The Weekly Magazine - Friday Showing
For Friday 3/22/13
See Photo Gallery 3 - The Geyser
A photo Essay Illustrating the urgent need for infrastructure repair and maintence for our nation and an interesting photo shoot.
Photo by Jim Wells
Photo by Harrison Albert
I think it was in becoming an adult that I realized that math was not only something that some could be very interested in but that it, just as much as trying to understand the opposite sex, the workings of the eye and the art of arranging images on a page, math could be a burning passion, filling one’s whole life with mystery and joy. What is it about math that would cause someone to devote their lives to it? As I began to appreciate the magic of math, I also developed a somewhat cheated feeling that my math education missed entirely this universal aspect of numbers.
I was drawn to teaching based on the idea that for us humans it is the ability to faithfully clarify not only the facts of various naturally interesting and profitable fields of study but also the magic. The explainers or teachers like Neil De Grasse Tyson and Bill Nye the Science Guy must share an equal status as the scientists who come up with such great stuff to explain but who are often not able to explain it adequately for the novice.
I realized my own passion not only for drawing but as an adult my passion as an explainer or teacher who was not afraid of inspiration and passion, a salesperson for the wonders of the world which all are able to share in by virtue of being human, a creature without limits.
An article of faith that I gleaned from my love of drawing, that everyone could be an artist except for certain blockages which served to rule it out, such as the idea that “I can’t even draw a straight line” and the idea that “art is not for serious people who could be a pet of a teacher or an educational system”, could apply to all subjects of interest. There is no unintelligent person there are plenty of those who grow up feeling that “knowledge waits” you might not have time for it and worse you might not have the capability for it.
Along with realizing our own limits of one lifetime, like death and often an inability to know what can make us happy, it is our understanding or realization of what we don’t know about others potential that are in the heart of a good teacher. Let’s experiment Y’all, we will find great things. For me it was first art and then the magic potential of math which for a while made me feel victimized by and resentful of my school experience that allowed me to realize a mission. With a strong feeling of challenge about my life from Buddhist practice, I could see that this depressing feeling in me could be turned into great fuel for a teacher.
My deep distrust of systems and organizations made my teaching career one fraught with sufferings but very rewarding in the final analysis. I know the lives of the children I taught and this knowledge is a treasure which can never be taken from me. I can see the faces of young people who feel the joy of learning, who have learned how to learn.
Next: Mysteries and experience in the feudalistic and theoretical world of the innercity school system.
The Great Joy of Explaining and Explaining.
Photo by Jim Wells
A flower growing in the lobby of the SGI Buddhist Culture Center, in Washington DC - Photo by Jim Wells
A Prostitute
When I saw Pretty Woman, I understood she was a prostitute and gained some more knowledge about the difficulties of transcending labels which always seem to be related to karma.
When I first saw Breakfast at Tiffanies, I didn’t understand she was a prostitute and only gradually in a fuzzy sort of way came to understand that her way of living was so unacceptable to so many. This was the way I learned about the classic story of the prostitute with a heart of gold.
We are all looking for a heart of gold and in both of these cases it was a heart of gold within a certain woman and a certain man that led to the happy endings. This is some of the magic of art and why we crave it and if we don’t, we certainly need it. In good movies people can change and it’s thrilling to see. People want to be able to change as much as people think it is very unlikely that we or anyone else ever will.
The ability to change by choice, is one of the great secret laws of the universe, secret by design only in as much as we must face great difficulty to make the choice. The choice is something which is lived and can’t be theoretical but is possible for every human being.
The Big Conspiracy
Some good friends of mine sent me a collection of plausible conspiracies which taken together indicate that an economic disaster has already been planned, where the dollar loses all value and there is mass civil unrest leading to extreme measures.
For my own reasons I used to think that Kennedy was murdered by conspiracy and in more recent decades have come to think the most likely story is that the official investigation was so botched with paranoid secrecy and failures, that the final report they issued, simply cried for someone to check their conclusions. I think now that the unbelievable story that a lone gunman was able to shoot him down and that is all there is to it. A number of things in the atmosphere probably contributed to it such as the Secret Service not caring enough to send their top people when the Democratic President went to Texas.
I’m not much of a conspiracy theorist any longer. From what I’ve seen a group of people can perform terrorism but not anything much more elaborate than that. It’s when the group wants to continue living and get away with their conspiracy that it becomes fantastic. I for one can’t believe that any such group could do the bad act, live and get away with it.
It’s because we’re human, not in any idealistic sense rather it’s the human penchant for mistakes and difficulties keeping secrets that most likely lead to any major bad act failing and/or being exposed. That is a bad act that the culture is unwilling to accept or turn a blind eye to.
So wars and financial rigging on a global scale do work and it doesn’t take too much conspiring to pull them off. In a way it’s something we believe in and have no drive to snoop around and find out anything especially when you could lose all and no one who is not a part of it, would believe it anyway. Strictly speaking it is a matter of, if you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem.
Conspiracies to kill famous people overtly in the in basically law abiding countries has very little chance of succeeding in the end.
Since long before the seemingly victimless economic crash of 2008, I have been seeing a scenario where a really big depression arrives. In such an event all will suffer, those who are most dependent on stuff will suffer the most, those who value people will suffer less.
Because my faith in America does not rule out another Depression, I think it is important that everyone should think out what may happen in the future, work for the best scenario and entertain some idea that things could get much worse, it has happened before.
Our personal emergency preparedness should include more than stocking up on band-aids and stuff.
This is something I have thought about, the “what ifs”. In a time when currency is turned valueless and food is unavailable for large numbers of people, what kind of human being shall I be?
For those who want to strategize beyond that point let’s think about ‘civil unrest’. This would be a time when many seeming “core” beliefs of people will be tested.
An economic disaster hits. Large unruly crowds gather night after night in the streets and damage occurs. No money, no gas, few supplies. Will a national agency protect us, if not at first eventually? Will there be calls to disarm the people? Will there be calls for militarized local police closely tied to the national agency to start drawing lines? Will some civil rights still be recognized? Will scape-goating take on a more deadly air? Who will control communications and who can be trusted?
It seems to me that when we start thinking along these lines in a society where already the MSM (mainstream media) is largely not trusted and economic disparity is at a very high point, conspiracy theories will be more frequent and more widely spread. Political posturing will be turned over, meaning that postures will not what they may have been in the past.
To my way of thinking this will be the time when the ideas of, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Buddhist leader, Dr. Daisaku Ikeda, will start to be very significant for those who persist thinking clearly. The real meaningful differences among people will boil down to these two groups 1. Ones who are willing to use violence and 2. Those who are not willing to use violence.
Photo by Jim Wells
