Project Wonder - Day 46 - Negative Space

The world can feasibly be divided into two categories: that which I am, and that of which I am not. Me and Not Me. And I have a large say in where the border lies. And so do you. And everyone and everything else that is Not Me.

These two categories shape one another, constantly imposing and absorbing the others' spaces. Like the yin and yang. Or night and day. It's as a friend of mine recently said, "Freedom is only as far as the next human's nose."

We are interconnected, all of us. We interact with each other and impose ideas on one another. In a very real sense we share a space, and the borders between us are forever being negotiated.

This means that my choices affect all others, if only marginally. By extension, everyone's choices affect all others. This means we all have a responsibility to one another, if only marginally.

How marginal can responsibility really be?

We all have the capacity to create space for one another. To respect each other's struggles for survival, love, and purpose. We always have a choice to work with one another, minding each others' quests and ensuring each other's well-being. To teach about our worlds, but also to be students of others'. We can also choose to be forgiving of each others' impositions.

Easier said than done.

This morning our classes were filled with interruptions - other students walking in to exchange modems or computers, teachers coming to check out all of the costumes for pajama day, student conversations in class. I was having a difficult time following my personal f-word policy. I felt imposed upon, not being able to accomplish what I wanted. It put me in a sour mood.

It took me a while to realize just how sour I was being. It wasn't until Emily came to talk to me after lunch that I realized students had avoided me all morning. Completely isolating myself in my own victimhood.

She brought her laptop over. "Sir, you know that song you showed me in September? I saw it on an episode of Glee and thought you might like it."

I did like it. What a gift. It brightened my afternoon to realize that despite radiating negativity this student was still willing to be kind to me. I'm sure Emily has no idea the impact her sharing has had on me. It's easy to forget the impact we have on one another. That we make up one another's negative space with our choices.

I allowed myself to forgive the morning's disruptions, and I soon found that the students had forgiven my foul mood.

I chose to work with the students in the afternoon. And they responded by choosing to work with me. They wanted to go outside so we did. We studied under the mango tree in a circle of chairs. What a brilliant idea. Why I didn't do it sooner I'll never understand.

We create the spaces that make the world. To what goal can we work together?

Thank you for considering.

Respectfully,

Brandon

Project Wonder - Day 45 - Stuck

"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, 

but without it we go nowhere." - Carl Sagan

In my recently self-appointed capacity as the head of the Science department, I have taken to reading more of the science and technology sections of news websites, constantly on the prowl for curiosity triggers. Discussing current scientific discovery and debates with classes makes the stuff the curriculum tells us to learn   more relevant.

Today I found this article, which topically describes a carefully designed new material that bends light around objects. That's right folks, it seems possible that soon invisibility cloaks will be all the rage:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20265623

What's most fascinating to me, is that this sort of thing was almost certainly thought to be completely impossible when I was "growing up". The sort of fodder that was best left to children and their wild imaginations. Not the stuff of the regular, habitual, predictable world known to adults as "reality".

And yet, here we are, reading about technologies that are accomplishing, if only marginally for now, the very things that were once labelled impossible.

At least part of the reason we are afforded this amazement is because someone was curious enough to pursue that impish urging "what if" that so many of us were inadvertently (?) taught to ignore as immature.

I love to imagine what the world might look like if more and more people were willing to acknowledge the "sticky-ness" of their minds, and further willing to stretch their personal limits by considering "impossible" possibilities. What if more people recognized just how many limits are self-imposed, whether conscious or not?

As a demonstration, consider the technology discussed in the article. I'd be willing to bet that the majority of people who read the article, or hear about the technology think of the famous cloak in the Harry Potter series, and latch onto this single, though no less incredible, possibility. And here our minds try to settle again. With one new possibility.

But what other possible uses might there be for this technology? Even when we think we've stretched our limits, there are always more limits to stretch.

Today in class we played with possible applications of the technology. In addition to using it for espionage related activities, students came up with nearly 100 ideas for this sort of technology. Some of my favourites include protecting endangered species from predation/poaching, securing valuable possessions in invisible safes, and remaining cool on a hot day by shrouding one's naked self in the material (which may, in fact, be warmer than regular clothes).

Many of the ideas we have are silly, and unrealistic, and implausible. But unless we consider them, we will never find any possibilities worth pursuing. And we will remain in our stagnant, sticky-minded, limited ways.

There are solutions to our problems, and potentials to fulfill. What limits are you stuck within?

Thank you for reading.

Yours in play,

Brandon

Project Wonder - Day 44 - Azonto

"Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world." - Voltaire

Today's PW is less a reflection and more of a confession.

For the past couple of days I've been avoiding work, by doing work. I've been secretly sweating out Azonto in the privacy of my room.


Okay, so I'm nowhere near this guy. But the dance is pretty fly, no?

I was introduced to Azonto by our students of course. A few students blew my mind with a brief performance last week, and I'm afraid things are about to get ill. Because it's true my friends, I've come down with a bad case of Azonto.

Does dancing count as being productive?

Project Wonder - Day 43 - Remembering

Today is Remembrance Day in Canada.

I remember being confused by this day as a kid. I was always troubled with the task of remembering something I wasn't there to experience. I knew we were supposed to remember fallen soldiers, and the sacrifices made by previous generations, and the unimaginable suffering these people endured to secure the freedoms we've grown accustomed to having.

All of this sounded terribly important to my second grade self, so I tried really hard to remember this stuff. But I could never invent the scene I wasn't a part of, and so I pretended to remember for years. I wore the poppy without really knowing what stories it represented.

Of course, I didn't need to understand what I was meant to remember. What is critical is that I understood why I was meant to remember it. Many people died to make the world a better place. I knew that it was important to remember to be thankful to these distant strangers, and to be grateful for the life I am privileged to live.

The specifics of my made up memories are informed by history books, movies, and my imagination. But these don't really matter anyway, since I can never really imagine what life as a soldier in battle was like.

It's the "why" that's important. What do you choose to remember, and why have you made that choice? The reasons one remembers are revealing of one's character. Our reasons are the meaning, and form the basis of perception and decision-making.

In addition to your Remembrance Day whats, please consider making time to ask why. Thank you for reading.

Yours in re-imagining the past,

Brandon

P.S. The specifics of my Remembrance Day memorial were informed by these images of the past etched in the present.

Project Wonder - Day 42 - Bus thinking

My pal Jennifer and I took the bus to the market today, to pick up a few groceries. The actual term for the vehicle is "trotro", and it's the cheapest means of getting around next to walking. Trotros are vans that have been gutted and re-outfitted with almost 20 seats. It's something of a marvel to experience. I was in the second to last row when I took this picture this morning.

You'll notice the passengers gazing off into the distance, taking in the scenes while patiently waiting for their stop. A behaviour that's similar to many public transporters in Hamilton and Toronto. Passengers board with the occasional nod to a co-traveller, perhaps even a verbal greeting to the driver, then often reabsorb into the privacy of their minds and headphones. Many don't even acknowledge others with eye contact. I jumped through the door and looked only for my seat. I then directed my gaze out the window without so much as a smile to any of the passengers. In fact, the desire for privacy in public seems to be common to people in all of the places I've had the pleasure of seeing.

It seems odd to me that in all the spaces I share with others, much of the time I think only of minding my business. Given our incredible capacity for communication and connection with one another, often the best conversation I can think of has to do with the weather. Which worked well for me in Hamilton, where the meteorological spectrum was a little broader. Here in Accra there's not much to be said:

"It's hot today." I say, leaning toward the passenger on my left.

"Yea." she nods.

"Really hot." I add, for clarification.

"Oh... yea" she smiles and nods.

And that's all I've got. I'm unsure what else I might be able to talk about, that there's anything I could say that would be meaningful to my fellow voyager.

Don't we have more incredible things to chat about than the weather? What fears, or limitations prevent us from pursuing a connection with others in public? What might the world look like if public spaces, like city buses, were safe enough that interacting with others wasn't perceived as risky? How can public spaces influence and encourage meaningful interpersonal interaction? What role does art have? What value is gained from more social interaction?

Lots of questions, and even more possible responses. Our ancestors are all related, and yet somehow we prefer to keep our distances.

Thank you for reading.

Fellowly voyaging,

Brandon

Project Wonder - Day 41 - The F-Word

It seems the students I teach have finally caught on to the frequency with which I use the f-word. I must say it ten times in every class, and I have no qualms about saying it directly to students. In fact, I was even speaking with the principal this afternoon when I let it slip:

"Sometimes I find these students have this sense of entitlement, like they deserve superior grades without having to work for them. It's absolutely FASCINATING!"

That's right. The "f-word" is fascinating, literally And like most of the words we use, its power is masked by the veil of habit. 

Today we were discussing something concerning evolution in biology. Sylvia, not usually one to defect from the topic, had been watching me with a curious expression. Finally she spoke:

"Sir, you find a lot of things fascinating."

I suppose I had grown unaware of how much I use the term, because I've been noticing myself all day. It started out as being an intentional choice of words, but I suppose it's become so regularly that I barely pay any attention to the level of fascination I experience on a daily basis. 

A number of years ago I was riding the GO train from Hamilton to Toronto with a mentor of mine, on our way to work. I stared out the window as we whipped by crammed lanes of nearly parked cars. For whatever reason I was already irritable that morning and I became angry at the sight of this waste. 

"Look at all those cars, most of them with a single passenger. It's ridiculous! And incredibly frustrating!"

My mentor intervened with insight, as all good mentors should. "You might consider changing your f-word." I must have cocked my head in confusion because he elaborated. "When you're frustrated you will spend your time dwelling on problems. And there are so many problems to be frustrated about. Try using the word 'fascinating' instead. Be amazed by the problems, so that you are willing to ask how these problems came to be in the first place."

I was deeply impressed by this idea, and put it into practice right away. And it's become fuel for curiosity, a catalyst for gratitude, and it makes fears irrelevant. The more I describe the world as fascinating, the more fascinating it becomes. 

I shared these ideas with the students, to which many responded by saying "hmm". Just as I did ten years ago. Here's hoping that fascination is paying its way forward. Thank you for reading.

Yours in self-fulfilling prophecy,

Brandon

Project Wonder - Day 40 - Futures

Through my fascination with the pursuit of possibilities and the challenging of limits I stumbled across the work of Jason Silva a little while ago.

If you haven't heard of him, Jason is a film maker, a futurist, and a self-described "epiphany addict". He has some big ideas about the limitless possibilities in our near future.

The rate at which we develop new technologies is increasing exponentially. Where will this curve of innovation take us? According to Silva, we are on the precipice of transcending any and all conceivable limitations.



Some of this thinking may seem unrealistic, or even frightening to think about, at first. What's most terrifying to me is the track record of human beings manipulation of technological advances through history for the sake of personal gain, and apparent disregard of the impact of personal choice on the collective. Do human beings possess the moral capacity to effectively use our technology to solve global scale problems? Or are our egos too resistant to compromise?

Then again, Jason describes a future where our limits, all of them, are surmountable. If our egos limit us from achieving some greater potential, what does a "limit-free" consciousness look like in the future?

I guess that's part of the incomprehensibility of it all. That IS the singularity. Another of my favourite thinkers, Terence McKenna, has suggested that we are on the cusp of a huge evolutionary leap, transcending our current existence into something completely unimaginable, and by definition, beyond the understanding of our current human minds.

Heavy stuff. But exciting to let the imagination run, no?

Thank you for reading.

Yours in anticipation,

Brandon