Goodoodles

Happy March, everyone!  And to you new bloggies in Rockville, Dexter, Vancouver, Bakersfield and McClean!  Hope you are all having the start of a Goodoodle-filled week! 

The sun is shining on Madrid (and on the magnificent El Escorial palace, below left)!  What a winter we’re all having on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond, and an oppressive summer you in the southern half are suffering through!  Yet, Spring and Fall are creeping ever closer.  Today, I took a long walk in the brisk morning sunshine in my challenge of renewing our Social Security Medical Cards here in Spain, where paperwork is always an adventure.  Last week, I went to present all the documentation and they informed me that I was, of course!, missing something they hadn’t previously mentioned.  The señora more or less told me where and how to get it.  This morning, I made the arrangements, got there, waited a half hour, only to be told that to get the form I needed with its necessary stamp, I first needed my husband’s signature on it.  Fortunately, the whole convoluted, ridiculous process made me laugh!  Last week, I was disgusted.  Today, amused.  Laughing it off helped restore my smile and, as I hiked back uphill the fifteen blocks to the parking lot I’d finally found a spot in, I was able to celebrate all my goodoodles.  The setback, in perspective, really wasn’t an important one in the scheme of things.  Laughter and putting things in perspective… goodoodles and onto today’s: 

1. Philosophers who help us understand ourselves and our society.  From Knowledge & Judgement, by Avi Nardia & Albert Timen, copyright © 2007 Kapap Academy:

There is old story a Zen teacher told me “In the Zen temple at the time of evening meditation the cat that used to live there made too much noise. So the Zen teacher asked a student to tie the cat up each time they would meditate. After years had gone by, the teacher and the student passed away and so did the cat. A new cat was brought to the temple and the tradition of tying the cat was maintained. 100 years later, many Zen philosophies were written around how important it is to tie a cat at evening meditation…” As you see, sometimes we do things and we don’t know the real reason we are doing it for.  

The importance of the field of philosophy is to clarify things, make sense out of it all so we needn’t blindly follow the guy ahead of us.  Who are our Modern Philosphers?  Certainly, many of us have studied Aristotle, Plato and Socrates.  Maybe some of us even remember what they believed??  However, who’s doing all that thinking now?  (If you’re interested in researching for yourself, check out the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http://www.iep.utm.edu/wittgens) and, if you have any good leads for the rest of us, please comment and share them.

One of the great philosophers of the 20^th century I read about was John Dewey, an American from Burlington, Vermont who contributed in most fields of philosophy and psychology and was a major proponent of pragmatism (being practical).  Dewey, who believed that people get knowledge by interacting with things (e.g., experimental logic), helped shape much of 20^th century education in America.  In School and Society, published in 1889, Dewey wrote, “Democracy has to be born anew every generation, and education is its midwife.” Now, I lived many years in Argentina, where public schools are pathetic and the poor masses uneducated, and have seen how democracy indeed suffers when public education is purposefully neglected.  Philosophers that help us understand ourselves and our society, Dewey and his hands-on approach to learning, and the imperativeness of creative, well-funded, sound, public education…all important Goodoodles.

 2.  On-line Brain Gain.  Internet resources to help keep us thinking, while we are in, or long past, our school days, are worth checking out when you feel your neurons need a work out.  Investigate the mental gym at www.luminosity.com for a good exercise session, a Goodoodle for your brain.

3.  Really good books for kids.  My kids are avid readers, thank goodness and all the hours and dollars, pesos and euros invested in bedtime reading!  For our family, finding good books can be a challenge, just because they are devoured so quickly.  So, I’m always on the lookout for researched reading lists.  Suggestions welcome!   One source I’ve come to depend upon is the fantastic recommended reading lists for fiction, non-fiction, history, fantasy, mystery, etc., for lower, middle and upper school at the Greenwich Country Day School library in Greenwich, CT, USA. (http://gcds-lib.gcds.net/cataloging/servlet/presentviewpubliclistsform.do?l2m=Resource%20Lists)    They have been kind enough to leave their reading lists open to public access, and while the school is private, the generosity of sharing their researched reading lists and the service they provide to their community and the internet community around the world to promote a more educated future is invaluable.  Thanks GCDS!   YOU are Goodoodles!