showed that they could have a gene implanted that would make them sensitive only to blue light and not have any sensitivity at all to orange light.  Even though that experiment is simple, the implications are staggering.  As you might imagine, the last part of the program was about the agendas to expect from people and governments in the future.

Genetics no longer is about inheritance, nor is it about merely tampering with portions of the DNA strand.  Now it is a human frontier waiting to be explored, exploited, changed, reformed.   It has been made ready for tremendously great alterations, for tailoring every human being for living on Earth, Mars, or any other planet with specified behavior, appearance, brain function... everything.  Brave New World can now be relegated to the past.  It can definitely be shown to be  pure fiction since what is going to happen in the real future has now supplanted the prediction of Aldous Huxley.  As shocking as it has been for 3 generations since it was written, Brave New World is child's play.

Supplements to each other

The modern world has taken science to new levels because of all the advancements in technology.  Whether you stay here on the Earth or go into outer space, science has advanced in every area.  I'm thankful that I live in this world on the threshold of quantum leaps in science advances.

But, it has set up a battle in the minds of those who decide religion needs to be a priority in their lives.  I try to understand some of the religious viewpoints, but they elude me most of the time.  I don't understand, for example, why people refuse to believe that the history of the world only goes back to around 4500 BCE when it is so clear that humans arrived late on the scene and that many other animals current and extinct preceded them.  I don't get it when people think that stem cell treatment and perfections in medicine and food are "playing God."  I find it hard to comprehend that people say we have never been to the moon (or Mars) and that the vast, immense, unlimited amount of space cannot hold other life.

So, for a person living in the modern world to accept some of the tenets of religion is many times not to consider what is helpful and possible for humanity in the advancement of becoming better as a civilization and, therefore, better as an individual.  Not everything in religion boils down to a bottom-line, but it seems to me that the main force of religion is to live decent, respectable, respectful lives benefiting ourselves and our posterity as a society.

That's a little off the beaten path for the rule keepers among us.  But, I think religion has less to do with keeping rules and more to do with living in harmony with others and in contentment with our own inner peace.  Rules for societies vary and take care of themselves.  So, religion is not needed for that function in the modern world.  But, decency and contentment are always needed .  Part of decency and contentment requires progress to be made in every realm of life.  Science is a really necessary ingredient for that to happen.  What both religion and science yield to humanity are not at cross-aims.  They are supplements to each other.

About a half hour more

"How much longer, Dad?"

"Not long." he'd reply. "It's about a half hour more.  Right up here around the next bend or so."  Then he would chuckle, knowing it was one of those routines he would be remembered by and knowing the trip would be enjoyable even if the trip didn't end in about a half hour.

Two bends later I would ask, "I thought you said about a half hour more."

"I guess it was a little farther than I thought," Dad replied.

That was Dad's standard answer no matter what trip we were taking, long or short.  Then, I had a son. Yep, I had the same conversation.

The conversation has really been a good primer for life.  No one knows exactly how far it is to the next goal or chance to make things better.  It helps the pacing if you tell yourself it is only a half hour more.  Plus, it's an approximation in case you don't exactly reach your goal according to the timing you had set or reach it at all. Life has a lot to do with timing.

Really it didn't matter if we made the trip end in a half hour or not.  We always got there and enjoyed it after we did.  And with life...  Yes, I enjoy the trip  usually and the time after the next mile marker has been achieved.

I have a few more half hours left... and more laughter I am sure.

Red indicator light

On last night's news, the news anchor was reporting the effect of Dallas' new superintendent after his first year.  Anyone with any sense at all could have predicted the effect.  The superintendent was former military and has been superintendent in only small school districts in Colorado.  He had a no-nonsense approach to management of people, had very limited experience in dealing with a diverse number of teacher and community interest groups, and he established goals and deadlines that had very little to do with the human condition, as if delivery of education was the same as delivering boxes through UPS trucks.

Yeah - you're right. That's exactly what happened.  Dallas has 25% fewer teachers after year one.  Almost 10% of the 25% were due to contract non-renewals.  Unheard of.  The rest had varying reasons, but many of the teachers felt forced out.  Some knew they couldn't work under the testing goals and the policies instituted to accomplish those goals.

It's a good thing that unemployment is high in the private sector.  Otherwise teachers historically would be hard to come by.  The line to get into teaching ranks is longer when private jobs are fewer and farther between.  But, then that's the irony of this debacle.  Why would people leave a job when the economy is dictating difficulty in finding a new one?  

Professionals, whose business it is to educate human beings, know when someone at the helm is ridiculously out of order.  They will have no part of maniacal behavior.  Humans are not inanimate objects and teachers do not make a product.  They leave the classroom for a variety of reasons, but when principles of good education are not the principles they see in their classrooms, fallout is inevitable.  Incongruity takes its toll.

The Dallas superintendent is holding the line.  But, the reality will be that his line of action won't achieve his goal of having higher test scores because those are achieved as a by-product of good education rather than the product of deliberately teaching test answers.

25% - horrendous!  Well, the board of trustees are business people.  They'll miss the point.  But at most companies a 25% turnover in employees is an indicator that a strategic error on the part of its leadership has been made.

White all around

What a white day!  The Christmas tree is decked in white lights, snowflakes, pearls, and icicles.  The white wooden mantle over the fireplace contains all white candle holders, white pelicans, white roses, white angels, and a white picture frame with a pier leading to the blue sky covered in white clouds.  That's the inside.

On the outside the yard is covered with about 3 inches of snow and ice.  All the hedges, cars, trees, rocks, play equipment, and mailbox have the same blanket of snow and ice.

In my heart, I am loving my little white-headed granddaughter who is loving all the trimmings of Christmas.  And, I'm loving the memory of a face that has the purity of whiteness all around it, remembering the laughter, joy, contentment, and total, melting affection of its flashes in front of my eyes.

Life's tenor

Edgar Allan Poe's works are always intriguing to me.  I wonder what went on in his mind as he wrote his various works.  He had such a talent.  There is hardly a better poem written than his Bells because of all the literary figures of speech he includes.  His short stories entertain because of his strategic use of irony.  And his personal life was more eccentric than most of those around him, so he he created quite the reputation.  Some refer to his drug use.  However, that part of his story is largely unconfirmed.

I think the main reason I like him is that he was able to write about whatever he wanted including sentiments in his heart that society thought were out of place.  The sterling example is from his poem Anabel Lee.  I have found that most students coming through school these days can tell you about the Raven (and his reported drug use while writing it) his Cask of Amontillado, Tell-Tale Heart, or Masque of the Red Death, but rarely have people been exposed to Anabel Lee.  Society can even rob a world class author of the sentiments he wants to put forth for people to read if they think he wrote something unacceptable.  And by unacceptable, I mean against the value system of the conservative right morally and religiously.

But I say kudos to Edgar Allan Poe for penning his thoughts for the one he loved.  People commonly thought that the poem was intended for someone he wasn't married to.  Maybe that's true.  In fact, one woman, named Sarah said he told her the poem was about her.  Two other women also named Sarah claimed the same thing.  No one really knows.  But, even if true, I am glad for him that he found love.  It is so important to have that bond in life because everything else in life comes hard, drains your energy, causes restlessness, and makes existence not worth the living.  Having that one person to love and be loved by changes every dynamic one faces in life.

The poem has 5 stanzas of 6, 8 and 12 lines.  But stanza four represents the tenor of the poem and its passion.  

But our love was stronger by far than the love 

   Of those who were older than we -

   Of many far wiser than we-

And neither the angels in heaven above,

   Nor the demons down under the sea,

Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

   Of the beautiful Anabel Lee.

Anabel Lee was a lucky woman and Edgar a lucky man for finding each other, regardless of what the rest of society had to say about it or tried to exclude from the public and from posterity.  Modern conservative scholars have even proposed that Poe wrote this about his wife, and in that way have tried to squash the controversy.  Typical hogwash.  Whatever -   

Yes, a lucky man that Edgar Allan... 

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams

   Of the beautiful Annabel Lee

And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes

   of the beautiful Anabel Lee.

I should be so fortunate.

Showing through the pane

Over the front door is an arched window.  It's too high to really see very much of what is going on.  But it is good if you want to know what the weather is.  One of the trees in the front yard can partially be seen.  So, if the wind is blowing the limbs on the tree are moving and bending.  If it is raining or lightning the pane on the glass is wet or brightens up.  You can see if it is light or dark outside.

The window from the inside of our minds works much the same way.  We see out based on what appears in front of it - everything making up our experience.  Of course, what I see out the physical window is cyclical and bound by the four seasons of the year.  But, then, our experience is bound as well to the cycles our lives are in.  I understand that, but I sure don't like it.  Some of the best times of life are rotated out of existence by the cycles.

Doors to the heart

The guardians of our thoughts are our lips.  Much has been said about guarding the words we say so as not to offend.  An ancient Hebrew Poem refers to the lips as a door.  It is a prayer to God to help in keeping watch over the door of the lips.

Of course, lawyers know that the guardians need to be at full employ during testimony either in deposition or in courtroom.  Otherwise, people's stories get altered.  People are advised to say only enough to answer the question, nothing more, nothing less.

But the guardians need to stay completely away when someone wants to communicate pure and honest sentiments.  My purest and most honest sentiments originate in my heart.  They are about love and affection, truth and transparency, hope and faith.  And they belong to someone wholeheartedly.  It is my wish that the lips never keep back the full sentiments from the one who understands their heart-felt meanings.

No longer contagion, Hamlet

'Tis now the very witching time of night
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world:

Hamlet (Act III, Scene 2)

I really do love the time of day around midnight and a little afterward.  It's quiet.  My mind achieves clarity.  I can put the past day's activities into perspective.  I can think on the next day's events briefly.

Oh, I get my 7 1/2 hours of needed rest, just not before the witching time of night.  But, there are no witches for me.  In the days when DeVere wrote plays, like Hamlet, people believed in witches.  There was no electricity, so good people were in bed sleeping.  Only those who perpetuated mischief would be up at the witching hour.  Witches did  their planning, their "brewing" in the early morning hours.

Yeah, but modern bodies work differently now.  There is electricity.  People don't have to get rest beginning shortly after dark.  Most people don't have farm chores to perform early in the morning.  There is no fire to stoke.  Breakfast is ready-made for the microwave or a McDonalds is on the way to work.  Witches are not the only ones to share the "ungodly" hour of 12 AM or 1 AM.

Cemeteries today are not in churchyards, and hell does not haunt the place of the dead.  Honor, tribute, love for the departed are written on the epitaphs that dot the ground above the coffins.

It's a different place Hamlet. And I love this anticipated time of night.  And I love the thoughts of the one I love that so often come to me when I am considering all the attendant events, past, present, and future.  Because the one I love inhabits all the moments of my being.

The southern touch

When I look up the word bodacious, I find something that language purists love.  Before even giving the word's definition, I see the word "slang."  Continuing to read, I find that the word originated in the southern U.S. around 1837.  I also see that the word is the result of dialect (southern in the U.S. and Cornwall in the U.K.).  Finally, there is a definition.

My goodness.  Who would want to use such a slang word from southern dialect?  Heaven forbid that someone would knowingly degrade himself or herself by exposing such a word in his or her vocabulary!

Well, I for one like eating at one of my favorite barbeque joints, Bodacious.  I think it is pleasing to the ear to hear the southern drawl pronounce the word boo-daaa-ee-sh-us.  And as far as its origin goes (body + audacious), I absolutely see a ravishing and particular southern beauty's's figure behind the pronunciation.  Nothing "slang" ever comes to mind.

And here's a note to the purists - every word's from one dialect or another.  If it's not yours, then grieve, I guess, but don't impose.  I don't see the word "dialect" for the three pronunciations of clandestine, or the two pronunciations of obstacle and debacle, or the four pronunciations of pecan.  I don't see the word "slang" for the use of the word bag, which would never be used in the south, for purse.  Examples not only abound, they exist for every grammatical category and for every sound.  Ever hear a Canadian pronounce the word about (aboot)?  See, there's a northern dialect just as crazy sounding as the south.

Seriously, who writes these dictionaries.  Oh yeah, the ladies who wear ankle-length skirts with tennis shoes and the men who actually tie their bow ties that match their sweaters - people who have never experienced an audacious body, I guess.  If they'd make the trip south, they would have the word bodacious rolling off their tongues regularly.

Ah, but the spirit is warm

The air is really cold outside the four walls of my house.  It's one of the coldest days of the year. I can hear the sleet falling through my back window and the rain dripping from the patio roof onto the deck below.  The wind from time to time howls through the fireplace damper.  And it is these conditions that make me the most nostalgic.

So I look into the recesses of my mind and pull out the four warmest days I've had in my life, coming from one year.  It seems an eternity away... it seems like tonight.  The scenes are crystal clear, warm, cheerful, and life-giving.

They are such a welcome contrast to this very cold, precipitous night.  They warm my spirit and calm my soul.  What a welcome, comforting, treasured time tonight as the early morning hours creep in carrying their sacred scenes.

Environmentally speaking

Sometimes I evaluate what is in my environment that I like, really like, don't like, or can't stand.  I live with it all, of course, but in times of evaluation, I try to take specific actions for the things I can't stand.  Usually, there is no way to replicate or duplicate the things I really like.  And a lot of things are good, or they're not so bad that I can't tolerate them.

Eradicating something is usually harder to do than it might seem it should be.  There are always ramifications connected with eradication.  And  trying to make something really pleasant remain in place is also hard because everything has a shelf life and extending it usually negates what has been just put in place or cancels something that would be put in place.

Our environments really are a product of our efforts, most of which we create for ourselves.  But even if we have created much of it, we don't have complete control of things in our environments like we would wish.  Sometimes, we only moderate and temper about half of the events that happen.  At other times we loosen our moderate control or events seem uncontrolled, so extreme events, good and bad, occur.

I haven't liked the mix in my environment, my reality, for a while now.  I'm reevaluating.  What can I more moderately control?  What can I temper?  What do I keep in place as is?  What could be eradicated with ramifications I can live with?  What would I like to have stay forever?  What needs to be put in place that is absent now?

It's so delicately mixed. 

Big pictures and bigger pictures

Metadata is a young word in English, having come into the language in 1969.  But, it is different from most words in English.  Jack Meyers used it first for the name of his company, so it is a registered trademark (as of 1973).

Metadata is useful and really wasn't possible before the advent of the computer.  Now, data can be stored and sorted in millions of different ways.  That is a great help to people who study language.  Now, words can be tagged, tracked, quantified, and graphed.  That's beautiful, because now, language is not so much a craft or art as it is a science.  This will help everyone from those who teach languages to others to those who teach language as a means of written communication.

It would be important for example to know which words are truly the first thousand words in a language or the most utilitarian words in the workplace for various professions.  Students of a language would learn what they need much faster than in the guessing method of learning grammar with random words.

It would also be important in teaching students to write more practically rather than in some nebulous style that is supposedly appreciated more than other styles.  For instance, there is a method of writing analysis called the T-unit.  It measures the length of the sentence in particular.  As it turns out, there is not a particular style that is appreciated, but a particular length of sentence that is appreciated.  The T-unit measure of 14 - 18 is appreciated for clarity much more than T-unit measures outside that range.  So teachers should instruct students in writing a particularly clear length rather than in stringing words together according to a particular "style."

I hope that many studies will be conducted about all the facets of language, including literature (which also subsumes film and YouTube videos).  In this way we can escape the needless slavery of doing well in "language arts" and "foreign languages" in school and, as early in life as our genes allow, we can began using language (and a second language) in a way that will serve our individual interests and career choices.

It's just more elitism

When people from another country want to learn English, they sometimes buy one of the many books on teaching the English language from one of the thousands of bookstores' shelves.  So, they learn the so-called "standard" grammar.  Of course, the internet is also full of programs to teach the English language.  Its advantage is for people to hear the language spoken.  But, what language do these people learn?  The first time they go out and talk to the people on the street, they can't understand a whole lot of what is being spoken.

They see someone who says, "Hey, whatcha doin'?"

Of course, they learned the greeting, "Good morning, How are you?" So, they say nothing.

"OK, fella," says the person.  "Guess it's not so good a day for ya.  Hope it gets better.  Have a good one."

The person learning a language didn't understand but maybe 4 words, partly because it's said fast, but partly because the interchange wasn't at all what was expected.  And more subtly, the English used was not what the textbooks or internet programs teach.

The prescriptive approach of sharing language is the only approach used in the public schools in America.  Not that the approach has a good track record, it doesn't.  Dismal, actually.  But, businesses adopted the same method to begin with.  Then, companies began to notice that the above example happens more times than not, so they changed to a more conversational style of English and situational scripts to teach English.  Companies like Berlitz were famous for their script approach to situational English and accompanying reading manuals.  The internet capabilities are just now being used to explore more expansive and effective methods for teaching English.  Rosetta Stone is probably the software leader in teaching with pictures and videos with people speaking the language, but primarily with situations.  They also use single word vocabulary presentations to increase one's vocabulary.

The variationist approach to English teaching has been recognized for a great many years, but methods encapsulizing this approach are not used to any great extent. They should be - I am sure.  Those who interpret for a living wouldn't dream of transforming one language into another without the variants at play in the person they are representing or the person they are speaking to.  There are some language basics, to be sure.  But, variation, not prescription is a main characteristic of a living language.  There is no such thing as a native speaker who is "wrong" in speaking her/his language.  Standard English, proper grammar, slang, substandard English, correct way of speaking, profanity, and fuzzy grammar are merely terms that various groups of people want to use to feel elitist and perpetuate the differences of class in society. 

s 

Radiant warmth

The shadows are longer these days.  It's only 5 weeks till the shortest day of the year.  People's movements are more abbreviated because the temperature is in the range requiring jackets and coats.  Even people's conversations seem to be more terse than when it's warm.

But, warmth can be found.  Many sit in their homes by fireplaces.  Some drink hot drinks - hot teas, hot chocolates, and coffees - at various Starbucks and other casual drink shops around town.  Many just find a warm spot and hibernate for a time in that spot.

Me?  Oh, I just look into my heart for the warmest spot there.  I know exactly where it is.  It creates warmth every time I look into it.  The scenes creating the warmth radiate across time and across place.  This winter won't be so cold, the days won't seem so long, there is no need for a jacket on my heart, and conversations will be played once again for they are a part of the warmth.

Eyes of the beholder

Oh, the sun is shining, all right.  But it's the fall of the year, and it's cold outside, not warm.  The wind is blowing.  The trees are beginning to drop their leaves.  Planted flowers have given up the ghost.  Roses are the only thing blooming, and they're on their way out.  Mulberry berries are dry-looking.  They've just begun their latent stage, waiting to disperse their berries upon the arrival of spring.

If a person pays attention to the signs, then the ensuing weather of the next 4 months is no surprise.  The warning weather of mid-fall prepares us to see the beauty of the phase of the seasonal cycle.  I do love snow and its blinding whiteness when the sun glances off its ice crystals.  I love the activities of winter.  I look forward to its cuisine - the soups, the stews, the chilis, the teas, the hot chocolates and hot ciders - to its clothing - coats and gloves, the occasional toboggan hat, ear muffs, and sweaters for inside - and to its holidays embedded within those next four months.

Oh, it's a bleak season.  Life is dormant.  The dominant color is some version of brown.  The wind and precipitation that accompany the season is greatly uncomfortable.  Going from one place to another takes a little longer, and it seems that more work is involved in getting anyone else riding to be ready at the same time as the driver.

But beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.  Reality is a perceived matter so much of the time.  And I love the
snow and its blinding whiteness... the stews and hot chocolates... coats and gloves... and oh my goodness, such lovely holidays.

Variables in the equation

I have experienced myself and I have watched young people learn to both play music and learn a language other than their own.  The learning process is the same.  Children play or speak irregularly at first.  Notes are wrong, sounds are wrong; timing is off, word order or tone is off; notes like triplets have to be practiced over and over, idioms have to be repeated or encountered frequently.  Finally, the music or the language emerges with recognizable cadence, rhythm, and sense.  And, with time, a certain familiarity and beauty surrounds a person's ability.  Even beyond this stage, one can perfect a craft to absolute heights of professionalism, ease, manipulatibility, and style.

I have heard people compare these stages to life.  They say it is possible to get better at life, to perfect it, sometimes even manipulate it.  I would like to think that is a definition of wisdom.  But, I think I am wrong about that.  It seems that life brings so many variables to the equation that people who try to solve the equation are successful at times and write about it during that given time.  But, what about later?  What about the equation when the variables change (which in life they invariably do).  What then?  People don't really record, especially for public consumption, the change in the variables and what happens to the equation at that point.

Wisdom just might be the ability to adapt well to the changing variables in life.  I think that would account for all the contradictory or variability of the proverbs one finds in a culture.  The adages seem to be all over the map.  Proverbs are mostly seen as a culture's collective wisdom.  But, I think life is too complex for a collected wisdom that is applicable to everyone in every situation.  So, I'm holding to the idea of adaptation.
It's much better suited for changes that inevitably happen.

What's along the way?

 I am of the ilk to question matters if that matter is going to consume a considerable amount of my time.  So,  there were particular points in life where I had to know something before continuing down the path.

That's why I took Koine Greek in college.  I thought, If Christianity is so important, and I'm going to spend a lot of time in churches and around church people, then what does the New Testament really say?  Are the preachers telling the truth?  So, I learned Greek, studied the documents, and devoted a great deal of reading to the translation of the document.  In the end, there were a whole lot more questions than when I started.  It turns out that everything nearly is a matter of interpretation.  That's just how language is.

That's why I took Classical Hebrew later in life.  I thought, If I go farther back in time, will the language establish or not establish the idea that God was around in the beginning.  Is there a solid idea of God in the early stages of the Old Testament?  So, I learned Hebrew, studied a great deal about the Hebrews' way of thinking and their culture, and found that words had several uses in the ancient days.  When all was said and done, the words were a matter of interpretation.  The first words for God were plural like all the myths of all the major civilizations of the world.  They have just been interpreted as singular because of influences later on the timeline.  That's how language works.

That's why I pursued the science that deals with language.  I thought, If I understand the machinations of language in general, then understanding people will help me communicate well with them.  Is there a silver bullet for knowing the intentions behind people's words?  So I followed a rigorous course of knowing all about the many-splendored aspects of languages.  Finally, yes, I discovered the dimensions of language that reveal thought in printed word and in spoken expression, and found that many people are in the business of hiding themselves, interpreting their own words, and making their actions different from their words.  Oh, yes.  Tangled webs.  Can enough study help to untangle webs?  Can a person learn to interpret a person's original words, reinterpret reinterpreted original words, and interpret the punctuations of silences that are nested before, between, and after the interpretations and reinterpretations?  Because that IS the nature of language.

Has this long trail wanting to know original thought benefited me at all?  It has certainly made me a more contented person to have followed an original idea to its logical conclusion.  But, if you ask if the destination was worth the trip, then I don't fully know.  Life is very convoluted.  Many things are not as they seem.  Yes, there is satisfaction, but there are just as many dilemmas or answers not fully evaluated.  And although there are answers to the questions that rise along the way, and some spots on the path are splendidly majestic, the journey is often unsettling, and the people around you wonder about you because the journey changes the person that takes it.

True nature has many colors

Howard Gardner is one of the favorites of the education industry because of his theory put forth at the beginning of the 1990s addressing genius.  He used art in order in order to prove a point about how genius in children undergo a tapering off and many times disappearance after about age 13 or 14.  The genius in the same area of art recurs later in life in a heightened or perfected form in many of the same people that manifested the genius as a child.  This is known as the U curve.

It began as an observation, but then the idea took off.  Many other psychologists tried quantifying this U curve in art and other fields.  Particularly, psychometrists in education thought this would be worthy of exploration.  The U curve was found to be the result in many different areas, not only art.  So, a hypothesis was formulated for experimentation and observation in the field of intelligence.  Thus was born the theory of multiple intelligences.  Gardner also jumped in the pursuit of applying the U curve and its related findings to intelligence in general, not specifically for education.  His idea was outlined in the book  Frames of Mind.

The theory has had time to be tested over a couple of decades, so of course, it has attracted both praise and critique.  Educators were enamored with the idea and tried hard between 1995 and 2005 to integrate it into a larger learning theory.  But, it fell by the wayside after 2005.

Multiple Intelligence Theory (MI as it has come to be called) could help education tremendously.  Not because intelligence is the key word (since intelligence doesn't really exist), but because it would help teachers to see the true nature of knowledge.  Knowledge manifests itself everywhere and in different forms.  The discipline of learning from some of the core subjects helps in accumulating knowledge in an area a student really desires to know more about.

MI died a quick death in education, not because it couldn't be applied, but because it is antithetical to the notion of uniformity.  Schools are driven not by education but by testing.  Testing scales children's scores and causes standards to be written in cookie-cutter fashion so that curriculum for the schools can be designed for further testing.  Uniformity thrives in that environment, not MI.

MI and theories like it will endure, however, while testing for uniformity will have a shelf life.  People will not be bound by what shows on a test.  They will follow their ambitions, their paths driven by the intrinsic motivation of ideas not found in the four walls of schoolrooms, and their opportunities powered by the extrinsic incentive of prestige, money, and power.  There is so much more hope and contentment for the individual and for humanity as a whole when people are allowed to explore what is possible rather than be compelled to see only what is scorable.