Beautiful Experiment

This is an excellent question to ask ourselves. What else are we missing in our daily, rushed, stressed out lives?

Perception -


Washington, DC Metro Station on a cold January morning in 2007.
The man with a violin played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes.
During that time approx. 2 thousand people went through the station,
most of them on their way to work.

After 3 minutes a middle aged man noticed there was a musician playing.
He slowed his pace and stopped for a few seconds and then hurried away.


4 minutes later:
the violinist received his first dollar. A woman threw the money in the hat,
and, without stopping, continued to walk.

6 minutes:
A young man leaned against the wall to listen to him,
then looked at his watch and started to walk again.

10 minutes:
A 3-year old boy stopped but his mother tugged him along hurriedly.
The kid stopped to look at the violinist again, but the mother pushed hard,
and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time.
This action was repeated by several other children.
Every parent, wthout exception, forced the child to move on quickly.

45 minutes:
The musician played continuously. Only 6 people stopped and listened for a short while.
About 20 gave money but continued to walk at their normal pace.
The man collected a total of $32.

1 hour:
He finished playing and silence took over.
No one noticed. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.

No one knew that the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the greatest musicians in
the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, with a
violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before Joshua Bell sold out a
theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.


This is a true story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the
Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste and
people's priorities. The questions raised: in a common place environment
at an inappropriate hour, do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it?
Do we recognize talent in an unexpected context?

One possible conclusion from this experiment could be this:
If we do we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians
in the world, playing some of the finest music ever written, with one of the most
beautiful instruments ever made, what else are we missing?

Source:
Gene Weingarten – “Pearls Before Breakfast; Can one of the nation’s great musicians cut through the fog of a D.C. rush hour? Let’s find out.” Washington Post, April 8, 2007

The Asset Building Framework in Rural Social Work

Our MSW program at Humboldt State University strictly adheres to the long tradition of practice in social work that focuses on strengths and assets, whether we are talking about individuals, families, neighborhoods or communities. I have learned to use this practice in my internship and strongly believe that it is the most positive thing I can bring to the table in my work. As the authors noted in the text, Rural Social Work: Building and Sustaining Community Assets, we can choose to see the problems facing our communities and become overwhelmed by the depth of despair in our society that is reflected in the individuals, families and communities that we come into contact with on a daily basis in our work. We have another choice though, and that is to see the assets that are available in the systems we work in. It is the choice of seeing the glass half empty, or half full. Seeing the glass half full allows us to tune into the “depth of the human spirit and the richness of the creative process” (Scales & Streeter, 2004). This perception can create a vibrant and enriching reality that is usually missing in the concept of social work in rural communities.
Since most of my family still lives in the rural community that I grew up in, it was refreshing to read about the wide range of strengths and assets that are available in rural communities since I have thought about working in a rural area when I graduate. The assets that are available include the associations people have with each other and the land, family histories that can include many generations of ties between individuals and families, and family and local traditions that connect people.
The authors identify three significant streams of asset building work that have helped to shift the focus in rural social work from deficiencies to assets. The book, Building Community From the Inside Out, by Kretzmann and McKnight, focuses on asset building by “identifying resources and fostering relationships in the community” (Scales et al., 2004). This approach has been established in the Asset-Based Community Development Institute at Northwestern University. Kretzmann and McKnight’s central approach is that every individual has promise, and it is essential to define what that is because the totality of these assets can be used to revitalize a rural area.
A second stream of asset building work is located at the Search Institute in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Search Institute identified forty critical factors necessary for the healthy development of our youth in the belief that healthy communities value healthy children. It is the responsibility of every community to nurture their external experiences like creating supportive environments and clearly stated boundaries. It is also equally important to nurture the internal qualities of each child. This can include helping kids make a commitment to learning, creating boundaries, and helping each child to develop a strong sense of power and worth. These children will then make positive contributions to their communities, which will empower all of us.
The third area of work focused on the asset-building framework is located at Washington University in St. Louis in the George Warren Brown School of Social Work. The focus of this work challenges the current welfare policies that penalize families for creating assets that would allow them to get off welfare. Encouraging people to create and save money using individual development accounts would allow families to start small businesses or save for college for their children.
I encourage social workers everywhere to learn more about the asset-building framework because the rural environments will impact our practice even if we work in urban areas. The reason for this is there are huge populations of people living in cities that have migrated from rural areas.

Using the American Flag as a Blanket to Stay Warm

This picture of a father using the American flag as a blanket to shield his son points to the contradictions and complexities of the United States when it comes to dealing with race and class together. Images such as this broadcast across the nation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina illustrate the economic stratification and racial inequality that still exists in a country that refuses to come to terms with its history of slavery and economic disparity between the rich and the poor.

Watch Spike Lee’s four hour documentary about Hurricane Katrina, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, which highlights this disparity, as well as the system wide failure of the government on all levels, and gives a voice to the survivors and victims of the storm.






The latest census data show a widening income gap in the United States as poor and middle class people take a bigger hit in this recession. The economic gap between the richest and poorest Americans is widening once again. The wealthiest 10 percent of Americans who make more than $138,000 per year earned 11.4 times the income earned by those living at or below the poverty line in 2008, which is roughly
$12,000.

Household income dropped at sharper percentage levels for those people who are part of the middle and lower income classes, eliminating a decade's worth of gain since 1997 and poverty levels jumped to an 11 year high at 13.2 percent.

Use of food stamps has increased by 13 percent to nearly 9.8 million households. These increases were most evident in households with 2 or more workers, which highlights the impact of this recession on working families as well as the unemployed.

President Obama is considering new regulations to rein in executive earnings at companies in which we, the taxpayers, have paid tremendous amounts of money in order to keep workers employed and the companies afloat. The president is also talking about the need to tax the wealthy to pay for health care overhaul and other measures, since the wealthy have disproportionately benefited from tax cuts during the Bush administration.

President Carter Speaks Out About Racism in America

President Carter speaks on racism towards President Obama



Keith Olbermann discussing President Carter's comments on Racism







This is a perfect moment to talk about the history of colonialism, oppression, and
racism in the United States.

Seven Stages of Colonialism

1. Invasion-Christopher Columbus, United States in Iraq, Vietnam, Central America
2. Destruction of entire groups- introduction of small pox, appropriation of land,
forced migrations-Cherokee "Trail of Tears"
3. External political control-Bureau of Indian Affairs. No other group of people
are managed by a bureaucratic institution in the United States
4. Economic dependence-United States Government in role as Benefactor
5. Lower quality of social services for those that need it the most
6. Social interactions are disrupted or severed
7. Racism becomes institutionalized- hate speech towards President Obama and Ward
Churchill

Historical trauma is the direct result and the key feature of colonialism and can be described as the collective emotional and psychological injury that occurs across generations. This particular form of trauma is so significant and devastating because the stories of suffering are repeated over and over again throughout our country's history with Native American, African American and other ethnic and cultural groups which encompasses four hundred years of suffering and survival. Unfortunately, there is no victory dance or heroic narrative to mitigate the suffering which becomes part of the generational psychic structure.
The consequences include a "culture of silence" that leaves these unresolved events shrouded in mystery which can take control of the individual and group consciousness.

Some of the continuing problems that plague those that suffer from historical trauma are mental and physical health problems, frustration and apathy, inability to sustain healthy change, intense fear, feelings of helplessness, horror, and disorganized thinking. Other symptoms can include intergenerational grief, cynicism, and infighting between families or communities.

Oppression Psychology focuses on the patterns that are created when people are colonized and oppressed that include fight, flight and capitulation (Fanon and Bulhan).

There are many horrific examples of United States Colonialism and racism against our own people and others throughout the world that are killed, subjugated or oppressed in the name of power, control and insidious and never-ending greed that is clearly addictive. A few of these include the seventh cavalry and Wounded Knee, President Andrew Jackson who is known as the "Cherokee killer" and the "Trail of Tears", and President Abraham Lincoln and the "Minnesota Massacre." These events are almost nonexistent in the history books of middle and high school students, or even in many college textbooks. Other examples include the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War, the Iraq War and Abu Ghraib, the firing of Ward Churchill at the University of Colorado, clearcutting of the Amazon rainforests for soybean production that is grown for the European beef market, and the racist commentaries, web sites and demonstrations by American citizens that believe that Barack Obama should not be president because he is African American.

Dr. Michael Yellow Bird testifies at Professor Churchill's trial






Cedar Tree

The Heavenly Sky and Rumi

(Helix Nebula gaseous envelope expelled by a dying star)

These Spiritual Window Shoppers by Rumi

Our death is our wedding with eternity.
What is the secret? "God is One."
The sunlight splits when entering the windows of the house.
This multiplicity exists in the cluster of grapes;
It is not in the juice made from the grapes.
For he who is living in the Light of God,
The death of the carnal soul is a blessing.
Regarding him, say neither bad nor good,
For he is gone beyond the good and the bad.
Fix your eyes on God and do not talk about what is invisible,
So that he may place another look in your eyes.
It is in the vision of the physical eyes
That no invisible or secret thing exists.
But when the eye is turned toward the Light of God
What thing could remain hidden under such a Light?
Although all lights emanate from the Divine Light
Don't call all these lights "the Light of God";
It is the eternal light which is the Light of God,
The ephemeral light is an attribute of the body and the flesh.
...Oh God who gives the grace of vision!
The bird of vision is flying towards You with the wings of desire.
(Mystic Odes 833)



(A perfect storm of turbulent gases in the Omega/Swan Nebula)

Social Work 643:Community Work

--Obama Speaks to School Children Across Country--In our Social Work 643:Community Work class this week, we talked about President Obama and his speech to school children across the country and how they could achieve their goals through their experiences in school. I downloaded part of his speech here where you can view it if you missed it originally. The president explained to students that no matter what they wanted to accomplish in their lives, they would need an education, and that we as a country need them to develop their knowledge, problem-solving, and intellectual skills for the great challenges we will face in the future. He also said that "we can have the most dedicated teachers and parents as well as the best schools possible, but those things won't matter unless each child fulfills his or her responsibilities." (http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle/archive/2009/09/08/full-text-of-obama-s-speech-)
It is thrilling to hear our president speak to children about their responsibility as citizens of this country as well as their teachers and parents. President Obama was speaking about the tradition in this country of civic responsibility. The first time I understood what that meant was when I heard the original inaugural speech given by President Kennedy on January 20, 1961 when he said..."ask not what your country can do for you-ask what you can do for your country." As the years have gone by since that time in history, we no longer expect that kind of civic duty from ourselves or our children. It seems that shopping has replaced civic responsibility as our "duty" as citizens.





I included the cartoon of President Obama and George Bush giving advice to children because it speaks to the obvious and important differences between these two men. It is important to remember that when a reporter asked former President Bush what the citizens of this country should do a few days after the 9/11 tragedy, his unbelievable response was that Americans should not be afraid to go out to our favorite stores and malls AND SHOP.

It is very difficult to make sense of the ugliness that permeated the news and internet sites with angry parents and Fox News broadcasters ranting about President Obama's speech to the school children of our nation. Being exposed to the words of the president of this country is an excellent civics lesson creating stimulating learning possibilities and stimulating dialogue between students, parents, teachers, and classmates.

Yoga, Sanskrit and the language of meditation

According to Houston (2006), the world of vision and clarity can open through yoga and meditation. The language of Sanskrit is the vehicle to that world as preparation to meditation through chanting aloud or silently within. You can read the complete article at http://www.americansanskrit.com/read/a_meditation.php.

This article was important to me because it points out how our "individual life fields," that are not necessarily limited to the parameters of our physical bodies, are programmed by our habits, both mentally and physically." According to Houston (2006), this limits our sense of self and yoga is a practice that can terminate these habitual activities that limit us and our life experiences. The information we have been studying these last two weeks in class have focused on the brain and its never ending ability to change. We have also discussed how thoughts do lead to changes in brain connections and thoughts are wired together as we think. We also learned that words and thought can change the structure of matter.

If this is true, as social workers we have tremendous opportunities to help individuals begin to think differently about what is possible in their lives. In therapy, the words we use can rephrase what we are hearing in a more positive way for someone else, possibly creating changes in brain connections through the listening process for both of us. I like to think of it as partnership growth and healing for the client and social worker in the therapeutic process.

References:

Houston, V. (2006). Sanskrit, the language of meditation, American Sanskrit Institute. Retrieved September 3, 2009 from http://www.americansanskrit.com/read/a_meditation.php