Journal # 3

Picture I took after reading The Spell of the Sensuous

Climbing down from Will Dawson's tree stand 20 feet up.

 

 

The lake looking pretty dirty

The Spell of the Sensuous

This book is incredible. I was blown away. Granted, I'm sure I didn't pick up on everything since I read the first 70 pages in one day, which was heavy philosophical reading, but I got enough. I don't want to summarize here, which I have a tendency to do, but I have a few parts that are worthwhile to mention. The first is the story about the "spirits" that the author's Balinese hostess leaves rice for. As a reader, we're under the impression that the rice is an offering for the ghosts or dead ancestors of the house, but we find out after some investigation that the term "spirit" was lost in translation and actually meant the ants that were prevalent around the property. So then there's so explanation and we conclude that "spirits",while understood as an other-worldly force in our language is understood in this culture as more of an earthy-power that "do not posses a human form" (13). So then the author goes on and on, and talks about the experience of this animal and that animal, talking about experience through the body. And then, as I write this blog, I realize that I need to read this book again to fully understand it and write well about it. 

But briefly, to sum this up, when I first started reading I was in a funky mood. I wrote in my journal (and this was a rant), "What the fuck am I doing here? I mean, what am I doing? I go to class, sit around, do homework, do, do, do nothing. I'm expected to watch TV for entertainment, browse the internet for hours? David Abram is right - we have no idea what nature is. What is so bad about nature that we can only see it as resources? Why is it so hard to see the glory the forest holds, the peace a summer breeze brings, the symphony made possible by raindrops? No wonder there's so many psychological diseases! Deep down we ask, what the fuck am I doing in this box?"

After I finished those 70 pages I was kind of in awe. Everything in my room seemed to be more colorful, I noticed small details I hadn't seen before, I thought about what the experience of the objects in my room were, where the wood on my window frame came from (Yeah, that's me falling off the deep end). But it was glorious. I was past labels, past disconnectedness, and really seeing. The first picture in this blog is from that time. I had never really looked at my toothpaste before, but it seemed to have more detail than I had imagined. It is so easy to walk around blind, hell, I feel like I'm slipped back into partial blindness. But the last point I want to make is that being able or making an effort to see objects and people and animals from their perspective and realize that they see the world through different eyes might have something to do with creating a better world. In mediation we try to create an environment where it is possible for two conflicting parties to see the other side in hopes of gaining some understanding which leads to resolved conflict; imagine if we went all hippie dippy and imagined the perspective of a tree, a river, or even an enemy. I think it would be a better world.

Guest Speakers

Sam and Fabio, two Guilford grads, came and talked to us on Wednesday about what success means and about their path so far in the "real world." I'm not sure how others felt in the class about out speakers, although I sensed that some had trouble relating to them, but I certainly appreciated what they had to say. Half of what they said I feel like I've heard before, you know, the importance of networking, getting some business cards, using all the resources available, living below your means, getting out of the comfort zone, but they had some stuff that I've never heard before. One from Fabio was to say what you are right out of college, he called himself a photographer. I feel a little hesitant to do this,especially because I don't have one thing I can call myself, I suppose I could say, "I am a mediator," but that doesn't sound as cool as "photographer." A quote I got from both of them was, "Time is worth more than money" and along with that, "you will fail if you work for money." So I guess money should never be the goal, or the marker of success. Obviously you have to be comfortable, and they talked about how comfortable is a subjective term, but it was refreshing to hear that money is not really the goal. 

Sam talked about how the most important thing to him is his family, it doesn't matter if he makes 60 billion, lives in a huge house or owns a nice car. One other thing that Sam said that I felt connect to me was how far he's come since high school. He told us that he graduated with a 0.8 GPA and now, and after working his ass off at different jobs, he owns a bunch of businesses. I graduated with only a 2.49 GPA, which felt like a 0.8 at my high school, and through some work and putting my mind to it, I've made dean's list a few times. So I appreciated what he said about making it and the work that it takes. I saw the same kind of confidence within him, a man that had very little to show for himself before, that I see growing in me.