A very happy birthday to millions of people today!
You are alive
Everyone deserves to meet amazing humans while here. I know I have.
I have written about many of them.
Six years ago, on Bicycle Day, I wrote about one of them, who is a continuous inspiration. I encourage you to read "Forever Young" if you would like to know about him.
You are also probably aware that today was the birthday of a human being whose acts on this planet are more condemned than those of any other human in history. You know, the guy who hated the idea of people with differences living in peace and harmony with one another.
So, to celebrate the good people I know who were born on this day and to ruin the birthday of that other guy who thought about violence, war and xenophobia pretty constantly, we had some fun activities in class today.
The first was that everyone had a chance to have conversations with each other. We have a slightly large class so it's been hard to make an excuse to get them to have one-on-one conversations, but today there was a smaller number so we went for it. They had 5-10 minute conversations with different human beings from around the world for about an hour. They had different ethnicities, nationalities, beliefs, customs, cultures, genders, styles, sexualities, clothes, ages, experiences, reasons for improving English, interests, food preferences, etc., yada, you get the picture.
After that we celebrated Harriet Tubman's appointment to gracing the face of the twenty dollar bill. I told them how she had escaped slavery and then returned numerous times to help people become free. She risked her own capture to help others by using the underground railroad to guide about seventy people north. She was one of the bravest Americans.
The next exercise centered around the difficult vocabulary in the introduction to Huston Smith's The World's Religions. The lesson wasn't espousing religious beliefs or focusing on the teachings of any of the religions. However, the intro does encourage the reader to listen carefully to and take seriously the other peoples of this world. We should do this not only because the future of our world depends on us working together to overcome challenges, but also because learning about others gives one "extended vision" which enhances one's understanding and enlarges one's perspective of the world in which one lives.
We concluded with a game where they had to name as many U.S. states as possible, and then I showed them a map and told them what I knew about all of them, mostly in case they were interested in traveling and learning more about this country, because the United States of America is hardly accurately conveyed by a living experience in New York City. If anything, NYC is better at introducing Americans to world culture than the other way around. Speaking of which, tomorrow we will focus on world maps.
As for the evening classes, all was well as usual. I almost exhausted my vocal chords while once again jovially attempting to talk/yell over my class of very energetic/talkative/Spanish speaking 6 pm class of 20 something English-learners. Luckily, the 8 pm class only had 6 students tonight, so that was a breeze. The unit was health, and we all had to talk about accidents that had happened to us at some point in our lives. I am very thankful to be alive. I hope you feel the same way.
We came upon this in the introduction to Smith's book: "I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world."
As for magic, on the train ride home, I was reading Bertrand Russell's The History of Western Philosophy (completion of this book will require many train rides), and lo and behold, I come upon Diogenes! He's the one who said the above quote about being a "citizen of the world." I had once heard a supposedly very famous story about him, told by my co-worker a couple years ago, but he'd mistaken the philosopher, so I hadn't known it was Diogenes. But the story is that Alexander the Great finds him, and asks what he could do for him. Diogenes lived very simply, and when asked if Alexander could grant him a wish, he said, "Yes. Stand a little out of my sunshine." Who knows who has the clearest insight, but don't block someone else's light! I remind you that you are free to pursue your own experience and understanding with divinity...
I was so engaged in the book that I continued reading while walking outside the train, but after a few sentences thought better of it and decided to focus on my surroundings. I wanted to be a good citizen of the world. There are times to focus one's vision on one way of the world, thereby intensifying experience and understanding, and there are times when you have to see what else is around.
After all, on the way to work this morning I saw someone looking at their smart phone instead of where they were walking, and they stumbled over another human being who had simply been sitting on the sidewalk, propped up against a corner. He wasn't a very energetic guy, but he was a very large human, and wearing a suit and tie at that. He'd put a lot of effort into his appearance and into getting his corner, but from then on he was sitting down. I support just sitting down and thinking about it all sometimes... watching the world go by... but there are times and/or places for that, and he probably shouldn't have been sitting where he was. I say this because there were so many working people who were trying to move to places where they would do things for other people so they could get by and continue existing in amazing mysterious world that makes up philosophies about itself. Perhaps both the busy man who focused only on his phone and the man who wouldn't move as a way of working for his light would do well to consider extending one's vision... for all of us on the path
You are alive
Everyone deserves to meet amazing humans while here. I know I have.
I have written about many of them.
Six years ago, on Bicycle Day, I wrote about one of them, who is a continuous inspiration. I encourage you to read "Forever Young" if you would like to know about him.
You are also probably aware that today was the birthday of a human being whose acts on this planet are more condemned than those of any other human in history. You know, the guy who hated the idea of people with differences living in peace and harmony with one another.
So, to celebrate the good people I know who were born on this day and to ruin the birthday of that other guy who thought about violence, war and xenophobia pretty constantly, we had some fun activities in class today.
The first was that everyone had a chance to have conversations with each other. We have a slightly large class so it's been hard to make an excuse to get them to have one-on-one conversations, but today there was a smaller number so we went for it. They had 5-10 minute conversations with different human beings from around the world for about an hour. They had different ethnicities, nationalities, beliefs, customs, cultures, genders, styles, sexualities, clothes, ages, experiences, reasons for improving English, interests, food preferences, etc., yada, you get the picture.
After that we celebrated Harriet Tubman's appointment to gracing the face of the twenty dollar bill. I told them how she had escaped slavery and then returned numerous times to help people become free. She risked her own capture to help others by using the underground railroad to guide about seventy people north. She was one of the bravest Americans.
The next exercise centered around the difficult vocabulary in the introduction to Huston Smith's The World's Religions. The lesson wasn't espousing religious beliefs or focusing on the teachings of any of the religions. However, the intro does encourage the reader to listen carefully to and take seriously the other peoples of this world. We should do this not only because the future of our world depends on us working together to overcome challenges, but also because learning about others gives one "extended vision" which enhances one's understanding and enlarges one's perspective of the world in which one lives.
We concluded with a game where they had to name as many U.S. states as possible, and then I showed them a map and told them what I knew about all of them, mostly in case they were interested in traveling and learning more about this country, because the United States of America is hardly accurately conveyed by a living experience in New York City. If anything, NYC is better at introducing Americans to world culture than the other way around. Speaking of which, tomorrow we will focus on world maps.
As for the evening classes, all was well as usual. I almost exhausted my vocal chords while once again jovially attempting to talk/yell over my class of very energetic/talkative/Spanish speaking 6 pm class of 20 something English-learners. Luckily, the 8 pm class only had 6 students tonight, so that was a breeze. The unit was health, and we all had to talk about accidents that had happened to us at some point in our lives. I am very thankful to be alive. I hope you feel the same way.
We came upon this in the introduction to Smith's book: "I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world."
As for magic, on the train ride home, I was reading Bertrand Russell's The History of Western Philosophy (completion of this book will require many train rides), and lo and behold, I come upon Diogenes! He's the one who said the above quote about being a "citizen of the world." I had once heard a supposedly very famous story about him, told by my co-worker a couple years ago, but he'd mistaken the philosopher, so I hadn't known it was Diogenes. But the story is that Alexander the Great finds him, and asks what he could do for him. Diogenes lived very simply, and when asked if Alexander could grant him a wish, he said, "Yes. Stand a little out of my sunshine." Who knows who has the clearest insight, but don't block someone else's light! I remind you that you are free to pursue your own experience and understanding with divinity...
I was so engaged in the book that I continued reading while walking outside the train, but after a few sentences thought better of it and decided to focus on my surroundings. I wanted to be a good citizen of the world. There are times to focus one's vision on one way of the world, thereby intensifying experience and understanding, and there are times when you have to see what else is around.
After all, on the way to work this morning I saw someone looking at their smart phone instead of where they were walking, and they stumbled over another human being who had simply been sitting on the sidewalk, propped up against a corner. He wasn't a very energetic guy, but he was a very large human, and wearing a suit and tie at that. He'd put a lot of effort into his appearance and into getting his corner, but from then on he was sitting down. I support just sitting down and thinking about it all sometimes... watching the world go by... but there are times and/or places for that, and he probably shouldn't have been sitting where he was. I say this because there were so many working people who were trying to move to places where they would do things for other people so they could get by and continue existing in amazing mysterious world that makes up philosophies about itself. Perhaps both the busy man who focused only on his phone and the man who wouldn't move as a way of working for his light would do well to consider extending one's vision... for all of us on the path
No comments:
Post a Comment