Month: August 2022

Now, about writing

For years I have talked about writing. I have read about writing. But this blog is the closest thing to writing I have done. I suppose its rather like my teaching experience. I talked and read about education, but until I finally had the opportunity laid out before me I didn’t take that step.

So, what about writing. They say,” write about what you know.” It’s clear to me many people know far more than I do about everything. What do I have to contribute. However, when I read, I find most books are someones version of something that has been said in many ways many times before. Therefore it seems adding my voice to those thousands of voices would not be so bad.

It seems to me a story contains at least two versions. The author has a view and the reader has a view. Sometimes, I think the written word takes on a character of its own which surprises the author and the readers. I’m not sure what that means, except from my reading of “Sophie’s World” in which the characters in the book had a life. Do we bring characters to life each time we read a book? Are we inadvertant world builders?

my thoughts

Authority

No statement should be believed because it is made by an authority. – Robert A. Heinlein

My experience teaching reminded me how much is believed because someone with certain credentials said it. Those credentials can be in the form of degrees, publications, movies, or sports. All seem to carry similar weight nowadays. Because of this, many of us think we know far more than we do. I ran across an article about a study done to ask that question. A list of words were given and the participant rated what they knew of the topic. Then a quiz was given on the topics. I will post that when I find it again.

Many have made observations regarding this.

Science … looks skeptically at all claims to knowledge, old and new. It teaches not blind obedience to those in authority but to vigorous debate, and in many respects that’s the secret of its success. – Carl Sagan

Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth. – Albert Einstein

And the list goes on of those who are held in high esteem and then who caution us not to take their word for it. If we look at the lives of these great thinkers, we see they value questions above answers. One of my favorites is Richard Feynman. From what I understand, he received much criticism for this comment.

“Science is the Belief in the Ignorance of the Experts”. He meant, and explained that “science – a.k.a. research – is in the making, belongs to the (unknown, yet to be discovered) future, while expertise is based on the past, with in-built obsolescence”. — Richard Feynman

my thoughts

Another on Reading

“Readers usually grossly underestimate their own importance. If a reader cannot create a book along with the writer, the book will never come to life. Creative involvement: that’s the difference between reading a book and watching TV.

In watching TV, we are passive – sponges; we do nothing. In reading we must become creators, Imagining the setting of the story, seeing the facial expressions, hearing the inflection of the voices. The author and the reader ‘know’ each other; they meet on the bridge of words.” — Madeleine L’Engle, “Walking on Water: Reflections on faith and Art”

I came across this as I was cleaning the garage of old papers and magazines I have been keeping for years. That has been a travel in time and the source of many stories to come.

I saw this in my students. They had problems creating ‘images’ in their minds. I have seen this in myself. In some stories I create vivid images of people and places. But, in other books it is difficult. This may be why math is very difficult; what does one envision. As math becomes more complex so do the mental images. If we don’t nurture this ability to visualize complex and abstract ideas it is difficult to grasp the concept. At least that is the case for me. I didn’t understand this when I was in school; at any level. In the past decade this has become clear and my teaching experience made it abundantly clear.

I use ‘mind mapping‘ in an attempt to visualize ideas. But, I think this is not enough.

“In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.” ― Mortimer J. Adler

my thoughts

Social Media

“If democracy is going to function as it should, the man-in-the-street is going to have to think better.” Robert Maynard Hutchins

Social media, a phenomena on a portal to all human knowledge, put to use exchanging pictures of puppies(or kittens) and arguing with people we don’t know …

… concerning subjects about which we know surprisingly little, considering we are using the portal to all human knowledge to carry on these inane dual monologues.

To think of social media as simply Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and similar popular sites is to limit and bias the idea of social media. If we go to my main starting point, Wikipedia; also a social media of sorts. Wikipedia defines social media as, “Social media are interactive technologies that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of expression through virtual communities and networks.^[1][2] “. A key term in this definition is that of being interactive. Various social media allow ideas to develop quickly through online discussions. This of course can be good and bad. I am sure you have followed threads that degenerated into juvenile name-calling.

Too often we… enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. John F. Kennedy

Tags posted

Rural Living

Love Your BookShop Day

“What I say is, a town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore, it knows it’s not foolin’ a soul.”― Neil Gaiman, American Gods

In Australia, Love Your Bookshop day is celebrated every year on August 14. It is a holiday that was founded by the Australian Booksellers Association. The aim is to appreciate bookshops around the country and highlight all the things that make local bookshops beneficial.

I think any country benefits from that notion. In Iola, Kansas, USA, we have a BookShop, 4M’s and a silent Q. In Star Wars, Yoda says, “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” But somewhere I heard, “BookShops lead to reading, reading leads to imagination, imagination leads to innovation.” I’m not sure that is the counter to Yoda’s concern, but I think it is a step in the right direction. Yoda further says, “Named must be your fear before banish it you can.” How better to understand and name your fear than to be well read? Oh, good conversation helps.

“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.” ― Ray Bradbury

philosophy

National Prosecco Day

Yes, there is one. Actually, I am finding there is a day for almost everything. And when the world runs out of causes, we celebrate celebrities birthdays.

The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent on it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do. —Galileo Galilei

environment

World Elephant Day

“It was the mark of a barbarian to destroy something one could not understand.” ― Arthur C. Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey

It is estimated that the count of elephants worldwide has slashed by 62% over the past decade, and the figure indicates the animals face an imminent extinction by the end of the next 10 years.

Between the years 2014 and 2017, as many as 100,000 African elephants were illegally hunted primarily for their ivory that goes into making traditional medicines and ornate pieces of jewelry. Poaching or illegal hunting of elephants in favor of the notorious wide-ranging ivory trade puts the environment at the risk of losing its ecological balance. Therefore, it became an immediate necessity to protect the animals at all costs.

Caring for the environment and promoting sustainability is far more than recycling or climate change. The environment is a very complex system for which the only simple answers are those at the individual level. Complex systems don’t react well to big changes. For the environment, an answer is education and awareness at the world level, action at the local; my opinion.

“Elephants are so wise and so funny and so endangered and so intelligent. I just think there is a lot to learn from them.” – Gloria Steinem

Porch Ponders

World View

“Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.”– Sir Arthur Eddington(1882-1944)

I found this as I was rummaging through my thoughts. Thoughts is the name of the nodes in the mind mapping software TheBrain. I think it was written after watching and marveling at the web of a spider on our porch.

Is my world view any better than that of the spider weaving its web? Is the universe so far more complicated than we can know that we should just content ourselves with weaving webs? Of course the difference, I think, is that the spider doesn’t ask this question. Or, perhaps it does and we don’t know it? Perhaps spiders, or mice, really are the intelligent species on earth; or perhaps the cockroach? How would I know; I only listen to other humans.

I think nature’s imagination is so much greater than man’s, she’s never going to let us relax. —Richard Feynman

Porch Ponders

Growing Old

I think one grows old because we don’t have anything else to do. I think much of growing old is because we think about how old we are. I think we really should quit observing birthdays at age 70; unless, we just reset the counter to about 12. Conversations seem to center around grandkids and visits to doctors. Sometimes there will be ‘conversations’ about a favorite TV show.

At age 70 everyone has a wealth of experience that must be passed on to the young. To me now, young is anyone my daughters’ age or younger. Often we hear, “I wish I were 21 and knew what I know now.” So, why not? By 70 one often has resources to do the things we wish we had done when we were 21; travel, read, and so on.

If we don’t have those resources, we still have knowledge(wisdom) to pass to the young so they will arrive at 70 in better shape; physically and fiscally than we did.

Conversation adds more to that. Here in reality we live only one life in our world on our timeline. However, we can add at least one more life to someone by relating ours to them(oh yes, and theirs to us).

“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.”

― George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons

education my thoughts

Reading is Fundamental

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” ― Dr. Seuss, I Can Read With My Eyes Shut

August 9th is National Book Lovers day. What are you reading? You can see from my Books page I am reading at least two books. I have a biography, Einstein; a science book, The Quark and the Jaguar; and a Star Wars book. In addition, I will often browse books from some section of my library. Much of my library is now on Kindle or Nook, but there are enough printed books in my library to keep me entertained for at least this lifetime.

The title of this post is also the name of an organization dedicated to encouraging reading. “Reading is Fundamental is committed to a literate America by inspiring a passion for reading among all children …”. With access the internet, one can find a variety of books free from such organizations as the Project Gutenberg. Our Rotary Club is sponsoring a “Dolly Parton Imagination Library” project for our county.

Good Reads is a sort of social media hangout for readers. Friends can see which books you have read, which ones you are reading and which ones you want to read.

“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.” ― Groucho Marx