The New York Times op ed columnist, David Brooks, recently posted some interesting comments about children and learning that rang true and ended with a bit of advice:

“Liberate yourself from the self-censoring labels you began to tell yourself over the course of your mis-education… The only way to stay fully alive is to dive down to your obsessions six fathoms deep. Down there it’s possible to make progress toward fulfilling your terrifying longing which is the experience that produces the joy.”

As one who has done just this, I can testify to this truth.  Even as I struggle with daunting or tedious tasks, there is a fierce joy and delicious excitement in my obsession that keeps me afloat and moving.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/opinion/brooks-the-art-of-focus.html?src=me&_r=0

Have you ever thought how much real learning is like opening an exciting Christmas present and how “education” is like being made to take a dose of medicine?

Of course there are those who were fortunate enough to have fantastic teachers that provided those “present” moments.

Most of my education, I am sad to say, was about marking time between doses!

Most of May has been dedicated to making possible a trip to Greece for my daughter and her husband by keeping her three boys, ages 5, 7 and 11.

So no blogs.  Sorry.  It’s amazing how delicately we balance on a knife edge of robust, creative life and frazzled, tattered listlessness.

Those kids taught me a lot, as usual.   Insights gained will eventually be shared.

R. Buckminster Fuller received forty-seven honorary degrees, held twenty-eight patents, was awarded the Medal of Freedom, and was the author of twenty-nine books.

Critical Path, his masterpiece, contains almost 400 pages of original insights, obscure but   wildly vital information, prescriptive wisdom and instructions for what mankind must do if we’re to survive.  It is very readable, extremely interesting and deeply thought-provoking, providing a history of the world unlike anything you ever learned in school.

The outside cover of my edition (printed around 1994) states:

* “The masterwork of one of the finest minds and most significant thinkers of the modern age.”

* “As urgent and relevant today as it was upon its initial publication.”

* “One of the truly original thinkers of the twentieth century.”

* “Brilliant insights …Fuller is still ahead of the parade.”

I found myself wishing everyone I know would read this book and that the “people in charge” around the world  would quit playing brinksmanship games with politics and religion so that we can get on with creating life scenarios that work for all.

I hope you will read it and that you will recommend it to your friends.

I wrote about Fuller in my August 30th blog.  I will probably be writing about him again —and again.

Consider this powerful challenge from the text of his great book:

“At the present cosmic moment, muscle, cunning, fear, and selfishness are in powerful control of human affairs….You could be ‘the straw that breaks the camel’s back’ …that straw of intellect, initiative, unselfishness, comprehensive integrity, competence and love [that]… saves us…On personal integrity hangs humanity’s fate.” – R. Buckminster Fuller

Recently I have been working quite feverishly to complete patents.  It is a very intense sort of labor:  one of exactitude, adherence to rules, adaptation of forms, and trying to finally pin down what started as a mental picture into what can actually be constructed in three dimensions and found workable. Nothing in my “education” ever prepared me for this task.

What a fine thing it will be when very young children can begin to acquire these skills  early and use them throughout life, applying them to the practical and challenging  problems they will face in everyday living:  a bit of  instruction along the way in tools of drafting, mechanical engineering,  graphic design, lettering  – –  skills to so greatly help them with their ideas, projects and passions so that they could begin early to bring life to the tiny seed in their minds.

The new  learning center will offer this kind of help daily (and so much more) from caring mentors in a setting of appropriate tools, equipment and furnishings. Children will come to treasure their originality and take their own great ideas seriously.

In the meantime, it is possible to encounter much good help “online.”  For example, did you ever need to draw a big oval?   I was stumped one day, needing one larger than my template and found quick and easy help;  something that would be fun for kids to master.

Sometimes, when climbing a steep mountain, it is important to stop and look back, to notice how far you’ve come and summon your courage to continue.  Likewise, the challenges ahead for humanity seem daunting when listening to the daily news, but surely there’s been tremendous progress.  The pictures in the attachment speak volumes about our advances over two centuries. Some are merely interesting, some are heart wrenching, all are worth seeing. Most of them, by the way,  were made when people truly believed there wasn’t enough to go around on planet Earth.

By coincidence, some other information came to my attention that sheds light on our progress as a species.  John Mackey, in Conscious Capitalism reminds us that “85% of the globe lived in extreme poverty just 200 years ago.  Today that number is 16%. Life expectancy has more than doubled and individual freedom has bloomed.”

Through technology, invention and the release of our inborn genius, there can be plenty for all, if we make good choices and course corrections in time.

http://www.liveleak.com/ll_embed?f=d6d9d5385aee>

One day I wandered into the Fountain City Art Center, just out of curiosity.  Hanging on a wall was Aurora Bull’s enchanting painting of Norris Lake, the emerald-green setting for so many cherished and important memories of my childhood.  I dared to wonder if I could possibly capture on canvas the joy and glory of that place.  And wouldn’t it be fun, I thought, to have the creative activity of oil painting once a week to counterbalance the hard challenge of caring for Mom as she advanced toward the end of her years.

So I took the plunge, thinking I would probably be satisfied after one six-week course.  Wrong!  One thing led to another and another.  I had primed the pump and was amazing myself with what gushed out.  All these years later (8 or 9), I’m still at it, painting only to please myself, using that three hours per week as the exact medicine that can heal, restore, release and breathe life back into me. Each session reinforces my realization that   the process of creating is actually as natural and miraculous as the blooming of a flower.

Sylvia Williams can never possibly know the full extent of the good she has done by so faithfully and creatively following the mandate of her magnificent vision of a small, deserted library being turned into a thriving center for the nurturance of artistic creativity.  She has brought forth an oasis of peace, beauty and caring and that engenders life, originality and genius  every single day. Highest praises to such a wonderful human being.

And Aurora?  She embodies all the best qualities of a perfect teacher. No matter what the student wants to do, she’s game.  She always finds things to praise.  The guidance she gives is focused, precise and demonstrated by her own masterful hand.  Furthermore, her funny stories and occasional delicious homemade surprises make each session delightful.

There are simply no words to express my gratitude for all the fun, friendships, knowledge, skill and juicy life I have found at this truly sacred place where so many drink deeply, are refreshed, restored, set free and re-created.

Congratulations on your 10th anniversary, best wishes for the future and profound thanks to you from a deeply grateful heart.

Ah, Saint Patrick’s Day!  How lovely when nature is finally turning green again, to think about Ireland, surely the most enchanted place on earth.

I happened to hear Cathie Ryan on the Fiona Ritchie radio program night before last.  She sang beautiful, soulful ballads in her exquisitely clear and haunting acapella voice as she talked about her childhood in Detroit.  She told how her immigrant family kept their Irish heritage alive by singing their old songs, literally all day and half the night, against what must have surely been a bleak, grim industrial backdrop.  As a small child, Cathie thus developed her incredible ability to sing her thoughts with the same natural ease with which most of us simply learned to talk.

Fiona would ask her a question about her life and Cathie would say, “Ah,  yes, of course we felt that way…” and with without a second’s hesitation, she would begin singing about her memory – – straight from her heart in what I believe is the purest, most poignant voice on the planet.

Such amazing abilities more than likely exist in us all but never get developed to any outstanding degree through simple non-use.  What a caring, happy and wonderful world it would be if all of us related to each other through song and dance as the Irish do!  They have shown us what can be done – – they’ve opened our minds to our own awesome latent possibilities.

Here’s my Irish treat for you:  Cathie singing about Ireland.   Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  Enjoy

I have enormous regard for the human potential to learn  – – the natural genius observable in babies.  But perhaps once in awhile I need a counterpoint for my consideration:

“Humans think they are smarter than dolphins because we build cars and buildings and start wars, etc., and all that dolphins do is swim in the water, eat fish, and play around. Dolphins believe that they are smarter for exactly the same reasons.”-Douglas Adams, writer, dramatist, and musician (1952-2001)