I got an e-mail from Anna Mackay-Smith a few days ago to let me know she's playing opposite Ken Welsh in a special performance of Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune by Terrence McNally for the 12th Anniversary of Motley Theatre Company. Frankie and Johnny was Motley's very first playreading.
It's in Uxbridge, at the Royal Canadian Legion, 109 Franklin St., for only $15.00. Pay at the door. They're both seasoned, award-winning Stratford actors. Should be excellent.
This from Anna:
"It has been twelve years since the twinkle in Ken Welsh's and my eyes created the very first playreading that brought about the conception of The Motley Theatre Company. At the back of the old Combine Restaurant we performed a two hander called Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune by Terrence McNally on Valentine's Day, 1997. The success of that, led to another performance of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee. This too was met with such enthusiasm that we started The Motley Theatre Company."
Sunday, February 8, 2009
(23) Try This Experiment with a passage from Gladwell's Blink
Read the following passage from Gladwell's B L I N K, (page 272 in my copy), and then do the quick "replacement exercise" suggested with the word at the end. I thought of this awhile ago when I was reading the book. Let me know what you think...
"But understanding someone’s statistical performance in a game is only one small part of understanding how good an athlete that person is. There is also the broader issue of ability. How good is he at the myriad of skills and attributes that it takes to be a successful athlete? How hard does he work? Is he a good teammate? Does he stay out all night drinking and doing drugs, or does he take his job seriously? Is he willing to learn from his coaches? How resilient is he in the face of adversity? When the pressure is greatest and the game is on the line, how well does he perform? Is he someone likely to be better over time or has he already peaked?
I think that we would all agree that these kinds of questions are much more complicated than --- and every bit as important as --- simple statistical measures of performance, particularly when it comes to the rarefied world of professional sports.
Imagine that you were looking at a seventeen-year-old Michael Jordan. He wasn’t the tallest or the biggest basketball player, nor the best jumper. His statistics weren’t the finest in the country. What set Michael Jordan apart from his peer was his attitude and motivation. And those qualities can’t be measured with formal tests and statistics. They can be measured only by exercising judgment, by an expert with long years of experience, drawing on that big database in his or her unconscious and concluding, yes, that they have it, or no, they don’t. The very best and most successful basketball teams --- like the best and most successful organizations of any kind --- are the ones that understand how to combine rational analysis with instinctive judgment.
Now replace the word "athlete" by "student," "coaches" with teachers" and reread the passage.
"But understanding someone’s statistical performance in a game is only one small part of understanding how good an athlete that person is. There is also the broader issue of ability. How good is he at the myriad of skills and attributes that it takes to be a successful athlete? How hard does he work? Is he a good teammate? Does he stay out all night drinking and doing drugs, or does he take his job seriously? Is he willing to learn from his coaches? How resilient is he in the face of adversity? When the pressure is greatest and the game is on the line, how well does he perform? Is he someone likely to be better over time or has he already peaked?
I think that we would all agree that these kinds of questions are much more complicated than --- and every bit as important as --- simple statistical measures of performance, particularly when it comes to the rarefied world of professional sports.
Imagine that you were looking at a seventeen-year-old Michael Jordan. He wasn’t the tallest or the biggest basketball player, nor the best jumper. His statistics weren’t the finest in the country. What set Michael Jordan apart from his peer was his attitude and motivation. And those qualities can’t be measured with formal tests and statistics. They can be measured only by exercising judgment, by an expert with long years of experience, drawing on that big database in his or her unconscious and concluding, yes, that they have it, or no, they don’t. The very best and most successful basketball teams --- like the best and most successful organizations of any kind --- are the ones that understand how to combine rational analysis with instinctive judgment.
Now replace the word "athlete" by "student," "coaches" with teachers" and reread the passage.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
(22) Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell - Time to rethink old ideas - MUST READ!
Alright, so people succeed because they're gifted, they work hard, they practise. Anyone can do it if they want to. Well, according to Gladwell in his latest book, this simply is not so. And he's got statistics to prove it.
Gladwell uses Canadian examples, for a refreshing change. Maybe it's because Gladwell himself graduated from the University of Toronto? He cleverly lulls us into thinking that successful hockey players are more talented, have practised more... Not so.
"People don't rise from nothing. We do owe something to parentage and patronage... It's not enough to ask what successful people are like. It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't."
What he reveals is that most successful hockey players are born in January, February and March. It has nothing to do with astrology.
"It's simply that in Canada, the eligibility cutoff for age-class hockey is January 1. A boy who turns ten on January 2, then, could be playing alongside someone who doesn't turn ten until the end of the year -- and at that age, in preadolescence, a twelve-month gap in age represents an enormous difference in physical maturity."
Kind of surprising? Surprising because we're led to believe otherwise. It's talent, practice, being gifted, more motivated. Not so.
"In the beginning, (a young hockey player's) advantage isn't so much that he is inherently better, but only that he is a little older. By the age of thirteen or fourteen, with the benefit of better coaching and all that extra practice under his belt, he really is better, so he's the one more likely to make it to the Major Junior A league, and from there into the big leagues."
As it turns out then, by picking the boys who appear to be "the best" every year means that coaches are merely picking the eldest - those born in January, February and March.
Gladwell continues:
"Do you see the consequences of the way we have chosen to think about success? Because we so profoundly personalize success, we miss opportunities to lift others onto the top rung. We make rules that frustrate achievement. We prematurely write off people as failures. We are too much in awe of those who succeed and far too dismissive of those who fail. And, most of all, we become much too passive. We overlook just how large a role we all play --- and by "we" I mean society --- in determining who makes it and who doesn't.
It we chose to, we could acknowledge that cutoff dates matter. We could set up two or even three hockey leagues, divided up by month of birth...
Schools could do the same thing. Elementary and middle schools could put the January through April-born students in one class, the May through August in another class, and those born in September through December in the third class. They could let students learn with and compete against other students of the same maturity level. It would be a little more complicated administratively... but it would level the playing field for those who --- through no fault of their own --- have been dealt a big disadvantage by the educational system. We could easily take control of the machinery of achievement --- not just in sports... but in other more consequential areas as well. But we don't. And why? Because we cling to the idea that success is a simple function of individual merit and that the world in which we all grow up and the rules we choose to write as a society don't matter at all."
New ideas to break down old barriers - so interesting.
Gladwell uses Canadian examples, for a refreshing change. Maybe it's because Gladwell himself graduated from the University of Toronto? He cleverly lulls us into thinking that successful hockey players are more talented, have practised more... Not so.
"People don't rise from nothing. We do owe something to parentage and patronage... It's not enough to ask what successful people are like. It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't."
What he reveals is that most successful hockey players are born in January, February and March. It has nothing to do with astrology.
"It's simply that in Canada, the eligibility cutoff for age-class hockey is January 1. A boy who turns ten on January 2, then, could be playing alongside someone who doesn't turn ten until the end of the year -- and at that age, in preadolescence, a twelve-month gap in age represents an enormous difference in physical maturity."
Kind of surprising? Surprising because we're led to believe otherwise. It's talent, practice, being gifted, more motivated. Not so.
"In the beginning, (a young hockey player's) advantage isn't so much that he is inherently better, but only that he is a little older. By the age of thirteen or fourteen, with the benefit of better coaching and all that extra practice under his belt, he really is better, so he's the one more likely to make it to the Major Junior A league, and from there into the big leagues."
As it turns out then, by picking the boys who appear to be "the best" every year means that coaches are merely picking the eldest - those born in January, February and March.
Gladwell continues:
"Do you see the consequences of the way we have chosen to think about success? Because we so profoundly personalize success, we miss opportunities to lift others onto the top rung. We make rules that frustrate achievement. We prematurely write off people as failures. We are too much in awe of those who succeed and far too dismissive of those who fail. And, most of all, we become much too passive. We overlook just how large a role we all play --- and by "we" I mean society --- in determining who makes it and who doesn't.
It we chose to, we could acknowledge that cutoff dates matter. We could set up two or even three hockey leagues, divided up by month of birth...
Schools could do the same thing. Elementary and middle schools could put the January through April-born students in one class, the May through August in another class, and those born in September through December in the third class. They could let students learn with and compete against other students of the same maturity level. It would be a little more complicated administratively... but it would level the playing field for those who --- through no fault of their own --- have been dealt a big disadvantage by the educational system. We could easily take control of the machinery of achievement --- not just in sports... but in other more consequential areas as well. But we don't. And why? Because we cling to the idea that success is a simple function of individual merit and that the world in which we all grow up and the rules we choose to write as a society don't matter at all."
New ideas to break down old barriers - so interesting.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
(21) Is technology producing a decline in critical thinking and analysis? Must read - Too good to miss
Is technology producing a decline in critical thinking and analysis?
Studies shed light on multi-tasking, video games and learning
Stuart Wolpert , UCLA Newsroom Online. http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/default.aspx 1/27/2009
As technology has played a bigger role in our lives, our skills in critical thinking and analysis have declined, while our visual skills have improved, according to research by Patricia Greenfield, UCLA distinguished professor of psychology and director of the Children's Digital Media Center, Los Angeles.
Learners have changed as a result of their exposure to technology, says Greenfield, who analyzed more than 50 studies on learning and technology, including research on multi-tasking and the use of computers, the Internet and video games. Her research was published this month in the journal Science.
Reading for pleasure, which has declined among young people in recent decades, enhances thinking and engages the imagination in a way that visual media such as video games and television do not, Greenfield said.
How much should schools use new media, versus older techniques such as reading and classroom discussion?
"No one medium is good for everything," Greenfield said. "If we want to develop a variety of skills, we need a balanced media diet. Each medium has costs and benefits in terms of what skills each develops."
Schools should make more effort to test students using visual media, she said, by asking them to prepare PowerPoint presentations, for example.
"As students spend more time with visual media and less time with print, evaluation methods that include visual media will give a better picture of what they actually know," said Greenfield, who has been using films in her classes since the 1970s.
"By using more visual media, students will process information better," she said. "However, most visual media are real-time media that do not allow time for reflection, analysis or imagination — those do not get developed by real-time media such as television or video games. Technology is not a panacea in education, because of the skills that are being lost.
"Studies show that reading develops imagination, induction, reflection and critical thinking, as well as vocabulary," Greenfield said. "Reading for pleasure is the key to developing these skills. Students today have more visual literacy and less print literacy. Many students do not read for pleasure and have not for decades."
Parents should encourage their children to read and should read to their young children, she said.
Among the studies Greenfield analyzed was a classroom study showing that students who were given access to the Internet during class and were encouraged to use it during lectures did not process what the speaker said as well as students who did not have Internet access. When students were tested after class lectures, those who did not have Internet access performed better than those who did.
"Wiring classrooms for Internet access does not enhance learning," Greenfield said.
Another study Greenfield analyzed found that college students who watched "CNN Headline News" with just the news anchor on screen and without the "news crawl" across the bottom of the screen remembered significantly more facts from the televised broadcast than those who watched it with the distraction of the crawling text and with additional stock market and weather information on the screen.
These and other studies show that multi-tasking "prevents people from getting a deeper understanding of information," Greenfield said.
Yet, for certain tasks, divided attention is important, she added.
"If you're a pilot, you need to be able to monitor multiple instruments at the same time. If you're a cab driver, you need to pay attention to multiple events at the same time. If you're in the military, you need to multi-task too," she said. "On the other hand, if you're trying to solve a complex problem, you need sustained concentration. If you are doing a task that requires deep and sustained thought, multi-tasking is detrimental."
Do video games strengthen skill in multi-tasking?
New Zealand researcher Paul Kearney measured multi-tasking and found that people who played a realistic video game before engaging in a military computer simulation showed a significant improvement in their ability to multi-task, compared with people in a control group who did not play the video game. In the simulation, the player operates a weapons console, locates targets and reacts quickly to events.
Greenfield wonders, however, whether the tasks in the simulation could have been performed better if done alone.
More than 85 percent of video games contain violence, one study found, and multiple studies of violent media games have shown that they can produce many negative effects, including aggressive behavior and desensitization to real-life violence, Greenfield said in summarizing the findings.
In another study, video game skills were a better predictor of surgeons' success in performing laparoscopic surgery than actual laparoscopic surgery experience. In laparoscopic surgery, a surgeon makes a small incision in a patient and inserts a viewing tube with a small camera. The surgeon examines internal organs on a video monitor connected to the tube and can use the viewing tube to guide the surgery.
"Video game skill predicted laparoscopic surgery skills," Greenfield said. "The best video game players made 47 percent fewer errors and performed 39 percent faster in laparoscopic tasks than the worst video game players."
Visual intelligence has been rising globally for 50 years, Greenfield said. In 1942, people's visual performance, as measured by a visual intelligence test known as Raven's Progressive Matrices, went steadily down with age and declined substantially from age 25 to 65. By 1992, there was a much less significant age-related disparity in visual intelligence, Greenfield said.
"In a 1992 study, visual IQ stayed almost flat from age 25 to 65," she said.
Greenfield believes much of this change is related to our increased use of technology, as well as other factors, including increased levels of formal education, improved nutrition, smaller families and increased societal complexity.
The Children's Digital Media Center, Los Angeles, has received federal funding from the National Science Foundation.
UCLA is California's largest university, with an enrollment of nearly 38,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The UCLA College of Letters and Science and the university's 11 professional schools feature renowned faculty and offer more than 323 degree programs and majors. UCLA is a national and international leader in the breadth and quality of its academic, research, health care, cultural, continuing education and athletic programs. Four alumni and five faculty have been awarded the Nobel Prize.
http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/default.aspx
Studies shed light on multi-tasking, video games and learning
Stuart Wolpert , UCLA Newsroom Online. http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/default.aspx 1/27/2009
As technology has played a bigger role in our lives, our skills in critical thinking and analysis have declined, while our visual skills have improved, according to research by Patricia Greenfield, UCLA distinguished professor of psychology and director of the Children's Digital Media Center, Los Angeles.
Learners have changed as a result of their exposure to technology, says Greenfield, who analyzed more than 50 studies on learning and technology, including research on multi-tasking and the use of computers, the Internet and video games. Her research was published this month in the journal Science.
Reading for pleasure, which has declined among young people in recent decades, enhances thinking and engages the imagination in a way that visual media such as video games and television do not, Greenfield said.
How much should schools use new media, versus older techniques such as reading and classroom discussion?
"No one medium is good for everything," Greenfield said. "If we want to develop a variety of skills, we need a balanced media diet. Each medium has costs and benefits in terms of what skills each develops."
Schools should make more effort to test students using visual media, she said, by asking them to prepare PowerPoint presentations, for example.
"As students spend more time with visual media and less time with print, evaluation methods that include visual media will give a better picture of what they actually know," said Greenfield, who has been using films in her classes since the 1970s.
"By using more visual media, students will process information better," she said. "However, most visual media are real-time media that do not allow time for reflection, analysis or imagination — those do not get developed by real-time media such as television or video games. Technology is not a panacea in education, because of the skills that are being lost.
"Studies show that reading develops imagination, induction, reflection and critical thinking, as well as vocabulary," Greenfield said. "Reading for pleasure is the key to developing these skills. Students today have more visual literacy and less print literacy. Many students do not read for pleasure and have not for decades."
Parents should encourage their children to read and should read to their young children, she said.
Among the studies Greenfield analyzed was a classroom study showing that students who were given access to the Internet during class and were encouraged to use it during lectures did not process what the speaker said as well as students who did not have Internet access. When students were tested after class lectures, those who did not have Internet access performed better than those who did.
"Wiring classrooms for Internet access does not enhance learning," Greenfield said.
Another study Greenfield analyzed found that college students who watched "CNN Headline News" with just the news anchor on screen and without the "news crawl" across the bottom of the screen remembered significantly more facts from the televised broadcast than those who watched it with the distraction of the crawling text and with additional stock market and weather information on the screen.
These and other studies show that multi-tasking "prevents people from getting a deeper understanding of information," Greenfield said.
Yet, for certain tasks, divided attention is important, she added.
"If you're a pilot, you need to be able to monitor multiple instruments at the same time. If you're a cab driver, you need to pay attention to multiple events at the same time. If you're in the military, you need to multi-task too," she said. "On the other hand, if you're trying to solve a complex problem, you need sustained concentration. If you are doing a task that requires deep and sustained thought, multi-tasking is detrimental."
Do video games strengthen skill in multi-tasking?
New Zealand researcher Paul Kearney measured multi-tasking and found that people who played a realistic video game before engaging in a military computer simulation showed a significant improvement in their ability to multi-task, compared with people in a control group who did not play the video game. In the simulation, the player operates a weapons console, locates targets and reacts quickly to events.
Greenfield wonders, however, whether the tasks in the simulation could have been performed better if done alone.
More than 85 percent of video games contain violence, one study found, and multiple studies of violent media games have shown that they can produce many negative effects, including aggressive behavior and desensitization to real-life violence, Greenfield said in summarizing the findings.
In another study, video game skills were a better predictor of surgeons' success in performing laparoscopic surgery than actual laparoscopic surgery experience. In laparoscopic surgery, a surgeon makes a small incision in a patient and inserts a viewing tube with a small camera. The surgeon examines internal organs on a video monitor connected to the tube and can use the viewing tube to guide the surgery.
"Video game skill predicted laparoscopic surgery skills," Greenfield said. "The best video game players made 47 percent fewer errors and performed 39 percent faster in laparoscopic tasks than the worst video game players."
Visual intelligence has been rising globally for 50 years, Greenfield said. In 1942, people's visual performance, as measured by a visual intelligence test known as Raven's Progressive Matrices, went steadily down with age and declined substantially from age 25 to 65. By 1992, there was a much less significant age-related disparity in visual intelligence, Greenfield said.
"In a 1992 study, visual IQ stayed almost flat from age 25 to 65," she said.
Greenfield believes much of this change is related to our increased use of technology, as well as other factors, including increased levels of formal education, improved nutrition, smaller families and increased societal complexity.
The Children's Digital Media Center, Los Angeles, has received federal funding from the National Science Foundation.
UCLA is California's largest university, with an enrollment of nearly 38,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The UCLA College of Letters and Science and the university's 11 professional schools feature renowned faculty and offer more than 323 degree programs and majors. UCLA is a national and international leader in the breadth and quality of its academic, research, health care, cultural, continuing education and athletic programs. Four alumni and five faculty have been awarded the Nobel Prize.
http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/default.aspx
Sunday, February 1, 2009
(20) Michael Enright at the Ontario Library Association Superconference, January 30, 2009
Michael Enright, CBC's veteran broadcaster and journalist, was the focus of the all conference plenary session on Friday morning. However, "veteran" is a word Mr. Enright doesn't care for that much. "'Veteran journalist' is usually followed by 'I didn't know he was still alive,'" he quipped. "And a journalist borrows money from a reporter. A journalist is a someone with no ideas, and the ability to express them."
Libraries and reading have figured prominently in Mr. Enright's life and career. After he finished his shift at the Globe and Mail, he would go into the "morgue," or the library, and read his way through the microfiche of newspapers stored there.
His first library was Wychwood, though. What gave him the spark to read was the Hardy Boys, and then on to Robert Louis Stevenson and Mark Twain, followed by Dickens. Every year he rereads David Copperfield.
Enright admitted that he wasn't the best of students. "The car accident that was my high school career, I spent a couple of happy years in Grade 12." But this didn't prevent him from making a career out of words and writing. He says his enduring quality is his curiosity, and has a fellowship in Chinese History.
When he graduated from high school, he got a job at a newspaper in Brampton. And after renting a room at the local YMCA, he went directly to the local library, a Carnegie library, to pursue his quest for knowledge.
Unlike most people these days who spend about eight hours in front of a screen, Mr. Enright doesn't own a television. "I'm an addict to TV and electronic media, so if I had one, I'd lose my mortal soul."
Like many people, however, Enright thinks we're living in a post-print society, but he also wonders if "we're living in a post-literate society. Christopher Hitchens (author of God Is Not Great - http://www.hitchensweb.com) says the US is a profoundly post-literate society, where public discourse suffers. Political leaders now need not be competent, sincere... they just need a story. But in Canada, 87% of us read a book last year; 85% say reading is an important part of our lives."
Mr. Enright admitted that he reads "four newspapers a day, and the Toronto Sun. I'm supposed to be informed, but sometimes I feel less informed now that I did in my 20s."
"The late Neil Postman said that we're in danger of digitalizing ourselves. We're getting to a tipping point where e-books are becoming more prevalent. It's doubtful that electronic books will replace our print cousins, but do we want to increase the time we spend in front of a screen?"
"We are people of the book, no matter what our religion. Readership is up at many libraries. Toronto has the largest library system in North America. The library is the pace car, the anchor."
"Joseph Brodsky, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature said, 'There are worse crimes than burning books. Not reading them is one of them.'"
Mr. Enright ended with one of my favourites: "According to Thomson-Reuters, 'Without knowledge, it's just data.'"
You should have been there!
Libraries and reading have figured prominently in Mr. Enright's life and career. After he finished his shift at the Globe and Mail, he would go into the "morgue," or the library, and read his way through the microfiche of newspapers stored there.
His first library was Wychwood, though. What gave him the spark to read was the Hardy Boys, and then on to Robert Louis Stevenson and Mark Twain, followed by Dickens. Every year he rereads David Copperfield.
Enright admitted that he wasn't the best of students. "The car accident that was my high school career, I spent a couple of happy years in Grade 12." But this didn't prevent him from making a career out of words and writing. He says his enduring quality is his curiosity, and has a fellowship in Chinese History.
When he graduated from high school, he got a job at a newspaper in Brampton. And after renting a room at the local YMCA, he went directly to the local library, a Carnegie library, to pursue his quest for knowledge.
Unlike most people these days who spend about eight hours in front of a screen, Mr. Enright doesn't own a television. "I'm an addict to TV and electronic media, so if I had one, I'd lose my mortal soul."
Like many people, however, Enright thinks we're living in a post-print society, but he also wonders if "we're living in a post-literate society. Christopher Hitchens (author of God Is Not Great - http://www.hitchensweb.com) says the US is a profoundly post-literate society, where public discourse suffers. Political leaders now need not be competent, sincere... they just need a story. But in Canada, 87% of us read a book last year; 85% say reading is an important part of our lives."
Mr. Enright admitted that he reads "four newspapers a day, and the Toronto Sun. I'm supposed to be informed, but sometimes I feel less informed now that I did in my 20s."
"The late Neil Postman said that we're in danger of digitalizing ourselves. We're getting to a tipping point where e-books are becoming more prevalent. It's doubtful that electronic books will replace our print cousins, but do we want to increase the time we spend in front of a screen?"
"We are people of the book, no matter what our religion. Readership is up at many libraries. Toronto has the largest library system in North America. The library is the pace car, the anchor."
"Joseph Brodsky, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature said, 'There are worse crimes than burning books. Not reading them is one of them.'"
Mr. Enright ended with one of my favourites: "According to Thomson-Reuters, 'Without knowledge, it's just data.'"
You should have been there!
(19) Eckhart Tolle at Roy Thomson Hall (www.eckharttolle.com and www.soundstrue.com)
Eckhart Tolle hosted a full house at Roy Thomson Hall on January 30 with The Power of Presence: Going Beyond Ego, and January 31 with Enlightened Relationships: The Arising of the New Consciousness.
Both evenings, there wasn't a single seat empty in the hall. Middle-aged parents came with their early-20s children, or as Tolle put it in the second evening, "Grown-up children, if there is such a thing."
Singles, groups of friends, couples, people in wheelchairs, were all there to hear Tolle's message which you can find on his website (www.eckharttolle.com): The World Can Only Change From Within.
It was almost too coincidental that, when I walked into the hall the second evening, I met Larissa, with whom I had done a five-week meditation course (masks and Jung), just before Christmas, led by Dr. Mana Waite, a very experienced meditation teacher (http://www.openmindmeditation.com.au/about_mana.php).
Both evenings, Tami Simon, publisher of Sounds True (www.soundstrue.com), reminded the audience not to applaud when Mr. Tolle walked onto the stage. She also pointed out that Tolle is a "frequency holder" of calmness and being and transmits it to others.
However, Tolle has a humble presence. He's slightly stooped, wears simple clothing (a light brown vest over a yellow shirt, brown pants and shoes), and has a soft voice. He sat in a plain chair in front of a microphone and spoke slowly, non-stop, for a full two hours.
Mr. Tolle's presentations are sprinkled with frequent humour to set his audience at ease. He greeted us the second evening with, "I was in the green room and was lucky enough to pick up a brochure that told me I was to speak about enlightened relationships tonight. Oh..."
"Yes, I'm here to talk about the arising consciousness... It's arising, otherwise you wouldn't be here, that is, if you came here voluntarily."
Tolle reminded us, though, that this new consciousness isn't here permanently: "Your mind will be fully here tonight, but might also take you away to tomororw's plans or your problems; then it will come back to the present moment."
When we let go of the past and stop worrying about the future, we can then dwell in the present moment, without interference from "I am this, I am that." The most we can say, then, is "I am," no more, no less.
Then thinking becomes a beautiful tool. We can use our mind to express something beyond definitions or labels. We find that space inside ourselves, so the personal history is no longer important. We no longer carry around with us the story of the unhappy me. The past is gone, the future doesn't exist. Relationships and communication can then change.
And the signs of change are all around, according to Tolle. The election of Obama couldn't have happened twenty years ago. No one thought communism would fall, either. We thought it would be here for hundreds of years. Not so.
More prophetic were Tolle's final words, which he borrowed from the New Testament:
"The kingdom of heaven does not come with signs to be observed. It is therefore not outside, but within, the innermost reality."
Both evenings, there wasn't a single seat empty in the hall. Middle-aged parents came with their early-20s children, or as Tolle put it in the second evening, "Grown-up children, if there is such a thing."
Singles, groups of friends, couples, people in wheelchairs, were all there to hear Tolle's message which you can find on his website (www.eckharttolle.com): The World Can Only Change From Within.
It was almost too coincidental that, when I walked into the hall the second evening, I met Larissa, with whom I had done a five-week meditation course (masks and Jung), just before Christmas, led by Dr. Mana Waite, a very experienced meditation teacher (http://www.openmindmeditation.com.au/about_mana.php).
Both evenings, Tami Simon, publisher of Sounds True (www.soundstrue.com), reminded the audience not to applaud when Mr. Tolle walked onto the stage. She also pointed out that Tolle is a "frequency holder" of calmness and being and transmits it to others.
However, Tolle has a humble presence. He's slightly stooped, wears simple clothing (a light brown vest over a yellow shirt, brown pants and shoes), and has a soft voice. He sat in a plain chair in front of a microphone and spoke slowly, non-stop, for a full two hours.
Mr. Tolle's presentations are sprinkled with frequent humour to set his audience at ease. He greeted us the second evening with, "I was in the green room and was lucky enough to pick up a brochure that told me I was to speak about enlightened relationships tonight. Oh..."
"Yes, I'm here to talk about the arising consciousness... It's arising, otherwise you wouldn't be here, that is, if you came here voluntarily."
Tolle reminded us, though, that this new consciousness isn't here permanently: "Your mind will be fully here tonight, but might also take you away to tomororw's plans or your problems; then it will come back to the present moment."
When we let go of the past and stop worrying about the future, we can then dwell in the present moment, without interference from "I am this, I am that." The most we can say, then, is "I am," no more, no less.
Then thinking becomes a beautiful tool. We can use our mind to express something beyond definitions or labels. We find that space inside ourselves, so the personal history is no longer important. We no longer carry around with us the story of the unhappy me. The past is gone, the future doesn't exist. Relationships and communication can then change.
And the signs of change are all around, according to Tolle. The election of Obama couldn't have happened twenty years ago. No one thought communism would fall, either. We thought it would be here for hundreds of years. Not so.
More prophetic were Tolle's final words, which he borrowed from the New Testament:
"The kingdom of heaven does not come with signs to be observed. It is therefore not outside, but within, the innermost reality."
Saturday, January 31, 2009
(18) Norah Young's Spark on CBC: The Newspaper Is Not Dead! www.sparkblog.ca/spark
Strange things are happening out there in newspaper land, according to Norah Young in her Spark interview with Dan Pachenko on CBC this afternoon. You can find Young's interview already on the Printcasting website: http://www.printcasting.com, or the CBC podcast at http://www.cbc.ca/spark/2009/01/episode-64-january-28-31-2009. Check it out. Really interesting.
So, contrary to popular belief, the newspaper is not dead. People are now taking blogs and turning them into newspapers. Who would have thunk it? Ben Terrett has dont this in England.
With the help of Printcasting (check out the above-mentioned website), it will be posible for anyone "to create a local print newspaper, magazine or newsletter wiht local ads. No money, tools or design are required. Only passion!"
This has also been done in Chicago and San Francisco
And I'll leave the last word about this new phenomenon to the Latino community:
Printcasting.com promueve la edición en papel en la era digital - Periodismo Ciudadano [...] adiós al papel no parece tan sencillo, de hecho Printcasting nace para “hacer más relevante la impresión en la era digital”. En la portada de la [...]
A mas tarde,
Roberto
So, contrary to popular belief, the newspaper is not dead. People are now taking blogs and turning them into newspapers. Who would have thunk it? Ben Terrett has dont this in England.
With the help of Printcasting (check out the above-mentioned website), it will be posible for anyone "to create a local print newspaper, magazine or newsletter wiht local ads. No money, tools or design are required. Only passion!"
This has also been done in Chicago and San Francisco
And I'll leave the last word about this new phenomenon to the Latino community:
Printcasting.com promueve la edición en papel en la era digital - Periodismo Ciudadano [...] adiós al papel no parece tan sencillo, de hecho Printcasting nace para “hacer más relevante la impresión en la era digital”. En la portada de la [...]
A mas tarde,
Roberto
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
