SCHOOL IS CLOSED THURSDAY JANUARY 27

The Farmer's Almanac got this winter right. See you Friday.

I hope you all got a chance to walk around last night. It was lovely.

SCHOOL CLOSED TODAY Jan21

I love winter, but this is becoming notable.

Spring, only two months away.

School Closed Today TUES JAN 18

also, graduate school continues to disrupt blogging ambitions...

Three Meditations

Our school day begins and ends with meditation, and lunch is bracketed by first moment of silence and afterwards a brief meditation. Each has a very different quality. They have evolved.

Morning begins with a brief talk and a twenty minute sit, in which some students concentrate on their martial arts forms and others focus on a basic breathing meditation. Here they are invited to notice what moods, thoughts, sensations, and so on they are starting the school day with.

The afternoon meditation is quite different- they tend to rather tumble into the meditation room, noisy and relaxed. Here they are asked to master a change of state, from the bustle of lunch to some quiet and centered breathing for just a few minutes. It is a change to set the tone for the rest of the day.

At the end of the day, a student usually leads a 5 or ten minute sitting. Here students are left to their own ability to settle in and let the school day go.

Colleges

Wells College: On the shores of NY state's Cayuga Lake, this school has cross enrollment with Cornell University and Ithaca College. Wells makes an integrated effort to connect new students with all aspects of college and community life. There are many interesting and creative social events that deepen community and balance the academics with fun- among them an eighties dance, a semi-formal, and the Erotic Ball, a themed, yearly dance that seeks to celebrate being comfortable in one's body and with safe sex.

Washington Monthly ranked Wells 30th among all liberal arts schools; Princeton Review put it at 12th for encouraging discussion. The campus is regarded as one of the most beautiful- it sits within a historic district, and is also considered to be haunted. A new major, Book Arts, the history and art of making books, is considered better than any in the country.

Classes are small and seminar style. Students are encourage to work collaboratively with professors and the many internship opportunities are wide ranging.

St. Michael's College: Way up in Vermont is a little treasure of a school just outside of Burlington. The school claims to be the "happiest college in the world", and it does seem to be a thoughtfully conceived experience. Hands-on learning in any of the 29 majors is the major emphasis, and the context is one of the outdoors. All students get unlimited ski passes to nearby Smuggler's Notch for $30 and the school has a wilderness program. There is also a student staffed EMT program, a $30 pass to all events at Burlington's Flynn Cultural Center, a vibrant music scene in town, and 5 other nearby colleges to mix it up with. Washington Monthly, Forbes, and U.S. News all rank it highly for quality of life. The theater program is competitive to get into, and puts students to work next to professionals; the school also sponsors a Mozart Festival.

But this is stratospheric on the Nerdy/Cultural/Literary scale: Harold Bloom, the arch-defender of modernism and almost certainly the most influential American literary critic of the last 50 years, plans to donate his personal library to St. Micheals. A donor has ponied up the cash to build a library annex to hold it all.

Abstract of the Day

MATERIALISM AND DIMINISHED WELL-BEING: EXPERIENTIAL AVOIDANCE AS A MEDIATING MECHANISM

Todd B Kashdan, William E Breen. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology.New York: May 2007. Vol. 26, Iss. 5; pg. 521, 19 pgs

Abstract (Summary)

Being preoccupied with the pursuit of money, wealth, and material possessions arguably fails as a strategy to increase pleasure and meaning in life. However, little is known about the mechanisms that explain the inverse relation between materialism and well-being. The current study tested the hypothesis that experiential avoidance mediates associations between materialistic values and diminished emotional well-being, meaning in life, self-determination, and gratitude. Results indicated that people with stronger materialistic values reported more negative emotions and less relatedness, autonomy, competence, gratitude, and meaning in life. As expected, experiential avoidance fully mediated associations between materialistic values and each dimension of well-being. Emotional disturbances such as social anxiety and depressive symptoms failed to account for these findings after accounting for shared variance with experiential avoidance. The results are discussed in the context of alternative, more fulfilling routes to well-being. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]

Colleges

Over the next few months I will be posting little info packets on interesting colleges that seem to offer our students the community and support they've grown to expect at TAS. I will try to cast a wide net, but will largely eyeball schools that are small and supportive.

Ripon College: About three hours drive north of Chicago, with Milwaukee midway between them, this college has gotten praise from all the major reviewers: Forbes, U.S. News, the Chronicle of Higher Education, et al. Washington Monthly notes its It was started in the 1850's and ended its formal relationship with the Presbyterian and Congregational Churches in the 1860's. It still has something of a religious character, but probably not more than other national universities such as Notre Dame or Boston College.

The National Forensic League was begun there- a lot of kids these days are into forensics.

It has about 1000 students.

Other tidbits (courtesy of wikipedia): small classes, intensive mentoring, high rates of success in the workforce, high rates of acceptance into grad and professional schools.

Heavy emphasis on volunteerism and community service. And a free mountain bike, helmet, and u-lock if you pledge not to bring a car to campus.

Bates College: A great school, one of the toughest to get into. Founded by abolitionists and more than a few of Bates' first students were former slaves. This is a place with a powerful history, and apparently a great place to learn as virtually all students who apply to programs in the health professions are accepted, and the school sends numerous students to the very best law and business schools as well. There are about 1700 students there.

Bates is about 30 miles from Portland, Maine- a great little city.

Yesterday's Talk

If you are looking at problem, picture this: A mountain, a river, and your practice. The mountain is the thing you cannot affect or change, the river a force either cresting or falling. When the river is fast and rising, one doesn't cross it, one waits. When the river is becoming shallow, one crosses. There is a proper time to wait and a proper time to cross.

Meanwhile, the one thing we can always count on is our practice: sitting meditation, compassion towards ourselves and others, and focused work.

Why Bother?

Election Day poses a problem that most voters and (especially) non-voters miss: why does anyone vote at all? Or more specifically, why does an individual vote? A single vote is a simple summation of some very complex processes, like any observable behavior. But at its heart is a paradox. And this can be said about any human endeavor. The paradox of voting is that one vote really amounts to almost nothing, and yet it is also much more than a ritual act of democracy. Lurking in the heart of every voter is this: what if I didn't vote and no one else did either?

Why bother? In this morning's meditation I asked this of the students. Why come to school on time? Why be kind to others? Why do your work well? At our school, we have few punishments or "consequences" (a term I am never comfortable with). We continually nudge a student's acts and words back onto them. Punishment usually only distracts from the serious grappling with one's responsibility. So why bother trying hard at all... it seems so much easier not to.

But, alas, it is not easier. Slowly one's awareness broadens, and along with it, one's conception of self-interest. But within this process- however long it takes- a person wrestles with the question. Or they avoid it. But at some point it becomes clear- in this school- that it is all about relationships. Why bother? The answer is not "because I have relationships". The answer lay within each of our particular web of relationships: to others, ourselves, our ambitions, and our desires.

No one can answer this question but the individual alone. The best teacher can't make a student work or give a damn. But the trust that must be the basis of a relationship- any relationship- is based on previous experiences and our deep inclinations as humans to have relationships. This is what the teacher and student steps into. The student must become conscious of all this. The teacher must manage the trust.

Trust is faith. There is every reason in the world to be nihilistic and not bother much at all. Yet we keep on bothering, most of us, every day. Those of us who can honestly ask the question every day are the best among us.

TBI (traumatic brain injury) and Vets

Good piece in the Washington Post about TBI, the extent of the injuries, and the hopes for treatment.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/02/AR2010100203969.html