Peripheral Visions

I'm reading a book that a friend lent to me. She gave it to me a few years ago - I think probably while I was doing my certificate in Adult Ed. At the time, I was pretty overwhelmed with the other reading I had to do, and when I started reading this book, called "Peripheral Visions: learning along the way," by Mary Catherine Bateson, it was, quite frankly, too cerebral for "extra-curricular reading" - at least for my taste.

But I picked it up again a week or two ago, and it really is quite fascinating. Among many other really cool insights about how learning happens, and cultural differences, etc, here are a couple of my favorite nuggets so far:

"Insight, I believe, refers to that depth of understanding that comes by setting experiences, yours and mine, familiar and exotic, new and old, side by side, learning by letting them speak to one another." (page14)

"Community, like the sacred, is an idea that becomes reality because we believe in it, not vice versa." (page 42)

I also just finished reading a really interesting chapter about change and continuity. Basically, the idea is that depending on how you look at your life, you can focus on everything that's changed or on everything that stays the same:

"Everything I have ever done has been heading me for where I am today" is one version of the truth, but most adults can say as well, "It is only after many surprises and choices, interruptions and disappointments, that I have arrived somewhere I could never have anticipated." (pages 83-84)

I'm not even half done the book yet, so maybe I'll be back with more. :-)

Atomic Grandeur

I have been thoroughly enjoying my latest reading: A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. I have never been that into science, but this is a truly fascinating read. Bryson puts the "how did they figure that out?" behind such facts and theories as the size of the Earth, its distance from the sun, and its molten core in a completely accessible way. The whole book is peppered with interesting little tidbits about the scientists (and amateurs) that made these discoveries. For example, did you know that Dr. James Parkinson (after whom Parkinson's disease was named) was a socialist revolutionist who once won a natural history museum in a raffle??!

But in amongst all the scientific facts and concepts and anecdotes about their discoverers, Bryson has a real reverence for the miracle (and sheer improbability) of the existence of life on this planet. So far, I think I have been most affected by this one section in particular:

"Atoms, in short are very abundant. They are also fantastically durable. Because they are so long lived, atoms really get around. Every atom you possess has almost certainly passed through several stars and been a part of millions of organisms on its way to becoming you. We are each so atomically numerous and so vigorously recycled at death that a significant number of our atoms - up to a billion for each of us, it has been suggested - probably once belonged to Shakespeare. A billion more each came from Buddha and Genghis Khan, and Beethoven, and any other historical figure you care to name."

Chew on that for awhile. :-) .... Crazy, huh?

By the way, Bryson goes on to note: "(The personages have to be historical, apparently, as it takes the atoms some decades to become thoroughly redistributed; however much you may wish it, you are not yet one with Elvis Presley.)"