August 31, 2011
Focus for this issue: Arts, Humanities, Ideas
News & Events in Brief
New at anthroposophy.org: Inspired by a 2009 article in The New Yorker, Michael Ronall has sent an essay, "Adding self-command to self-restraint: Reflections on developing social courage." Read it here... Michael is one of the speakers at Threefold Educational Center's upcoming research symposium.
We have heard great things about this summer's major events related to the
School of Spiritual Science. The "class conference" at Rudolf Steiner College,
the mystery drama conference at Threefold Educational Center, the arts section
and
the social science section conferences in Harlemville and Hudson, NY,
and the natural science section and public conferences on "the
intrinsic nature of water" in Blue Hill, Maine have all been very successful.
Jennifer Greene reported of the section conference on water, "we were all
transformed." -- The class holders of the school on this continent have
been meeting now for 40 years (first meeting in 1971 at the initiative of Ernst
Katz), and a North American Collegium for the school was created as an interim
organization in 1993 and formally recognized in 1998. This summer's events
surely reflect the ripening and evolution of these collaborations. (Image:
idea-mural from "Redeeming the Realm of Rights" conference.)
After
Labor Day, Rudolf Steiner birthday celebrations continue, notably
150 Years of
Transformation, a festival organized at
San
Francisco's Golden Gate Club on September 25th by RSF Social Finance. And
October 14-16 brings
The Vision of Rudolf Steiner, the national fall conference in
Portland, Oregon. That gathering is preceded by a
Youth Section semi-annual meeting on the 13-14th. For two days, Youth
Section participants will gather and contribute in an intensive at shaping,
playing, sharing, conversing and being together to see what happens as they
collectively design this event.
The
new film Our Idiot Brother has been getting mixed but generally
favorable reviews ("too charming to resist"); everyone seems to love Paul Rudd's
performance as the not-really-so-foolish brother. It's an old set-up, of course,
the unsophisticate who innocently sees through everyone else's games (the title
reminds us of Dostoevsky and his saintly Idiot). This time the holy fool,
however, has a dog named Willie Nelson and is fresh off a biodynamic farm,
crashing with and disrupting the lives of his three urban sisters. One review
labels him a "hysterically
honest hippie."
Making A Difference: Ideas, Arts, Cultural Life
The leader of Canada's New Democrats, Jack Layton, died this month. He recently led his party to its first-ever second-place finish, making it the official opposition party. Of interest are sentiments in his obituary the like of which we are not hearing much today: "He was a believer. He made that clear in the first sentences of Speaking Out Louder: 'Politics matters. Ideas matter. Democracy matters, because all of us need to be able to make a difference.'"
Another make-a-difference politician is Ron Paul, libertarian Republican congressman from Texas. Retiring from the House and a long-shot for President, Paul is still making some waves from Iowa, and speaking for ideas that sound like his own, not his donors'. Clearly the corporate media continue to find his bluntness on many subjects uncomfortable.
Even a prince may think for himself, though it's not always been much welcomed in the current thoughtful Prince of Wales. Last month Charles was "branded a snake-oil salesman" for his support of homeopathy. He has campaigned for wider use of complementary medicine (of which anthroposophical medicine is perhaps the outstanding example) in Britain's National Health Service.
Think
OutWord makes a difference in several ways including its
Credere Fund, open now
again for grant applications, and open always for donations to fund these gifts.
The fund "encourages the community to direct its excess capital (usually in the
form of small gifts) to cultural initiatives, empowering individuals to freely
manifest their visions for the future. Credere awards grants to individuals with
creative projects in art, social change, and Goethean science. These
initiatives nourish the cultural life of the whole community, awakening an ethic
of mutual support."
Workingman poet laureate
Philip Levine, age 83, is the USA's new poet laureate, "best known for his big-hearted, Whitmanesque poems about working-class Detroit" as the NY Times reports. "Anger was a major engine in my poetry... It’s been replaced by irony, I guess, and by love.” He found love in one poem while waiting in line to apply for a job:
"...You love your brother,
now suddenly you can hardly stand
the love flooding you for your brother,
who’s not beside you or behind or
ahead because he’s home trying to
sleep off a miserable night shift
at Cadillac so he can get up
before noon to study his German.
Works eight hours a night so he can sing
Wagner, the opera you hate most,
the worst music ever invented."
More of the poem, "What Work Is,"
here.
Of the honor Mr. Levine said, “If you take it too seriously, you’re an
idiot. But if you look at the names of the other poets who have won it, most of
them are damn good. Not all of them — but most. My editor was thrilled, and my
wife jumped for joy. She hasn’t done that in a while.”
Meanwhile, we still have an auto industry, much changed, but alive, due to some
governmental intervention.
Right or wrong?
The Strange Beauty of Ruins comes to America
Though the renewal of Detroit is a stubborn force, the shrunken population and economic base have given rise to contemporary America's first collection of ruins. The Denver Post has an awesome photo-log documenting the sort of buildings we expect to see in Rome or postwar Europe of the jungles of Southeast Asia.
For Young Adults: Problem Novels
Bursting on the world in the 19th century, the art form of the novel helped Europeans deal with a crisis of individuality as society changed, radically and rapidly, around them. The novel is no longer novel, but if you have been to a bookstore lately or perused the young adults section at the library, you’ll notice a few things: the books are thick, stocky, with eerie fonts, dark both in graphic design and in titles—“Crank,” “The Survivors,” “The Strange Angel,” “The Future of Us.” These are problem novels—examples of how other young people overcome challenges and deal with the stresses simple and benign or extraordinarily fantastical. Fantasy literature is nothing new (take Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter), but new perhaps is the wide-spread recognition that these novels are didactic in nature and are serving to help prepare their readers for the struggles, and highlights, of life. In this article, Chelsea Miles argues that these novels with their dark themes are important resources for young, developing adolescents. "There are substantial young adult novels on bookshelves that have nothing to do with magical worlds or shape-shifting humans. These novels deal with the angst and pains of adolescence... Most teens face worse problems just within the hallways of their schools than are ever presented in young adult novels."
Resources: "Classic Insights"
Andrew
Flaxman's former Humanities Online site has a makeover and new name:
Classic Insights.
The venture is thirty years old and "was created to position Humanities as a
guide to self-awareness. The program stresses high academic standards, while
taking a practical, inspirational, and experiential approach to learning.
Classic Insights is dedicated to those who seek knowledge beyond traditional
Liberal Arts curricula, self-development through intellectual and spiritual
inquiry, and a greater sense of being through exploring the worlds seen and
unseen." Anthroposophy grew out of the "humanities" impulse of the late
19th century; Andrew and friends are keeping the connection alive.
Light Notes:
Eurythmy action.
Over 300 activists did a
eurythmy flash-mob, the world's first, last February 24th in the Cologne
train station, honoring the Rudolf Steiner express train.
The music on this
video would certainly set off security alarms over here.
While we're "over there," take a quick look at how environmentally-friendly paint spills transformed a Berlin square.
Meanwhile,
San Francisco-based artist Eric Staller offers the
bicycle built for seven:
combating obesity, encouraging team work, getting people to their destinations
on the conference bike.
If you’ve ridden one, tell us how it went!
