Storytelling: "The Danger of a Single Story"...

I love trolling the interwebs...

Lecture is not dead: I like TED talks. I like the 10-20 minute kernel of presentation-ness that they are. I like that they are free-for-me. So from time to time I troll the TED pages looking for the talks that others believe are the best. There are nearly 2000 talks uploaded to date. It is nice when others can vet them somewhat for me. (If you are not familiar with TED: webite, wikipedia entry.)

Better late than never: The other day I searched "must-see" instead of "best" TED talks. There is some overlap in the two searches, but I was interested in the ones I had not seen before. It seems TED has put together a primer under the heading "must-see" for people just like me. The title of one talk, in particular, about story caught my eye; The Danger of a Single Story. I have sent a lot of time this year thinking about "story" and it features in much of my blog. The further I go, the more I am realizing how essential "story" needs to be featured in education. I am a little saddened that I seem to be just arriving at a conclusion that most teachers, writers, performers, probably arrived at much earlier in their lives. Well, Better late than never...

"The Danger of a Single Story": Chimanmanda Ngozi Adichie's talk is just under 19 minutes, enjoyable to watch, and poignant. Her demeanor is likable; her humor is on target; her insight is wise. I'm in love with this presentation...

I have included links: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story and the full transcript of her talk. I hope you will watch it, and not just read it. Her voice is part of this story; her pace, patient; her eyes, alive. I have not read her work, but now intend to. If any of her insight can be found in her fiction (how could it not?), it will be well worth the read...

I do not address them in my review, but it is in the details of Adichie's talk that you will find her humility and human-ness, her humor and bite, the stuff worth listening to... Stories about her development as a writer and as a person, her memories of childhood and experiences in college. Give it a listen, you will not be disappointed.

But beyond Adicie's story about story, there some meta insights that I wish to draw attention to. These are the pieces of wisdom that I wish to apply to different contexts beyond the one offered in her talk. Here are a few quotes I will be chewing on for a while...

Vulnerabilities:

What this demonstrates, I think, is how impressionable and vulnerable we are in the face of a story, particularly as children.

Power:

It is impossible to talk about the single story without talking about power. There is a word, an Igbo word, that I think about whenever I think about the power structures of the world, and it is "nkali." It's a noun that loosely translates to "to be greater than another." Like our economic and political worlds, stories too are defined by the principle of nkali: How they are told, who tells them, when they're told, how many stories are told, are really dependent on power. Power is the ability not just to tell the story of another person, but to make it the definitive story of that person.

 Incompleteness:

The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.

Dignity:

Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.

Paradise:

When we reject the single story, when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise.

Looking back on two moments of peace, 25 years apart...

The Coffee Mill

I, in
Coffee house, brown
smells of addiction.
choice. . .
I choose to
indulge.
Lay me down
Sally, the maid
of the bar, she
smiles as smoke
wanders and walks
along the walls
people sit and
drink and
listen to the songs
and stories told.
I have a few.
I'll share later.
The lights dim
as the time walks smoothly
past two and
eyes become sensitive
to the smoke saturated
air.
I just sit and listen.
I'll share later.





The Winter Storm

I, in cozy warm, listen and watch
The storm, rages outside...
All the weighty load offered, a burden to the trees.
A loud crackle, and a pop,
again...
and again.
Outside,
I leave the fire I had built
(to offer the night a touch of me).
Proceed to the ridge, above
No light, save the fire,
and some candles,
(safely behind the panes of dim quiet houses)...
A loud crackle, and a pop,
again.
and again.
Huge limbs crash across the way,
echoing in the muffled quiet of the snowfall.
Medium sized limbs drop nearby.
It is a symphony
of clacking cotton woods and poplars,
of cracking pines and birches,
of surrendering snow, "shhhhhhhh" after each yield,
a quiet brush-on-cymbal finish for each...
Ahhhhhhh...

A newsy post: Travels in South and West Asia...

Swayambhunath Temple, Nepal

I went to India and Nepal once—a long, long time ago: I just got off the phone with my mother who has just returned from a trip to India and Nepal, causing me to feel envy beyond description. And I am happy for my parents' trip: Hindu ceremonies at Dashashwamedh Ghat and Manikarnika Ghat in Varinasi, laying eyes on Mt. Everest, visiting the Taj, watching preparations at Boudhanath, Katmandu, seeing large cats in national forest parks, etc. etc. etc. But still, envy beyond description...

I'm still just a young pup: My mother was full of stories, and there will be more to come as I look at photos and hear her reflections as she processes a trip full of new experiences. I need to explain that my mother employs some physics worthy of Einstein et al. to explain how old she isn't. At some point I think we figured out that my older brother is a genetic impossibility given her suggested time line. All hyperbole aside, she and my father have been around long enough that I get to call them "old dogs" evoking that saying about "new tricks." Not all old dogs are unable to learn new tricks! My parents seem to keep going to new places and trying new things even though they have earned the right to just sit and smell the Jerusalem roses in their back yard. I think people who have worked hard their whole lives deserve to enjoy life without the pressures of planning for the future. The future needs to become the now at some point, and they are most definitely living in the now. But living in the now is not wisdom. It just is. Wisdom is derived from experiences that stretch us. I am impressed that my parents seem to be off having adventures that change their understanding of the world. And they are ever wise-ening! Envy beyond description...

Contrasts: On their return trip my parents had a lay-over in Dubai. Visiting this modern city of unparalleled prosperity and cleanliness probably provoked a bit of culture shock as they left the struggling industrialization of Nepal. They were in Dubai the day before a massive fire ripped through a luxury tower, killing no one by the way.

Why no one died in Dubai skyscraper fire (+video) By Jessica Mendoza,Staff Writer, Christian Science Monitor
My mother spoke of the contrast of wealth between Nepal and UAE. We talked about the ever-present spirituality of India and daily practice of Arab Muslims... The world is vast and complex and so easily explored by Americans, either physically or digitally.

Staying curious: So in the name of learning a little more—of reading and exploring why religion, and politics, and history, and values are important to study—read the following story and think how things could have gone wrong, but didn't...

MIDDLE EAST

22 February 2015 Last updated at 09:36 ET

Why is Suleyman Shah's tomb so important?

Scores of Turkish troops and vehicles have entered Syria to evacuate and destroy a mausoleum where the forefather of the Ottoman empire was buried. The BBC's Matthew Davis considers why the site was so important

The now ruined tomb of Suleyman Shah stands on a football pitch-sized spit of Turkish land inside Syria, but its historical and political significance belie this humble geography.

Shah was a Turkic tribal leader who lived from about 1178 until 1236, when according to an epigraph in his mausoleum he "drowned in the Euphrates along with two of his men, in search for a home for himself and his people".

Official accounts are questioned by some, but the story goes that Shah's followers headed north into modern-day Turkey.

It was there that his grandson, Osman I, founded the Ottoman Empire, which at the height of its powers centuries later controlled swathes of territory across south-west Europe, the Middle East and North Africa from its capital in Constantinople (now Istanbul).

The Ottoman empire had disintegrated by the early 20th Century, and the new state of Turkey emerged - but such was the national importance of Shah's burial complex that the site was protected under a 1921 agreement with France, which then occupied the area now located in Syria's Aleppo province.

Since then, Turkey has invoked its right to station troops there and fly its flag over the site, which was relocated some 80km (50 miles) to the north when the original area was flooded by the creation of the reservoir Lake Assad in 1974.

Turkey's only foreign enclave has retained immense emotional value for its people, but the chaos engulfing Syria in recent years has seen it assume a growing political significance.

In August 2012 President Recep Tayyip Erdogan - then prime minister - warned all parties in the Syrian conflict that an action against the tomb would be considered an attack on Turkish territory "as well an attack on Nato land".

And amid reports that the soldiers stationed there had been besieged for months by Islamic State militants, last year the Turkish parliament authorised the use of force against the jihadists.

However despite recently joining the US in training some rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad, Turkey has resisted playing a full role in the US-led campaign against Islamic State.

Correspondents say that if the historic Suleyman Shah tomb had come under attack, the effect on public opinion would have made it harder for Turkey to avoid a full-scale military campaign against the group.

So the fact that the tomb is now moved and the Turkish soldiers evacuated is a great relief for the nation and its leaders, local commentators say.

"We had given the Turkish armed forces a directive to protect our spiritual values and the safety of our armed forces personnel," Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said after Saturday's operation.

Turkish media later showed images of three soldiers raising the flag at a new site closer to the Turkish border, which is likely to host a new tomb that authorities hope will provide a final home for Suleyman Shah.

Bagging out on a windchill vacation day...

I am going to take today off from blogging: I offer a MyFaceSpaceBook-Status-Update instead:

My parents are off seeing my favorite city in the world: in India..

A former firefighter/friend is reflecting on Tet: in Vietnam...

My wife is posting snowy pictures from New England for those we know who are traveling the world...

My colleague/friend and I are ruminating the events of the day so to speak...
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/guns-chapel-hill-myth-american-vigilante
http://mic.com/articles/107926/one-tweet-perfectly-sums-up-the-big-problem-with-how-we-talk-about-terrorism

My daughter is taking family surveys...
"What is your ideal breakfast?"

The dog is chewing in front of a fire...

My son is playing "saints" on his flute downstairs...

I have the Orwells on while I bag out on this week's post...

What an amazing and complicated world we live in! Happy Winter Break, President's Day Weekend, and Sunday morning...

"And if you build a good name, eventually, that name will be its own currency..."

"And then the little boy's face lit up with such naked joy": I wasn't conscious of Patti Smith's emergence on the New York Punk Rock scene with Horses back in 1975 (I was 3 at the time and wouldn't discover Punk Rock for another 10 years). Numerous lists such as Rolling Stone's "Greatest Albums of All Time," NME's "20 Near-as-Damn-It Perfect Initial Efforts," and Time's "All-time 100 Greatest Albums" put Smith's album in high rank. I discovered Horses in the late early 2000s after I had broadened my music tastes and was coming full circle to find the music I should have known but had missed. I found Patti Smith in a back room office of a library in 1997...

"If you seek the kingdom come, come along": Each morning I would sit in The Andover Harvard Theological Library processing book receipts or creating the most bare-bones MARC records for cataloguing new titles. Part of my time was spent working for (my now good friend) Al. He preferred to start his day very early, leaving time for other pursuits later in the day, including performing explosive Rock and Roll at the local Club Bohemia. We would often listen to music while we worked, listening to selections from our existing collections or our frequent purchases (often inspired from recommendations from other musically inclined friends). Always preceding a splurge of purchases on my part was Al's annual "best of the year" list. He would send out his thoughts to an email list which worked much like present day blogs, and had quite a following. The list was, in parts, a reaction to independent music critics' picks in Boston, his numerous musician friends' picks, and his own well-developed critical opinion. Patti Smith's Peace and Noise made the list in 1997. Al asked me if I had listened to any Patti Smith, and I confessed I had not, despite knowing how important she was supposed to be to music in general. Little did I know she was critical to the music I loved so much from the New York Punk Scene. So, Al turned me on to Peace and Noise...

"Just another wandering soul adrift among the stars": A few years after my time in Boston I was looking for something that scratched my Punk itch while perusing the racks at Toonerville Trolly in Williamstown, MA. Owner Hal March had old copies of music from Blue Note, Sub Pop, and 4AD. Given the trend of online downloads and sales, I was impressed that such a small town still had a store with a broad record and CD collection with an audiophile at the helm. I told Hal I was looking to brooding my collection with some old Punk Rock; he inquired about my Ramones and Clash holdings; I told him I was flush; he eventually countered with Horses by Patti Smith. I remembered Al's successful recommendation of Peace and Noise, thought that Al and Hal had much in common, and so eagerly took Hal's suggestion. [I had also since learned of Smith's frequent collaboration with other artists I like, like Michael Stipe of REM and Bob Dylan. In 1996 Smith had released Gone Again in reaction to the recent deaths of Smith's friends and colleagues, including Kurt Cobain of Nirvana.] So I discovered Horses 30 years after it's release and the wait was not disappointing...

"There must be something I can dream tonight": So why write about Patti Smith today? Recently, I saw a post come across my feed of a talk filmed in 2012. The Huffington Post covered the story, it was reposted in my FaceBook feed and I actually clicked on it. I'll let Smith's words speak for themselves...

I’ve done records where it seemed like no one listened to them. You write poetry book that maybe, you know, 50 people read. And you just keep doing your work because you have to, because it’s your calling ... What matters is to know what you want and pursue it. And understand that it’s gonna be hard. Because life is really difficult. You’re gonna lose people you love, you’re gonna suffer heartbreak, sometimes you’ll be sick, sometimes you’ll have a really bad toothache. 

But on the other end, you’ll have the most beautiful experiences. Sometimes just the sky. Sometimes, you know, a piece of work that you do that feels so wonderful, or you find somebody to love, or your children. There’s beautiful things in life. So when you’re suffering … it’s part of the package.

I say, stay strong, try to have fun but stay clean, stay healthy, because you have a lot of challenges ahead, and be happy.

Smith goes on to tell a story about advice offered to her by the author Williams Burroughs. Although I am not sure I would place too much blind stock in advice from Burroughs, his words to Smith seem spot on to me:

When I was really young, William Burroughs told me, and I was really struggling, we never had any money, and the advice that William gave me was: "Build a good name. Keep your name clean. Don't make compromises. Don't worry about making a bunch of money, or being successful. Be concerned with doing good work, and make the right choices, and protect your work, and if you build a good name, eventually, that name will be its own currency."

My lesson learned: When I lived in north Cambridge I had a 12 by 12 plot to garden. Two local women had the most fabulously producing plot and I asked them for advise. They told me to avoid using chemicals like MiracleGro, saying it acts like steroids for plants, feeding them directly and stressing them out too much. Their advice was to take care of the soil and let the plants take care of themselves. So I worked hard at tending the soil, and the plants tended themselves, and my garden flourished also. I think the gardeners' advise and Burroughs' advice are the same...