Einstein in Letters

Respected Mr. Gandhi

I use the presence of your friend in our home to send you these lines. You have shown through your works, that it is possible to succeed without violence even with those who have not discarded the method of violence. We may hope that your example will spread beyond the borders of your country, and will help to establish an international authority, respected by all, that will take decisions and replace war conflicts.

With sincere admiration,

Yours

(Signed, 'A. Einstein')

I hope that I will be able to meet you face to face some day.

Gandhi's response

LONDON, October 18, 1931

DEAR FRIEND,

I was delighted to have your beautiful letter sent through Sundaram. It is a great consolation to me that the work I am doing finds favour in your sight. I do indeed wish that we could meet face to face and that too in India at my Ashram.

Yours sincerely,

(Signed, 'M. K. Gandhi')

 I just loved having read this. I came across it on Letters of Note, one of the blogs on my side bar. Check it out if you are interested in other  surprising correspondence

Mind Roll for the Blog Roll

A few books I've been reading since I last had a blast of blog enthusiasm...

No Logo by Naomi Klein
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Muhammad by Karen Armstrong
Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho

All held my attention as I love a book to do but all for different reasons. The first weaves a wide web that explains part of the pathology of the current "0ccupy" movement. It was timely and helped me better understand that the response we are seeing now reflects 20 years of change in the economy rather then just 2008 recession angst. The second book was a novel beautifully and creatively written for teenagers. Everyone of any age I know who has read it has enjoyed it. Third a non-fiction topic I think is good to understand better and finally philosophy in the mist of narrative. I just discovered it was made into a movie so I might check that out too!

Caring

No organization cares about you. Organizations aren't capable of this.
Your bank, certainly, doesn't care. Neither does your HMO or even your car dealer. It's amazing to me that people are surprised to discover this fact.
People, on the other hand, are perfectly capable of caring. It's part of being a human. It's only when organizational demands and regulations get in the way that the caring fades.
If you want to build a caring organization, you need to fill it with caring people and then get out of their way. When your organization punishes people for caring, don't be surprised when people stop caring.
When you free your employees to act like people (as opposed to cogs in a profit-maximizing efficient machine) then the caring can't help but happen.


From Seth's Blog

A Personal Definition of Success

 A bit of a ramble but well worth it. I think this is kinda how I always felt about success in athletics, wished that I felt about success in school and now, about success in life.

The Fabric of the Future

I haven't really been reading any one book lately because I've had this interesting anthology on my night table. It's not really the type of thing to read through in order but rather I've been opening it up to different ideas every night. My first knowledge of Iktumi's Invitations actually came from one of the essays in this book.

The thing about this kind of reading is that it can last a long time (because there are contributors), and not everything hits the right note at the particular moment it is read so I've been thinking about the various essays over time.  What I have liked is that many of the writers are talking about something beyond patriarchal slagging feminism, - namely what is highlighted is the important contribution that women and traditionally feminism ethics will and must make into the future.  Because the contributors come from many different walks of live the ideas are broadly informed. The writers don't form one consistent thesis but rather diverge and converge around where the world may possibly be headed. They each seem to be deeply passionate/ hopeful/thoughtful in their respective areas of expertise and to me this is very hopeful for the world.

Check it out on the Google book site.... its pretty amazing too!

Teaching Art to Children

I recently attended a Provincial Intermediate Teachers Association (PITA) conference where one of the members recommended this book as an excellent resource for teaching the fundamentals of art education. It's still too soon for me to have tried it out but I have browsed through it and know that it highlights many important points in a nice, straightforward way. In addition to being excited about finding this resource, I was also really excited when I searched for more information about it and found Using Drawing with Children, which is a chronicle of one parent's experience with the book.

While this site was great to reference, it also had links to other art with children web sites like Art & Learning to Think, -which is a bit more on the philosophical side but sound educational thinking for any subject, Homeschool Printables by Donna Young, -which has Blackline masters for many subjects including art, and Art Projects for Kids, which is wonderfully broken down into age appropriate levels and clear and simple instructions. All these great finds on the web have me wondering if I really need the book after all ... but then again there is something unique about being able to flip through actual pages.

A great source for primary art project ideas is Deep Space Sparkle. Can't wait to try some of these ideas out.

Iktumi's Invitations to Self Deception

1. If only I were rich,   then I would be happy.

2.If only I were famous, then I would be happy. 

3. If only I could find the right person to marry,   then I would be happy.

4. If only I had more friends, then I would be happy.

5. If only I were more attractive, then I would be happy.

6. If only I weren't physically handicapped in any way, then I would be happy. 

7. If only someone close to me hadn't died, then I could be happy.
8. If only the world were a better place, then I would be happy

These 'invitations' come from Iktumi, the trickster or liar figure of the Lakota tradition. (Mills, Billy. Wokini.) As I was looking into this character I came  across other writing on the web that brought up Pandora and the Adam and Eve Apple myth as a way to explain unhappiness (evil) in the the world, -what were the sources of unhappiness and what is to blame for its appearance at large. Reflections aside, I like the way these 'invitations' are super straight forward and echo the way that deceptive thoughts sometimes cross my mind... now just to remember to refuse these tricky little ditties.

Speaking on the Problems of a Single Story

What a great reminder. It makes me contemplate how I include other people in my own personal narrative. Definitely something to set on the back burner and think about.

Andy Goldsworthy's Creativity on the Backburner

Many thanks to my wonderful friend who connected the dots for me this week by sending me a link to Andy Goldsworthy's Art.  I had seen some of his books previous and admired his beautifully inspired natural installations but never paused long enough to investigate. Believe it or not, I'm pretty sure one of his books nudged the idea for my large scale sand mandala's into reality. I just love the idea of creating something with what nature provides. Its free (!) and remains out there for the world to enjoy if they come across it.

 As part of my investigation, I came across a video clip of Andy describing how working on his projects helps him reconnect with himself and awakens a sense of amazement.



Listening to the birds in this clip reminds me why I love spending time in the woods and how important and creative thoughts are able to simmer on the backburner while a person is engaged in this manner. Remembering those feelings leads me to conclude that part of why I'm fascinated by Andy's art has got to somehow be connected with what Richard Louv is witnessing is his book, Last Child in the Woods.

I'd love to hear from any, and everyone of you as to your own experiences of nature and your thoughts on its connection with creativity and connectivity. Cheers!

Someone I would like to meet

Alain de Botton is the author of a book I very much appreciated, How Proust can Change your Life. Here he is speaking about a kinder, gentler kind of success and how people are so often judged by what they do, how they fail and how societal ideas about these things have changed in the modern world.

Real Ideas Link

Really the idea of connecting with ideas would not be complete without a link to the Ted; Ideas Worth Spreading series. I love just listening to a random sampling. There's even one about the future/potential of blogging!

The Magic of the Right Angle

Do not say a little in many words
but a great deal in a few.
~Pythagoras~

Daily Exercise in Endless Patience

"Coaching is hard because it’s a daily exercise in achieving endless patience. Teaching is something altogether different; it involves gathering knowledge that you then give to students like a present, and wait until they return it to you. Teaching involves written judgments handed our in red marks on papers or letters etched across report cards every six weeks. Teaching says, “I gave you the information and you got it, or didn’t get it.” End of story.


Coaching isn’t teaching. There is no way a coach can do the job without getting his own hands on the ball and demonstrating, pass after pass. Coaching actually requires that students begin imperfectly, and then pass after awkward pass, fumble after fumble, the student learns the feel of the ball, the arc of the run, the timing of the turn to complete the pass. Coaching allows the student proficience that appears to come out of themselves, because that is the ultimate goal of coaching – to hand over the delight of something successfully learned and see the student bloom in their own knowledge. The judging will always come from the students’ own hit or miss experience and is forever changeable because there is always one more game, one more opportunity to get it right. The glorious thing about coaching is letting go of the student, watching them become more than themselves and many times more than the coach. There is poetry in that moment when the student surpasses themselves and you. A true coach never feels less because he understood the whole time that surpassing was the point to begin with, that watching your students find inner and outer greatness is the entire reward."

-No Telling

This is taken from a blog that I'm following and I love the sentiment that it expresses. Something to think about for all us coaches and teachers out there.

Its All Relative

We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.

Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever.

As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.

Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.

It is the duty of every citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions in political affairs.

Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not one bit simpler.

If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.

The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.

Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods.

You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war.

At any rate, I am convinced that He [God] does not play dice.

If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.

Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices, but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence and fulfills the duty to express the results of his thought in clear form.

The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.

When you look at yourself from a universal standpoint, something inside always reminds or informs you that there are bigger and better things to worry about.

You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.

Before God we are all equally wise - and equally foolish.

Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.

Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience.

Every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life are based on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving.

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.

Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love. How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love? Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

I never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn.

I never think of the future - it comes soon enough.

If I had only known, I would have been a locksmith.

If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.

Imagination is more important than knowledge...

It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.

Laws alone can not secure freedom of expression; in order that every man present his views without penalty there must be spirit of tolerance in the entire population.

My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.

Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.

Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty, and Truth. The trite subjects of human efforts, possessions, outward success, luxury have always seemed to me contemptible.

The important thing is not to stop questioning.

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity.

The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science.

The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is at all comprehensible.

The release of atomic energy has not created a new problem. It has merely made more urgent the necessity of solving an existing one.

The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.

To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.

Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves.

Truth is what stands the test of experience.

Try not to become a man of success but rather to become a man of value.

-Albert Einstein

I just love so many of the ideas Albert presents. Theres a certain tao-ishness about them and every time I come across another one that I love I think, "I need to remember to live with this sentiment present in my action," -so now maybe I will!