I couldn't say it better myself

http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/title/?ei=5070&emc=eta1

Too Cool for School

Lately I have been reading a lot of kids' books. Not exactly intentionally, but because they were around. My husband has a small collection, half a dozen books, no more, from the new Doctor Who series and the tenuously related Invisible Detective series (written by former BBC books editor Justin Richards).

I'm no stranger to children's fiction, and I'm not talking about my formative years. Yes, I read several Madeline L'Engle books when I was 9, and two Narnia books at about the same time, but I quickly graduated to the works of James Herriott, Evelyn Waugh, AJ Cronin.

I've probably read more children's books after 30 than before. I've read the Artemis Fowl series, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, the first several Harry Potter books (until they got too big to carry with me on trips, plus frankly the movies are just as good), and even one Lemony Snicket. Okay, now that I think about it, I did read more books as a kid, because I read every Nancy Drew I could lay my hands on! But this post isn't meant as a list of favorites. My point is, or may be, get to know any adult, and you will find either a book they read to their kids that they enjoy at least as much as their children do, or, for those who haven't got kids, children's books which allow them to secretly recapture their youth. It's like going to see the newest Disney movie, and nowadays, there's no shame in it. You don't have to borrow a neighbor child to go.

Why the fascination with children's fiction? It isn't just the fountain of youth, at least not in the traditional sense, that warding off of maturity, old age, and eventually death. It's recapturing the innocence of youth, and the fascination of a world which still offers more possibilities than disenchantment. It's an opportunity to throw off the shackles of our jaded adulthood and dance in a world of magic and imagination, a world which, however scary it might be at times, is always ultimately safe, and good will always win.

You can get that in small amounts in adult fiction, so that is not the only appeal. One thing I noticed with these last books I read, once I started I simply could not stop. I read each of the books in two sittings. It seems that children's fiction is faster-paced than its adult contemporaries, with more suspense. As at least one book proved, this can be accomplished side-by-side with thought-provoking issues. None of the books paled in comparison with more mature offerings, with the grittiness, violence, foul language, and awkward sex scenes (does anyone else wish Dan Brown would end his books earlier?) which seem required of adult fiction. They do tend to be shorter works, so the plots may be less intricate, but I've read less substantial bestsellers.

In case you are curious, the books I have just read are Wooden Heart,The Paranormal Puppet Show, and Shining Darkness. Wooden Heart takes a look at the relationship between a Creator and its Creations, Shining Darkness sheds light on what it means to be human and the unpleasantness and danger of racism, and the Paranormal Puppet Show is just unabashed adventure.

But at the end of the day, I'm an adult at heart, so I am also reading The Zahir by my new favorite author Paulo Coelho (simply the next in a long and illustrious line) and Labyrinth by Kate Mosse. We'll just have to see if they can keep up with the next generation.

The Map is not the Territory

I was corresponding recently with a dear friend. We disagree on everything, but I am very fond of her. I suppose she's like a sister. Anyway, she had expressed some concern that her daughter had not shown any interest in returning to school and getting a degree (she spent a short time in the military after high school and is now in employment). I reassured her that there is nothing like working full-time to inspire an appreciation for academic life.

Later in my letter to her I was ranting (a bit) about the youth in my adopted home town. I live in a depressed area where there is little opportunity for advancement. Employment is predominantly seasonal, low-paid, and requires little education. It is therefore perhaps understandable that the local youth rarely choose to continue their studying, or if they do, it is strictly vocational. Adults appreciate the fact that the pace here is slower than in town. And some may see the lackadaisical attitude as a reflection of that. But I see it as more endemic, indicating a plague of listlessness and hopelessness. There are so few jobs which require one, there is little value placed on getting a university degree. A first in typing is more suitable. And why should you strive for more?

Since sending my email to my friend, I have been concerned that she might have misconstrued my disappointment with the people around me as an indictment of her own daughter who has, for the time being, eschewed education. This is of course not so. Everyone must choose their own path, and if her daughter wants to work and it makes her happy, then that is all I would wish for. Knowing my friend as I do, and knowing her blood flows through her daughter's veins, I fully expect that at some point she will want to do something else, something new, something more challenging. And she will likely look to education to fill the gap. Either she will happen upon a vocation she enjoys but hit a point where she can no longer progress without a degree, or she will decide (as I did, when I decided to learn to program computers) upon a career which requires specific vocational training, or perhaps she will just get bored and begin taking courses out of interest. And I recognize there are lots of ways to become educated - school, private tuition, reading, doing, watching the Discovery Channel. But I don't think for a moment that she will become like the young people I see here - cashing their unemployment cheques and haunting the chippies (in this context, "chippy" does not refer to a young female of questionable morals but rather to a popular enterprise offering fried fish and potato wedges). The ultimate difference, I told myself as I lay awake this morning, petting the cat, was in the need to know, to do, to understand more every day.

This last bit hit me quite deep. I've been working for years now to establish "my purpose" and I have identified many goals which, upon achievement, would give me great satisfaction. For instance, I hope one day to create a planned community which caters to every mental, physical, and spiritual need of the residents, one which does not require limitless wealth to enter, and one which empowers everyone who visits to reconsider their potential. One which boosts everyone up Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, you could say. Another goal is to eliminate - or at least try - homelessness amongst domesticated animals. I still hold on to these goals, but without a monstrous reliable income, I'm finding them rather difficult to pursue. In order to attain a goal, you must make one small movement in the right direction on a regular basis. I'm still stuck on number one - save enough money to buy a large piece of land which is appropriate for development. I work in the planning department, so I know all too well how unlikely this is - if I could find land I could afford, I couldn't put so much as a teepee on it, and if I found land I could build on I'd never be able to afford it. To that end my discretionary income wouldn't get me a mortgage on a parking space with a cardboard box on it.

But think about "to know, to do, to understand more each day" as a goal. Doesn't that sound totally do-able? It doesn't take much to know, do or understand more than yesterday. I can do that just by choosing my cable channels more carefully.

So what does that have to do with the title of the blog, you ask? Or maybe you don't ask, but if you're still reading, don't you want to know?

One of the main functions of the human brain is to make connections. Imagine for a moment, you are dropped in the middle of an unfamiliar town and told to find your way to your new home at 123 South Easy Street. You begin to explore, carefully at first. Maybe you establish where south is, and then where the streets switch from being called North to being called South. Then you look at the street names to see if there are any clues - some towns name their streets alphabetically, for instance. You begin to create, in your mind, a map of the town. When you eventually do find 123 South Easy Street, you know how you got there and, if dropped in the same place tomorrow, you will have a much easier time getting home. You haven't created the territory, that was here already, but you have created a map, an image in your mind, to make sense of it. You might even be able to draw a rough sketch of how to get from the middle of town to your house. Not to scale, but with all the turns and landmarks indicated.

But imagine if your brain could not make connections, could not compile and categorise and evaluate new information. You're dropped in the middle of town, and, after wandering for an indefinite period of time, you do find 123 South Easy Street. And tomorrow, you're dropped in the middle of town, and you're no better off than you were yesterday. You haven't learned anything from your experience. NLP'ers have a saying, "the map is not the territory." The map is everything you understand about the world. The territory is the world itself. You can't know anything about the territory unless you have learned something about it, somehow, either through a book, or a news story on TV, or your own or someone else's related experiences. I don't know anything about China, for instance, other than what I've read or been told or seen on TV, because I've never been there. My map is rather sketchy. But I grew up in Oklahoma, and I have a pretty detailed map of the town I grew up in, what different parts of the state are like, what makes the Midwest different from the South, and, because I have spent time on both coasts, what makes Coastal America different from The Heartland. My map is pretty good here. But I'm using the word "map" a bit too literally. It has nothing to do with geography. I like to read about different spiritual systems, what people believe and why. Although I cannot prove that my map is accurate, it is built from information gathered from hundreds of sources (isn't the internet wonderful?) and I have carefully pieced them together like a jigsaw in the hopes that I will be able then to understand the finished picture.

Sometimes, in order to make a new piece fit, I have had to take the scissors and cut the tab off an existing piece (haven't you always wanted to do that?). But only after checking how the two pieces would look together - one doesn't have a picture of a flower and the other waves - and making sure the existing piece works without the tab. It doesn't do any good to put pieces together just because they fit, they have to create a flow from one edge to the other, so that the petal which begins on one piece continues seamlessly onto the next. This is also my map of reality. So too is my study of history in high school, although I will be the first to admit this once healthy piece of fabric is now moth eaten to almost nothing. And literature, and nature, and the personal history of a coworker. This is my map of reality. It will never be exactly the same as anyone else's map of reality (although, the more two people share and agree on ideas and experiences, the more their maps will overlap and the more connected they will feel).

Which also explains why two people can so vehemently disagree about a "fact." We like to say, "you can't have an opinion on a fact." But a fact is rarely a discrete element. We say it is a fact that water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. But this isn't actually true. Ice will always melt at 32 degrees, but water has to freeze onto something (like the walls of your freezer, or, apparently, a particle of dust or soot or a passing airplane). It spontaneously freezes at -40 degrees Fahrenheit. The freezing point of water also depends on pressure (did you know that water in a vacuum will boil regardless of the temperature?). So there is really no such thing as a "fact." It is just a particle of information which is generally agreed to be true in a certain set of circumstances. If the "fact" is scientific, it has probably been subjected to careful experimentation and, like my water, there may be a great deal of information available on how that "fact" was tested and what factors render it invalid. However, other "facts," like my natural hair color, may never be tested and are, in fact, no more than educated guesses.

So back to my thesis. By knowing, doing, and understanding more than I did yesterday, I add to my map of reality. I increase my understanding of the map. And by doing so, hopefully, I get closer to knowing and understanding the territory.

If you haven't yet found your goal, feel free to borrow mine until you do.

The Meaning of Work

Twelve people wash up on a desert island. What are their immediate needs? They need cover, so four people volunteer to be builders. They begin to look for materials and construct shelters. They need food and water, so four people begin to scout the jungle for fresh water and fruit. They want to be rescued, so four people take responsibility for gathering wood and keeping a signal fire going. But the builders continue their occupations, discovering better materials, fashioning crude tools, and building better, sturdier huts. The hunter gatherers have been working out a way to make nets and catch fish. Someone takes responsibility for cooking the fish. Our “firemen,” for lack of a better term, are going farther in the search for wood, and are beginning to map out the boundaries of the island. Two years go by with no sign from the outside world. Babies are born. Someone stays at camp with the infants while the parents pursue their work.

Looking at human occupation in this way, particularly taking the exchange of money out of the equation, it is easy to see that work is nothing more than providing value to society. In this insular example, each person’s survival depends on cooperation. If any one person says “I can’t do anything” then everyone suffers. If one person is disabled and unable to build or wander the island, they will still find some way to contribute, providing ideas, wisdom, moral support. The only excuse for not contributing to the group is coma.

Compare this to modern society. We’ve lost the meaning of work. Work is something you do when there are no other options (when your parents can no longer support you, when your lottery numbers fail you) until you earn your retirement. If you want to directly benefit society, you usually do that unpaid. No wonder our biggest problem worldwide is greed. The work we do is no longer attached to our survival. More often than not, it is linked to our destruction. We work for corporations which exploit, pollute, and create agents that kill.

Society has failed to regulate business to assure each is beneficial. The free market allows such businesses to flourish as long as there are buyers for these products. This, unfortunately, is an issue for perhaps a later essay. This essay is on the meaning of work.

Work is inextricably linked with money in our capitalist society. Money, ideally, is a measure of the value you provide to society. This is seen more vividly in the case of the entrepreneur – the more valuable her product or service, the more customers, the more income. This is not as obvious in the case of employed work, where the teacher is barely paid a living wage but the manager is given large bonuses. Or jobs in the service sector where someone has to work two or three jobs to support a small family. But ideally it is a measure of value.

The problem with unemployment is that it leads to low self-esteem and low self-worth. This can lead to depression and lethargy and their associated side effects. I say this from personal experience, having been unable to find even meaningless work for two months one summer between years at uni. Now I live in an area of high unemployment, and living “off the dole” becomes a way of life, not a temporary measure to keep from losing your house between positions. These mostly young people are not benefiting society at all, except in the way they keep the chip shops open. And they have tremendous worth, so much potential, which is being wasted. So having all these youths living off benefits is damaging to them and to society. Surely there is a solution.

We don’t lack vision in Penwith. On the contrary, we have a comprehensive plan to achieve a wonderful standard of living. What we lack are resources. Is anyone else seeing the puzzle pieces coming together? We are already paying benefits for hundreds of people in my town alone. If a condition of unemployment benefit was part-time volunteer work, this labour would essentially be gratis. Hundreds of hands pushing forward the agenda of the area. Hundreds of people gaining skills in all areas of occupation. Hundreds of people building affordable housing, organizing events, keeping accounts, working in charity shops, providing support for new businesses, working with the elderly, the very young, the disabled, caring for injured or unwanted animals, there simply is no aspect of our modern society which could not benefit from an increased pool of unpaid workers. The trade off for industry and government is that, in exchange for all this free labour, time must be taken to provide these workers with training in valuable skills. Too often volunteers are given the unskilled work only, which benefits only the organization and not the volunteer (many voluntary workers become disenchanted with this kind of work when they remain unchallenged).

This seems like a win-win-win to me. People on benefits contribute to society, which leads to increased self-esteem and empowerment, and learn new skills, which also lead to increased self-esteem and better chances of well paid employment. Businesses both public and private are able to increase their workforce at no additional cost (most businesses are understaffed but lack the funds to add workers). Paid workers find their workloads become more manageable and they benefit from the experience of mentoring unpaid workers. Social programmes which now cannot get off the ground due to lack of resources find the human factor miraculously accounted for.

I cannot see the flaw in my own logic. Perhaps one of my intelligent readers (all two of you) can explain why this wouldn't work. As usual, I welcome all polite responses.

Charity badges

These last two posts are charity badges I made on two different sites, CareBadges and ChipIn. They are both linked to the newly-created PayPal account that goes directly to Cretan Animal Welfare Group (http://www.cawg-greece.com/), the rescuers who promised to check on Cowboy and Swipes if they pass the hotel. I have also opened a Facebook account and created a ChipIn badge there, but CareBadges doesn't have a instructions for adding that. Also on Facebook I created CAWG as a cause. If you are on Facebook, look it up.

I hope these small efforts of mine can bring in some donations to help these great people who are trying to make a difference in the lives of suffering stray animals.

Thanks for your support.

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