It’s 4:15 am. Can’t sleep. Brewed a cup of coffee. Still thinking about “awful” versus “awe-full.” There’s a quieting, transcendant feeling in holding a cup of freshly brewed coffee early in the morning, looking at the dark sky getting slowly painted with a palette of color as it passes from night to day, gazing at the graceful curving of the koi, marveling at the echinacea seed transforming into plants, noticing my garden’s first signs of seasonal change, and humbly marveling at the inexplicable and miraculously rapid recovery of my granddaughter from her near-fatal accident. At this time of the quiet morning, I can almost feel my blood pressure easing, my heart slowing, and my muscles relaxing. You know, our perceptions of students take a complex human being with a myriad of roles and identities and reduce her or him to a single over-simplistic, distorting, one-dimensional, placard-like identity. So, for me, the early morning hours are important. It is my time when in my mind and heart I begin to flesh out people with an equanimity of respect, uniqueness, and dignity. It sets my mood for the coming day, determining how well I consciously and subconsciously will live by and live up to my selected “Word For Today,” which today is “rejoice.” It is a time I become “more”: more attuned, more attentive, more alert, and more aware. It is a time I gird myself against any negative, cursing, debilitating, dehumanizing “awful” with the inspiring, dynamic, blessing—and redemptive—“awe-full.”
You know, long ago I read that in the Talmud, the rabbis asked us four questions: how much do we owe each other; what does it mean not to stand idly by; how can we find purpose and meaning; and, how much do we choose to be mindlessly shaped by forces beyond us or mindfully shaped by our conscious response to those forces. Thinking about those questions, my answer for the last 25 years has been to be consciously fueled by an internal empathy and compassion rather than by internal despair, that the first step must be to be in awe of everything and everyone generated by an intense and unconditional faith, hope, and love of each.
As serendipity would have it, this past couple of weeks, I was doing some back reading of monthly essays by Harvard psychologist, Robert Brooks. They covered issues pertinent to classroom issues—and life as a whole: resilience, meaning, purpose, testing, gratitude, connection, compassion, empathy, etc. Guess what. Yesterday, I came across his January essay titled, “The Power of Awe.” I read that essay about “soul stirring wonder” very slowly and closely. It took me to a host of prominent researchers looking into that power: Dacher Keltner, Jonathan Haidt, Frank White, David Yaden, Melanie Rudd, Jennifer Aaker, Kathleen Vohs, and Andrew Newberg. Man, was I awed when I read that being “awe-full” appears “to increase people’s feeling of connectedness and willingness to help others.”
But, serendipity still wasn’t finished with me. I just read David Brook’s column in the NY Times. In it he partially quotes Dr Martin Luther King: “Love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. … Just keep being friendly to that person. … Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. … They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load.”
Now, like the problem of the chicken and the egg, I don’t know which came first: love, to which I would add faith and hope, and then awe; or awe, which then manifested and crystalized itself into faith and hope and love. Either way, I know this, from personal and professional experience with students—or anyone for that matter:
when you’re invigorated, your spirit isn’t worn down;
when you humanize a student, you can’t objectified any of them;
when you see the beauty, things aren’t ugly;
when you see the uniqueness, you can’t label;
when you’re encouraging, you can’t feel discouraged;
when you feel transcendant, you aren’t self-centered;
when you feel connected, you can’t be disconnected;
when you notice, you’re not blind to;
when you listen; you’re not deaf to;
when you’re smiling, you can’t scowl;
when your heart is filled with the warmth of awe, it can’t be empty and cold
when we’re patient, we have time; and, we make time.
No, when you’re “awe-full,” you can’t disparage with an “awful.”
Make it a good day
-Louis-
Louis Schmier http://www.therandomthoughts.edublogs.org
203 E. Brookwood Pl http://www.therandomthoughts.com
Valdosta, Ga 31602
(C) 229-630-0821 /\ /\ /\ /\ /\
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