I often awaken at 3AM with the inexplicable urge to write. I wrote most of my doctoral thesis at these wee hours in the night. Somehow, there is more clarity and a greater ability to listen to that creative inspiration at these hours. Early this morning I had a wonderful inspiration come through. For the past few weeks I have been seeing the apprenticeship aspect of the community houses from a new lens. Shop and car mechanics as one aspect, but also carpentry, and plumbing have been at the top of my list. I have so many ideas on how to incorporate some of these skill sets into fun creative art projects, like constructing PVC sculptures using plumbing tools. Creating fountains and the like. Carpentry skills could come through building boxes, or frames with traditional trim material. The possibilities are endless. The goal of this project has always been to build a healthy community. The way in which I hope to participate in this is through listening to what the neighborhood wants and needs. This neighborhood has gone from being nearly 70-80% owner occupied to probably 30% owner occupied. Furthermore, there are several unoccupied properties which are a haven for crime and abuse. Last summer, I had an interesting conversation with the grandfather of some of the kids. He had a new fence put around the front porch. At that time the Art Garage had been engaged in the Karma Award activities, and so I asked if he would like to have the fence painted. He said he was not the owner of the house, and if it were his place he would have done it already. Another neighbor spoke about not having had the blessing of owning his own place, yet. When I moved in several neighbors expressed so much gratitude that an owner was going to be living on the block. Home ownership is an important key to community. It truly makes a difference, in so many ways. One of the challenges of owning verses renting is paying for repairs. If you do not have the skillset to deal with small carpentry, plumbing or electrical issues, the results can be disasterous. I just had a plumber come to do some very minor repairs and it cost me over $600. In my neighborhood that could be most of your monthly income. But if our community members had enough skills collectively in plumbing, carpentry, electric and the like... What if the Community House Network was not just about entreprenurialism, but also about home ownership? Now that is a powerful idea. I will bring it to the community and get back to you.
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I L0V3 NUMB3R5!
Numbers are Fun! I even wrote a book on new ways to embody and visualize number sequences. Conceptual math is a powerful way to engage the visual-spatial streams in the brian and avoid the pain of rote memorization. It is a much superior way to build number sense and it is simply fun to do! If you are interested, most of he content can be accessed for free on this website :) https://conceptual-math.weebly.com/ Bringing numbers to life helps to awaken the mathematical mind. Part of that process for many of us is learning to love numbers. I personally think everyone should have a favorite number. My favorite two digit number is 18 and my favorite three digit number is 923. Well, yesterday on 9-23 I made the official financial commitment to the community houses. I put a downpayment of a whopping $1000. It is mostly a statement of goodwill as the owner starts to remove his precious belongings. I myself am excited to get inside and enliven the sacred living community space. But there is oh so much to do first. Time to start a non-profit! Wish me luck! When I was in Community College back in the early 90s, I drove a Dodge Aspen and placed a bright blue bumper sticker on the back with the phrase “People Not Profits”. Somehow, I have always been at odds with materialism and capitalism. At the foundation of our capitalistic society is Wallstreet. I am very wary of the stock market. It seems like so many sandcastles in the sky. I may have 100,000 in gold stocks, but that is just paper. It is quite different than having 100,000 ounces of gold. To me the whole stock-exchange is an illusion. I have always sought something else. There has to be something more meaningful, more real.
Around 2010 or so, I attended a seminar on a bioenergy healing technique called Pranic Healing. I absolutely believe that when we start to understand subtle energies, like human bioenergy we will make rapid advances in humanity as we move to our next level of understanding and working with our amazingly powerful consciousness. I was on break from practicing some new healing techniques and walking through the hallways of the Holiday Inn conference center in Anaheim, CA when I saw the title of the neighboring session “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”. So much materialism, I thought to myself. We need spiritual growth, not more materialism. It seemed like a scam. Just recently, however, I have discovered the teachings of the founder of Rich Dad, Poor Dad. He is quite interesting. It is about making money, but more than that it is about being independent. He speaks clearly about the entrepreneur mindset and how to develop it. I think I really like this guy! Because of Covid we have reduced the production in our country significantly. Many small businesses have closed or are on the verge of bankruptcy. All of this decrease in people and production in our country, meanwhile, we are printing money like bandits. We cannot deny that the stock-market is a bit of an illusion. We have seen financial bubbles in the past, the dot.com bubble, then the housing bubble. Are we in a bubble right now? I have no idea, but I know I have my suspicions. So where to invest money? I believe the best investment is in people and production. If you can build a plant that produces solar panels, or generators, or even pots and pans, then you have something that is real and purposeful. If you invest in people, you empower them to find their own ways to adapt, overcome and build a heathy society. The Community House idea is a way to invest in people. It is a way to support the entrepreneurial mindset, which is the foundation of creative production. The Community House, is for me is a way to a future that works. One build on people and production, not the House of Cards of Wallstreet. I hate authority. There, I said it. I don't like to have others dictate what is best for me. I feel like I can direct my own life. Although, this may seem arrogant or self-centered, I believe it is a great thing when a person reaches this state of mind. It means that their sense of self is strong. It doesn't necessarily mean that the ego is mature, but there is at the core a sense of an independent self. One that has a sense of direction. That is, I know what I want and where I want to go.
Rudolf Steiner coined a term, "individual idealism". This means that for each individual incarnated in their own place and time, there is an ideal life path. That ideal life path is shaped and formed as the individual interacts in the world. It is basically the highest expression of our self in the world. The tricky part is, that the ideal actions cannot be determined by some formula, or by goodwill, or by therapy. The only way for a person to reach that ideal is through their own inner development. It must come from that individual. This leads us to two basic challenges. First, how do we foster an individual's sense of self enough that he or she is able to step courageously onto that life path that will fulfill his or her life mission. That is a big enough challenge. It will not be achieved by emphasizing performance on tasks or even skills that are more generally accepted as important, but on fostering inner capacities of reflection, self-awareness, and purpose. It requires that we help a person understand the world and their place in it. This would be the type of holistic education that would encourage the true evolution of humanity. Second, it is important to realize that each person's life path is intimately connected to that of those around us. To use the words of Martin Luther King, "We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way God’s universe is made; this is the way it is structured.” So complex is this level of interaction that it would be impossible for any leader to plan the actions of the individuals necessary to fulfill that destiny. The only solution, I believe, is to rely on the property of self-organizing. I have been using this basic principle, with more and less success, from the beginning of the Art Garage. The whole messy project emerged from two boys who showed up at my doorstep and captured my heart. Their path was intimately connected to mine. They were the trigger for what is becomming a new vision of enlivened community. My individual ideal is only becoming clear as I start to work in connection with other. It is more evidence that we must allow for self-organizing and that it is something that happens through conversation and connection. Not just through planning and deciding. I am a big believer in creating living spaces. Holding space, even if it is in the virtual realm, is where we can more deeply connect to the possiblities of our life. As I come closer to opening two new spaces, I am seeing new ideas emerge, not just from within myself, but through those around me. I am witnessing the power of self-organizing systems. So I don't forget...an important part of my process is to be invitational rather than persuasive. Instead of forcing, I open the door, hold the space and invite others to participate. I love the work of the Foss sisters. They are quite amazing. Here is a link to their summary of how to be invitational *Invitational Rhetoric I met with the folks from SCORE this morning to discuss what I would need to do to make the Art Garage and Community Houses a non-profit. They were very helpful. I appreciated their willingness to give me tips and leads, and their assurance of continuing support throughout this process. Their first suggestion was to create a business model. So I brought my neighbors to the grocery store and while they were inside shopping for cat food and macaroni salad I got to work. One of the clear goals is to support an entrepreneurial mindset in the members of the community, especially the youth. Being an entrepreneur, means coming up with creative, independent solutions. You can have an entrepreneurial mindset even if you take a more traditional path in your career. The entrepreneur is the out of the box thinker, who is willing to take risks and looks at the problem with a fresh set of eyes, employing novel solutions rather than trying to use the latest fad or off-the-shelf approach. The other component of the model is that it should be emergent. Coming from the ideas and needs of the community members themselves. I had gotten home and cleaned up and was about to sit down and relax when my neighbor Melody knocked on the door and then walked in. She has a key and since I already treat my house a bit like a community center, I don't mind, but I was a bit tired and wanted to rest so I was a little testy. She started talking about how she wanted to make a store in the upstairs of the corner house. I thought to myself, that would be cute to do once or twice to get the kids excited about going there, and I started to tell her we could do it maybe a couple times. She insisted. She thought it would be a great idea to have a store there, just to sell sodas and candy at a low price for the kids. I was starting to get irritated. This was not the plan. I started to speak aloud that the goal of the house was to support small business and entrepreneurialism. She didn't understand, and so I started to expound on the idea. I said, if we were to make the store an opportunity for the kids to learn about keeping books, inventory, and the like, then it could work. I asked her if she knew what inventory meant. She didn't. I told her I had to meditate, and it would all work out, and sent her away. I did go to meditate, and when I was there trying to find some inner peace, I thought of a beautiful idea that a friend of my once had to open a healing center. She took all of her savings and found the perfect spot. She had many devoted people who were anxious to help in any way they could. But she couldn't let go of control. Eventually, she drove all of her supporters away, and the center failed. It was quite sad. I realized that Melody had a good idea, it was just making it fit the vision for the house that would need some adjusting. But it could be done, and it would be just as intended in drawing on the ideas of the community. Melody would even have the chance to learn about inventory! There is so much research and evidence for the healing power of art. There are entire fields of study in psychology and psychiatry focused on art therapy. I personally have been using art to help me unlock solutions for my own inner challenges for years now. More than journalling, talk therapy or other forms of therapy, painting and drawing succeed every time in shifting my consciousness from a states of confusion into a state of clarity and peace of mind. I cannot exactly say why this is, I just know it to be true. I see it in kids in even more profoundly powerful ways. Children don't have the same vocabulary to express what they are feeling, but their world of images is deep and meaningful. If you have ever had a child explain their scribblings, you understand. In my experience, the circles and scribbled lines have plots that include tornados, talking spaghetti, mean frogs and helpful dogs. They are elaborate tales reflecting a deep inner life that you would otherwise never know existed. I was cleaning up the garage today, getting some supplies ready when I came across a drawing done by one of the children in the HNE classroom. I shared sometime earlier about the daring plan of the district to open a developmental holistic classroom using a curriculum I call Holistic Neuroeducation. This curriculum integrates art into all learning activites, it is embodied and personally relevant. It is focused on building deep meaningful relationship, and responding to the students interests. It completely failed in the public system. It wasn't even given a fighting chance. After only three days I was shut down. All the district head could see was the misbehavior. They didn't even want to hear about some of the critically important discoveries about these children. My heart still aches for these kids who likely were placed in a completely punitive environment with no freedom or chance to express themselves at all. A mini 3rd grade prison. The power of art with these kids was so pronounced. They painted with such energy. It was almost as if they were afraid I would take away their paint brush. They were trying to quickly get it all out. There was one child who came in every morning and drew three or four drawings, always the same. A dark blue or black background and a house or a single figure alone. He explained to me the story of the house. He said, mom was dead and dad was upstairs with the new girlfriend. He explained, he was by himself down stairs. He wrote on the chalkboard, "I want to die." He was terribly wounded. All the district could see was when he would get mad and explode. He would rip off his shirt and pee in the courtyard. The administration could only see that the teacher was not "controlling" him. The only thing I could see was a hurting child. And then I could see that he was coming out of his shell. I could see there was hope. On the last day of the short project, he came into the classroom and was dancing around. He had his hoodie off. He sat down and looked at me and said, "I feel different." I asked him how he felt, and he said, "I don't know." I said, "Maybe you are happy." He smiled at me and said, "Yes, that is it." Even though it only lasted a moment, I was glad I was there to witness the power of a holistic arts-integrated approach to teaching. |
Abigail LarrisonEducator, Scientist and Art Maker. The purpose of all life is to spread joy. What brings more joy than making art? Archives
November 2023
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