b-unbound

It is odd that a faucet dripping in a room two doors away can commandeer our attention to the point that we must get up from bed in the night to set things right. In contrast, as a young adult, I would sit in Shelby Forest north of Memphis and watch the Mississippi River flow by so silently that I could hear voices of fishermen a mile away on the other side. Remind yourself of those singular drops that had gotten us up from bed and compare.

The Mississippi would contain billions of such drops moving in silent harmony. I think too of negative space in art, space that is captured between objects and shapes. Negative space is not empty space. It’s like the river of my earlier days, not empty at all but filled with both water and the sound of voices from the other side. There are thoughts there. There are relationships, noticed and unnoticed.

You can choose to focus on the separate shapes (one of which you self-identify and defend as yourself), or you can focus upon the relationships that form the interconnectedness between all things. 

When Freidrich Froebel invented Kindergarten it's purpose was to create within each child, that sense of interconnectedness as the foundation for learning. Each of us carries a seed of interconnectedness through which are led to feel whole and connected. We can use power to wrongfully engineer the lives of others, or we can recognize that spark within others and cease to impede their growth.

My friend Elliot Washor has a new program associated with Big Picture Schools, B-Unbound. It's mission is to meet the following need: 

"As humans, we long for connection, exploration and doing what we love to do. We seek and are drawn to finding meaning in our lives and doing things that matter to ourselves and others. However, many of the current systems surrounding young people are more geared toward compliance, efficiency and regulation." https://www.b-unbound.org

Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise.