Astral Facts

The Good Boy Placebo

2012-01-31T17:56:00.000-08:00

Astral Facts, January 2012

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

The Good Boy Placebo

With current realities of political posturing and scripted television spontaneity bombarding us from all sides, we might end up feeling quite lonely by taking the red pill and facing reality. Rather than suffer in isolation with reality, why not just suck on that blue sugar-coated sugar pill delivering today’s reality scene? Would you prefer cable or dish? As far as I know, no one ever died as a direct consequence of the placebo.

Mark Twain approached this topic situation back in 1870 with his character sketch of “The Good Boy” who was caught up in the “media” portrayal of what a good little boy should be and do. (According to the link coming later, This story was originally published in May, 1870, in the Galaxy Magazine, as "The Story of the Good Little Boy Who Did Not Prosper.")

For those who’d like to take a five to ten minute break and read the actual story, here’s a link that also has the illustrations from the 1875 printing of the story:

http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/tomsawye/mtgoodboy.html

For those who didn’t have time to do so, here’re some highlights:

       Twain’s “good little boy,” named Jacob Blivens, learns about the profile of the “good little boys” from what he reads in the Sunday School books. He is much impressed by the glory of their lives, but his life doesn’t exactly mirror what he reads. When he sees the bad boy in the apple tree stealing apples, he goes to warn the bad boy he may be punished by falling out of the tree and breaking a leg. Although expecting to be a hero for saving the bad boy, Jacob’s life is not as described in the Sunday School books, for the bad boy does fall out of the tree, but he lands on Jacob and Jacob ends up with broken bones instead.
       Nonetheless, Jacob is inspired by the lives of the good little boys in the Sunday School books, for in the end they do something extremely heroic to save the community. The stories always end with the deathbed stirring last words from the good little boy in the Sunday School books, and the final scene of the story describes the glorious funeral scene with the attendees crying into their handkerchiefs over the good little boy who died too young.
      This troubles young Jacob, because he can never go and meet another actual good little boy from the stories. Anticipating his own fate, he composes his dying speech to give advice to the community so that he can also be remembered as a remarkable “good little boy” himself. Of course, the drawback would be that he would not be alive at the time to bask in the final recognition of the value of his life.

Since we don’t know the ending, we can’t really discuss the “moral” to the story, but we can note some hints that might be connected to it and perhaps to our current cultural phenomena related to the “reality” motif oozing underfoot as we facebook, twitter, and twaddle each other. Jacob Blivens saw the “good little boys” in the Sunday School stories as the models for his behavior as he imagined his glory would finally be acknowledged, but issues of motivation weren’t really stressed in those stories about those other good little boys.

Fortunately, today we have those little disclaimers on the commercials telling us that the stunts are performed by a professional on closed courses, and we shouldn’t try this at home. It’s too bad that the disclaimers elsewhere are too small to read, even if people bothered to look.

Twain wrote a companion piece, “The Story of the Bad Little Boy,” published five years earlier in 1865. Although we don’t have time and space to discuss it here, it is available online as well:

http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/tomsawye/mtbadboy.htm

Perhaps the combination holds the clue to dealing with reality these days.

I forget – is it the red pill or the blue pill that is the placebo?

Walter Lowe

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

2012-01-06T09:39:00.001-08:00

Rocking Around the Clock

2011-12-22T13:22:00.000-08:00

Astral Facts, November-December 2011

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Rocking Around the Clock

Sometimes people may lose sight of the value or relevance of the works in the humanities field. However, time and again we find art imitating life and life imitating art. This was brought home to me in the classroom once again this holiday season.

During the week after the Thanksgiving weekend each year, my students and I spend time observing and presenting interpretations of a variety of short fiction selections from our textbook. About two weeks prior to the holiday weekend, we draw cards and students take turns signing up to teach one of the ten fiction selections from our reading list. We take the four most popular ones and the students who chose them form “teams” to teach them. (Students who chose ones other than those four also join one of the four teams.) We use the class sessions on the M-T-W prior to Thanksgiving for the teams to meet and formulate their lesson plans, with teams taking turns on Monday through Thursday of the following week to teach their classmates how the story might be read. (Friday I provide closure and then finals are the week after.)

One of the selections not chosen very often is “The Rocking Horse Winner” by D. H. Lawrence, published in 1926. However, this year one of the groups did choose to teach that story. While observing the presentation by the students, I was struck by how contemporary the content still is, even though it was written nearly 90 years ago.

I realize there’s a slight possibility some people may not have read the story, and I’d hate to spoil it for them by discussing the plot details and conclusion, even though the value of good literature comes from reading and rereading the material. It’s about a dozen pages long and someone has posted them online, so if you want to take a break and read the story, here it is. I can wait while you read it:

http://www.dowse.com/fiction/Lawrence.html

http://www.dowse.com/fiction/Lawrence-part2.html

Welcome back. (If you just skipped ahead planning to read it later, I’m not responsible for spoiling the story for you.)

As you can see, in this story set in Britain we have a family with a mother who is concerned about the social status associated with wealth and the material evidence of the family’s social position. She considers herself and the family unlucky, which has resulted in the limitations on the family’s social mobility and an anxiety within the mother. The three young children are sensitive to the coldness around the mother’s heart. They can hear the vibrations reverberating through the house as it murmurs “There must be more money! There must be more money!”

Paul, the oldest child but not yet old enough for boarding school, and his two sisters are aware of this, and Paul tries to reverse the situation by being lucky, which is evidenced by getting money. Uncle Oscar gives Paul a small amount of money as a gift, and Paul then forms a pact with Bassett, the gardener, to bet on horse races. (Also a nursery governess is mentioned in the story and the family probably also had a cook, although that was not specified beyond the mentioning that the family had “discreet” servants. Considering their social status, it was probably quite difficult to get along with only three servants.)

Because Paul is old enough not to need a nursery governess, he can secret himself in his own bedroom, where he has a toy rocking horse. He can ride the horse, whipping himself into a frenzied state, and the names of the winning horses come to him. He does this out of love for his mother, in a battle to break the cold ice around her heart.

Once Paul accumulates a nice bank account, he shares his secret with Uncle Oscar, who helps arrange for his mother to receive an anonymous birthday gift of a thousand pounds each year for five years. (In 1926, this was around $5,000 to $10,000 each year.) Paul hopes this will ease the anxiety in the house and around his mother’s heart.

Unfortunately, the opposite is the case. The mother immediately goes to the lawyers to ask the donor to give her the whole amount in a lump sum and the murmuring of “There must be more money! There must be more money!” only intensifies! Of course, Paul accedes to his mother’s desires, and now he becomes even more desperate to touch her heart and ease her anxiety.

Actually, he seems to be making progress, for his mother is concerned about him and suggests he go with Uncle Oscar to the seaside for a vacation. Paul has the trip delayed until after the Derby. Two nights before the Derby Paul frantically rides his rocking horse into the night, collapsing into a stupor just as he reaches the name of the winning horse. Paul’s mother, feeling something strange around her heart, rushes home and reaches Paul as he collapses.

Bassett places the bet for Paul while he is gripped in the coma of his brain fever, and the horse wins. With his mother at his side, Paul regains consciousness, tells his mother that he is indeed lucky, and dies in the night.

The story ends with the mother regarding her deceased son while hearing Uncle Oscar’s voice,

"My God, Hester, you're eighty-odd thousand to the good, and a poor devil of a son to the bad. But, poor devil, poor devil, he's best gone out of a life where he rides his rocking-horse to find a winner."

Oops! Sorry to have such a story here at the holiday time.

Anyhow, at the time I was struck by the contemporary events - seeing how “Black Friday” had been adjusted by some merchants to start at midnight on Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) as something to benefit the customers – now they wouldn’t have to get up early in the morning on Friday and stand in line in the frigid morning cold. Instead, they could enjoy the early afternoon turkey meal, let the tryptophan kick in for a late afternoon nap, and then head down the mall or shopping center to wait for the doors to open at midnight. In fact, some businesses were even opening back up at 9:00 pm for even greater customer convenience! It’s amazing how times have changed with all this concern for the well-being of the customers. (Of course, some of the employees were upset that they had to cut their family holiday short in order to man the aisles and cash registers, but we know the customer is king and it is an honor to serve such customers.)

There must be more money! There must be more money!

And now as we are deep in the throes of the holiday spirit, I see that the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts selling holiday trees and decorations are on holiday break from school, so they have extended their hours to open at 7:00 am and close at 11:00 pm for the convenience of the customers! Seven to eleven: How lucky!

That’s the spirit, boys!

Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

Gang Braggers

2011-10-28T14:19:00.000-07:00

Astral Facts, October 2011

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Gang Braggers

The end of October is always a time for contrasts.

Of course, the last day, Halloween, is the evening before the Hallowed Day of November first, also called All Saints’ Day. Hell and Heaven in open confrontation!

This time also leads into the general elections coming in early November, and we’re getting all the “I’m right, the other side is wrong” election material flying in from every direction. This year we see even more of the same with the budget cuts on the horizon raising the “cut theirs, not mine” specters along the spectrum.

In the Humanities Sciences, with life imitating art, we usually have a new season of voting survivors off islands and the dance floor and such, as well as bombardments of the film releases, DVD and celluloid, leading into the holiday season. Will the Great Pumpkin fail to show again or not?

Out in the ‘hood the Bloods and Crips are banging away at each other on a regular basis, as gang bangers are noted for doing.

In all this, perhaps one of the classic “struggles” is the mano v. mano battle between East Coast and West Coast styles.

Before the current “tea party” politics were in vogue, lines were drawn with “tea party” gang bragging of a different kind, as evidenced in the following “Battle of the Bands” salvos, [eastern formal prep v. western casual organic?] which have come to the attention of us here among the Humanities Sciences eavesdroppers.

(Of course, this is presented in an academic vein, with no suggested endorsement of either style or the products associated with them.)

So take a look and see which gets your vote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTU2He2BIc0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGKVQeU4SXE&feature=related

Remember: Stay kewl, playahs!

Walter Lowe

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

Coming Through the Wry

2011-09-30T15:49:00.000-07:00

Astral Facts, September 2011

Coming Through the Wry

September has come and is about gone with changes to adapt to, which really is nothing new. In an article I read recently, the author noted that ethics and morality are personal issues, but they don’t have any meaning until the individual is involved in some kind of relationship.

For example, on campus we’ve moved the faculty and staff along with offices, work space, and classrooms related to five general disciplines occupying five smaller buildings into a centralized single building. Adaptation is coming at many levels of personal sacrifice for the greater good. For instance, I can no longer select the temperature or strength of the water when I wash my hands in the restrooms. I have to hold my hands under the spout and the flow automatically comes at an intensity and a lukewarm temperature deigned to be “ideal” in our one-size-fits-all (even if it doesn’t) brave new world.

Another interesting aspect is the cutback on classroom support, with the reduced number of custodial staff not required to clean the white boards during the night. Thus, we now have extra green towels and water spray bottles in each classroom so the last one out can “prep” the room for the new dawn that is surely coming.

I’ve found these very handy since I teach in three separate classrooms this quarter. I am able to use my “down time” prior to each of my classes to thoroughly “whitewash” the boards prior to each of the classes on a daily basis, removing the vestiges of profundity unearthed in the previous 23 hours. We have these sliding boards, with two overlapping layers (four board surface sections), and I often find interesting messages hidden away between layers. Of course, the additional side boards can be cleaned on a “need to go” basis.

It’s funny how history tends to be circular or recyclable, for I’m reminded of the halcyon days of my youth when I shared a house with three other guys in my post BA days. I was using my English degree very effectively by reading and critically interpreting map directions and road signs while driving a frozen food delivery truck. Another of my housemates (Pat) was doing accounting for a record company, his friend Don was collecting unemployment from a warehouse job at Sears, and Don’s younger brother Steven was a student at the UW. We shared a little place at 51st and Wallingford.

We decided to take turns doing meal duty. Each person would have total control one day: buy the groceries, prepare the meal, and clean up afterward – each contributing according to means, ability, and opportunity. My turn was Monday, Pat had Tuesday, Steven on Wednesday, and Don on Thursday. Four single guys on our own – we figured it was individual responsibilities on Fri, Sat, & Sundays. What a nice plan! Except…...

Pat and I would fulfill our responsibilities, but on Wednesday Steven prepared the meal (usually something cheap, easy, and messy – like mac& cheese or frozen lasagna), and then he ran upstairs to study. So the other three of us would put our dirty plates and stuff in the sink with the rest of the mess and wait for Stephen to clean up. Something that never happened. He just added his dishes to the mess when he finished studying.

So Don would cook on Thursday and just add to the mess left by Stephen. Since Stephen hadn’t cleaned up, Don didn’t feel he should be responsible for pre-existing conditions (not his brother’s keeper or something like that). Then Friday and Saturday the accumulation continued to accumulate. Pat and I never really discussed the situation except to share our disappointment that Don wasn’t making his younger brother be responsible. It wasn’t our job to confront either one about this.

Finally, on Sunday either Pat or I would have reached the breaking point, and one of us would wash up the mess in the sink and clean the kitchen to start the new week all fresh again. I’m not sure how long this would have lasted, but after four months Don’s unemployment ran out and he moved back to Wenatchee to get his old job in the cannery and I got accepted to go to Afghanistan in the Peace Corps.

I’m sure there must be a lesson or moral there somewhere. Somehow this seemed reminiscent of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Blithedale Romance, where it seemed like all the main character did was complain that the others weren’t doing their fair share. I don’t know why we had to read this in class back then or how any of this makes sense, but I’ve got to go clean some whiteboards – no time to think about it.

Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

Who Needs Humanities

2011-06-06T15:00:00.000-07:00

Astral Facts, May/June 2011

Who Needs the Humanities?

In these days of budget cutting and all, concerns about relevant and necessary programs have emerged here in the ivory towers of higher ed. Perhaps a reduction in the course load for the Humanities might be a good way to cut some of the "fat" from the sacred cows of education.

Of course, one thing for sure is the importance of the math and science programs. It's not something new, for back in 1983 Susan Jacoby wrote an article for The New York Times in which she noted the "self-inflicted disability" many high school girls were inflicting on themselves by dropping out of math and science classes because they considered them "masculine" and success in those fields might exclude them from getting a date for Prom.

In other words, in a patriarchial society, one shouldn't challenge those in power. Twenty some years later Lindsay Lohan, in the movie Mean Girls, illustrated this same principle at work when her character dumbed down to attract the hunky guy sitting next to her in math class.

In my English 101 class, we read and discuss Jacoby's article and then students need to write a paper of summary and analysis about the article. Here's a copy of a student's paper that is quite illuminating, which I have reproduced unedited:

Bright Girls
In the article “When Bright Girls Decide Math Is ‘a Waste of Time’” by Susan Jacoby the point she is trying to get across is that the problem teenage girls are having can be stopped if the parents realize what is happening and do something about it. Her main thesis is that adolescent girls and their parents are active conspirators in limiting their own intellectual development. One of the key ideas in the article are during the vulnerable period of mid adolescence, girls are most likely to be influenced by the traditional belief that math and science are “masculine” subjects. Susan Jacoby also says that in adolescence girls begin to fear that they will be unattractive to boys if they [are] typed as “brains”. In some cases like the Bronx High School of Science where women go to learn too they are still largely outnumbered by the men. To prove her point she shows us a 1981 assessment of female achievement in mathematics, based on research conducted under a National Institute for Education grant, they found significant differences in the mathematical achievements of ninth and twelfth graders. At age thirteen girls were equal if not better in math but four years later the boys had outstripped them. She brings up an example from her own life about how in her sophomore year she pretended to do badly in math when actually she had straight A’s last year in algebra. One of the methods she uses is casual analysis where she says that this problem is a self inflicting female issue and later in the article she says the consequences are that the girls are limiting their own career options. Throughout the article she uses contrast telling us how bad girls are doing math and then she says how the boys are doing in the same situation. Her conclusion clearly states that it is up to the parents to see to it that their daughters do not accede the old stereotypes about “masculine” and ‘feminine” knowledge. This story is still relevant today and parents need to be more aware of what classes their daughters are taking.

Isn't this a nice summary that clearly shows the issue from nearly 30 years ago? but wait ---- it gets better when the analysis kicks in:

     This article can be applied today because it is still going on. Even I witnessed it in high school just last year. In my math class we had this girl who did really well on her tests because she know if the failed the tests then would fail the class. But during class she would be the class dummy always asking for help from some guy who pretended he knew what he was doing. In reality he just wanted to talk to the girl. Cases like these are really common today because the girls think that the guys don’t look twice at the girls who get a 4.0 in math class. So thinking like that girls pretend to be stupid in the math class or even the science classes because it still applies there too. Like in my biology class the cheerleader at my table would always be asking for help from the teacher because she didn’t want to look like some nerd doing so good in geology. Part of this problem of women acting dumb in front of guys is us guys are deciders of what is attractive or not so somehow we let the girls know that it is hot to be dumb. Especially these days most guys don’t care how educated women are as long as the guys can get some action. Unfortunately it sounds harsh but it’s true. Knowing that men think like that women don’t bother getting good education in math or science.
       In Susan Jacoby’s article she says how if the women don’t take math and science they will not have the total vision of human experience. This is not necessarily true because these days most of the men take the responsibility of knowing all the gadgets and technology. For women it’s mostly about emotion so they go after the gossip of this worlds and most of the time technology and math doesn’t interest them. Just the subject technology most women cringe from because they wouldn’t know one word that they hear about it. Usually women just depend on the guys to get all the cell phones and cars in their life. I think that women get along in life just fine without the complete knowledge of technology and math. Most of the women who are in universities getting their science degree are probably fat and ugly so they know that they won’t easily get a rich smart guy who they can depend on. That assumption is wrong that Susan Jacoby made in her article about women. I agree that teenage girls should go through all the necessary math classes so they get the basic math knowledge but the higher up math is optional.
      Concluding from this article I think parents should keep a good eye on their daughters throughout high school but after that it is their own choice whether they want to continue in math. Most women are not cut out for a career in math or science. A good solution for most situations would be to just get a guy who knows about all of that tech stuff so the women have all the time to gossip and spread rumors.

You know something? I think maybe here we have a good case for keeping the Humanities alive. Perhaps this writer might be the first candidate for additional courses!

Walter Lowe

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

Formal Season Greetings

2011-04-26T14:23:00.000-07:00

Astral Facts, April 2011

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Formal Season Greetings

Many of us have grown up in the “Disney generation” of stories of the princess who lives happily ever after in some splendid castle. Often this is preceded by some trials and tribulations which really didn’t seem so necessary. How nice it would be to just skip over the trials and tribulations and jump to begin a life in the castle episode, even though that’s usually the end of the Disney tale! Of course, the prince usually has had a good life, albeit a bit incomplete, up to that point, but we can imagine that things later only get better for him as well.

Disney’s stories do have roots from the cultural tales of the past, but even back then, people were concerned about recognizing the line between reality and fantasy. According to essayist Deborah Ross, many of the fairy tales and romance stories were created with a “didactic” tone, guiding young women into understanding the value of proper roles and attitudes in the social milieu.

Ross notes, “Samuel Johnson was greatly concerned about the effects of fiction on ‘the young, the ignorant, and the idle’" and critics worried that the readers [in the 1700s] would look to some of these stories not only as entertainment but also as a source for moral and social guidance. Ross also touches upon the writings of Charlotte Lennox’s 1759 novel, The Female Quixote, whose protagonist challenged some of the social norms of the day before finally dismissing her fantasies and settling down to the traditional feminine roles (“Escape From Wonderland: Disney and the Female Imagination”). Other sources have noted that such writings inspired later writers, such as Jane Austen, to critically explore the aspects of the feminine role in a patriarchal society.

Ross concludes by noting that the Disney versions omit the stage of the female princess protagonist’s objections or other really revolutionary questioning of the social systems.

Of course, these days, our young females seem to have progressed beyond the romantic yearnings for that princess in the castle lifestyle that Barbie has also helped enforce.

We may think so, but those Disney girls, now mothers with their own daughters, and the media may still be playing that same old tune, reinforced in the educational system with the hopes of skipping over that trials and tribulation segment, in spite of any teenage angst in catching the wry.

Perhaps nothing reveals this as much as a trip to the local high school gripped in the frenzy of “Prom Season” as covered in a recent ABC news report. Here's a link to the news spot; unfortunately, you have to sit through the 30 second commercial at the start (Note that no fathers or potential Prince Charmings were harmed during the presentation):

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Parenting/video/extreme-proms-spend-13426389

So much for the impact of “reality” television! With a royal wedding coming up as well, all I can say is,

Roll me in Elsie’s glue, cover me with glitter, and point me toward the princess!

Walter Lowe

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

Mendacity in the Country

2011-03-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

Astral Facts, March 2011

Mendacity in the Country

In my freshman composition (English 101) class, students form groups and choose from a list of articles which they would like to teach to their classmates. Among them is a 1990 New York Times article written by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., “2 Live Crew, Decoded,” in which Gates defends the 1st Amendment rights of the controversial rap group.

Gates’ argument is that the content cannot be evaluated without first understanding the cultural background at its foundation. His point is that exaggeration and hyperbole are imbued in the culture, just as more mainstream cultural groups use the “tall tales” of the North to entertain. Due to the roots of slave oppression, African-Americans needed to create coded vocabulary to communicate among themselves while using what seems to be innocuous language.

These days, when the lyrics appear to cross beyond the innocuous, those in the mainstream culture can easily take the language content at face value, which Gates perceives as a problem at the receiving end. However, his commentary does not imply a blanket approval of the content, as he says,

“Still, many of us look toward the emergence of more female rappers to redress sexual stereotypes. And we must not allow ourselves to sentimentalize street culture: The appreciation of verbal virtuosity does not lessen one’s obligation to critique bigotry in all its pernicious forms.”

Obviously, he is concerned about the representation of the African American female stereotypes these lyrics portray, and back in 1990 he was anticipating a rebuttal to emerge from the community that is being misrepresented.It is now 21 years later and we might take a look to see what is happening in this cultural battlefield. Here is a posting by a group of young African American girls in response to content in the current music scene: (Although the presentation is by adolescent girls, expletives have not been deleted):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8nLCg6ZwjY&feature=player_embedded

Obviously, they didn’t post this up all by themselves, as the URL for a website does appear on the screen. (If you do go to the website advertised, you can find links to over 250 photos of women who would like to meet you!)

Those in the community do find it troubling:

http://www.bvblackspin.com/2011/02/15/profane-kid-video-demonstrates-the-need-for-our-own-revolution/

A ten-year-old’s letter to Lil Wayne:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pu0SeTXjC74

But as one of the comments on the first YouTube notes, “kids will be kids.”

Walter Lowe

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

2011-03-03T16:32:00.000-08:00

Astral Facts, February 2011

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Figuratively Speaking

Often we hear questions about the arts and humanities – what role do they play? Why do we study the texts from literature, art, music, and such from the past?

Even though we may merely regard them as such, frequently the stories they tell are more than just a thrown together plot with action and exploding cars (Spike TV) or the emotional stress of building and/or destroying relationships (Lifetime TV) with stuff in between (the other channels).

In a recent Frazz cartoon in the daily paper on Feb 18th, (I haven’t reproduced it here because copyright laws are too complex for my simple mind, but here’s the URL: http://comics.com/frazz/), a student tells three others that he gets $5 for every A on his report card, but another student gets $10 for each one. The three students respond differently:

“My mom says learning is its own reward,”
“My dad pays himself $100 for every A I get,” and
“My mom pays me the same each year, but I have to get 15% more.”

In the final panel, Frazz (the young custodian) asks “What did you learn?” and the student replies,

“That Katie’s mom is still in school, Egan’s dad is a CEO, Isabel’s mom is a sales director, and why grown-ups don’t talk about their salaries.”

Like this scene, the “story” may be filled with information, but real “learning” occurs when we exercise critical thinking and analysis to understand what the details or information means and why it holds significance in application outside the “text” itself.

The repeated and familiar texts of a culture are vehicles that frequently illustrate and communicate thoughts and ideals that extend beyond each text itself. However, without a foundation of cultural literacy, the meaning may escape us.

This was brought home to me recently when a family friend mentioned someone had recently been offered a transfer away from his relatives to work in Hawaii, and the person had commented, “Don’t throw me in the briar patch! Don’t throw me in the briar patch!” Our friend thought that was a weird non-sequitur. When I asked my children to explain it, they were equally clueless.

So I went to the library and requested a copy of The Favorite Tales of Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris. A few days later over the after-dinner tea, I read aloud the story of “Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby,” but they still didn’t understand. So I got another version (Jump Again: More Adventures of Brer Rabbit), translated from the original dialect of the “American South” and we read “Brer Rabbit in the Well” followed by “Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby.” Now they get it!

In a recent column on the sports page of the Seattle Times, a reporter interviewed a former player from the Mariners now finally achieving some recognition with another team after many years in the minor leagues. Knowing that several other successful players have had such difficult journeys, the reporter asked the player whose life he most identified with. The player responded, “Odysseus!” Try as he might, the reporter couldn’t recall which team Odysseus had played for. (Perhaps associating it with Homer might not even help, for so many players have hit homers?)

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/larrystone/2014280945_stone20.html

A few years ago, I heard a minister describe a retreat he had attended with other religious leaders, and at one point they were asked to identify which biblical character they most identified with. Many of them named various of Jesus’ disciples and noteworthy Old Testament figures. However, one of them said he identified most with Balaam’s Ass, which the minister found quite apropos.

I had to look it up (the minister’s intention for telling the story), and I have to say I see the connection in education as well as I encourage my students to get off the path that wanders into merely noting and remembering details and information.

Hopefully, we can have a citizenry that looks beyond the plot details of life and relationships rather than just living on the surface level of chase and action scenes, although taking a break to watch a car exploding or Bruce Willis blowing away some bad guys can be relaxing!

Walter Lowe

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

Where’s Ophiuchus?

2011-02-02T15:58:00.000-08:00

Astral Facts, January 2011

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Where’s Ophiuchus?

As we see the Year of the Rabbit occurring in early February and with other minor current events going on these days, perhaps it has slipped under the radar, and many of us may not be aware of the current controversy of the missing Astrological Sign: Where’s Ophiuchus?

As we know, the Astrological Year is divided into the twelve lunar months. However, they are referenced to the 12 solar months, which doesn’t really reconcile if a true lunar month is approximately 28 days (28 days X 12 months = 336 days.) Thus, about 29.25 days are used as “filler” to extend the astrological zodiac over the 365.25 days in the solar year.

The Chinese calendar is based purely on the lunar phases, which is why the lunar New Year shifts each year, with an extra month added each leap year to “balance” the discrepancies. Here’s the recent pattern:
2005 Feb 9
2006 Jan 29
2007 Feb 18
2008 Feb 7
2009 Jan 26
2010 Feb 14
2011 Feb 3
2012 Jan 23

(The Moslem lunar based calendar doesn’t make such an adjustment, which is why Ramadan, the month of fasting, occurs about 11 days earlier each year and the Islamic New Year occurs Dec 7th 2010, Nov. 26th 2011, Nov 15th 2012, etc.)

The recent controversy revolves around the “missing” month of the Zodiac: Ophiuchus, referred to as the “serpent bearer,” which used to be included in the astrological charts until the Babylonians dumped it (for reasons unknown) according to a recent New York Times report. Ophiuchus should fill the time from about Nov 30th until Dec 17th. As the Times reporter, Jesse McKinley, notes, this would make it “the unofficial sign of Holiday Shoppers,” implying this may be the source of the slithering behavior in the malls and highways at that time!

In Western culture, the snake or serpent has a negative connotation, going back to the days of Adam and Eve and the problems caused in the Garden of Eden. However, in Eastern cultures, the snake or serpent is regarded as a symbol of wisdom. (Curiously enough, in the Adam and Eve story the deception on the part of the serpent is only possible because the serpent has wisdom. Unfortunately, the serpent misused the wisdom.)

Ophiuchus is associated with an historical Egyptian figure, Imhotep (mythical Asclepius to the Greeks) reputed to have had wisdom and knowledge in the field of healing and medicine. Apparently, the Babylonians didn’t agree with his bona fides.

If you’re wondering how all this might affect you and/or pick-up lines out in the ‘hood, here’s the suggested revision:

ACTUAL TRUE ZODIAC

1. ARIES = APRIL 19 - MAY 13
2. TAURUS = MAY 14 - JUNE 19
3. GEMINI = JUNE 20 - JULY 20
4. CANCER = JULY 21 - AUG 9
5. LEO = AUGUST 10 - SEPTEMBER 15
6. VIRGO = SEPTEMBER 16 - OCTOBER 30
7. LIBRA = OCTOBER 31 - NOVEMBER 22
8. SCORPIO = NOVEMBER 23 - NOVEMBER 29
9. OPHIUCHUS = NOVEMBER 30 - DECEMBER 17
10. SAGITTARIUS = DECEMBER 18 - JANUARY 18
11. CAPRICORN = JANUARY 19 - FEBRUARY 15
12. AQUARIUS = FEBRUARY 16 - MARCH 11
13. PISCES = MARCH 12 - APRIL 18

Of course, the natural scientists know that the Earth tends to wobble on its pathway, with the North Pole often shifting to point at different stars, so the distinctions may be subject to adjustment.

Even so, according to Rob Brezsny, syndicated horoscope author, “Astrology is a poetic language of the soul, not a scientific method, similar to a Neruda poem, Kandinsky paintings or a Nick Cave song” (McKinley).

As Robert Frost has noted, “And that has made all the difference.”

Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

Family Thanksgiving

2010-12-15T13:03:00.000-08:00

Astral Facts, November 2010

(weather-delayed edition)

Family Thanksgiving

While sitting in the dentist office waiting room last August, I was surprised to see a current issue of Newsweek on the table. This issue focused on the world’s top 100 countries, where the United States finished 11th overall (Some details are here:

http://www.newsweek.com/feature/2010/the-world-s-best-countries.html)

I was interested in the rating for education, where the US didn’t crack the top ten in education. (On the online chart, the US finished 26th, snuggled between Slovenia (27th) and Latvia (25th), far behind Finland (1st), as well as Kazakhstan (14th), and Cuba (20th).

The issue also included a sidebar commentary on what kinds of “fixes” might be considered.

1. Get kids into school as early as possible

2. Increase the time spent in school

3. Invest in teacher training

The researchers noted that American children spend half their waking hours outside of school, but children experiencing extensive preschooling at a young age, extended school days and years, and instruction from “effective” teachers do better.

As the section on education concluded: It may be difficult in some nations, but “…the fruits of this emphasis are still paying off in high test scores.”

A major problem is certainly being exposed here. I am sure everyone can see it plainly.

Of course, I am referring to how the emphasis on family is not only absent from the equation but also undermined.

Rather, the focus is on getting “good” test scores related to intellectual and factual knowledge and its application. How is “character” education being included or even acknowledged? What part of the curriculum includes respect for others, tolerance toward diversity, involvement in community service, etc?

I always thought the “first school” and basic education began within the family and the family continued to be the primary institution of learning in any stable society. However, the three points emphasized for reform combine to reduce the influence and involvement of the family. Is the cure really to put children in school at an earlier age, keep them in school more days and for a longer time each day, and place the responsibility for the children upon the “trained” educators in the school system?

In my freshman comp class, students read “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, where she discusses the nature and complexity of the languages we use in intersecting worlds we inhabit. In giving a lecture about her book The Joy Luck Club, she found herself using the formal structure of academic English. Later in conversing with her mother and her husband, she commented on the high cost of furniture by saying, “Not waste money that way.” She realized this was a perfectly normal statement to make “in our language of intimacy” that she had grown up with as a member of an immigrant family. In her article, Tan recognizes the different “Englishes” she combines in her writing:

The English I spoke to my mother, which for lack of a better term might be described as ‘simple’; the English she used with me, which …’broken’; my translation of her Chinese, which …’watered down’; and what I imagined to be her translation of her Chinese if she could speak in perfect English, her internal language, and for that I sought to preserve the essence, but with neither an English nor a Chinese structure. I wanted to capture what language ability tests can never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech and the nature of her thoughts.

We also read and discuss “Children in the Woods” by Barry Lopez (referred to as “the nation’s premier nature writer" by the San Francisco Chronicle). Lopez owns some wilderness property in Oregon, where children frequently visit. He says the children often want to go into the woods with him. Lopez notes, “In the beginning, years ago, I think I said too much. I spoke with an encyclopedic knowledge of the names of plants or the names of the birds passing through in season.” He goes on to say that he learned later just to guide the children along paths of discovery from simple details they notice. He comes to realize,

In speaking with children who might one day take a permanent interest in natural history-as writers, as scientists, as filmmakers, as anthropologists-I have sensed that an extrapolation from a single fragment of the whole is the most invigorating experience I can share with them. I think children know that nearly anyone can learn the names of things; the impression made on them at this level is fleeting. What takes a lifetime to learn, they comprehend, is the existence and substance of myriad relationships: It is these relationships, not the things themselves, that ultimately hold the human imagination.

I would think such experiences as Tan and Lopez describe are important "astral" intangibles that the SAT, GRE, ACT, WASL (may it rest in peace), etc. overlook or even ignore. In this country, we see universities placing emphasis on community service, extracurricular activities, and personal narratives as much as the standardized tests that currently define “good” students.

Both my grandfathers died before I was born, so I never got to take a walk with them in the woods or discuss the olden day struggles with them; nonetheless, I learned a lot from my own father and mother about their lives and my own through our shared experiences as a family during the “down time” from school, something I make sure to do with my own children.

During this November and December festive holiday time when families traditionally gather, I hope everyone can have time for informal and internal education as a family, where tuition is cheap and priceless.

Walter Lowe

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

Put Another Tree Limb on the Bonfire

2010-10-29T13:40:00.000-07:00

Astral Facts, October 2010

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Put Another Tree Limb on the Bonfire

Often we use basic vocabulary without stopping to wonder why and how certain expressions have come to be. For example, the term “bonfire” is often used as teams rally the night before a big football match or when various groups have special evening gatherings at retreats or conferences at waterfront or forested locations.

However, the ties to the term's original concept and this weekend’s Halloween festivities might not be so apparent.

October 31st has long been viewed as the beginning of the new year in Celtic tradition, where the transition from one day to the next actually occurs at nightfall rather than some vague midpoint of the night. In the Celtic traditional stories, light came out of darkness (as in the Judeo / Christian / Islamic beliefs); thus, the darkness represents the transition into new life. Each day then begins in darkness, followed by the new life brought out in daylight.

At nightfall on October 31st, the light of summer ends and the darkness of the seed of the new year begins. Just as the “fruit” germinates unseen from within the seed, new life comes out from the darkness at the end of summer and the harvest season. The Celts call this celebration Samhain or Samhainn (pronounced “Sow-en”) celebrated on the evening of October 31st, according to the predominent solar calendar.

To the Celts, time was circular rather than linear. This is reflected in their commencing each day, and each festival, at dusk rather than dawn, a custom comparable with that of the Jewish Sabbath. It is also reflected in their year beginning with the festival of Samhain on 31 October, when nature appears to be dying down. Tellingly, the first month of the Celtic year is Samonios, ‘Seed Fall’: in other words, from death and darkness springs life and light. http://www.livingmyths.com/Celticyear.htm

According to the Celtic beliefs, at this time the veil between the physical world and the spirit world become very thin, as a sort of “in between” time gap existing between the 12-month solar calendar and the 13-month lunar calendar. In many ways, this became a very sacred and holy time. During this time, ancestors from the Otherworld could revisit their haunts from their physical life time. Villagers opened doors and windows to welcome in their ancestors, and food was prepared for them. Since not all the spirits were friendly, faces of guardian spirits were carved on turnips and set at the doorways to turn away those bothersome spirits.

There was also a much lighter side to the Celtic New Year rituals. Children put on strange disguises and roamed the countryside, pretending to be the returning dead or spirits from the Otherworld. Celts thought the break in reality on November Eve not only provided a link between the worlds, but also dissolved the structure of society for the night. Boys and girls would put on each other's clothes, and would generally flout convention by boisterous behavior and by playing tricks on their elders. http://home.comcast.net/~buaidh/Samhainn.html

Villagers would slaughter cattle for a great feast where the whole community would gather around a large fire. The bones of the sacrificed animals would be put on the fire, with all other flames in the village extinguished. Then each family would relight its hearth from the one great fire, bonding the community together to start the new year.

So enjoy the celebration this weekend and other community gatherings throughout the year as you toss another limb from the family tree onto the bonfire!

Walter Lowe

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

Age of the Humanities

2010-09-29T14:57:00.000-07:00

Astral Facts, September 2010

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Age of the Humanities

In these days of changes and budget cutting, on campus we see the budget knife poised over the literature, arts, and humanities areas. Perhaps this should be troubling to us all.

Historians and many social scientists will tell us that human civilization has shifted from agrarian societies to what is called the Industrial Age, where powers of production and labor capabilities were the bases for power and value. More recently, civilization has been in what some call the Information Age, where control and manipulation of knowledge and information have reigned. As we have continued into the 21st century and the third modern millennium, control over and access to information is no longer available only to a privileged few, as anyone can “Google” this or blog that.

Daniel Pink, a commentator on business and technology issues, has suggested that we are now in the Conceptual Age, where powers of human sensitivity will hold the key to success in life. In other words, the opportunities, capabilities and skills of “design, story, symphony, empathy, play, and meaning” will be valued. It is not having the information and knowledge that will be important; rather, the application and use of the content will be of greater value.

British philosopher Roger Scruton has divided knowledge into three categories. He calls these “knowledge that, how, and what,” which can be restated as knowledge related to “information, skill, and virtue.” In other words, knowledge “that” would help us understand the meaning of a bicycle and the principles of its design. Knowledge “how” would refer to having the capability of pedaling it, applying the brakes, competing in BMX extreme sports, etc. Finally, knowledge “what” involves the proper time, place, circumstances, etc. in applying such skills – should we ride at full speed across campus and down the hallways between classes? Should we ride in the middle of the street and impede other vehicle traffic when no specific bike lane is marked? Scruton says such knowledge is the basis for a cultural “ethical vision,” which he says “is a knowledge not of facts nor of means but of ends: the most precious knowledge we have.”

And isn’t this the knowledge addressed by the Humanities? Isn’t it through the various disciplines of the Humanities (art, literature, philosophy, music, language, theater, etc.) that people are able to exercise and experience the components of the “Conceptual Age” that Pink has identified?

As many have noted, in a time when we see emphasis on multicultural inclusion, why are cutting off the avenues for the sharing of stories, empathy, symphony, etc. that connect us with the cultural diversity that surrounds us in the barrios, ghettos, ‘burbs, and other ‘hoods? Shouldn’t today’s students learn to develop an understanding of the skills, values, and knowledge “what” needed in the Conceptual Age?

This reminds me of the story of the prospector and his donkey.

Every month the two would come down from the hills to get fresh supplies. Each time the prospector was disturbed by the cost of feed for his donkey. Finally, he told the owner of the supply store that he had figured out a solution – he would train the donkey to live on sawdust, which was in plentiful supply in the hills.

After several months like this, the prospector came down to the town without the donkey.

Where is your donkey?" the shopkeeper asked him.

“Oh, I must be the unluckiest person alive,” moaned the prospector. “Just as I finally trained the donkey to survive on sawdust, it died!”

Walter Lowe

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

2010-04-26T15:15:00.000-07:00

Astral Facts, April 2010

Have Fun on 101

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

April’s celebration as “Poetry Month” has seen lots of famous and contemporary pieces published in the newspapers, in daily emails, on refrigerator notes, etc. We might be wondering why we haven’t seen the advertisers jump on this bandwagon, but – like marketing natural medicines – the money in poetry isn’t really so profitable.

Fortunately, the people at Burma Shave didn’t accept that, exploring down a “road not taken” with the poetic signs which used to be found along the backroads of America. Perhaps many of us can still remember “the good ol’ days” driving on those winding two-lane state highways (like the original Route 66 across country or Highway 101 along the west coast) and then coming across a series of five or six small signs on the side of the road, with about enough space in between to read and digest one before the next appeared. The final sign in the series always identified the source (Burma Shave), but we knew it long before it appeared.

Some samples went like:

The ladies
          Take one whiff
                        And purr—
                                       It's no wonder
                                                       Men prefer

Burma-Shave Lotion

The first signs carried content to advertise the benefits of the product, but once the brand name recognition became automatic, many verses focused on driving habits and road safety. A typical example is entitled “Daisies”:

       If daisies
                 Are your
                        Favorite flower
                                      Keep pushing up those
                                                        Miles-per-hour

Burma Shave.

You can find an exhaustive list compiled from the book Verse by the Side of the Road at this location:
http://burma-shave.org/jingles/

Of course, we don’t take the backroads in our current fast-paced culture, and we have the Interstates (I-5, I-90, I-84, etc.) slicing straight lines through terrains from point A to point B at posted speeds of 70 mph. Thus, the rustic local color of the country roads has been brushed over and aside for the state sponsored (and controlled) “Lodging / Food / Gas at the next exit” messages that preserve the natural beauty of the Interstate network and control the revenue flow.

High-fives for the I-5’s!

During this month, I experienced the “High-five for the I-5” attitude in my classroom while we were discussing the poem “The Man He Killed” by Thomas Hardy.

I imagine copyright laws prevent me from reproducing the entire poem here, but it’s readily available online for perusal prior to discussing it. Open it in a new window:

http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/923.html

My students read it over and pronounced it was saying that “war turns potential friends into enemies. “

I suggested that might not be all there was to it, so they added that the poem shows that “war causes soldiers to act differently than they ordinarily would.”

This was followed by the attitude that said, “We’ve finished. Can we leave now, Mr. Lowe?”

“High five for the I-5!”

However, I had planned the class session with a “High fun on 101” perspective, and I was noticing some curves, so I asked, “Why does each stanza begin with quotation marks, but only the final stanza has quote marks at the end?”

While they puzzled over that one, I noticed a view from a different angle, asking them, “Why does he have those dashes in the third and fourth stanzas?”

Since one of the students had read the poem aloud to start the discussion, I suggested, “Do the dashes somehow affect the rhythm of the poem when it’s read aloud? Why would Hardy do something like that?”

As a class, we figured out that the quotations meant that the entire poem was that of a soldier speaking aloud, and the dashes interrupted the rhythm because it appeared that this was the first time the soldier had verbally told the story of the experience.

By now, we were actually out of the allotted time, but obviously we weren’t finished yet. We hadn’t decided what the circumstances were that prompted him to speak. So the assignment for the next day was to imagine someone needed an illustration to accompany the poem in a book. If the offer was $5,000 for the best concept, how would they compose their suggestion? How much time had elapsed between the event and the telling of it? How would they describe the scene and situation?

The next day they had forgotten the “High-five for I-5” view and completely pulled off the freeway. They wanted to spend the entire class time at this particular bend in the road with its panoramic view of the variety of possible scenes.

Obviously, the “I” and the “he” in the poem referred to the two soldiers, with “I” walking off the battlefield and “he” remaining a dead body on the battlefield.

However, the “He” in Hardy's title, now they had thought about it, wasn’t so clear. If the speaker in the poem had indeed realized in the third and fourth stanzas that the man who had died might easily be a mirror image of himself, that realization had not carried over to the fifth (and final) stanza, for he ends the story in the same matter-of-fact and somewhat detached voice he started with.

Whatever emotions he had acknowledged in stanza three and four were now safely bottled up again. Essentially, part of him had died out on the battlefield as well, and now this is something he has to carry inside.

The students felt that Hardy had recognized and described PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) back in the early 1900’s – long before the contemporary recognition in the 1970’s as a condition needing attention.

By their initial “High-five for I-5” approach, the students had missed the deeper implications of Hardy’s observations. However, a “Have fun on 101” approach offered much more value – value that perhaps could be found as we examine other things going on around us. What happens in the classroom doesn't need to stay in the classroom!

Perhaps it’s not a bad idea to pull out of the fast lanes and take a leisurely drive, for fun, on 101!

Walter Lowe

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

2010-04-01T15:41:00.000-07:00

Astral Facts, March 2010

Natural Language

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Since April is National Poetry Month, it seems appropriate to segue from the lamb-like ending of the month (in spite of snow pummeling the mountain passes) by looking at how poetry can have its roots from merely listening to the voices of Mother Nature.

In her article “Hearing Voices,” Linda Hogan, a Chickasaw poet and the inaugural Writer in Residence for the Chickasaw, comments on Barbara McClintock, who won the Nobel Prize in 1983 for her research on gene transposition in maize (corn). When McClintock was asked for the inspiration that led her to her discoveries, she said that she listened to what the corn was saying to her, “letting it come.” According to Hogan, McClintock was successful because she paused to learn “the stories” of the corn plants and developed a relationship of “the inner voices of corn and woman speaking to one another.”

Hogan’s point is that, as a poet, her mission is to listen to the voices of nature and then be the medium to express them. Nature sees everything and reports it to whomever will listen. As Hogan says, when the Chernobyl disaster occurred, the local authorities tried to hush it over, but the wind carried the message to the rest of the world. “The wind was the poet, the prophet, the scientist” all rolled into one.

Hogan draws upon her own heritage whose oral tradition has told the stories of people who listened to the Earth: “people who have known that corn grows with the songs and prayers of the people, that it has a story to tell, that the world is alive.”

Hogan points out that this is not merely restricted to Native American tradition, for Western Culture describes how "Psyche received direction from the reeds and ants; Orpheus knew the language of earth, animals, and birds.”

Hogan says the mission of the poets is to communicate these messages. She cites Ernesto Cardenal, a priest, poet, and former Nicaraguan Minister of Culture, who commented on political events by noting, “The armadillos are very happy with this government …/ Not only humans desired liberation / the whole ecology wanted it.”

If course, these just sound like nice stories; however, perhaps it’s not that art imitates life, it is that art reflects life:

http://discovermagazine.com/2002/apr/featplants
http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=4577

So for those of us who might be interested in learning a new language so that we can listen to our plants and maybe find inspiration in our lives and for the lives of those around us, here’s a good place to start:

http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=4577

And who knows; maybe we can hear the voices, too!

EARTH VOICES
by: Bliss Carman (1861-1929)

I Heard the spring wind whisper
Above the brushwood fire,
"The world is made forever
Of transport and desire.

"I am the breath of being,
The primal urge of things;
I am the whirl of star dust,
I am the lift of wings.

"I am the splendid impulse
That comes before the thought,
The joy and exaltation
Wherein the life is caught.

"Across the sleeping furrows
I call the buried seed,
And blade and bud and blossom
Awaken at my need.

"Within the dying ashes
I blow the sacred spark,
And make the hearts of lovers
To leap against the dark."

II

I heard the spring light whisper
Above the dancing stream,
"The world is made forever
In likeness of a dream.

"I am the law of planets,
I am the guide of man;
The evening and the morning
Are fashioned to my plan.

"I tint the dawn with crimson,
I tinge the sea with blue;
My track is in the desert,
My trail is in the dew.

"I paint the hills with color,
And in my magic dome
I light the star of evening
To steer the traveller home.

"Within the house of being,
I feed the lamp of truth
With tales of ancient wisdom
And prophecies of youth."

III

I heard the spring rain murmur
Above the roadside flower,
"The world is made forever
In melody and power.

"I keep the rhythmic measure
That marks the steps of time,
And all my toil is fashioned
To symmetry and rhyme.

"I plow the untilled upland,
I ripe the seeding grass,
And fill the leafy forest
With music as I pass.

"I hew the raw, rough granite
To loveliness of line,
And when my work is finished,
Behold, it is divine!

"I am the master-builder
In whom the ages trust.
I lift the lost perfection
To blossom from the dust."

IV

Then Earth to them made answer,
As with a slow refrain
Born of the blended voices
Of wind and sun and rain,

"This is the law of being
That links the threefold chain:
The life we give to beauty
Returns to us again."

"Earth Voices" is reprinted from April Airs: A Book of New England Lyrics. Bliss Carman. Boston: Small, Maynard and Company, 1916.

Walter Lowe

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

2010-02-01T16:03:00.000-08:00

Astral Facts, January 2010

The Handwriting on the Wall

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

If you’re like me, you probably were occupied with so many things that you missed the celebration for “National Handwriting Day,” which occurred, as it does every year, on January 23rd, the birthday of John Hancock, one of the most famous for handwriting.

And if you’re like most people, you might be thinking it’s not really a big deal – anything worth noting is already in our faces via email, texting, “all a-Twitter,” or other such channels of Twaddle.

People don’t write in diaries or journals any more – we have our personal blogs and Facebook pages to satisfy the primordial autobiographical urges – why bother with the clutter and mess of pen and ink!?

Why, indeed?

The recent issue of American Educator, Winter 2009-201, published by the American Federation of Teachers, addresses the topic of handwriting skills and composition and higher level thinking skills. The author (Steve Graham) notes that children often find that their ideas flow much faster than their hand moves, and they get frustrated at not being able to write down their thoughts fast enough. http://archive.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/index.htm

As a result, gaps occur while the mind must slow down and wait. When the hand has finished putting down the thoughts from a few minutes ago, the mind has often raced ahead and the next idea jotted down has fluency failings or it is written so illegibly that the content is totally lost. The student gets frustrated, decides “I can’t write; I’m not a writer,” and the self-fulfilling prophecy is verified when the student does fail in writing. We don’t have time in our elementary schools just to focus on handwriting itself, copying significant passages from significant tomes – handwriting is in the tombs.

And today, we really don’t need to write our thoughts out in much detail. Consequently, if we do, the lack of skill and practice is a handicap. For example, Kitty Burns Florey, the author of Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting, notes in the January 29th entry in her blog,

But I think it’s too soon to declare legible penmanship a lost art. Maybe the problem lies in calling it an art rather than a simple necessity like knowing how to add and subtract. Hardly a day goes by when the average person doesn’t have to write something on paper. We take notes at meetings, we make lists, we address an envelope, we send a thank-you letter, we keep diaries. A radio talk show host who interviewed me this morning had jotted down some things he wanted to discuss but confessed he couldn’t read it back so had to wing it.
http://blog.coreknowledge.org/2009/01/29/handwriting-is-still-alive/

Back in 1986 (February 24th), Lance Morrow’s whimsical article in Time magazine entitled “Scribble, Scribble, Eh, Mr. Toad?” extends Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows story to Mr. Toad discovering mechanical writing tools and progressing much the way he did with his vehicle fetishes. What if Toad (or any of us) found those no longer available, relegating himself back to the primitive mode of communicating in handwritten form? Perhaps, we might discover,

Toad drove his pencil onward. Grudgingly, he thought, This is rather interesting. His handwriting, spasmodic at first, began to settle after a time into rhythmic, regular strokes, growing stronger, like an oarsman on a long haul. Words come differently this way, thought Toad. To write a word is to make a thought an object. A thought flying around like electrons in the atmosphere of the brain suddenly coalesces into an object on the page (or computer screen). But when written in longhand, the word is a differently and more personally styled object than when it is arrayed in linear file, each R like every other R. It is not an art form, God knows, in Toad script, not Japanese calligraphy. .....

Writing in longhand does change one's style, Toad came to believe, a subtle change, of pace, of rhythm. Sentences in longhand seemed to take on some of the sinuosities of script. As he read his pages, Toad considered: The whole toad is captured here. L'ecriture, c'est l'homme (Handwriting is the man). Or: L'ecriture c'est le crapaud (Handwriting is the toad). http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,960730,00.html
OMG! 2 ltl time, 2 mch 2 say!
@TEOTD IWAWO!
But ICBW,
TTFN.

(Oh my goodness, too little time and too much to say.
At the end of the day, I want a way out!
But it could be worse.
Ta-Ta for now.)

Walter Lowe

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the
Humanities Science offices.

2009-12-14T14:36:00.000-08:00

Astral Facts, December 2009

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Seasons and Reasons

This is the time when everyone gets out the holiday garb and attitude and puts on a festive face. Nonetheless, one hears some voices concerned people have related to Christmas with many people not seeing the “reason for the season,” which certainly is something I find troubling. However, my concerns are a bit different.

Here in the academic realm, especially at a state school, we tread lightly in the areas of religion in the classroom. However, we do often teach about religion from an academic perspective. For example, in our English course list, each winter we offer English 185: “Literary Approaches to the Bible,” often referred to as “The Bible as Literature” on other campuses. The focus is to treat the Bible as a literary text, just as we might regard Moby Dick, The Jungle, Great Expectations, or other masterpieces of “Western Civilization” by understanding the text in the context of the historical time, the cultural setting, the structural elements, the intended audiences, etc.

In the Bible, four different authors, working independently, have identified key episodes in the story of the life of Jesus. The tendency for most people is to piece together the four different versions of the life of Jesus to get a grand overview. If we look at the story of the birth of Jesus from an academic view, we would probably first notice that only two authors (Matthew and Luke) mention the details of the birth itself. Luke mentions the manger scene, witnessed by the shepherds, and Matthew mentions three kings from the East coming to find the special child, which obviously must have occurred some time later, knowing how slow the transit systems were back in those days.

Looking at the historical context, we can see some unusual circumstances. Of course people know that in the story Mary became pregnant before her marriage to Joseph. In those days, being unmarried and pregnant was a serious issue. Later in Jesus’ life we encounter the story of the harlot about to be stoned to death for her transgressions and early, in Jesus’ own lineage, Tamar narrowly escaped serious punishment when the judge, her own father-in-law Judah, realized he was the father of the unborn child. Tamar was then protected by the authority of Judah, as the patriarch of the extended family.

Knowing this, we can understand why the pregnant Mary would go to seek the protection of her own family, and the plot in the Bible story has her going to the home of her cousin, Elizabeth, who is married to Zacharias, a high priest. As the plot thickens, Elizabeth, who has been barren for many years, is in seclusion herself, six months into the miracle pregnancy of the son who will late grow up to become John the Baptist. As the story progresses, when Mary enters their home, Elizabeth notes that the child in her womb has leapt with excitement over the glory of the unborn child in Mary’s womb, for both Elizabeth and her unborn child recognize that Mary’s child is the coming Messiah.

All of this makes a lot of sense in the context of the Bible itself. The whole story is about Paradise Lost and the process of getting things back into order, which is why God is sending a messiah. The stories in the Old Testament portion of the Bible tell the tales of the people being prepared to receive this Messiah. The academic readers, who are following the plotline and thinking as they go, can see how God’s influence is guiding the events.

However, just as the story of the Garden of Eden at the beginning shows that the humans had choices to make in following God’s direction or not, the situation with Jesus becomes quite curious, for in the story, Mary only stays with Zacharias and Elizabeth for about three months. In other words, about the time of the birth of John the Baptist, Mary is sent off on her own, which puts her in serious peril as an unprotected, unmarried, and pregnant woman!

The bottom line here seems to be that the family of Zacharias is rebelling against the directions of God, and, even though they have been told the value and importance of the unborn child, they don’t want to have to deal with it. (We can pity Zacharias his situation with two pregnant women under his roof, and it does seem reminiscent of the story of Abraham dealing with the two women, Hagar and Sara, arguing over which son is the “true” heir. Like Abraham before him, Zacharias probably finally gave in and sent away the woman with the lesser claim!)

However, this is where the role of Joseph becomes essential, for after a dream of a conversation with an angel, Joseph agrees to go ahead and wed Mary. Thus, it seems things are resolved somewhat. Although the child will not have the advantages of being in a family with access to education and influence along the lines of what Moses had, at least the mother and unborn child have a male protector.

Unfortunately, it seems that this is all that Jesus has; when they travel for the census count to Bethlehem, the location of Joseph’s family, no one is willing to acknowledge them. Again, this plot twist piques the interest of the academic reader. Wouldn’t one expect that some family member, knowing that Mary was on the verge of giving birth, make some effort to find comfortable lodgings for the couple? The fact that they cannot even find space at a local inn indicates that the couple may have had family in the area, but apparently they had no friends.

In fact, the story continues with the couple only being able to find space in the stable area with the animals. Frankly, we can imagine how this was quite unpleasant. In modern reenactments, we see a nice fresh scene with soft clean fresh golden straw for the child, but the reality was probably much different. In that time and place, the animals were kept underground in caves, so air circulation was limited. What mother today would choose to give birth in such a location, most likely teeming with various kinds of e coli germs and who knows what else? The situation was probably pretty nasty, even by the standards of that time and place. If we, as readers, step back from the situation, from God’s perspective, this must have been very painful developments to suffer through.

Of course, God is not an idle God, even when the people follow other idols. We can see as the story progresses, that three kings from the East show up, having been “led” on a quest to find this special child. Of course, as visiting dignitaries, they stop in at Herod’s place. As the ruling monarch in the area, Herod would be the best contact for being able to find this special child. However, Herod himself has no clue where the child is, so he lets the three kings know that they should clue him in if they find the child, for he would like to pay homage himself.

Obviously, Jesus has been protected from Herod, for Jesus presents a serious threat to Herod’s power. The three kings are not dummies and they realize what kind of "homage" Herod really means. What’s interesting as the story continues is that these three foreigners are able to be guided directly to Jesus, while all Herod’s organization cannot find him.

As this story of cooperation and lack of cooperation by humans in response to God’s directions progresses, the thinking reader can surmise that these three dignitaries have been sent to provide the protection that has been denied the “holy” family up to this point. Unfortunately, the three kings follow the same pattern and slip out of the country by the back roads, avoiding any contact with Herod and his organization.

Instead of taking Jesus and his family with them to safety outside Herod's domain, all they do is leave behind some small gifts of frankincense, myrrh, and gold. Once again, Jesus has been abandoned and the family must escape on its own to Egypt in the west.

Thus, when people mention concerns about not recognizing “the reason for the season,” I experience bittersweet feelings about the “reason for the gift”: depending on what “gift” is referred to.

But after all, it’s just a story.

Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

2009-11-30T15:21:00.000-08:00

Astral Facts, November 2009

Words to the Wise

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

In this season of giving thanks, one thing I am grateful for is grammar. Even though it is also a seven-letter word that strikes terror in the heart of the stout-hearted and makes strong men quake at the knees, it’s cloaked in job security from my vantage point.

In the grammar family, a most useful but little understood item is the pronoun. Of course, people know that a noun identifies a person, place, or thing; nonetheless,when I ask my students what a pronoun is, they are quick to come up with puzzled looks, but that’s about it. When I tell them that Tiger Woods was a noun when he was in college, but once he started playing golf for money he became a pronoun, they scoff.

Another little understood grammatical unit is the preposition. Although they tend to defy definition, without prepositions, we have a difficult time being anywhere. As they say on this campus, a preposition is “anywhere a squirrel can go”: up, down, through, around, between, to, from, away, among, between, etc. Two of my favorite pronouns, in and out, were involved with the story of the two baby skunks. In case you don’t know the story,

A mother skunk once had two babies, named In and Out. Usually they would run around underfoot, for whenever In was in, Out was out. When Out was in, In was Out. Very rarely was In in when Out was in, nor was Out out when In was out.
On one such day, when Out was in and In was out, the mother said, “Out, go out to find In and bring In in.”
So Out went out to find In and bring In in. Immediately, Out came back in bringing In in from being out.
Astonished at the rapidity in which Out had gone out to find In and bring In in, the mother said, "Out, you just went out for In and brought In in in almost no time. How did you find In to bring In in so quickly?”
To which, Out shouted out, “Instinct!”

One of the other great things about grammar is the wonderful phenomenon of punctuation. In this season when people are sending holiday greetings and newsletters with overviews of the past year’s events, the punctuation does become an issue. For example, here’s a text message that Jill sent to Jack. Unfortunately, Jill had been texting when her teacher had gone over punctuation in school, and Jill neglected to include any punctuation in the text message, which is not unusual these days. Perhaps you can help Jack insert the correct punctuation:

Dear Jack I want a man who knows what love is all about you are generous kind and thoughtful people who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior you have ruined me for other men I yearn for you I have no feelings whatsoever when we’re apart I can be forever happy will you let me be yours Jill

How would you punctuate the message? Pencil in your punctuation marks before you scroll down any further.

Jack couldn’t remember what happened the last time they had communicated (assuming that Jack had communicated with Jill at some point – perhaps during a commercial or even in an extended conversation during halftime) but having a photogenic memory (remembering only the good things), Jack interpreted the message in the following way:

Dear Jack,
I want a man who knows what love is all about. You are generous, kind, and thoughtful. People who are not like you admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me for other men. I yearn for you. I have no feelings whatsoever when we’re apart. I can be forever happy; will you let me be yours?
Jill.

Isn't that sweet and touching!? Such depth of feeling would move the heart of any decent man. Unfortunately, the problem is that Jill didn’t really see things the same way. According to Jill’s comments later on Oprah, the punctuation should have been more like this:

Dear Jack,
I want a man who knows what love is. All about you are generous, kind, and thoughtful people who are not like you. Admit to being useless and inferior. You have ruined me. For other men I yearn! For you I have no feelings whatsoever. When we’re apart, I can be forever happy. Will you let me be?
Yours,
Jill

So if you’re unsure of the messages you’re sending, consult with your local English teacher. If the message is going out strong and clear, thank your local English teacher. Either way, if he’s standing near the mistletoe, be sure to give him a big kiss!

Walter Lowe

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

2009-10-30T16:04:00.000-07:00

Astral Facts, October 2009

Hidden Values

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

One of the characteristics of the Humanities Sciences is its interdisciplinary nature. Much of what is expressed through the various branches of Humanities Science has its roots in cultural and social issues. It is through literature and the arts that views on cultural and social behavior and attitudes can be exposed, expressed, examined, and extirpated, exonerated, exhumed, extinguished, etc.

Through the philosophical and theological arms of the Humanities Sciences, moral and ethical questions are often at the forefront. Values clarification is a key concern, especially when the concept of absolute values has been discredited.

I have observed this recently both in the classroom and out in the community on the issue of social justice. In my classroom we have been discussing the one act play Trifles, written by Susan Glaspell back in 1916. The basic plot could be viewed today in an episode of CSI, Law and Order, Boston Legal, etc. A man is found strangled in bed, with no signs of forced entry. Only his wife, who found the body, was in the house during the night. She is the obvious suspect, and she is in the jail. Several males go out to the farmhouse to investigate, and a couple of their wives go along to get clothes for the suspect. The play’s main scene is in the kitchen with the women while the men busily come and go in their investigation, ignoring the trivial things in the kitchen. However, in the kitchen, the women observe clues that lead them to understand the emotionally abusive relationship which had driven the wife to kill her husband in the night after 30 years of marriage.

The real issue comes in examining the concepts of law, crime, and justice. Has a terrible criminal been justifiably executed by his victim, or has a terrible crime been committed against a hardworking man? The women must address the issue of how much, if any, should they report to the men investigating the crime. Just as entertaining as some things in the current entertainment media, the text asks very difficult and complex questions. As the plot unfolds, Glaspell offers her response to the situation, in that time and place, whether or not to let the “criminal” get away.

Another approach to the issue of social justice has emerged with the recent arrest of Roman Polanski. Many have complained about the “law and order” attitude of the Los Angeles district attorney, and the original victim in the case has been quoted as saying she does not want the experience dredged up again.

What is the “right” choice?

Many people who are practitioners of humanities science in the “real” world have seen the arrest as a kind of social injustice itself, perhaps Whoopi Goldberg most notably in saying that Polanski’s filming his sexual relations imposed upon a 13-year-old “was not rape-rape” (meaning it was a kind of rape different from criminal rape). Perhaps "performance art" has moral values that supercede civil restrictions? Is this a "reality show" that came before its time? Debra Winger has called it a “three-decades-old case that is dead but for minor technicalities,” and Woody Allen, no stranger to the situation himself, has objected to the unfairness of Polanski being arrested while traveling from France to attend a cultural event.

How long will it be before the "TV Movie" hits the cable and dish (and the fan)?

Much of the discussion has asked us, the sensitive public, to put ourselves in their shoes. We are reminded of the adage, known as “the golden rule” and present in nearly every culture, to treat others as we would expect to be treated by others ourselves. In combination with this, we may be reminded of the Christian story of Jesus suggesting that “those without sin” should cast the first stone. Of course, the moral is to be forgiving and compassionate toward those who are in difficulty (involving moral straits or constraints).

However, some observers have noted that the motivation seems to be more of an attitude that says, “I won’t judge you for what you’re doing, and then you won’t need to judge me either!” Thus, in the emphasis in our current culture on uplifting one’s self-esteem, the mantle of forgiveness, which used to be followed by “go forth and sin no more,” is now being replaced by the reassuring attitude to “go forth and continue to sin if you like but with a clear conscience”!

Perhaps I could close with a poem published last spring in the award-winning campus literary journal, Espial:

Slant on Life

I lost my standards in the woods
Of mights, and coulds, and shoulds and woulds.
That take me on a pleasant trip
Beside, beyond, or some such slip
Down a slope that seems so nice
That I forget to check the price
To pay to exit and get back
On my route’s good upward track
That now has faded in the woods
Of mights and coulds and shoulds and woulds.

By McArthur Gilstrap.

[McArthur and Gilstrap were the maiden names of my two grandmothers.]

Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

2009-09-23T13:45:00.000-07:00

Astral Facts, September 2009

Value in the Masses?

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

This month the John D. and Catherine MacArthur Foundation awarded half million dollar genius grants each to a Seattle documentary filmmaker for his work among poor and disadvantaged people in the Middle East and a 61-year-old poet currently teaching at the U of Washington. The response was interesting, as one person commented online at the Seattle Times:

I'm good with a filmmaker who's taken brave risks to life and limb to bring information to the world getting this kind of financial support. That kind of work is important and expensive, and this money will be well spent. However, to give a tenured professor who writes poetry, basically a zero expense activity with very little exposure, at 61, seems pointless and probably political. This lady prob makes 100k per year already, and is likely past the best work of her career. I respect poetry more than many, but its a dead art except inside of music, where it has enormous power. Novels also have far more exposure. If these awards are meant to foster progress, then give them to younger people who are less established, and give 5 $100k awards. You will get far more bang for your buck. $500k to a tenured poet just proves that the people with the runaway egos are the arts administrators, not the artists.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009915541_webgeniusgrants22m.html

This makes me think of the “values clarification” exercise with the lifeboat. You know the one - a ship is sinking and the lifeboat can only hold nine people, so which one of the ten people should be left behind? The candidates are always a mixture with such people as a pregnant sixteen-year-old, a forty-year-old former Olympic gold medal winner, a taxi driver from New York with a wife and two children at home, a college basketball star, etc.

I always notice they never include an English instructor – that would make it all too simple.

Or would it?

Nor does the exercise suggest finding some way to save all ten.

Feel free to post your comment or reaction to any or all impact you see here and elsewhere going on between the Humanities and humanity.

Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

Lively Thesis Point

2009-05-29T14:18:00.000-07:00

Astral Facts, May 2009

Thesis of Life
Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Sometimes - actually, make that often times - students sit in my English comp classes with that look that says,

“Like why do I need to know all this – it’s not like I’m going to get a job in a verb conjugation plant or something!”

After all, isn’t school supposed to be preparing the students to be successful in life?

Of course, it would be professional suicide to stop to address – or even consider - that statement at the time. It’s like the windshield wipers on my car that need replacing: I can’t change them when I’m driving in the rain, and when I’m not in the car or it’s not raining, it’s no longer an issue.

Recently I was in an audience somewhere, and the topic did intrude into my somewhat idle mind.

I started with the question, “What do English composition instructors really teach?”

Personally, I tell my students they need to start with some purpose. What do they want to accomplish in their writing? (Of course, the real answer is that they want to get an A, pass the class, get credit toward their degree, and all that stuff swirling around in real life,) but I ask them to focus somewhere outside that unacknowledged reality.

In English teacher jargon, we like to stress the formation of a “thesis” or thesis statement. Of course, we don’t hear that term used out in the ‘hood, so we call it “my point” – as overheard on the street corners, back alleys, and corporate boardrooms – “ma point is….” and “don'cha git ma point?”

Then I tell my students they need to have good reasons for others (the audience) to “git it” like they mean it. Frequently, teachers tell the students to come up with three solid reasons. That way they can triangulate the point and get that nice five-paragraph essay that has a good strong conclusion. Just like Jack McCoy does on Law and Order, merely having the three key reasons (something like the motive, means, and opportunity) doesn’t mean much without good solid evidence.

So I tell them to use the “e+e” formula: present the evidence (examples) that relate and then use the second “e” – explanation. This explanation needs to do more than just identify the meaning of the evidence. The explanation also needs to include commentary on the significance of that meaning.

Unfortunately, the part often overlooked is the conclusion. All the explanation of the significance of the particular examples should be driving the focus toward the closing and the reinforcement of the “ma point" set up at the start.

Unfortunately, people often just end up with an R’s Я Us that repeats, reviews, restates, and basically regurgitates with a “See, I’m right!” emphasis. However, that doesn’t offer any real value to the readers. Thus, a good conclusion goes beyond the simple R’s Я Us statement to offer some benefit or application of the content.

It’s all pretty simple when you think about it, and it works when writing a cover letter on a job application (when my point is they should hire me), a letter of complaint (when my point is they gotta make it right), a proposal for community improvements (when my point is this is the best thing to do), etc.

So let's go back to when my mind was seemingly in idle mode (back in my introduction).

I was attending a religious service in Maple Valley early this month and the main speaker showed a YouTube clip on the big screen. It was two women in a parking lot (apparently a scene from Malcolm in the Middle) letting things get out of control when one of them accidentally inflicts a “door ding” on the other’s vehicle.

Here’s a link to the clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiNEM4rrtwo

Of course, everyone in the place had a good hearty laugh. The commentary that followed primarily focused on how these women had the kinds of natural reactions we all experience.

Frankly, I was a bit troubled by calling this a “natural” reaction. It seemed to me the better term might be “common” reaction. I would think the “natural” reaction would be the initial apology which the second woman was expecting. Of course, she then would naturally say, “not a big deal, I don’t see any serious damage” and they would have gone off their own ways.

A couple weeks later I attended a different kind of religious event in Seattle. The main speaker then focused on simplifying our lives down to a common statement of purpose. I thought,

“Dude! That’s exactly what I’m trying to teach in my composition classes!”

It’s like asking what is the “ma point” to focus everything around?!

The speaker’s suggestion was

Inherit the Original Love of the Creator

which is probably not too different from

Don’t leave a big carbon footprint,

Do unto others ...,

and similar versions of “The Golden Rule” :http://origin.org/ucs/ws/theme015.cfm

It seems that in our current troubled times of budget crunching, dinged doors, road rage, and hectic encounters, that basic stuff of English& 101 (which is just an extension of everything I needed to know in kindergarten) might be worth reflecting upon – both for idle and active minds.

We just need to clarify the meaning, present the "e+e", and confirm the significance is connected to that original "ma point" while driving the content toward the conclusion that includes value and application.

How simple is that?!

Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

The Name Game: Rose, Whereforth Art Thou?

2009-05-01T14:43:00.000-07:00

Astral Facts, April 2009

The Name Game

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Rose, Whereforth Art Thou?

Someone has asked about Humanities Science and how it differs from other disciplines, such as Natural Science or Social Science, and what do I think? The differences can be described in response to that question.

The natural scientist would be concerned about the brain and what physical phenomena (biological, chemical, electrical, etc.) go on when a person thinks. The social scientist would focus on the mind and what emotional or social factors influence the process. The humanities scientist would focus on the imagination that provides the content (images, structure, colors, etc.) and meaning of the thoughts produced.

Of course, these have crossovers, for many the social scientist is interested in the culture and values that influence the social behavior and often the humanities scientists would consider the behaviors that stimulate and perpetuate the imagination. The natural scientists help us build and regulate such design and action.

Thus, as a humanities scientist, I was intrigued by a recent letter to the Seattle Times advice giver “Ask Amy” when a divorced woman (we’ll call her Rose X) unexpectedly ran into a friend and her teenage daughter. This friend was unsure of how to introduce her to the daughter. Rose was no longer “Mrs. X” so maybe she had reverted back to her unmarried name (“Ms. W”). In the awkwardness, the woman told her friend’s daughter to use her first name, “Rose.”

[http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/columnists/advice/chi-0401-ask-amyapr01,0,5970918.column]

As a humanities scientist, I was intrigued by the values crouched behind such behavior of calling Rose “Rose” – something Shakespeare might also have considered– for the use of the language is quite revealing. At what level is it appropriate for one person to address another in the familiar form of the first name?

During my senior year in college I worked in the produce section of a market, and I often chatted with Bob, one of the butchers. Eventually, I learned his name was Bob Gerde and his son Jon was one my classmates from junior high and high school. Jon’s best friend Jim often accompanied Jon there and he had known Bob for over 15 years. Even so, he always called him “Mr. Gerde,” while I, who had known him only a few months, always called him “Bob.” It was a habit Jim felt uncomfortable to break, for that manner of addressing others was used to show respect and a social hierarchy between adults and children.

However, around this same time, Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator, published Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which stressed problems with rigidity in the vertical hierarchy of the subject: object views of the teacher:student relationship. Freire felt this was a very static model, which deadened the vitality he saw missing in education, something he termed the “banking system” style. In this metaphor, the teachers deposited knowledge in the minds of the students and then they tested the students’ knowledge. Like a depositor checking his bank statement, the teacher made sure that what was deposited equaled what was withdrawn. Discrepancies were noted and corrected.

Instead, Freire created a dialectic view that proposed the teacher should also be learning from the students and, to complement this, the students were also serving as teachers in the relationship. Thus, all participants should be transformed through the education process, viewed as a dialogue, with the participants working in cooperation. In other words, with teacher as student and student as teacher, the classroom is a place of horizontal relationships more than simply a vertical down line.

This egalitarian view is quite popular in education now, 40 years later. Theodore Dalrymple, in Our Culture, What’s Left of It, notes the significance of the teacher and pupil terminology change. As he points out, “pupil” implies the existence of some “master” standing in a higher or authoritative position. Although popular terminology in education 40 years ago (Q. “Why did the cross-eyed teacher lose his job?” A. “He couldn’t control his pupils.”), this phrasing is quite archaic these days.

This week my students and I have been reading and discussing Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll House, wherein the central struggle is precipitated by one man, Torvald Helmer, becoming the manager of a bank and firing an employee, Nils Krogstad, not knowing that his wife, Nora Helmer, has illegally borrowed a large sum of money from Krogstad. As the plot thickens, the audience learns that Helmer’s main reason for the dismissal is because he and Krogstad had been friendly acquaintances in their youth and Krogstad is now addressing him by his first name, Torvald, in front of the other employees, which Helmer feels is publicly humiliating and showing a lack of respect for him and his position.

Of course, the students blame Helmer for being so picky, for the “first name basis” seems to be the norm these days. These same students write a paper or participate in a discussion on something written by Ernest Hemingway, and they frequently comment on “Ernest’s” characters and ideas. Listening to this for me is like fingernails on the chalkboard – Oops! - another dead simile. Some even go to the extreme of referring to what “Ernie” has written!

Thus, like the divorcee who says “Rose” is good enough for the teens to use or the education model that suggests the voice and experience of the teacher has no more authority than the real experiences the pupils, sorry- students, bring to the classroom, labels of respect are not so apparent. Perhaps, might it be time to consider “A Rose by another name?”

When Condoleezza Rice was Secretary of State in the Bush Administration, the newspaper headlines often referred to her as “Condi” obviously not to save space if her last name, Rice, is even shorter. And now with Hilary Rodham Clinton as Secretary of State in the Obama Administration, what do the headlines say?

Have you come a long way, babes?

In the play, A Doll House, Ibsen writes with the lines spoken by the husband as coming from Helmer, but the lines from the wife as coming from Nora. Have things changed when the modern day “Rose” rejects “Mrs. X” or “Ms. W”?

A few days ago, one of my students mentioned,

“Mr. Lowe, you are the only one of my teachers who has us use your last name to address you.”

I asked her the names of her other teachers. They were all female names.

Walter Lowe

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

2009-03-16T07:01:00.000-07:00

Are You Smarter Than Your Teacher?
Now is a chance to prove it!

9th Annual Non-credit activity: English 181, 110, 111, and 113.

March Madness “Sanity” Test

Go online to the ESPN Fantasy game home page:

http://games.espn.go.com/frontpage

Free Games to Join

Click on the Tournament Challenge icon and then register to participate through the “sign up for free” link and set up your personal user name and personal password.

Once you create your entry, you can join the group.

Our group is Green River.

Last Sunday, March 15 was the day for the choosing of the 64 teams for the college basketball tournament. Between then and the morning of Thursday, March 19th (when the first game in the tournament starts) you can fill out your predictions regarding the winners of each round of the tournament.

(You must fill out all the information including the final winner before the first game starts on the morning of the 19th.)

You may compose as many as ten different versions of how you predict the tournament will end. After you register the first entry, click on the “tournament challenge” box again to set up an additional entry.

You will be competing with a group of teachers, members of the community, and Green River students to see how many are smarter than the teachers!!

The first two years students won, but the third year Andy Anderson from the English Division was the overall winner! Students won again in 2004 and 2005! In 2006 the winner was Bruce Boyd, a community member I know from attending the UW back in the 1960’s. In 2007 Todd Johnson, an adjunct in the English Division who now also teaches at the Muckleshoot Tribal College, finished first and second! Last year the students took over again and Kent Tung not only finished first but also had six entries finish in the top ten!

February 2009: Check Your Values at the Door

2009-03-02T14:16:00.000-08:00

Astral Facts, February 2009

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Check Your Values at the Door

This past month has been noteworthy due to the celebrations related to February 12th, traditionally recognized as Lincoln’s birthday. The fact that this was the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birthday wasn’t really noted. However, the emphasis was on Feb. 12th being the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birthday. It is interesting that two such different life paths started on this same day, one focused on the external aspects of human existence and the other concerned about the internal.

What seems even more interesting is that commentary on the ideology of Darwin’s theory was the focus of the Seattle Times’ Feb 7th weekly “Faith and Values” column:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008717631_dority07m.html

I’m sure most people are aware that the scientists subscribing to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution have insisted for generations that it does not purport to be an ideology or value system, for it is based upon scientific principles of observation and objective measurement of physical reality. In other words, it is a scientific theory, as the natural scientists define the scientific method, and not an ideology, as the natural scientists define ideology. Thus, it is an academic subject to be taught as the most reasonable and unbiased explanation of life.

Someone needs to clue in the Humanists that they have crossed the line!

Of course, when considering the “survival of the fittest” view that has evolved from Darwin’s observations, people must blur lines to justify all the parking spaces reserved close to the mall for the vehicles with the disabled stickers!

C. S. Lewis mentions in one textbook I use that, when he was an atheist, his main argument was that he couldn’t believe in a God who would allow so much injustice in the world. However, when he considered his argument more deeply, he asked himself why he would expect to find justice in the world. He realized that such an expectation must have come from something outside his own self, which is when he denounced his atheism and went in search of that source.

Of course the main issue in this internal/external dichotomy between philosophy (religion) and science had its most dramatic split back in the 1500’s and 1600’s when the scientists Copernicus (a Catholic cleric) and Galileo (a philosopher) observed that the official Catholic view that the sun revolved around the Earth was not supported by physical evidence. The religious leaders of that time took the “My doctrine, right or wrong, but my doctrine” view, which was their downfall, leading to the undercutting of their authority and credibility.

Perhaps they should have read ahead from the Dali Lama, who has since said,

"Open your arms to change, but don't give up your values."

In other words, when we find ourselves at a doorway and it’s unclear whether we are seeing either temptation or opportunity behind that door, we need to check our values at the door before we choose to venture forward or not.

But what does this mean, really? In our current culture, does it mean to measure (check) the choice against some moral standard? Or does this mean to “put away” our values (in some checkroom) so we won’t feel conflicted once we pass through?

With the current advertising that “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” being so prevalent and accepted these days, we can see the frontlines of the culture wars right in the privacy of our living rooms.

This reminds me of an experience I had while serving in the Peace Corps in Afghanistan in the 1970’s. One evening in Jalalabad several of us volunteers noticed a slight discoloring of the moon. Someone mentioned that we would be having a lunar eclipse, so we all took some chairs and a table up on the roof to view it “up close.” It was quite remarkable, for the people were reacting differently than we expected.
We were having tea and oranges and enjoying the scene while the air, already heavily laden with smoke from cooking fires, was filled with a myriad of sound. We could hear a wailing sound coming from the women in the surrounding neighborhoods. At a different pitch were the sounds of crying children while moaning men’s voices were rising and falling in a lower key. In addition, the mullah at the local mosque was chanting over the loudspeaker system that usually called people to daily prayers.
Some of us went downstairs and asked Ghrafar, the cook and housekeeper, what was going on.
“The people are repenting,” he said. “They believe Allah is eating the moon to punish them for their bad behavior. They are saying they will change. They are asking Allah to stop eating the moon. That is what the people believe.”
He stopped and asked us, “What do you believe?”
So Ed Ciok (who now teaches at Seattle Central CC) picked up an orange and a grapefruit and held them up to the light. He showed Ghrafar how the Earth (the grapefruit) rotated around the sun (the ceiling light) and the moon (the orange) rotated around the Earth. Then, when the orange passed behind the grapefruit, the orange was in the shadow. Likewise, what we were seeing outside was the shadow of the Earth passing across the moon.
“That is what we believe.” Ed concluded.
Then he asked Ghrafar, “What do you believe?”
And Ghrafar responded, “I believe about the grapefruit and the orange like you do!”
“Then tell me,” Ed asked, “what makes the moon go around the Earth and the Earth go around the sun?”
As Ghrafar stood there, puzzling over this one, Ed filled in the blank.
“Allah makes it happen!”
“Yes!” Ghrafar exclaimed. “It’s always Allah behind everything!”

Sometime later we were all back up on the roof laughing and enjoying the experience and camaraderie, when we noticed that Ghrafar wasn’t around. I went downstairs and through the window of Ghrafar’s room I could see him frantically bowing and praying.

Like Ghrafar, many of us are conflicted between our perceptions of the physical realm and the perceptive reality of astral facts.

Albert Einstein has often been misquoted about his religion, and he offers this clarification:

It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.

But from another perspective, Rev. Sun Myung Moon has said, “God is the original scientist.”

Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices

War by the Words

2009-01-30T16:28:00.000-08:00

Astral Facts, January 2009
Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

The War by the Words

In case you missed it, some controversy has swirled around the recent inauguration of President Obama and the poem composed and read to celebrate the event, for someone other than the Poet Laureate was chosen for this honor.

Poet Laureate? You ask!

Who and what is that?

This question and issue came this past week in my class when we read “The Charge of the Light Brigade” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who was England’s poet laureate at the time (1854).

Tennyson wrote this to commemorate a battle in the Crimean War. Thus, even though the event itself was an error caused when the messenger to the Light Brigade did not realize his horse had shifted position and he pointed toward the heavily manned Russian gun batteries half a league to the East rather than the closer British position under pressure from a smaller Russian attack, Tennyson’s poem transformed the view of the misdirected charge into a rallying cry for several generations! Certainly a master spin doctor!

You may recall these words:

Someone had blunder’d
Their’s not to make reply,
Their’s not to reason why
Their’s but to do and die. (lines 12-15)

Essentially, the Poet Laureate is the National Poet, perhaps seen as the literary secretary of state.

Does the United States have such a position?

Yes, in 1937 under the FDR administration Josef Auslander was appointed as the first “Consultant in Poetry.”

Since then 50 people (including multiple appointments) have served in this position. The current Poet Laureate, Kay Ryan, was appointed by the Library of Congress last summer. Here is a link to the government website:

http://www.loc.gov/poetry/about_laureate.html

However, President Obama selected Elisabeth Alexander as the inaugural poet to compose and present her poem on the occasion.

Here is a link to the text itself:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/us/politics/20text-poem.html?ref=books

So here’s the Jeopardy question, to be answered in the form of an answer: How many times have we had an “inaugural poet” and how many of these have not been the Poet Laureate at the time?

Amazingly enough, the correct answer is only four times!

For JFK, both of Bill Clinton’s inaugurations, and now for President Obama!

And none of them was Poet Laureate at the time.

The most memorable event was Robert Frost’s performance at JFK’s inauguration. Frost, who was 87 at the time, was blinded by the bright sunshine off the snow and could not read the faint type on the copy of the poem he had composed, “Dedication,” so he recited from memory another poem, “The Gift Outright,” which he had written in 1942.

Those two are featured at this website: http://www.oodlesofinformation.com/robert-frost/

Who were the other two inaugural poets for Bill Clinton?

Maya Angelou and Miller Williams.

Walter Lowe
Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

2008-12-15T14:05:00.000-08:00

Astral Facts, December 2008
Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Economic Bowl Out

Often we tend to dismiss cultural aspects, primarily in the fields of the Humanities Sciences, which have “entertainment value only.” The underlying message is somehow the “value” is not really so valuable after all.

This may be the case, but history shows us that the psychological benefits of “entertainment value only” help individuals cope with serious issues in their daily lives. This might explain why the movie industry is the greatest in India, where harsh conditions of poverty, homelessness, unemployment, hunger, and other indicators of human suffering have traditionally been equally high.

Likewise, we citizens of the USA also highly prize our entertainment dollar and we see intense competition in the entertainment industry to capture those entertainment dollars, especially in these current times of economic angst.

How else can we explain the recent contracts the New York Yankees have given this past week to two pitchers: $161 million for a seven-year contract and 82.5 million for a five-year contract! (That’s about $750,000 and $500,000 per game they pitch in!)

With all this in mind, we can at least assuage our anxious angst somewhat during this holiday season by escaping down the rabbit hole of the college football bowl competition. Here’s an opportunity to live your fantasy by competing in the college bowl fantasy games offered for free by ESPN on the internet. Here are the details:

This message is from Walter Lowe who is challenging you to play College Bowl Mania on ESPN.com.

This game challenges you to select the winners of each of the NCAA college football bowl games. You can play with a Confidence scoring system (assign confidence points to your picks) or Straight scoring system (just pick the winners!). Best of all, the game is FREE to play! Go to the main website, create a user name with a free account and join our group, “Washington State League” as explained below:

Get in the action now:
http://games.espn.go.com/bowlmania/group?groupID=537

Game Front:
http://games.espn.go.com/bowlmania/frontpage

Group: Washington State League

The first match takes place this coming Saturday, the 20th, so make your pick prior to that in each of the 34 games (and who cares if no one cares who wins!). You can drag each selection up or down the list (the one at the top of your list is worth 34 points if you get it right, the one at the bottom of your list is worth one point if you get it correct) and then you can have a reason to cheer on one of two teams you probably don’t really care about.

However, personal pride and self-esteem are on the line here!

Walter Lowe

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

2008-11-25T12:33:00.000-08:00

Astral Facts, November 2008
Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current

Immaculate Consumption

As we consider the Thanksgiving ‘break” of gorging ourselves in traditional consumption - on turkey and the trimmings, football games, early bird shopping with long lines at the malls, etc. spiced with making connections with friends and families (as well as with such flights in jammed airport terminals) - in the shadows of the celebrations we do have lurking the ogre of the current economic status.

However, things have been much worse and the spiritual strength of the nation is really rooted in how we can respond to tough times and truly give thanks for the heritage at the root of our culture.

To do this, we might want to consider some excerpts and commentary on those early struggles in the foundation and aftermath of the first Thanksgiving. The following can be found at this location: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mosmd/index.htm#part3

Part VI. STARVATION TIME & FIVE KERNELS OF CORN

The first Pilgrim Thanksgiving in the fall of 1621 was a bountiful feast, but the inventory taken afterwards in preparation for winter proved the Pilgrims had grossly overestimated their harvest. The only way they could possibly get through the winter was to cut in half the already weekly rations of food. To make matters even worse, the ship Fortune arrived shortly thereafter with 35 new settlers. Only three were women. They came empty-handed and poorly clothed; ill-equipped for the approaching winter. Bradford wrote,

"They were lusty young men, and many of them wild enough, who little considered whither or about what they went.-But there was not so much as biscuit or cake or any other victuals for them, neither had they bedding, but some sorry things they had in their cabins; not a pot nor pan to dress any meat in; nor over many clothes.-The Plantation was glad enough of this strength, but could have wished that many of them had been of better condition, and all of them better furnished with provisions."

Thus after a month the Fortune returned to England. The Fortune itself had to be supplied from the scant stores of the Colony for her return voyage.

Grim starvation now threatened their annihilation. The Pilgrim colonists could only tighten their belts. Many times the colonists supplied unexpected arrivals and distressed mariners, sometimes in large numbers, from their slender store.

The houses were very small, barely large enough for the families who, despite cold, hunger and sickness had built them. The new arrivals busied themselves by making additions to the seven houses where they were quartered.
From the first, the colonists had been repeatedly promised provisions from England, but the much needed relief never came.

The colonists struggled through the winter, but by May 1622 their food supply was completely gone and the harvest was four months away. According to Edward Winslow's account, the wildlife and fish were in short supply because the number of fowl decreased during the warm months and lacking the proper fishing gear they were prevented from taking advantage of the abundance of cod in the area. Winslow stated,

"And indeed, had we not been in a place where divers sorts of shell fish may be taken with the hand, we must have perished."

In desperation, Winslow was sent 150 miles up the Maine coast to buy, beg or borrow whatever provisions the English ships there could spare. All who were asked gave what they could and not one would accept payment of any kind.

By the time Winslow returned, the settlers were literally starving. The provisions were a godsend but there were many mouths to feed; when rationed out, each person received only 1/4 lb. of bread a day.

[The "Five Kernels of Corn" material is based largely on the work of Susan E. Roser of the Canadian Mayflower Society.]

1622 SUMMER HARVEST FAILS

The long awaited harvest of 1622 was a dismal failure. The Pilgrims had not yet perfected the art of growing corn. They had been busy building the fort and their lack of food that summer had left them too weak and weary to tend the fields properly. It seemed they now faced the prospect of another year with little food.

Yet another ship arrived at Plymouth, the Discovery, this one from Virginia on its way home to England. It had a cargo of what the settlers needed - knives, beads and assorted trinkets which could be traded with the Indians. Seeing how badly they needed the goods, the captain cheated them miserably, but they considered the ship's arrival a blessing - they could now trade with the Indians for food.

Corn was not known to Europeans until it was discovered in America. It is not too much to say that without the indigenous Indian corn, the Pilgrims could not have survived. None of the great variety of English garden seeds they had brought with them and planted ever produced a good harvest. Their food supply became precarious. Occasionally a deer, wild turkey, partridge or quail was bagged, if the hunters were fortunate; fish when fishermens' luck permitted, lobster, alms and eels, if and when they could be found. Wild berries, grapes, groundnuts, strawberries and such could be plucked in their season. Besides not having sufficient grain to make bread, they were also without butter, cheese and milk because they had no cattle.

By early 1623 the shallop had been rudely fitted out as a fishing vessel. It was constantly at sea, coming ashore only long enough to unload a catch and change crews. For months at a time the Pilgrims' diet consisted of fish, clams, groundnuts and whatever deer or water fowl could be hunted. Bradford wrote of this time, saying,

"By the time our corn is planted, our victuals are spent, not knowing at night where to have a bite in the morning, and have neither bread nor corn for 3 or 4 months together; yet bear our wants with cheerfulness, and rest on Providence."

It was at this time, awaiting the harvest of 1623 they lived four or five days at a time on a few grains of corn.

Again their hopes rested on a good fall harvest. A six-week drought began in June and the crops turned brown and were slowly withering away. They turned to the only hope they had - intervention by God, and appointed a solemn day of humiliation and prayer. They assembled one July morning under a hot, clear sky and for nine hours prayed. Their prayers were answered by the next morning, and for the next two weeks they were greeted, in the words of Winslow with

"such softe, sweet and moderate showers . . . As it was hard to say whether our withered corne or drooping affections were most quickened and revived."

It turned out to be a double blessing from above. That same month arrived the ships Anne and Little James with 60 new settlers which came loaded with provisions.

The harvest in the fall of 1623 proved to be the best yet. It also promised a new beginning for the Pilgrim colonists, and they never starved again.

THE FIRST DEMOCRATIC COLONY HAD BEEN ESTABLISHED SUCCESSFULLY IN THE NEW WORLD

Certainly, “food for thought”!

Until the next issue,

Walter Lowe

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

2008-10-27T13:42:00.000-07:00

Astral Facts, October 2008

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Come With Us, If You Will, to the Days of …

My wife and I recently experienced something that hadn’t happened in a long time – we were part of the live audience at the recording of a radio drama.

Some of us can remember way back in the olden olden days (before not only cable TV but also reliable TV reception) when families would spend an evening together at home, in the park, at the summer cabin, etc. playing cards, putting together jigsaw puzzles, washing dishes, and even eating dinner while listening to the Lone Ranger, Jack Benny, Sgt. Preston, Chester A. Riley, and others deal with common and extraordinary situations of life.

Many of these old programs are available at a reasonable cost in MP3 format. For about $5 per disk, several seasons of such programs can be acquired. We have used these for years with our family, and our children turn on their boombox with MP3 compatibility and drift off to sleep at night listening to these programs (with the extra “G” ratings, the parents can sleep more peacefully as well!) The children and their parents’ favorites are The Aldrich Family, which covers the adolescent challenges of Henry Aldrich in small town America, and Our Miss Brooks, the situation comedy of a high school English teacher attracted to a shy biology teacher in a school run by the tyrant Osgood Conklin. They can relate to the struggles of Walter Denton, the goodhearted dunce boyfriend of Harriet Conklin, the school valedictorian.

We frequently purchase programs and episodes at http://www.otrcat.com/ where we can get about 40 episodes per disk (about 20 hours of listening for only $5!)

You can listen to a sample episode of the show here or download the file for listening later:

http://www.otrcat.com/miss-brooks-p-1701.html

Most of us may think the radio drama may have gone the way of the thingamajig used with the whatchmacallit, but a local group headed by Jim French, long time radio “disk jockey” in this area, has kept alive the art of the radio drama.

Attending a recording session is quite an experience. The sound effects team is right there on the stage, making those noises of feet walking on gravel, doors opening and closing, telephones ringing, etc. by actually walking on gravel, opening and closing doors, ringing telephones, etc. The actors and actresses read their lines and often stumble over them and then "take it from the top of page ..."

Jim French is the creator of the “Harry Nile” detective series, the adventures of a hard luck Seattle detective who has a big heart and a thin wallet. All the radio episodes were recorded in front of live audiences here in the Seattle area. In the past they were free admission at the Museum of History and Industry near the UW, but more recently the sessions have moved to the Kirkland Performing Arts Center on the eastside.

Several years ago, French and his company received permission from the estate of Sir Conan Doyle to do a few episodes and adaptations of The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. French said they envisioned possibly doing four or five such episodes before the permission ran out, but the recording session on October 6th was the 100th such episode! Usually two different half-hour programs (22 minutes of air time) are recorded at each session but for this session, they did a one-hour special Sherlock Holmes story recorded in two sessions.

Here is a link to that story, “The Two Watsons.”

http://jimfrenchproductions.com/itheater_shows/week657.m3u

As indicated by the label, such programs have been created and posted for 657 weeks (which equals to 20 years of such broadcasts!) According to the Imagination Theater webpage http://jimfrenchproductions.com/ http://harrynile.com/),

[T]hese shows began airing in Seattle, Washington in 1972, with performances by major Hollywood guest stars, including John Astin, Eddie Bracken, Hans Conreid, Bob Crane, Patty Duke, Russell Johnson (the Professor on Gilligan's Island), Kurt Kasznar, Ruta Lee, Roddy MacDowall, Richard Sanders (of WKRP in Cincinatti), Tom Smothers, and Keenan Wynn. National syndication began in 1996. This led to coveted media awards and honors by BBC Radio.

The next recording event will be on Monday, November 17th. Here’s more information:

http://www.kpcenter.org/cgi-bin/event.cgi?id=350

Walter Lowe

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices.

Highway Ethics

2008-09-18T13:24:00.001-07:00

Astral Facts, September 2008
Highway Ethics
Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Talking out of Hand from Both Sides of the Mouth.

One of the skills/activities in the Humanities Sciences is the definition, application and observation of ethics and moral standards. Literary and Humanties criticism comes through the discussion of how the “texts” of the culture endorse, challenge, or even protest such ethical and moral belief systems. In the olden days, these “texts” were primarily the religious writings and political documents, but these days, movies, music, cellular phones, television programs (especially the commercials), etc. that influence or reflect social behavior can be included as “texts” of the culture.

The Humanities Scientists then observe and comment on such texts, often using particular perspectives. Thus, the feminist critic would note how the text tends to affect women by imposing or challenging definition, stereotype, empowerment, oppression, etc. Other critics might use psychoanalytical constructs, Marxist thought, Islamic theology, political theory, literary techniques, etc. as the basis for critical analysis.

Here’s a case in point:

Here in the Puget Sound area, we’re trying something new to deal with the traffic congestion problems and the underutilized “Carpool” lanes. (Actually, they are “HOV” lanes, meaning “High Occupancy Vehicles.” Those who complain about the mother [or father] and baby using the lanes because having the baby in the car is not reducing traffic congestion [The baby wouldn’t be taking a solo trip in a vehicle anyhow] obviously have neglected to note the meaning of this nor apparently have they had to deal with rushing somewhere with a baby "that close" to filling the last clean diaper! Those parents have my blessings to unlimited use of the HOV lanes. Of course, others may prefer to have parent and baby sitting next to them in the bus.)

The solution now being used on Hwy 167 is to let those SOV’s (not a typo- this refers to Solely Occupied Vehicles or something like it) pay a fee to use the HOV lanes. These people get some kind of transmitter/transponder unit, charge it up with money, and then “the going rate” is deducted if the vehicle is in the HOV lanes. This “going rate” (pun intended here but not in the baby example) is adjusted up or down according to how heavy the traffic is in the other lanes.

Of course, this all seems nice because those who subscribe to the “time is money” view of life can then pay to save the time, and the money is hopefully used for the benefit of the rest of us who either conscientiously travel in high occupancies or value the relationship of time and money a bit differently.

In many ways, this seems to be a practical solution. Nonetheless, many Humanities Scientists would see a certain philosophical and ethical perspective getting privileged status in this way.

Obstensively, the main focus seems to be on environmental sensitivity. Thus, the clogged mainline highways should be an incentive for people to carpool and “HOV-it" to save time. However, the other [primary] message seems to be that the people with money don’t have to subscribe to this value system – like Donald, they can “trump” the situation because of economic status!

It seems to me that the commodity that is driving (pun intended) this situation is time. The value is being placed on the time that is being saved. Since this is the case, my modest proposal would be to let those people pay in time increments.

In other words, let community service have a value according to the time invested. So if someone spends an hour volunteering on some community project, give that person X number of credits to be added to the transponder total, say one credit for every twenty minutes spent. Then when the same person is driving as an SOV and in a hurry, that person can “cash in” whatever the “going rate” is, assuming that person has accrued that much credit.

And if some people’s time is too important to them to invest in their community, then just let them idle in traffic with those other “too important” people.

Walter Lowe
English Faculty
Green River Community College

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices in the HS (Humanities/Science) Building.

Astral Facts, April-May 2008 (Late Edition)

2008-09-18T13:24:00.000-07:00

Astral Facts, April-May 2008 (Late Edition)

Astral: (Theosophy) Consisting of, belonging to, or designating, a kind of supersensible substance alleged to be next above the tangible world in refinement; as, astral spirits; astral bodies of persons; astral current.

Delay of Game: It Happens Every Spring

********************
In spring, young men’s fancies turn elsewhere, some say to what the young girls have been thinking about all winter, but of course the correct answer is another field in the humanities science division in the entertainment bracket. Obviously, this could only refer to America’s national pastime: baseball!

As usual, one would never know it from watching the Mariners play, but it’s the science of the game that makes the humanities aspect stand out. For example, someone has sent me this simple explanation of the game:

Baseball: This is a game played by two teams, one out the other in. The one that's in, sends players out one at a time, to see if they can get in before they get out. If they get out before they get in, they come in, but it doesn't count. If they get in before they get out, it does count.
When the ones out get three outs from the ones in before they get in without being out, the team that's out comes in and the team in goes out to get those going in out before they get in without being out.
When both teams have been in and out nine times the game is over. The team with the most in without being out before coming in wins unless the ones in are equal. In which case, the last ones in go out to get the ones in out before they get in without being out.
The game will end when each team has the same number of ins out but one team has more in without being out before coming in.

If this seems overly “scientific” I would recommend the film version of this marriage of humanities and science, It Happens Every Spring, a 1949 classic in black and white starring Ray Milland as the college chemistry professor who gets distracted during baseball season every spring, complicated by a desire to marry the dean’s daughter (Jean Peters). When a baseball crashes into his laboratory, mixing the chemicals into a solution that repels wood, perhaps he can get enough money together to wed. Thus, he “moonlights” over the summer as a pitcher (for the local major league baseball team) who “doctors” the ball.

During these rainy days of a typical June in Puget Sound, find a copy and then get together some peanuts, popcorn, cracker jacks, a hot dog or two and maybe some garlic fries and enjoy!

Astral Facts is a monthly presentation of Humanities Science, produced in the bowels of the Humanities Science offices in the HS (Humanities/Science) Building.

Walter Lowe
English Faculty
Green River Community College