“Spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon.”
― E.M. Forster
all too often when people have attempted to teach me something, they teach it by rote a bit at a time. How much better it would be if they were to present something fully and let me reason it out or plant seeds of understanding and show me how to grow them. It seems all too often people are in the habit of imparting knowledge instead of fostering understanding. This is somewhat akin to JFK’s famed expression of feeding a man fish rather than teaching them how to fish. By showing someone pathways to understanding, they can not only gain tools that will help them in all areas of their life but they will be able to grasp what they are being shown in a much more visceral way.
Blessings, G
“If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don’t bother trying to teach them. Instead, give them a tool, the use of which will lead to new ways of thinking.”
― Richard Buckminster Fuller
I would like a new pair of glasses. Ones that will make what now seems crucial and important seem trivial and trivial things vital. In this way I will learn that what we deem important is relative. Time tends to do this anyway. How many things that seemed urgent to you on a particular day and time five years ago affect your present life at all. These glasses tho would serve as instant time and lend a new perspective…
While we’re at new tools for thinking, how about foot ware that show what its truly like to walk in any given person’s shoes for an hour or two and truly show life from their perspective…How about a ring that would show what true love and commitment felt like so that it would never be confused with anything else?
What would it be like if we each lived our lives as if these tools were real?
Blessings, G
This is my 2000th post on Waking Spirals. Keeping this blog and sharing my art, poetry and observations with all of you has been truly rewarding. Thanks for the amazing feedback. Many Blessings indeed
Click on image to see full-sized:
With Eyes Like Galaxies She Whispers My Name by G A Rosenberg
A Crystal that Will Reveal Dreams by G A Rosenberg
“We become what we behold. We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us.”
― Marshall McLuhan
What tools do you use? Do you use a torch to light your way and become a dispeller of darkness? Do you extinguish the light to ensure night takes its course? Do you wield a sword or a pen with bladed words of discernment? Do you serve wine or solace to those in need ? Do you work the earth and till the soil? How much of who we are is dependent on what we do and how we do it? How do we shape our lives and how does our life shape us. I feel after this past few weeks especially that it comes down to our choice and that sometimes the choosing is not very easy. But then baby steps are ok also.
Blessings, G
“You should not have any special fondness for a particular weapon, or anything else, for that matter. Too much is the same as not enough. Without imitating anyone else, you should have as much weaponry as suits you.”
― Miyamoto Musashi, The Book Of Five Rings
So many times we settle on one tool for a particular task. We have one way we meditate. We have one recipe for roasted eggplant. We have one position we sleep in. We hone our tools to perfection and we grow stale. We try to apply our tools to all similar types of problems, sometimes losing sight of whether or not they work. We fear experimentation because the result is unknown. We grow stale and take the simple things for granted. Is this not the opposite of mindfulness? What if instead we decide to approach things differently?
This week I intend to try an experiment. Each day I will try to approach a common task in a new way as if I’ve never done it before. It may be something simple or it may be something more complex depending on the opportunities that the day brings. This could be interesting.
House of Lion and Red Snake by G A Rosenberg 
Mandala with Distortions by G A Rosenberg 
