Driving as a metaphor for life and human relations.

"We all go our separate ways  at different paces interacting on occasions. We maneuver and attempt to, metaphorically,  get to our destination, where ever that might be, with little or no stress. We try to make the best out of our journey and enjoy the ride.

The bumps, curves and traffic, the stressful moments we in evidently encounter provides us with necessities to change our behavior or driving strategies. At these times, we tend to align ourselves  and take actions so we might arrive smoothly and quickly.

Does the other driver really matter?  We don’t want to meet them or speak to them but sometimes the angry aggressive driver will make your drive difficult- make you aware of their humaness. We try establish eye contact  pleading to enter his lane. He simply needed to view us as yet a another human being,  to acknowledge our humanity before he will allow us to inch into his universe.  The drivers exist in the abstract  until we engage them.

We enter the highway alone and we arrive, smoothly one hopes, alone."

*Excert form Namrebeil Ecurb's "Surfing the Cosmos."

When I began TEAM I focused on trying to understand how I might use anything in my classroom and how to apply Peter Senge’s “Schools that Learn,” to my teaching and life - professionally and personally.  A soon found that System Thinking transcends the classroom and the theoretical. I was actually a system thinker without knowing it and began to see things in terms of the Five Disciplines. I had seen systems operating around me in all places and subcultures. The work place, my family, the art world, the LIE and even in surfing. Traffic, the road and it’s negotiations, and the negotiations involved in Surfing, both seemed to be metaphors for human relations, the world and the cosmos. An equation I believe Dr. Michael Byrne alludes to, with his “the traffic game/system.” The fabric of these operas, the social fabrics and otherwise, all have interconnecting tissue, player sand detritus that are exerting influences upon each other - a web. As I sought to understand the universe – my Universe the systematic nature and quality of things became more and more apparent to me. I sought to understand it better. I sought to understand understanding - Thinking.  When I came upon, or rather was led to Costa, through the “Habits of the Mind,” I found it had a unique appeal. I needed to see how thinking could be organized - my own. How it was possible to continue to grow and evolve. How educational philosophers had given organization to the thought processes and added clarity to my own vision. How, on a spiritual level one can try to obtain a clarity of vision and work towards a clarity of thought as a important life long goal - an art form. By knowing what exactly it was to strive for and understand to be a more complete human being, could help ones own journey through life  and aid the journey of  others, helping others reach a similar goal. To quote , Donald Rumsfeld, heaven forbid, “ I didn’t know what I didn’t know till I knew I didn’t know it”…or something like that.

Major growth occurred in the technology area with tools such as Dreamweaver,  Flash, Powerpoint, Imovie, IDVD and Fireworks. I even developed a greater understanding of an old friend - Photoshop.. How these programs all interrelate and connect and how files negotiate within program and system fell into understanding.

I became cognizant of web design and it's unique 3 dimensional quality. Streaming video, audio and the message have a new dimension for me as now does teaching.

 

 

*Senge et al. Schools That Learn: A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares About Education. New York: Doubleday/Currency, 2000. ISBN: 0-385-49323-1.