ideas : People : stories.
the Human Being stuff
I love annotating music videos. Especially when they’re sent to me by previous students, “Thought you’d like these” they say, after months of living different lives on different continents, and I just love that.
These three came in the last few weeks. If you have any thoughts, don’t be afraid to share.
Enjoy!
“All art,” according to Gene Roddenberry, “Is an attempt to answer the question, ‘What is it all about?’”
What, according to these videos, is the answer?
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“From a seed to war, from meat to love, from indifference to apocalypse.
An attempt to capture the world in a nutshell” (via).
Symmetry from Daniel Mercadante on Vimeo.
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Here are a few of my more recent favorites. As always, if you have any you'd like to recommend, let me know (thank you Sarah Downs for recommending War of the Worlds!!!).
Enjoy!
40 Years Later, What We Learned From Jonestown, by Fresh Air
On Nov. 18, 1978, an itinerant preacher, faith healer and civil rights activist named the Rev. Jim Jones led more than 900 of his followers to kill themselves by drinking cyanide-laced Flavor Aid at their Jonestown settlement in the jungle of Guyana. 40 years later, questions still linger regarding the Jonestown massacre and the man who inspired it. Journalist Jeff Guinn details how Jones captivated his followers in the book 'The Road to Jonestown.'
War of the Worlds, by Radiolab
It's been 80 years to the day since Orson Welles' infamous radio drama "The War of the Worlds" echoed far and wide over the airwaves. So we want to bring you back to our very first live hour, where we take a deep dive into what was one of the most controversial moments in broadcasting history. "The War of the Worlds," a radio play about Martians invading New Jersey, caused panic when it originally aired, and it's continued to fool people since--from Santiago, Chile to Buffalo, New York to a particularly disastrous evening in Quito, Ecuador.
The Room of Requirement, by This American Life
My whole family thoroughly enjoyed this one. The summary doesn't do it justice so I deleted everything but the opening sentence.
Libraries aren't just for books.
So, so good.
Feminism in Black and White, by Scene on Radio
Most of December was dedicated to this podcast series entitled, "MEN." It's a newer podcast, with only it's third season available, and as one might imagine, the first season isn't great. The third one, however, is very good. I appreciated just about every episode, but this one was exceptional.
The struggles against sexism and racism come together in the bodies, and the lives, of black women. Co-hosts Celeste Headlee and John Biewen look at the intersections between male dominance and white supremacy in the United States, and the movements to overcome them, from the 1800s through the 2016 presidential election.
Enjoy the day, and happy listening.
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In July of 1838, Charles Darwin was twenty-nine and recently returned from his “legendary voyage around the globe . . . and a few months away from sketching the first outline of natural selection in his notebooks” (pg 8).
He was also contemplating if h should I get married or stay single.
So, to help clarify his quandary, he made a pros and cons list, “dividing two facing pages in his notebook into two columns.” At the top of one column he wrote “Not Marry.” On the other, “Marry.”
He concluded the following:
- Freedom to go where one liked
-Choice of Society and little of it
-Conversation of clever men at clubs
-Not forced to visit relatives and bend in every trifle
-Expense and anxiety of children
-Perhaps quarreling
-Loss of Time
-Cannot read in the evenings
-Fatness and idleness
-Anxiety and responsibility
-Less money for books etc.
-If many children forced to gain one’s bread (But then it is very bad for one’s health to work too much)
-Perhaps my wife won’t like London; then the sentence is banishment and degradation into indolent, idle fool
-Children (if it Please God)
-Constant companion (and friend in old age) who will feel interested in one
-Object to be beloved and played with. Better than a dog anyhow
-Home, & someone to take care of house
-Charms of music and female chit-chat. These things good for one’s health- but terrible loss of time.
-My God, it is intolerable to thing of spending one’s whole life, like a neuter bee, working, working, an nothing after all - No, no won’t do
-Imagine living all one’s day solitary in smoky dirty London House
-Only picture to yourself a nice soft wife on a sofa with good fire and books and music perhaps
-Compare this vision with the dingy reality of Great Marlboro Street, London
How long he deliberated over this list is uncertain. His decision, however, is clear, and not only because he wrote, “Marry, Marry, Marry QED” at the bottom of the page, “but also because he did, in fact, wed Emma Wedgwood six months after writing the words”, a marriage that would “bring much happiness to Darwin” (pg 9). I assume his marriage was a success, in part, because she never saw this list, or at least I suspect she didn’t. Because if she had, I would like to think their discussion would be similar to Ross and Rachel’s.
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The first of anything is difficult. Even, sometimes, if you’ve been doing it for a while. For me, the first post of the new year is completely nerve wracking. There’s something about the first post that seems to set the tone, and it always makes me incredibly nervous. Sometimes I just dive in, like I’m jumping into a cold pool and I just need to get it over with. Other times I take my time, waiting for the perfect idea to come along.
This year, it took just over two weeks. But the wait was worth it.
On December 31, 1995, Bill Watterson published the final 'Calvin & Hobbes' comic strip. Little did he probably know how his little cartoon would inspire, encourage, and entertain the world.
Or inspire the beginning of a new year.
It’s a magical world, and I’m ready for another year of exploring all that it has to offer, are you?
“Poet Alice Walker reads the 1851 speech of abolitionist Sojourner Truth. Part of a reading from Voices of a People's History of the United States (Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove,) Novemeber 11, 2006 in Berkeley, California” (via).
Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?
Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?
Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say (via).
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“Here I was, surrounded by almost 700 like-minded people from my tribe intentionally about to march forward into the mountains since dark morning, seeking something through the discomfort, the unknown.”
I stumbled across this documentary after listening to David Goggins, and now, I’m in full “get off the couch and GET SHIT DONE!” mode. In life, at work, and everything and anything else. I’ve even started running.
For more on . . .
photo by Jimmy Chin
After listening to David Goggins curse and cus and create a reality much different from what I’m used to, I’ve been thinking a lot about adventure and pain and pushing myself to the limit. I’ve been inspired.
These images by Jimmy Chin are cut from the same cloth. Because so is Jimmy.
Photo by Jimmy Chin
”Jimmy Chin is a photographer, filmmaker, and mountain sports athlete known for his ability to capture extraordinary imagery while climbing and skiing in extremely high-risk environments” (via).
Photo by Jimmy Chin
“As a filmmaker, his years of experience in the adventure and extreme sports world enables him to bring an authentic and unique perspective to his storytelling. His 2015 film Meru won the coveted Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival and was on the 2016 Oscar shortlist for Best Documentary” (via).
Photo by Jimmy Chin
This is pretty friggen cool. (Make sure you click on the full screen option).
With its rover named Curiosity, Mars Science Laboratory mission is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, a long-term effort of robotic exploration of the red planet. Curiosity was designed to assess whether Mars ever had an environment able to support small life forms called microbes. In other words, its mission is to determine the planet’s ‘habitability’ (via).
Enjoy the coming weekend! I know I’m ready.
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I’ve mentioned the voyager before. I’m happy to do so again. Not only is the project pretty cool - a spaceship carrying a 12-inch gold-plated copper phonograph, containing the recorded sounds and images that portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth - but so too is this remixed video.
It’s a sort of updated version of who what we have become.
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Fred Rogers began the episode of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood just like he’d done a hundred times before, “by putting on his cardigan and buttoning it up.” Only this time, according to Hedda Sharapan, a producer and actor who was often involved with the show, something wasn’t right. “He had started at the wrong buttonhole; he was one button off.” The crew expected Fred to start over. Instead, He gave Sharapan a look and kept on, ad libbing an explanation to his children audience just “how easy it is to make mistakes” and then spent the extra time showing them how to correct it (pg, 193).
Any other show would have snubbed the first take and instantly recorded a second. Not so with Mr. Rogers. He understood that mistakes were a huge part of life, that they were essential to life, and that his young audience needed understand that. So embraced the silly mistake and used it as a teachable moment, because he cared deeply about children, and because he knew exactly what they needed most.
After years of training, researching and observing young children in the classroom and in life, and after studying and listening to them and their stories and thoughts, Rogers become a master teacher who cared deeply for the holistic development of children. They became his chief concern. More than money, more than fame, more than job security, Fred Rogers cared about his children audience.
Which is why, in contrast to his competition, Mr. Rogers’ show was slow, even crawling at times, because he knew that was what his young audience needed.
“Rogers’s embrace of reality also included breaking one of the established rules of television, a prohibition against footage that is essentially empty. While Sesame Street used fast pacing and quick-cut technique to excite and engage their viewers and keep them glued to the screen, Fred Rogers deliberately headed in the opposite direction, creating his own quiet, slow-paced, thoughtful world, which led to real learning in his view” (pg, 194).
Fred Rogers believed children were entertained enough. That instead of another fast-paced tv show that kept children distracted, what they needed was time.
“He really was interested in the child as a developing person” Maxwell King wrote in The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers, which is why Rogers feared constant entertainment; it would engage his audience but weaken their minds. And if they had a weak mind, they would not fully grasp who they were, what they were, and how they thought.
“Our job in life,” Rogers believed, “is to help people realize how rare and valuable each one of us really is - that each of us has something that no one else has - or ever will have - something inside which is unique to all time. It’s our job to encourage each other to discover that uniqueness, and to provide ways of developing its expression (pg 237).
For Mr. Roger, in order for children to discover their uniqueness, they needed silence, time, and space. Silence so that they could hear themselves think, time to consider those thoughts, then space to work them out, to fail, and then to try again. They need opportunities to be human, and they needed adults to model humanity for them, to teach them, and to encourage them that life can be hard but that we can always work to correct it. Even when it’s something as simply as a missing a buttonhole.
“One of the major goals of education,” Mr. Rogers believed, “must be to help students discover a greater awareness of their own unique selves, in order to increase their feelings of personal worth, responsibility, and freedom” (pg 328).
In contrast, classrooms, living rooms, and car rides that fill the silence with gimmicks, screens, and distractions leave little room for such self-reflection and no time for imagination.
“Fred Rogers lived out the conundrum of modern life: embracing technology and using it in imaginative ways to benefit children, while rejecting the dehumanizing aspects of complex technological advancement” (pg 80).
For our children’s sake, for our future’s sake, embrace the silence, fight for the quiet, and allow time and space for children to think, make mistakes, and try again. It’s what Mr. Rogers would do. And he was the master of a pretty amazing neighborhood.
But so can we.
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“Jord Hammond is a 25-year-old freelance contemporary travel photographer and storyteller from the UK. After living and working as a teacher in South-West China for a year, he developed a passion for photography which has led him to all corners of the earth; from the mountains of Peru to the rivers of Varanasi in India and everything in between” (via).
You can catch more of Jord’s work at @jordhammon and on his website, jordhammond.com.
Happy Sunday!
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I’m in.
This could easily be one of the bigger busts of the year, but with Steve Carell and “Academy Award® winner Robert Zemeckis—the groundbreaking filmmaker behind Forrest Gump, Flight and Cast Away" (via), I’m betting not.
How we heal follows no outline or script. It’s unique, just like the pain that caused it, and any film that tries to focus on the healing and forgiveness of that pain rather than the destruction and revenge is worth spending time and money on. If nothing else than to serve as a simple reminder.
So like I said, I’m in.
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I’ve sort of lost track of Mumford and Sons since their album Babel. Their latest, Delta has me falling back in love. It feels, lyrically and musically, like they’ve finally returned to their roots.
By the way, incase you were wondering, Delta doesn’t have any real deep meaning. It simply means “the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet (Δ, δ),” or “the fourth in a series of items, categories, etc.” Like the fourth album produced by band. In case you were wondering.
You can listen to the full album on Youtube or Spotify.
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For any educator, this is worth reading. It’s an easy read and can easily be accomplished over a break or long weekend, with the potential to help change life and the lives of those you serve.
Here is a brief snapshot.
“When we talk about personal balance, we are referencing everything that really makes you who you are - what are the “titles” outside of your job, and how do you cultivate them” (pg xxi)?
“Positional balance . . . Whatever you do that earns income or provides you financial stability . . .” (pg xxi).
“Professional balance is just that - how are you continuing to learn, grow, and enhance your knowledge and understanding of your role” (pg xxi)?
Passions: What I would do for free (pg xxii).
“We do not learn from experience . . . we learn from reflecting on experience” (pg 35).
“Leisure is only possible when we are at one with ourselves, We tend to overwork as a means of self-escape, as a way of trying to justify our existence” (pg 74).
“Each person has special talents - the things you enjoy doing when they are away from school. Making intentional time to cultivate your dream and following through with courage and discipline is important not only for you, but for the students you serve. So don’t hide it from your students! You strive to find out as much as you can about their passions, but how often do you share your passions with them?” - “Identity Day”, a school day devoted to students AND teachers sharing on thing they are passionate about (pg 106)
“If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading” - Lau Tzu (pg 115).
“The longer you wait to do something you should do now, the greater the odds that you will never actually do it” - The Law of Diminishing Intent (pg 124).
For more favorite quotes click here.
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“Spencer Silver, the scientist who is partially credited with the creation of the Post-it,” Sinek writes, “was working in his lab at the Minnesota-based company, actually trying to develop a very strong adhesive. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful. What he accidentally made was a very weak adhesive” (pg 168).
Instead of throwing away his mistake, he passed it around throughout the company, “just in case someone else could figure out a way to use it.”
A few years later, a fellow scientist was in church choir practice, “getting frustrated that he couldn’t get his bookmark to stay in place.” It kept falling to the floor. Until he remembered Silver’s “weak adhesive.” It would make for the perfect bookmark.
That mistake is now “one of the best-recognized brands in history, with four thousand varieties sold in over a hundred countries” (pg 169).
Instead of seeing his mistake as a failure, Spencer Silver saw it as a “Not yet.” He also saw that he didn’t have the solution, that he needed a fresh set of eyes to look at the problem. He understood that he needed help. Which is exactly why he chose to work for 3m.
3M “knows that people do their best work when they work together, share their ideas and comfortably borrow each other’s work for their own projects.” There is “no notion of “‘mine’”, which is why, at 3m, more than 80 percent of their patents “have more than one inventor.” It’s also why, in 2009, “when other companies were slashing their R&D budgets to save money, 3M still managed to release over a thousand new products” (pg 170), because “they have a corporate culture that encourages and rewards people for helping each other and sharing everything they learn.”
Rather than serving and celebrating the individual, they consider the group and others above themselves. They stick together, just like the adhesive Spencer Silver attempted to develop in the beginning. (I know, my brilliant display of a word play amazes me too.)
“Successful failure,” my son says, reading over my shoulder, and he’s right. Perfectly so. Because in a society that considers others above themselves, failure is not something to be feared. It is something to be embraced, shared, and endured.
My wife often sends me people, ideas, and links of inspiration. This week she sent me Nirav Patel.
“I am drawn to quiet moments,” writes, “I think it originated from attempts at self-preservation when I was living in neighborhoods that were...difficult” (via).
“I still look for the glimpses of quiet when the world is turbulent. These images are a window into my world” (via).
Reminds me of Tupac’s “The Rose That Grew From Concrete”.
You can follow Nirav on instagram or his website.
For more on . . .
-N- Stuff : Photography : Art : Nirav Patel
I’m pretty stoked about this:
Many documentaries on the war are informative but, frankly, quite dull. In striving for objectivity, they lose sight of humanity. Rather than adopt the voice of god and newsreel look that characterizes the usual fare, Jackson has taken an active role in shaping the narrative for us with cutting-edge blockbuster cinematic techniques. He gives us characters to care about in showing the horror of trench warfare, the confusion and camaraderie of war. Though he uses original footage, it is digitally enhanced and colorized, screened in 3D, with recordings of remembrances from the soldiers themselves dramatically overlaid to create the sense that the figures we see onscreen are speaking to us (via).
"To memorialize these soldiers a hundred years later," he says, "is to try to bring some of their humanity back into the world again, to stop them being a black and white cliché.” In creating this moving memorial, Jackson goes far beyond the mandate of an educational film. He has used all the techniques at his disposal to make good on the promise in Robert Laurence Binyon’s 1914 poem “For the Fallen,” from which the documentary takes its title
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
For more on . . .
It began as a post-war dream for a more collaborative and egalitarian workplace. It has evolved into a nightmare of noise and discomfort. Can the open office be saved, or should we all just be working from home?
The concept of productivity and efficiency is always on my mind, especially when it comes to schools and cultures and how best to make an impact. This episode helped clarify some of my thoughts and struggles and encouraged me to get out more, engage in conversation, and to sacrifice productivity for side chats and unplanned encounters.
We thought we could cure everything, but it turns out we can only cure a small amount of human suffering. The rest of it needs to be healed, and that’s different.
Perhaps my favorite of the group, this podcast is slow and beautiful and just about perfect. I’m often inspired by podcasts, but this is one of the few that truly heal. Just brilliant.
If you are in any way an entrepreneur or artist or person wanting to branch out with new ideas, this podcast is perfect. In it, James Clear discusses:
How to overcome the fear of rejection
James Clear’s book ‘Atomic Habits’ which I’ve already ordered. If you want to borrow it when I’m done, let me know and I’ll send it your way!
Where do you find a ‘vision’ falling in the realm of habit creation?
And so much more. It’s crazy good.
There’s no rulebook on how to handle a school shooting. And no real way to prepare for one. This week, people take what they’ve learned from these tragedies and try to use that knowledge to save others.
I listened to this shortly after reading Columbine and writing Mass Shootings : We Are Responsible. It is a pretty powerful episode as it interviews the teachers of Stoneman Douglas HS and parents who have lost their children but are refusing to give up hope in humanity. It is not for the faint of heart, but if you can stomach it, it is also encouraging.
When Soraya was in college, her favorite professor hired her to help research a book she was writing. But when she fell into a deep depression and dropped out of school, she abandoned both the book and the professor who’d shown her so much kindness. Now, with Jonathan’s help, Soraya wants to make things right—with a grand gesture.
Along with productivity and efficiency, I am also constantly wrestling with the concept of memory. I’ve posted other podcasts on this issue (Malcolm Gladwell and Invisibilia being some of the best), but this episode brought a bit of a different flavor because it deals with depression and the devastating effects it can have on perception vs reality. Not only did it question my understanding of reality, it soothed my soul. It’s a good piece to end on. Trust me.
EXTRAS:
Chanel just called, to say . . . by Heavyweight
Six Who Sat : Why six women had to sit, so that they could run. by ESPN 30 for 30
