Bird Droppings November 1, 2010
Searching for answers in reflection and thought

Sitting here at my kitchen table another year older and there are many moments for reflection and thoughts. I will take another sip from my mason jar of good herbal tea and a couple of Advil for a sore back and who knows what may happen today. I woke up much earlier than I do normally perhaps it was my back bothering me. A few sprigs of sweet grass and a sage leave or two help bolster the senses added to the tea. On my laptop screen saver a bowl of sage burning and I can watch a bit of smoke curl up in the morning without venturing outside today, it is always an interesting sight watching a wisp of smoke curl into the sunrise.
It was cool but not cold as I walked out onto the back porch. The grass is wet with dew and my cricket chorus while subdued in the chill was doing their best to get a chirp in or two. It is always good to receive birthday wishes from friends as I opened up my computer this morning. I was thinking earlier as I lay in my bed about what direction to go today with so many thoughts circulating in my head points of impact in sixty one years of life.
A good start might be poking Fred Book in the butt with a pencil in East Fallowfeild elementary school in first grade. While not an inspiring event it has stuck with me for so many years. Being carried through the polio wards in West Chester Hospital when I was three or so and seeing kids one day and they are gone the next. It might have been meeting a little autistic boy Artie Cohen in 1970 or so. The JUNGLE a small patch of sassafras and honeysuckle and sumac that a few of us lived in for so many years imagining and playing literally every waking moment. Many good friends from my graduating class in high school. Having home made root beer at Dennis Roussey’s house on Caln Meeting house road so many years ago. Perhaps it was meeting my wife to be and the birth of my three kids so many moments that went through my head. It might have been my first day back teaching on September 11, 2001. So many interesting folks I have met along the way in teaching and grad school each a memory worth saving. So many I have found and it is about reflection and pondering that is the journey we embark on in life.

“Before undertaking a project, ponder what will be gained, Lost and ultimately achieved. There is nothing too difficult for a man who, before he acts, deliberates with chosen friends and reflects privately.” Tirukkural 47: 461-462

This passage was written nearly two thousand years ago by a master weaver who was also a member of the lowest caste in India. Many of you who have taken courses at Piedmont College the concept of reflection is engrained in you from day one.

“The path of least resistance and least trouble is a mental rut already made. It requires troublesome work to undertake the alternation of old beliefs. Self-conceit often regards it as a sign of weakness to admit that a belief to which we have once committed ourselves is wrong. We get so identified with an idea that it is literally a “pet” notion and we rise to its defense and stop our eyes and ears to anything different.” John Dewey

As I read these two views to start today having read Dewey he too will advocate reflection – but his view here is one of frustration in dealing with mankind for far too often it is too difficult for men to climb out of that rut and to even consider true reflection

“I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.” Henry David Thoreau

“The poet’s, commonly, is not the logger’s path, but a woodman’s … there are spirits … to whom no simplicity is barren. There are not only stately pines, but fragile flowers, like the orchids, commonly described as too delicate for cultivation, which derive their nutriment from the crudest mass of peat. These remind us, that, not only for strength, but for beauty, the poet must, from time to time, travel the logger’s path and the Indian trail, to drink at some new and more bracing fountain of the Muses, far in the recesses of the wilderness.” Henry David Thoreau, The Maine Woods

Sitting after walking out this morning with an star filled sky and remembering the now Dr. Harold Sweetman showing me Cassiopeia for the first time as it was over my head this morning it is difficult to not ponder reflect on what life presents to us each day – For me each morning as I write it is a clearing a meditation of sorts reading finding pieces to my own puzzle to share and meditate upon – It is looking at that rut we travel or seeking anew along the Indian trail of Thoreau

“The devotion of democracy to education is a familiar fact. The superficial explanation is that a government resting upon popular suffrage cannot be successful unless those who elect and who obey their governors are educated. Since a democratic society repudiates the principle of external authority, it must find a substitute in voluntary disposition and interest; these can be created only by education.” John Dewey

Knowing and understanding are keys – to democracy and to life – moving beyond the rut looking for the loggers trail or for the pathway of the Indian requires learning and knowledge – education

“I believe that the individual who is to be educated is a social individual and that society is an organic union of individuals.” “I believe that much of present education fails because it neglects this fundamental principle of the school as a form of community life. It conceives the school as a place where certain information is to be given, where certain lessons are to be learned, or where certain habits are to be formed. The value of these is conceived as lying largely in the remote future; the child must do these things for the sake of something else he is to do; they are mere preparation. As a result they do not become a part of the life experience of the child and so are not truly educative.” John Dewey

Wondering the direction of the flow of the thought as I read and think and ponder – I find Thoreau similar to John Dewey both wanting experience to be more than simply taking up time for it to be meaningful learning for it to move each of us a step ahead – Dewey wants education to be about now as well as providing tools for later but to be meaningful it has to affect life immediately and currently – This is what Thoreau was about as well he quit teaching to become a learner – Reflection of the master weaver – to ponder rather than simply do something to see the now and then of an effort – Dewey argued far to often we in society today only looked at the then – Thoreau offered the now and Dewey argued against simply educating for later – learning has to become part of the life experience of the child

“It was a pleasure and a privilege to walk with him. He knew the country like a fox or a bird, and passed through it as freely by paths of his own. He knew every track in the snow or on the ground, and what creature had taken this path before him. His interest in the flower or the bird lay very deep in his mind, was connected with Nature, — and the meaning of Nature was never attempted to be defined by him. … His power of observation seemed to indicate additional senses. He saw as with a microscope, heard as with ear-trumpet, and his memory was a photographic register of all he saw and heard. And yet none knew better than he that it is not the fact that imports, but the impression or effect of the fact on your mind. Every fact lay in glory in his mind, a type of the order and beauty of the whole. His poetry might be good or bad; he no doubt wanted a lyric facility and technical skill, but he had the source of poetry in his spiritual perception.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, a eulogy for Henry David Thoreau

I am sorry I am wandering today between the simple thoughts of HDT and the planned thinking of Dewey. Ponder yourself as the day goes on and where in among the shade of the tress do you see thought going is it following the path of the logger or the Indian seeing as a rut leaves the journey or as a trail blazer seeing for the first time and leaving that path also for the next person to see as new. It is about the journey we take.

“And how high can you fly with broken wings? Life’s a journey not a destination and I just can’t tell just what tomorrow brings. You have to learn to crawl before you learn to walk.” Steven Tyler, Aerosmith

For so many years I have seen a line from this song by Aerosmith – taken from the context of the song “Life is a journey not a destination”. I think back to when I first saw it posted on my computer after spending the night at The Athens Regional Hospital in Athens Georgia holding the hand of a sixteen year old young man who had been hit by a semi after doing a u turn on a back road. My oldest son and his band played Aerosmith tunes quite a bit back in the day. This was a line from a song that in and of itself was significant for him and for me at that moment.
As I look on facebook to friends of Travis, the young man who passed away that night many post this quote. For me however it evolved as I saw how my own life was a journey. Each aspect is crucial to the next. In days prior I had been reading numerous books on the purpose in life and or finding meaning in life. It was for me trying to find a focus for myself. I was floundering in business and trying to get a foothold on solid ground again. A yellow post it note on a computer after sitting with a dying teenager turned out to be a life changing or life refocusing moment. My blurry vision seemed to clear.
Perhaps it will take a moment to piece together the few days before the accident. This young man was a clown, the life of any party, he was a character. I knew him from a youth group at a local church where my own children were involved and I helped out. The weekend before we had all been tubing in North Georgia. As we do we stopped for dinner after being on the river all day I think it was a Colonel Sanders. As we were getting ready to leave this young man walks up extending his hand to me as he always does and always at the last minute he pulls it away and makes a joke just not fast enough Mr. Bird or something along that line. But this time the hand doesn’t move no laughing and no jokes he commented “not this time”. We shook hands for a longer moment than normal and it did not sink in as that was the last I saw him till the hospital.
That was a number of years ago and when I returned to the house to write as I do every morning a small yellow note attached to my computer read in my son’s handwriting “Life is a journey not a destination”. Tears welled up in my eyes as I thought how profound for my son barely older than the young man who was killed to have found this concept and I had been searching for nearly fifty years and still had not seen. My own life started to focus and clear and ideas thoughts seemed to flow and make sense. Earlier today I was answering an email from someone I have never met I was talking with my mother recently on how we can in today’s electronic age communicate with so many people all in a touch of a computer keyboard. Often with photos and such attached the term multimedia has new meaning. Actually we addressed this in graduate school for several hours in a discussion once.
But the message is still clear it is about the journey. Another email answered was “If you believe in God respond” sort of if you do not you are going to hell. As I read the note and thought how easy to respond one way or another perhaps a theological dissertation on ramifications of believing or not and or of what it is you do or do not believe in then the journey hit me again. It is about the journey not the destination so I offered the writer it is so easy to say you believe in God or the tooth fairy it is far more difficult to live the life you say you believe in. This is what is seen and felt by others. Others see the journey not the destination. So I wrote on and wandered as I do I tie in several previous quotes.
It is about the journey. It is parents, teachers and friends setting the example. As we develop the picture we paint for others to see that has significance and meaning should we not make it as truthful as we can. What would a child learn from a teacher who yells at an extremely high decibel other than to cover their ears? What does a child learn from a parent who abuses them other than abuse? What does a friend learn from a friend when they betray them other than distrust?
Within the fragility of our experiences we need examples of direction of positive journeying. I am still fascinated with a friend who is doing work with eldering, helping young people along the pathway in life. Each day I wonder why kids come by my room just to smile and say hi and other times to ask for a word or two of advice. Life is about the journey and may we all be cleaning the pathway rather than dropping boulders for others to trip on. Please keep all in harms way on your mind and in your hearts and you know each new day is another step along the way peace –
namaste
bird