Where Has Our Compassion Gone?

     This particular Ted Talk from Bunker Roy intrigued me from its title, "Learning from a Barefoot Movement", I wasn't too sure what that meant exactly, but it certainly caught my attention. It turns out that Roy is the founder of the Barefoot College in Rajasthan, India. This extraordinary school teaches students, many of which are illiterate, to become solar engineers, doctors, and other important citizens within the villages they come from.

    
     It was very brave of Roy to set off on this journey. When he first started out he left a life of promise behind him and in 1965 he went and set foot in a village. A place filled with starvation and death, when he said, "It changed my life" that is such an understatement. It turned his whole life around, one simple decision to go see what life was like for people growing up in villages opened him up to an entirely different world from the one he had been living in. I have had the privilege to go serve in a village, like what he described, in Mexico with my church during my Spring Break the past two years and their truly are no words to describe what it's like.


    When he described the story of going back home and telling his mother that he wanted to go live and work in a village, I know exactly how he felt. I myself have considered becoming a missionary after I graduate, but just like Roy's mother, my parents are not pleased with the idea because they know that I could have such a good life laid out for me here in the states. They want me to follow the normal patterns of society. To get a higher education, get a well paid job, get married, have children, and "live happily ever after". But until they can go serve in a foreign country themselves, I'm not sure that they will ever be able to understand the drive and the passion that I have to do missionary work. I honestly just don't believe that they fully understand why I want to be a missionary and I don't think they ever will until they are able to experience missionary work first hand.


     I believe Roy made a wise decision in going back to the village and starting the Barefoot College. He found a balance between his passion for the people there and his degree in Education. He doesn't teach people how to read or write, but teaches them confidence, as described in the story of the 12-year-old prime minister. He solved real world problems providing education to the illiterate, providing food to the hungry, providing electricity for the village, and eve collecting rain water to help the villagers survive drought.


     One of the biggest issues we have in America today is our lack of care towards people in foreign countries. I think it has become too easy for us to just put a few dollars in the church offering or to write a small donation to a private organization, but how often do we actually get involved. We often neglect those who are in need of our help and I feel as if we have let down our world. Americas have been gifted with so many resources, but if we are not willing to go overseas and share those resources with the people that are in need, what good have we really done? Our world is in dire need of people who care and are willing to take the kinds of risks that Roy did. We need  more people who are willing to throw their promising and secure future away to help a complete stranger in need. We need to be people of compassion.

Fulfilling Childhood Dreams

     Over the next few weeks, I want to be able to master a four chord song on the acoustic guitar. When I was in elementary school I used to take guitar lessons from my choir teacher before school, but I never learned much from those lessons. The other students I played guitar with had all been playing for at least two years when I first started, so the teacher was always so focused on advancing their skills that I always got left behind. After months of lessons all I could strum was a C so I got frustrated and gave up.


     Now that I'm older and still have a passion for music, I'd really love to actually be able to play a song on the guitar. The "Axis of Awesome" is a grouping of the simplest 4-chord songs written. With just four simple chords you can play any of these songs:
• Journey-Don’t Stop Believing
• James Blunt-You’re Beautiful
• Alphaville-Forever Young
• Jason Mraz-I’m Yours
• Mika-Happy Ending
• Alex Lloyd-Amazing
• The Calling-Wherever You Will Go
• Elton John-Can You Feel The Love Tonight
• Maroon 5-She Will Be Loved
• The Last Goodnight-Pictures of You
• U2-With or Without You
• Crowded House-Fall At Your Feet
• Kasey Chambers-Not Pretty Enough
• The Beatles-Let It Be
• Red Hot Chili Peppers-Under the Bridge
• Daryl Braithwaite-The Horses
• Bob Marley-No Woman, No Cry
• Marcy Playground-Sex and Candy
• Men At Work-Land Down Under
• Banjo Patterson’s Waltzing Matilda
• A Ha-Take On Me
• Green Day-When I Come Around
• Eagle Eye Cherry-Save Tonight
• Toto-Africa
• Beyonce-If I Were A Boy
• The Offspring-Self esteem
• The Offspring-You’re Gonna Go Far Kid
• Pink-U & Ur Hand
• Lady Gaga-Poker Face
• Aqua-Barbie Girl
• The Fray-You Found Me
• 3OH!3-Don’t Trust Me
• MGMT-Kids
• Tim Minchin-Canvas Bags
• Natalie Imbruglia-Torn
• Five For Fighting-Superman
• Axis of Awesome-Birdplane
• Missy Higgins-Scar


     If you don't believe me then go ahead and watch this Axis of Awesome YouTube clip:
     I plan to teach myself to play the guitar by watching YouTube tutorials and practicing after school every day and on the weekends. This will challenge me because it’s been about seven years since I last took guitar lessons and even back then I didn’t know much, so it will take some time for me to be able to learn the chords and to be able to play a song to speed. Being able to play a song on the guitar will prove to myself that I should never give up on my dreams and that anything is possible with hard work and time.

Why Won't My Thoughts Just Be Quiet?!!?

     While studying the theories of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, I was asked by one of my teachers to set randomized reminders to my cell phone to measure the concept of "flow." When the reminders came at random, approximately four times a day for the past two weeks, I was asked to describe my mental state at that particular moment. Over the course of the past to weeks, I discovered that I never did get into "flow".

     It didn't matter where I was, what time of day (or night) it was, or who I was with, my mind no matter what I was doing was always distracted with background thoughts. I expected last weekend to be more flow-friendly because I drove over to Eastern Washington with my parents to visit my sister and participate in thinkEastern (EWU's open house), but I seemed to be more stressed while I was there. In the back of my mind was this constant cycle of questions: What do I like/dislike about Eastern compared to other colleges I've visited? How do I feel about going to college at the same school as my sister? Can I really see myself as a student here? Is college right for me? Should I go do missionary work for a year and then make up my mind about college? How would my family react if I chose not to go to college? and the list goes on.

     During the week, I found myself to be either constantly in a state of either boredom or frustration. The first morning of the study, I was eating a banana for breakfast and getting annoyed, as a conversation I had with a friend, the night before, re-played itself out in my head repeatedly. In classes, I was almost always bored as we reviewed the same things we've been working on for weeks. It is extremely difficult for me to get my thoughts to quiet down enough for me to ever truly get into flow because my brain always seems to be in five places at the same time.

A New Kind of Educaion

     Upon hearing about Studio Schools that are spreading across the UK, I was very curious as to how their way of teaching could change education worldwide. It certainly keeps students engaged, but would an education system like this eventually cause the world to get rid of colleges and universities? Check out what Geoff Mulgan has to say about Studio Schools:

     This new model of education could get young adults straight out into the work force right out of high school and could save families thousands of dollars each year as students are in the work field instead of sitting in an over-crowded class room. You could go straight into your field of interest. But what kinds of problems could Studio Schools lead to? Would college eventually be eliminated as we go back to learning through on the job experience like people did back in the Renaissance? Would children feel even more pressure to do what their parents want them to do instead of following their own dreams? I believe this new system, although great for some students, could really be harmful to childhood development and creativity.

For more information about Studio Schools check out: http://studio-school.org.uk/

Human Logic and The Heart of Happiness

     Dan Gilbert presents the question, "which would you prefer: winning the lottery or becoming paraplegic?" The obvious answer would be winning the lottery right? It seems we would be a lot happier to win the lottery, but science may prove otherwise.

     The human mind is truly an incredible mystery. I think this Ted talk just goes to show that we can find happiness through searching inside of us, we don't need money or fame or any of those other things that society tells us that we need in order to be happy. You can't always choose what happens to you, but you can choose how you react. So let’s make a commitment to be more joy filled people! What will you do to put a smile on someone else's face?