I like this piece. Thanks. When i was about 20, i was travelling in Afghanistan (at a time even before the Russians invaded). An elderly man asked me what i want to do with my life and i said to be a writer. He asked write what? I said i didn't know but was waiting until i had something worth saying - still waiting!
Thanks, Jonathan! I like that you find yourself telling the story of that encounter with the old man now, decades later. Part of the waiting is for the encounters we have had to ripen into stories ready for telling.
"If you have a gift for putting words together and passing exams, then the kind of education this leads into will tend to train you in being clever. Such cleverness can be a shield behind which to hide. You can get praise for the sophistication and shininess of your shield. It can take years – decades – to learn to trust that you don’t need it, that there is more power to be found in vulnerability. And if you’re lucky, having learned this lesson, you can find ways to put all the stuff you learned through your education into the service of something more worthwhile than cleverness."
I SO love these beautiful, soulful, wise words! They hint at what I'd like to see "education" be about. It's a strong hint, really.
It seems perhaps just a little silly to fully quote them. But, as I said I love them and I intend to share them widely. -- with a proper link to their origin.
I'm glad they have struck such a chord. And yes, a strong hint, indeed - I wouldn't be surprised if that passage comes back, before long, as part of a declaration of intent for the next phase of our school. Watch this space, as they say!
I'm spending most of the day on most days lately researching the rather vast and profound topic of "various ways of knowing" in relation to "various notions of knowing / knowledge" ... and I think the main thing I'm getting out of this research is confirmation of what I knew in my guts, my bones, my intuitive sense, my sensual / sensuous body, my lived life knowing.... The enormity of tacit knowing continues to astound me, as whenever I FEEL a valuable, important, salient truth being told I get literal waves of shimmering sensation in my body, often located just in one leg or shoulder, neck..., and other times these waves -- which can be very potent -- move through my whole body. And other times I feel these truths in a much subtler way, but just as profound in importance -- just much quieter. I often get both kinds of this experience when I read your words, listen to you speak, chat with you here.
I wonder if your body signals to you in this way also. I bet it does! I can almost feel it from an ocean's distance "apart". You feel very near. I can almost smell you.
What passes for 'education' in our culture (of which there are variants, but you know what I mean) is truly pathetic -- even abusive and traumatic. It completely breaks my heart -- has broken my heart. My whole life has been an archaeological excavation at the site of its ruin ... or the slow, long study of a palimpsest.
Thank you for the gifts. I've requested your book at my public library and submitted a review on the US Amazon page. Hope this helps to spread the word!
Lydia Catterall was such a delightful companion in this dialogue! She's really very beautiful in every way. I'm so glad the request was remade and that she finally accepted. It was my first encounter with her.
*** edit ***
Oh, near the end of that video, Dougald, you talk about the differences between modes and ways of processing the "shit" in certain indigenous cultures as compared with modernity (and "white people") -- which I almost put into scare quotes because there are likely to be more than one "modernity," but that question is a distraction in this context.
I highly recommend listening to this man speak on these topics, as he's provided a huge amount of food for thinking and feeling (etc.) to me on these matters. It's a short video, relatively speaking, and condenses ever so much wisdom! I listen to him here several times a year for years.
His name is Francis Weller. He's one of a handful of genuinely wise people I know of -- of which you are also one.
https://theheronhouse.substack.com/p/palimpsest
I like this piece. Thanks. When i was about 20, i was travelling in Afghanistan (at a time even before the Russians invaded). An elderly man asked me what i want to do with my life and i said to be a writer. He asked write what? I said i didn't know but was waiting until i had something worth saying - still waiting!
Thanks, Jonathan! I like that you find yourself telling the story of that encounter with the old man now, decades later. Part of the waiting is for the encounters we have had to ripen into stories ready for telling.
"If you have a gift for putting words together and passing exams, then the kind of education this leads into will tend to train you in being clever. Such cleverness can be a shield behind which to hide. You can get praise for the sophistication and shininess of your shield. It can take years – decades – to learn to trust that you don’t need it, that there is more power to be found in vulnerability. And if you’re lucky, having learned this lesson, you can find ways to put all the stuff you learned through your education into the service of something more worthwhile than cleverness."
I SO love these beautiful, soulful, wise words! They hint at what I'd like to see "education" be about. It's a strong hint, really.
It seems perhaps just a little silly to fully quote them. But, as I said I love them and I intend to share them widely. -- with a proper link to their origin.
I'm glad they have struck such a chord. And yes, a strong hint, indeed - I wouldn't be surprised if that passage comes back, before long, as part of a declaration of intent for the next phase of our school. Watch this space, as they say!
I'm spending most of the day on most days lately researching the rather vast and profound topic of "various ways of knowing" in relation to "various notions of knowing / knowledge" ... and I think the main thing I'm getting out of this research is confirmation of what I knew in my guts, my bones, my intuitive sense, my sensual / sensuous body, my lived life knowing.... The enormity of tacit knowing continues to astound me, as whenever I FEEL a valuable, important, salient truth being told I get literal waves of shimmering sensation in my body, often located just in one leg or shoulder, neck..., and other times these waves -- which can be very potent -- move through my whole body. And other times I feel these truths in a much subtler way, but just as profound in importance -- just much quieter. I often get both kinds of this experience when I read your words, listen to you speak, chat with you here.
I wonder if your body signals to you in this way also. I bet it does! I can almost feel it from an ocean's distance "apart". You feel very near. I can almost smell you.
What passes for 'education' in our culture (of which there are variants, but you know what I mean) is truly pathetic -- even abusive and traumatic. It completely breaks my heart -- has broken my heart. My whole life has been an archaeological excavation at the site of its ruin ... or the slow, long study of a palimpsest.
Here's another place write a review of the book. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/66054459-at-work-in-the-ruins
I haven't had a chance to read it yet -- soon! --, so I'll write mine after.
I try and avoid Amazon when I can.
Good suggestion!
Thank you for the gifts. I've requested your book at my public library and submitted a review on the US Amazon page. Hope this helps to spread the word!
Thanks so much, Amy! Greatly appreciated.
Lydia Catterall was such a delightful companion in this dialogue! She's really very beautiful in every way. I'm so glad the request was remade and that she finally accepted. It was my first encounter with her.
*** edit ***
Oh, near the end of that video, Dougald, you talk about the differences between modes and ways of processing the "shit" in certain indigenous cultures as compared with modernity (and "white people") -- which I almost put into scare quotes because there are likely to be more than one "modernity," but that question is a distraction in this context.
I highly recommend listening to this man speak on these topics, as he's provided a huge amount of food for thinking and feeling (etc.) to me on these matters. It's a short video, relatively speaking, and condenses ever so much wisdom! I listen to him here several times a year for years.
His name is Francis Weller. He's one of a handful of genuinely wise people I know of -- of which you are also one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaI-4c92Mqo