Towards Ecological Intelligence- Lessons from the eagle and the condor

I realize it has been a while since I posted anything. School is winding up for the fall term, and I've just completed several works which center on the concept of developing ecological intelligence (or an ecological ethic or worldview). This concept has applications for peace education, conflict resolution, and challenging the dominant materialistic, consumerism and neoliberal paradigm of globalization. It's a long article, dealing with educational theories and the use of public discourse in the form of symposiums to address these complex, hidden assumptions which are often destructive economically, socially, and environmentally. BUT, there is hope!

Happy reading!

Towards an ecological education paradigm:

Lessons from the eagle and the condor--the Achuar experience

Portland State University

Cities and Third World Development- USP 545

Dr Gerald Sussman

November 30, 2011

Outline

I. Introduction: the need for deep ecological intelligence or a deep ecological ethic

a. Impacts of Western education on a global scale

1. Economics- development of underdevelopment

2. Social- cultural imperialism

3. Environmental- degradation

b. “All education is environmental”. –Orr (1992)

1. What is deep ecology? Ecological ethic and ecological intelligence.

2. Need for Third World, indigenous voices in academic literature for transformative education

3. Redefining education for the global citizen

II. Methodologies

a. Descriptive research through literature review

b. Basic research: a case study on the Pachamama educative model

c. Inferential research: applying the Pachamama model to higher education

III. Literature review –Adult Theories of Education

a. Experiential—Dewey

b. Critical/social theories—Freire, Foucault, hooks

c. Transformative—Kolb, Piaget, Mezirow

d. Holistic/Systems/Indigenous world views—Capra, Sterling, Burns

e. Collaborative learning—MacGregor

IV. The Pachamama Story—the call of the times

V. Awakening the Dreamer: Changing the Dream symposia as a case study

a. Who, what, when, where, why, and how.

b. Impacts and implications for higher education

VI. Conclusions

a. There is still a need for more Third World/ indigenous voices in academia

b. ATD: CTD is only one model based on collaboration between Westerners and indigenous peoples, but it represents an attempt to create social change and a challenge of the dominant Western paradigm which may have broader implications for higher education and development.

c. Imagery of the eagle and the condor.

Introduction and Problem Statement

In spite of the prevalence of literature on multiculturalism and post-developmentalism, most graduates of Western educational systems continue to perpetuate the modernization model of development and cultural imperialism to the increased detriment and degradation of indigenous cultures, third world populations, and the natural environment. Though students are increasingly aware of ecological problems, few understand deep ecology as an ethic, relying on a superficial examination of issues surrounding environment, productivity, economics, and cultural commons (Hardin, G. & Baden, J., Eds., 1997). This lack of deep ecological ethic is evidenced by increased recycling (a healthy behavior) and, at the same time, increased consumerism (one of the root causes of devastation world-wide). Though recycling is a healthy behavior, if Western students stop at recycling and do not examine the deeper causes of ecological, economic, and social/cultural devastation, they will only continue to maintain the same chronic crises. In the Western model of education, “students learn that it is sufficient only to learn about injustice and ecological deterioration without having to do much about them, which is to say, the lesson of hypocrisy,” according to David Orr (1992, p. 104).

As C.A. Bowers (2009) points out, “The irony is that while social justice-oriented faculty criticize the proponents of globalizing the ideology of market liberalism, they fail to recognize the cultural assumptions they share with the market liberals. Because of these shared assumptions they fail to engage students in a study of the ecological importance of the local as well as the diversity of the world’s cultural commons” (pp. 4-5). The current economic, social, and environmental crises and conflicts are in reality a crisis of the Western education model which unconsciously perpetuates systems of oppression world-wide. In order to shift this dominant world view, Western students need a new educative model which is experiential (Dewey; Piaget; Montessori; Kolb & Fry, 1975), critical (Freire, 2000; Escobar, 1995; Gupta, 2000; hooks, 2010), transformative (Ettling, 2006; Mezirow, 1991; Robertson, 1997), holistic (Miller, 2007; Burns, 2009; Sterling, 2004), liberatory (Freire, 2000), and collaborative (MacGregor, 1990).

Unfortunately as globalization (also known as “Americanization”) spreads, the Third World, which has been devastated by the impacts of neocolonialism and neoliberal policies in development, is experiencing cultural imperialism in the form of Western style education and media. Under the impetus of “development” and economic growth, globalizing companies are dictating the allocation of resources in Third World countries, leading to increased poverty, environmental degradation and depletion of natural resources, and homogenization of culture. Though non-Western scholars have rejected this narrow view of the world (that is, as resources for human consumption without limit), the dominant Western, modernized, and consumer-driven world continues to set the agendas for Third World development through the proliferation of education and communication and information technologies (CITs) or media. In spite of laudable United Nations Development Program (UNDP) goals such as education for all, the real problem lies in the fact that indigenous cultures and their ways of knowing are being homogenized by a Western, neo-liberal (market-driven) model of education which empowers some while leaving many more indigenous people unemployable and disconnected from the land.

As Orr (1992) states, “All education is environmental” (p.90). The purpose of adult education is to aid students in developing a holistic ethic, one which incorporates spirituality, transformation (a challenging and changing of basic assumptions), connectedness or relationship, as well as critical thinking and innovation (Capra, 2002, Sterling, 2004, and Orr, 2004). As Orr (2004) points out, the lack of a holistic or ecological approach in education, that is, a concept which includes spiritual, intellectual, and whole person development is the fundamental reason for the current failure and crises within the post-modern world; environmental, economic, and social crises.

Essential adult education must go beyond cognitive development (learning new facts) to include quality of life or affective and connective development. According to Sterling (2004), education which is ecological is connective, integrative, and systemic as demonstrated by such core values as citizenship, humanity, identity, stewardship of resources, personal responsibility, and an ethic of care. Holmes (2000) and Bowers (2009) would call this teaching for an ethic of deep ecology or development of ecological intelligence.

Though many Third World peoples have an epistemology which values a balanced relationship with nature, indigenous ways of knowing are often considered as “backwards” or unimportant by Western, scientific, empirical standards of education. Yet these worldviews and indigenous wisdom may provide insight into future world systems. Though a plethora of literature from postcolonial scholars began to appear in the 1960s, relatively few Third World scholars or voices inform academia on the issues of deep ecological intelligence for a sustainable future. Western education continues to follow the “banking method” (Freire, 2000) or factory model of education. This same model of education is imposed on the Third World through the directives of the World Bank and its goals of increasing literacy world-wide. Literacy is not a bad goal. However, it is narrowly defined as the ability to code and decode a Western alphabet. It disregards other forms of literacy or other forms of intelligence such as ecological literacy (Orr, 1992), emotional intelligence, and cultural literacy.

If adult education must be more than a mental exercise, how do we design curricula for global citizens who integrate an epistemology and critical thinking for a sustainable world? How do we create or facilitate learning environments for adult learners so that they may be empowered to be agents of change for a world in crisis? Do Third World and indigenous peoples have alternative epistemologies and pedagogies to offer First World (Western) educators?

Methodologies

This paper utilizes three simple methodologies: 1) descriptive research in the form of a literature review, 2) basic research in the form of an abbreviated case study of the Pachamama educational model, and 3) inferential research by applying the Pachamama model to higher education. The study is somewhat limited in that current statistics are not available on the long-term impacts of the symposium. Though the Awakening the Dreamer: Changing the Dream (ATD: CTD) symposium is only one model which addresses the dominant paradigm of the modern, materialistic, consumer world in “developed” countries, there is room for other collaborative educational models to impact the dominant culture and Third World nations.

This paper examines a new educational model which comes from the Achuar Indians of Ecuador and the Pachamama Alliance. How can informal education such as a weekend seminar inform the literature and formal educational practices in higher education? This paper explores: 1) the current literature on educational theories for adult learners, 2) the Awakening the Dreamer: Changing the Dream symposiums as a framework for developing deep ecological intelligence/ethics, 3) and its implications for higher education in global development, international service-learning, study-abroad, and community-based learning environments.

Literature Review

There is an abundance of literature on adult learning which states that adults value learning which is transformative (Baumgartner, 2001, Mezirow, 2000, Taylor, 2000b) and experiential (Dewey, 1997) or hands-on. Transformative learning can be described as personal development in which an adult is confronted with a disorienting dilemma or challenge of his/her basic worldview and, through a process of reflection, adapts the new epistemology as his/her own. For many adults, this change in paradigm or transformation is spiritual, moral, or ethical. Fink (2003) describes significant learning as both a process and having an outcome of lasting change in the learner’s perceptions.

Like Mezirow’s transformative learning, significant learning includes enhancing personal development, focusing on community dynamics, and perceiving the role of self in a global context (Fink, 2003). Bowers (2009), Aldo (1977), and Wilson (1987) would agree that Fink’s version is still anthropocentric, and that a true ecological paradigm would be more holistic. Adult students learn best in a “safe” environment in which they can explore new concepts and be transformed or, literally, changed for life. Workshops can be effective avenues for transformation of an individual’s weltanschauung. The ideas put forth in a workshop can create what Mezirow called a “disorienting dilemma”, causing the participant to question basic assumptions about the world and his/her role in it.

Epistemological learning with a focus on community dynamics can be seen when students, personally, get involved in the political process; from voting to campaigning to educating others about local, county, state, and federal issues (Fink, 2003; Aldo, 1966). The Pachamama Alliance hosts workshops, trainings, seminars, and symposiums which are aimed at helping individuals transform themselves and their worldviews in order to become catalysts for a cultural change. Cress et al (2005) point out that critical thinking and learning occurs when the student begins to question: “Who am I and what do I bring to the world around me?” The adult learner actively participates in creating knowledge rather than passively accepting knowledge such as in the form of a lecture. Ecological intelligence requires this kind of critical thinking which critically examines hidden assumptions or myths (Freire, 2000; Foucault; Heidegger; hooks, 2010).

Another trait of ecological intelligence is the perception of the role of self in a global context. As the adult learner expands his/her perception of community, he/she begins to develop a sense of self in a much larger environment, the world. Vandana Shiva, Alternative Nobel prize winner and activist, calls this Earth Democracy. Shiva (2005) writes, “Earth Democracy is both an ancient worldview and an emergent political movement for peace, justice, and sustainability.” This worldview is a living systems worldview; “a community of all beings supported by the earth…a continuum between human and nonhuman species and between present, past, and future generations” (p. 1).

Capra’s (2002) work in whole systems theory applied to education points to this larger concept of the global citizen as integral to the survival of the planet. Whole systems theory basically says that beings do not live in a vacuum or in isolation, but are defined by their relationships. We are all part of a much larger, intricately complex system in which the actions of one or a few may change the course of humanity and the larger ecosystem or environment for a thousand years or more. Therefore, there is an even greater need for adult learners to grasp this new concept of global citizenship in order to sustain a livable habitat for all beings (human and non-human). Educators who grasp this concept also recognize that creating a collaborative learning environment models these complex relationships (MacGregor, 1991).

Sterling (2004) argues that a whole systems theory is necessary for an ecological education paradigm shift. Holistic design acknowledges that humans are complex beings, involving mind, spirit, and body, in an even more complex ecosystem, planetary system, and universe. In chapter one of The Holistic Curriculum, Miller (2007) lays a foundation for the need for curriculum design to be more “organic” or balanced, engaging, and addressing the whole person. A holistic education recognizes that modern Western society has become disconnected from the greater whole of the universe and from each other. This disconnection or fragmentation (which comes from a mechanistic worldview based on the fear of scarcity) is one of the sources of the current ecological, economic, and social crises. When education addresses the whole person, body, mind and soul, and allows for human development within the greater system, the student begins to move from fragmentation to connectedness, seeing the relationship of things. Miller (2007) pulls on the work of Capra (1996) and Senge (1990) to expose whole systems thinking as the foundation for understanding this disconnection of humans from each other, the environment, a sense of place, etc.

When students understand (knowledge) that everything is interconnected, they begin to develop values or attitudes of openness to diversity because they understand that healthy systems are complex and diverse. Another attitude which is a by-product of whole systems thinking is care for others, the environment, the planet, other beings, and food and water systems, etc. Stewardship is another attitude which contradicts the prevailing attitude of consumerism. Stewardship preserves rather than depletes or overuses and abuses.

But how does a teacher facilitate this kind of learning which is transformational? How does one cultivate transformation and ethical development? Teaching or facilitating open inquiry, in other words, being more process oriented rather than product or outcome oriented, creates an environment which fosters the process of transformation, allowing students to cultivate their own sense of place (Gruenewald, 2003), spirituality, critical thinking, and engagement (see Thoreau, Muir, and Callicott’s essays as reprinted in Armstrong & Botzler, 2004).

The Pachamama Story

By 1995, Achuar leaders realized that their way of life in the Amazonian rainforest was in danger. A dream culture, the Achuar recognized that their dreams were becoming more violent as a result of the ecological disaster surrounding them. Attributing the ecological devastation to modernization, the Achuar asked for help in defending their land and in re-educating the modern world. Bill and Lynne Twist with John Perkins and a handful of others answered the call to help change the American Dream to one that was more sustainable. The Achuar consider the American Dream with its unsustainable appetites a nightmare. The Pachamama Alliance was born. Pachamama is a South American term which is loosely translated as “Mother Earth”. “Awakening the Dreamer: Changing the Dream” symposiums began to appear around the United States as Achuar and Westerners partnered to bring about a paradigm shift or ecological ethic in the modern world. This partnership represents a new model of education which embraces indigenous world views, co-creative partnerships, and deep ecological education.

Lynne Twist, co-founder of the Pachamama Alliance writes,

“In 2005, we launched the Awakening the Dreamer initiative, at the heart of which is a transformational education symposium. Tens, hundreds, even thousands of people gather at these symposiums around the world to discover the value of ancient wisdom in addressing our modern crises, and their personal role in bringing forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling, socially just human presence on this planet. Awakening the Dreamer has been held in at least 60 countries in 13 languages, with more than 3,500 volunteers offering the content. Symposiums have been presented in homes, churches, businesses, community centers, and government agencies; and the reach of the Awakening the Dreamer message grows daily” (www.pachamama.org).

The Achuar Indians and the Pachamama Alliance provide a holistic framework to teach deep ecological intelligence/ethics in Western education to challenge the dominant paradigms in a safe learning environment. The symposium is specifically designed to encourage collaborative learning through the use of a series of activities including community-building, the Pachamama story to open dialogue about commonly held assumptions, short videos, small group discussions, and the arts. Though the symposium takes the form of a one-day seminar or workshop for social change, the implications of the educational methods and pedagogies are applicable to Western formal educative practices.

Awakening the Dreamer: Changing the Dream Symposium framework

How can anyone develop an encompassing curriculum which would simultaneously pull on individual experiences and create an atmosphere of collaboration, group learning, group teaching, and individual critical thinking—the kind of learning which transforms an individual’s worldview? The Pachamama Alliance utilizes activities which engage the participant in emotional, spiritual, social, and cognitive development to help trainees develop their own ecological paradigm. The key to developing critical thinking which may open the door to a more ecological frame of mind in a short time frame is to use diverse activities which engage various learners, especially in building a sense of community during the seminar/workshop. Ecological intelligence comes from blending heart and head learning. Being sensitive to this need for diverse learning, the Pachamama Alliance models collaboration with indigenous peoples to create a new paradigm. The symposium presents the indigenous world view of the Achuar Indians as a contrast to the ecologically destructive world view held by many Westerners, and then calls on Westerners to be open to a different way of viewing the world, and to join in the creation of that new world view.

The ATD:CTD facilitators use many experiential learning tools to achieve this holistic design in which students/participants actively co-create their learning experiences such as role-playing, debates, skits, poetry, art projects, case-study reviews, collaborative establishment of course objectives, participant presentations, reflective writing assignments, small group projects and assignments, student assessments in the process, solutions-based or community-based learning, and online resources (Fink, 2003). Students actively educate each other about sustainability issues through round table discussions, mind-mapping exercises, case-study reviews, small group discussions, and community-based learning projects.

The Pachamama Alliance symposium is offered in the form of a one-day workshop. Citizens are invited to participate whether they can offer a donation or not. Fees are on a donation basis only. Typically, the workshop or symposium will take place on a Saturday or Sunday in order to accommodate as many citizens and generations as possible.

Workshop designers are curriculum developers. Armstrong (1989) defines curriculum as “a master plan for selecting content and organizing learning experiences for the purpose of changing and developing learners’ behaviors and insights” (p. 4). A workshop designed with various student learning styles in mind, such as an individualistic learner or a verbal processing learner or even a visual learner, would incorporate as many of the above elements as reasonable in a given session. For example, a visual learner might respond better to a project such as an art project used to depict the basic concepts of the seminar, while a social learner (or someone who processes information best in a group setting) may respond best in a debate scenario or a small group discussion. In any case, adult learners retain new information most when they are able to see the relevance to their personal lives, work, or careers. In other words, adult learners tend to prefer hands-on learning or learning which they can apply to their own situations.

Developing an ecological ethic is not an overnight process. Students must be personally invested in the learning process. For example, as a result of the emotional connections (or affection) made during a Sustainability Leadership Workshop community-building exercise, participants were more willing to actively engage in the creation of the learning laboratory. As a learning facilitator, a workshop leader who co-creates the environment with participants will foster the process of ecological learning or transformation. This is a radically different concept than the typical authoritarian lecture style used by most university professors (a style which, though effective in some instances, only tends to reinforce and model an elitist, egocentric, male dominated world view).

The Achuar stand as an example of acting on indigenous knowledge in partnership with others to bring about a better world for everyone. In Andean/ Amazonian tradition, there is an old prophecy which says that the eagle and the condor must fly together in order to save humanity. The eagle represents “the best of intellect and the mind” while the condor represents “the best of wisdom and the heart”. It was this image which led to the first Achuar-western collaborative creation of the Awakening the Dreamer: Changer the Dream (ATD:CTD) symposium; “the symposium exists to change the dream of the modern world and shift cultures based on consumption and destruction to cultures of justice, sustainability and fulfillment” (www.awakeningthedreamer.org).

Implications for higher education

The purpose of adult education is transformative at heart. Sterling (2004) says an ecological paradigm is democratic, systemic, dynamic, transformative, collaborative and dialogic. Thich Nhat Hanh (1993) calls it “the meditation of interbeing endlessly interwoven” (p. 127).

Educators and change leaders who empower and facilitate life-long learning are strategically positioned to tackle the global challenges and issues which face not only students, indigenous partners, and universities, but the greater human community (as well as non-humans). Racial, ethnic, gender and cultural diversity, as well as social justice, equity, and sustainability are just a few of the systemic issues which face the global citizen. Citizens who are committed to justice will question the very systems which propagate inequities and will look for solutions which solicit participation from and empower diverse stakeholders in developing long-term, ecologically sound, socially just, and spiritually fulfilling choices (Bolman & Deal, 2008). James Banks (2008) addresses these concepts of citizenship in his article about citizenship education in the global age. He does not push only a democratic concept of citizenship, but rather deep citizenship or differentiated citizenship as opposed to universal, one-size-fits-all ideologies. The transformative citizen actively works to bring about social justice and change within their systems. Imperialistic concepts of citizenship often require members of society to deny their cultural, ethnic, racial, and first-language identities in order to fit in with the greater, globalized society. Banks (2008) calls for an open deliberation about these accepted concepts which disenfranchise or marginalize those who are on the fringes of the “norm”. The systems which prescribe power to one group and marginalize others must be examined. The ATD: CTD symposiums allow participants to begin to peel back the veneer which covers many of these issues.

If we can encourage people to embrace their heritage but also be open to other world views, we will eventually open the hearts and the minds of global citizens. We do not need to "westernize" or even modernize remote regions like that of the Achuar on the border of Ecuador and Peru in the Amazon rainforest, and certainly not if it means that we pillage and plunder their resources. The Pachamama Alliance is proof that there are many ways to tackle issues and problems. Collaborative, sustainable solutions work for each region within the parameters of multiple cultures. Where those parameters have been oppressive in the past or may even be oppressive now, we can begin a dialogue which addresses the root causes of oppression, empowering those good citizens to build new systems.

This is where critical reflection, the essence of critical pedagogy, comes in to the heart of deep ecology. Students who understand their own culture and who think critically about issues of power, privilege, equity, social justice, and hidden assumptions are uniquely equipped to challenge cultural norms in order to smoothly transition into a different, more democratic structure. For example, students (and teachers) are encouraged to explore their own life stories, perceptions, assumptions, and values through the use of reflection journals and essays. Though critical pedagogy can be limited in its Western anthropocentric, often imperialistic assumptions, personal reflection can be an effective tool for transformational learning and developing an ecological (or holistic) ethic.

Tom Atlee (2009) from the Co-Intelligence Institute writes that the keys needed by a group to discover “big, obvious truths” are diversity, passion, motivation, deep dialogue and enough time. The last key below seems to apply so well to a workshop/seminar format.

ENOUGH TIME: How much time is ‘enough time’? Sometimes it is ten minutes. Sometimes it is ten months. Often ‘enough time’ includes leaving an issue to lie fallow -- letting it be gnawed at by people between meetings, letting perspectives and situations shift incrementally -- before coming back to it again. Enough is enough. And those communities that acknowledge the power of ripeness and the essential continuity of community conversation -- and therefore help their shared understandings develop ‘in their own good time’ -- reap the richest harvests (Atlee, 2009, Reflections on Evolutionary Activism: Essays, Poems and Prayers from an Emerging Field of Sacred Social Change, p.273).”

If Atlee is right, then it is possible to connect, to create community, to provide a framework for significant learning even if we only have a weekend to do so (Sork, 1997). The weekend workshops are the heart of engaging citizens in the Pachamama Alliance’s overall work around the world.

In slightly shifting the focus of the curriculum from a straight lecture-oriented format (even though the content is powerful) to a blend of videos (short lecture) with a community building, collaborative learning environment, participants feel more empowered and prepared to be agents of change in their local communities, affecting what Sterling (2004) calls a cultural shift which is essential to an ecological education paradigm. With a pre-determined framework which is flexible, participants can be assured that there is a purpose and that they (the participants) have a voice in the process. The organic nature of the design puts more emphasis and responsibility on the learners to be actively involved in the weekend workshop process. By using this approach, the curriculum accommodates learners from every walk of life by including their life experiences as part of the learning equation.

The hope of the Pachamama Alliance Awakening the Dreamer: Changing the Dream curriculum is to engage participants in such a way that they become more culturally competent, inclusive, global citizens who, in turn, engage their world and bring healing to the universe. Sterling (2004) said that a cultural shift in education begins with individual epistemological shifts and public awareness as individuals engage in public discourse. The work of the Pachamama Alliance is critical to raising public awareness of ecological, spiritual, and social sustainability through the discourse of an informal seminar/workshop type format.

ATD: CTD is only one model based on collaborative learning between Westerners and indigenous peoples, but it represents an attempt to create social change and a challenge of the dominant Western paradigm which may have broader implications for higher education and development, especially in the fields of international service-learning, international relations, study-abroad, philosophy, political science, urban planning and development, business, finance, conflict resolution, and seminar courses. The issues raised in the essays and articles found in Environmental Ethics (Armstrong & Botzler, 2004) point to a need for a deep ecology state-of-mind or ecological paradigm, which goes much deeper than a superficial examination of environmental problems but sees “all education is environmental” (Orr, 2004). This ecological ethic is founded on the world view or belief that everything has intrinsic value, simply because it exists.

The modern, consumer-driven, materialistic dominant paradigm only values what can be commoditized, monetized, or personally used. In other words, nothing and no one has value unless they are useful to humans. The Awakening the Dreamer (ATD) symposium serves as a clarion wake up call to explore hidden assumptions, to challenge invisible systems which are oppressive, and to collaboratively develop an ecological ethic. Though we need community and time to heal the ecological schizophrenia or fragmentation of a materialistic world view, weekend seminars like the ATD: CTD symposium serve as catalysts toward critical thinking, an ecological paradigm, and social change. The new global citizen will be attuned to the call of the times. As the ancient Pachamama prophecy says, it is time for the eagle and the condor to soar together; a time for science and technology and Western knowledge (episteme) to join the best of indigenous wisdom or embodied knowledge (techne) in order to unleash the human imagination and begin to flourish in the earth (Appfel-Marglin & Marglin, 1990).

Development in the Third World cannot continue as it has since World War II. The destructive forces of a neoliberal policy have silenced the voices of indigenous peoples. The technological revolution will not go away. Modernization and globalization will continue to occur, but the Pachamama Alliance serves as a model for collaboration between the modern world and indigenous peoples and as a model for experiential, critical, holistic, transformative, and collaborative learning. The ATD: CTD symposiums demonstrate that regenerative social change is possible when the eagle and condor soar together.

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Taylor, E.W. (2000b). Analyzing research on transformative learning theory. In Mezirow, J.and associates (eds.) Learning as transformation: Critical perspectives on a theory in progress. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

www.pachamama.org

On a lighter note....Gandhi and puns

Just completed a class on Gandhi's philosophy...so sweet, so powerful, so convicting! Gandhi believed that as long as the poor are starving and everyone does not have enough to meet their basic needs, that we are stealing from them when we over-eat or consume more than our need. He did recognize that we all have different needs, some more than others, but that we do violence to others when we take more than we need and don't treat our abundance as a trusteeship for those who don't have....So how do I live this way? For too long, I've been content with my hypocrisy, knowing how I should live, but not living my convictions or what I profess I believe. Gandhi said that we cannot separate our values from actions ( the apostle John said it too, didn't he?). If we claim to love God, but do not love our brother...If we say we love God, but our actions are not love, we deceive ourselves and God is not in us. So how do we really live what we say?

Ah, but this is all so heavy at times, so weighty...and you know me, when it gets to be too serious, I resort to puns. In all seriousness, I asked God to restore or even just give me a sense of humor this year! HA HA HA. Well, the inner punster in me kept popping out in my very intense Gandhi seminar class this weekend. I even worked up a whole schtick in honor of father's day yesterday. It's true. My classmates giggled, but more than few groaned and rolled their eyes in agony over the bad puns. It went something like this (let me know if you think I should become a stand-up comedian or not...your unconditional praise...I mean, honesty, is greatly appreciated):

Anyhoooo... It's Punday...I mean, Sunday and it's Father's Day. In honor of my father who loves a good pun, I thought I'd share a few. My dad loves puns! He thinks of puns and the ability to pun as a sign of great intelligence. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm so bright my father calls me "sun." (ba dump dump)

It's true that punning seems to release my inner creativity. One way I express this creativity is in writing silly poems for kids like one I call "Mime's the Word". It goes like this: "Did I ever tell you of the time, I got a job as a mime? I didn't? That's okay. There wasn't much to say." I was thinking about trying my hand at a new form of creativity last night and how I could focus it on puns. So I decided to write a theatrical performance about puns...well, to be modest, it was really just a 'play on words'.

I really thought I was going to be late for my Gandhi class because I was looking for my missing watch, but I just couldn't seem to find the time. (Ba dump dum) Mahatma Gandhi, as you know, walked barefoot most of the time, which produced an impressive set of calluses on his feet. He also ate very little, often going on long fasts, which made him rather frail and with his odd diet, he suffered from bad breath. It's rumored that this made him ... A super callused fragile mystic hexed by halitosis.

I don't know if you know this about me or not, but I'm an absolute science geek. After some very intense readings about Gandhian philosophy, I decided to take a break and do some light reading about quantum physics, string theories, and all about the universe. You know that in quantum physics there are forces which hold the universe together like weak nuclear, strong nuclear, gravitational forces and this idea that there is another invisible force that we don't know what it is yet. We call it the Grand Unifying Element. So I was reading a book about Anti-Gravity last night and I have to say it was impossible to put down! (ba dump dum). If electricity comes from electrons... does that mean that morality comes from morons? Did you hear? Two hydrogen atoms bumped into each other. The first one said, "I think I lost an electron." The second replied, "Are you positive?"

How many listen to NPR? I love public radio. I always feel more connected when I get a chance to listen to the news. So I was driving back to campus and was catching up on the news when I heard a story about a local man who had been in a horrific car accident. It seems he lost his whole left side! Incredible. The doctors say he's going to make it because he's "all right" now. See? It just goes to show you that you have to get out there, you can't let fear dictate your life. I used to have a fear of hurdles, but I got over it.

I was a little disappointed that in my Gandhian class we didn't really delve into some of the philosophers who influenced him and his work like Henry David Thoreau, Leo Tolstoy, Jesus Christ, even Confucius. Confucius had some really profound and succint proverbs which I still find applicable even today. Did you know that Confucius say, "Man who run in front of car get tired" and "Man who run after car get exhausted"? I used to know so many more, but it seems like my memory isn't what it used to be. In fact, I was trying to remember how to throw a boomerang the other day. I thought I had forgotten completely, but then it came back to me.

Ah, okay, that's all for now. Like the little tire said to the flat one, I'll spare you.

Hope you have a great day!

Letters to my niece series: An Argument for Sustainable Peace

Dear Sarah,

I’ve been thinking about peace again. In my work with sustainability, I often think of how we can create systems which are harmonic and durable. The Bible says, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the sons of God” (Matthew 5:9). There’s something so proactive about the way Jesus states this. We often think of peace as an absence of turmoil or conflict. But in this simple line, Jesus is saying that it’s not enough to simply avoid conflict; we must actively bring about peace. When we do this, people will recognize that we’ve been hanging out with the Prince of Peace. Imagine a kingdom where the rule is peace. What does that say about how our governments could be run?

Nigel Dower (2009) writes that pacificism is a philosophy of sustainable peace. Pacificists concern themselves with making peace and creating systems which ensure lasting peace. He says that pacificism is characterized by “a belief in the possibility of making peace a more durable and robust feature in human relationships, both locally and globally, and in its ethical desirability as something that ought –morally—to be the object of human endeavor” (p.144). So what? What does this mean for us? How can we contribute to sustainable peace?

For me, sustainable peace, global and cultural competence, and an ethic of care are the hallmarks of educating for sustainability. One of the tools I enjoy working with is international service-learning. In international service learning, students begin to question their own assumptions such as imperialism, nationalism, consumerism, materialism, capitalism, etc. Though some studies have shown that most of a student’s learning occurs in-country, rather than pre-departure (Citron & Kline, 2001), issues such as service, partnerships, learning, interculturalism, ethnocentrism, power, privilege, oppression, and justice can be addressed before students land on foreign soil. I believe it is critical that students begin to address these issues and creatively think of scenarios wherein they might be seen as perpetrators of ethnocentrism or cultural imperialism.

How do we prepare students for intercultural service-learning in a foreign country? It begins with pre-trip preparation which addresses not only the details of the trip, that is, the nuts and bolts of the itinerary and cost and insurance forms, but the ethical issues surrounding service-learning. Pre-trip preparation can lay the foundation for creating an atmosphere of global understanding and intercultural awareness rather than “acts of cultural invasion” (Lutterman-Aguilar & Gingerich, 2002). Without pre-trip preparation, students are more likely to unconsciously become exploiters in the new culture or “unwittingly act as cultural imperialists and do more damage than good” (Lutterman-Aguilar & Gingerich, 2002, p. 19).

Other pre-trip issues which may be addressed are motivation, service, social justice, personal myth or worldview, transformational learning, and courageous conversation techniques.

If Dower (2009) is correct in stating that there are no simple, one-size-fits-all solutions to the question of peace, then we must prepare our students to act as global/local peacemakers. How? When love is our motivation for serving, international service-learning becomes truly collaborative as students develop an ethic of care and a relationship of trust with their community partners.

In peace,

Aunt Gigi

Letters to my niece series: The Case for Love

“Love without courage and wisdom is sentimentality, as with the ordinary church member. Courage without love and wisdom is foolhardiness, as with the ordinary soldier. Wisdom without love and courage is cowardice, as with the ordinary intellectual. But the one who has love, courage, and wisdom moves the world.”—Ammon Hennacy (1893-1970)

Dear Sarah,

As you know I’ve been thinking a lot about love and reading the sermons and writings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Sometimes it helps to know what something is not, in order to be able to understand it better. Love is not separateness, fear, passive, or destructive/violent.

To say that love is not separateness is to say that love is kinship. Fromm (2006) says it another way; love is oneness. Love sees others as related to self without being selfish. Much of the great work of psychology and sociology came from Germany in the first part of the 1900s. Arendt, Fromm, Frankl, and Bonhoeffer were just a few of the great minds who sought to understand what drives us. In their own ways, each one came to the conclusion that we all have a deep need to belong, to feel that we are not alone. But receiving love is not enough, we must love. Love is an action.

I know I am speaking of it as an object, but love cannot be love unless it is in action (Fromm, 2006). That is why I say that love is not passive. Some people think of love as weakness, that somehow it is a passive, apathetic response to aggression. On the contrary, love is courageous. The kind of love I speak of is the kind of love that forgives. This is radical love. This is the kind of love which few people who are only concerned about rights and justice ever understand. This is the kind of love that prays for the abuser, the killer, the enemy.

Fear of others is not love. The Bible says that where there is perfect love fear cannot remain. Fear leads to violence. Love chooses to turn the other cheek, rather than repay evil for evil. Love is not destructive. It doesn’t rejoice when bad things happen to other people. It doesn’t keep a record of grudges. It is not bitter. Martin Luther King (1986) wrote that “Hatred and bitterness can never cure the disease of fear; only love can do that. Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it”(p. 514).

Love is connectedness, confidence, active, peace and life. It always hopes, always trusts, always perseveres (I Corinthians 13). Love recognizes itself in all of creation. Love understands that we are all related. When we hurt our sister, we hurt ourselves. When we love our neighbor or enemy, we love ourselves.

It takes great courage to love the way Jesus, Gandhi, and King spoke of. They suffered greatly, but they chose to love their persecutors. This is transformational, relational, redemptive love; the kind of love that moves mountains.

I hope that you will read some of Dr. King’s letters, books, and speeches and that you will live and experience this transformational love for yourself, for your generation, for your world.

Love,

Your Aunt Gigi

Letters to my niece series: Cosmopolitanism, a new world view

Dear Sarah,

I’ve been reading Nigel Dower’s book, The Ethics of War and Peace and Shane Claiborne’s, The Irresistible Revolution. I can’t help but think back on the months immediately following the attacks of September 11, 2001 as Dower talks about pacifism, pacificism, and cosmopolitanism. Pacifism takes several forms, but basically it is an objection to violence and killing. Pacificism, in general terms, has more of a peacemaking emphasis, while cosmopolitanism is concerned with global citizenship. In Dower’s philosophical approach, he weighs the pros and the cons to every argument. I suppose I had never really thought about pacificism before, even though I believe that we should be peacemakers.

All of these concepts remind me of the dangers of nationalism. That’s not to say that nationalism is inherently evil. In fact, it’s natural in the sense that we all want to belong to something greater than us, to feel kinship. I love America. I feel lucky to have been born here. But even when I was about your age, I remember questioning if my allegiance was supposed to be directed at one nation only. I said the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag every morning in school, but the part of it that thrilled my heart was the “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” part.

In a sense, we are all global citizens. As citizens, we have a responsibility to care for one another, regardless of nationality or language or tribe or color. As a Christian, I found it disheartening after 9/11 to see so many followers of Christ “rally around the drums of war” (Claiborne, 2006). Jesus called us into his kingdom, to follow him, to love God and to love people (everyone, including our enemies). When we chose to follow Christ, we were adopted into a new tribe; one without borders or nationalities or race. What grieved me about the American Christian response to 9/11 was that we became stingy with the love of God. Claiborne says it like this, “Patriotism is far too myopic. A love for our own relatives and a love for the people of our own country are not bad things, but our love does not stop at the border….These earthly allegiances create a myopia that stands in the way of God’s vision and justice…Violence is always rooted in a myopic sense of community, whether it be nationalism or gangs” (2006, pp. 202-203). Martin Luther King, Jr said God has called us to a worldwide fellowship and unconditional love for all.

Jesus warned us that everyone “who lives by the sword will die by the sword” (Matthew 26:52). We believe that violence can save us; that violence can force peace to happen. But violence is like a cancer that eats at our hearts, our homes, and our world. Gandhi once said that we forget that the means become the ends.

So what does this mean for us? The Apostle Paul was proud of his “dual citizenship”. He was a citizen of Rome, but he was also a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. We can still be citizens of the United States of America and enjoy the responsibilities, privileges and joys that come with citizenship. But we are foremost citizens of heaven and we share that citizenship with people all over the planet (even the ones we would like to write off as “evildoers”). God loves them, too. And that’s the kind of radical love which is powerful enough to turn the world right side-up.

In peace,

Your loving Aunt Gigi