“Listening is a rare happening among human beings. You cannot listen to the word another is speaking if you are preoccupied with your appearance or impressing the other, or if you are trying to decide what you are going to say when the other stops talking, or if you are debating about whether the word being spoken is true or relevant or agreeable. Such matters may have their place, but only after listening to the word as the word is being uttered. Listening, in other words, is a primitive act of love, in which a person gives self to another’s word, making self accessible and vulnerable to that word.”

William Stringfellow

The gift Of The Divisionists

Following last night’s Channel 4 showing of UKIP 100 Days, I thought it worth reposting a slightly tweaked version of this blog.  first posted on Sunday 15 February.

Right now it seems that the news was never more laden with reportage of social division.  With outright violent conflict at one end of the spectrum and identity politics, at the other.  But whether it is religious fundamentalism, territorial expansion, or the almost daily rhetoric of identity politics.  It seems to me, that the route cause is the same.  Fear.  Fear of losing power.  Perceived threat to culture or lifestyle.  Fear about loss of face or status. Fear of missing out or not getting our fare share. Fear of change.  Irrespective of the particular issue, our instinctive reaction is the same.  To seek to protect ourselves and our interests. One way of doing this is by making someone else the target.  Someone with whom we share the least in common and can identify as deficient or abnormal in some way.  An ‘other’.   

It is the easiest thing in the world to yield to fear and be carried along with the clammer against the ‘others’ in society.  Be they  ‘Islamists’, ‘welfare scroungers’, ‘migrant ‘workers’, ‘the obese, ‘addict’s and alcoholics.     ‘.  Wanting them to be more like us and conform to the notional ‘mainstream.  But speaking as an ‘other’;  A blind man, who 75 years ago would have been dealt with in no uncertain terms under the  NAZI Eugenic programme, I am very mindful of where divisionist politics can ultimately lead.   All it takes is a compelling case from our ‘leaders’, for ordinary people to allow the persecution to unfold.  A point proven by Stanley Milgram in his famous experiments of the early 1960s.   In which he revealed that ordinary people are likely to follow orders from an authority figure.  Even to the extent of killing an innocent human being.

http://www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html 

But I’m cheering the divisionists for the gift they are offering.  For I believe that by presenting us with their version of politics they gift us a golden opportunity.  The opportunity  to heed  the incontrovertible, undeniable lessons from the past. And as ordinary people,  overcome our fears and choose to transcend the politics of division. History has shown that  divided we fall, united   we stand.  Resolving the unprecedented challenges now confronting the world will require us to draw upon  the full diversity of perspectives, experience, skills and talents we possess as societies. Accepting each other for who we are, because  of our particular beliefs, backgrounds and circumstances.  Valuing everyone for our uniqueness, it seems to me, is the only way to release our  highest contribution.    We must never forget.  As ordinary people we outnumber vastly the politicians who would seek to obtain and retain power by dividing us and setting us against each other.  Our future lies in our diversity.  Not our differences.

Andy Shipley

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. We will not solve the problems of the world from the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. More than anything else, this new century demands new thinking: We must change our materially based analyses of the world around us to include broader, more multidimensional perspectives.”

Albert Einstein

the Power Of Birdsong

As I walked into town this morning, I became occupied by the question of what to talk about in my next blog.  Becoming increasingly immersed in this question.  My awareness was then suddenly flipped back into the here and now.  It was as though I’d been teleported.  From a world of questions, problems, past and future concerns, to one of enveloping melody, growing ease and wellbeing.  Just by the sound of birdsong.

I was profoundly struck by the immediacy of the transformation.  Far from being a kind of natural audible wallpaper.  It seems to me that if we allow ourselves to truly hear it, birdsong has the power to take us out of ourselves.  Reconnecting us with natural tones, rhythms and patterns.  Which in turn influences our own internal rhythms.  Deepening our breathing and slowing our heart rates.  Giving our brains the conditions they need to function effectively and perhaps find creative solutions to those challenges that were stressing us to start with.  After all.  It worked for me, didn’t it!

Andy Shipley

“We end up stumbling our way through the forest, never seeing all the unexpected and wonderful possibilities and potentials because we’re looking for the idea of a tree, instead of appreciating the actual trees in front of us.

Charles De Lint

“Never mistake the uncomfortable feeling of insecurity and the fear of the unknown with the Holy Ghost’s promptings. Sometimes those feelings are simply Satan keeping you stuck where you are because he knows you will have a half-life there. He knows that you will spend half of your life disconnected, discontented and convincing your mind of what its heart will never accept. He knows when you have settled, gave up and didn’t try. Inaction is his greatest weapon, while regret is his second.”

Shannon L alder

Doing As Well As Can Be Expected

 Huge thanks to Rachael for the inspiration for this piece. 

In response to my 10 January, blog, featuring the video of Ben Underwood, Rachael drew my attention to the story of Daniel Kish.  Featured on This American Life.  

Batman | This American Life

Daniel Kish.  now aged 49, lost his eyes as a toddler, and developed echo location as his primary tool for seeing the world.  With his charity ‘World Access for The Blind, Kish  challenges blind people of all ages across the globe, to “”reach beyond their limits”.     Home | World Access for the Blind 

Also like Ben Underwood, Daniel Kish  participates in what could be described as impressive activities, including hiking, climbing and most dramatically perhaps.  riding a bike. Solo!  But I think what is most significant about Daniel, is his perspective towards his abilities and how they are viewed by others.  For whilst many might describe Daniel’s achievements as remarkable.  Daniel believes they are not.  And the wonder  with which the sighted view and describe his abilities, is in Kish’s view, a product of the low expectations society has for the visually impaired.  And these low expectations are in turn perpetuated by the vast majority of visually impaired people themselves.  Which of course only serves to reinforce the broad social view  that little should be expected of ‘The Blind’.  Making the visually impaired, in Daniel’s words; “Slaves to the perceptions of others”.

But isn’t it inevitable that the social conditions for participation and engagement will be determined by the majority.   That being in this case,  those who comfortably rub along with 2020 vision and who have been taught that this is the essential sense.  So consequently the rules by which the blind are invited to participate are entirely based upon a sighted experience of blindness.  Which at best can only ever be second hand.  So any appreciation of the impact of visual impairment and the capacity of those experiencing it first hand, can only be 

imagined by the sighted.  And what they imagine of course, is a world bereft.  In which they, deprived of the ‘essential sense’ would pale and fail, and spiral into decline.  It is this imagined experience that informs the terms of engagement imposed on the visually impaired.  In which basic day to day functioning is held as a mark of success.    

What the sighted naturally  can’t comprehend is the capacity for the spark of life to always find it’s own course, and the power of perception to expand when unconstrained.  I wonder what might be possible for society, if the visually impaired were encouraged and enabled to pursue their passions, without the fearful  constraints of the sighted.      

We live in a litigious society of course. Also it’s entirely natural for families of the visually impaired  to want to protect their loved ones.   But how far does the fear of the litigiously nervous and concerned families serve in enabling visually impaired people to achieve their potential and make a real contribution to their society.

Picking up the threads from my previous blog; “Learning From Infant Explorers”.   Were we to continuously develop a more balanced sensory experience of the world, from the earliest age. Our capacity to adapt  and evolve to changes in our sensory faculties, would I believe be greatly enhanced.  Both individually and as a society.  It seems to me that while we continue to hail vision as the vital sense and all others as secondary or supplementary to it. We will continue to undermine the confidence  and  potential of those who see the world in other ways.  However, if the sighted of all ages, begin  familiarising themselves with the power of their non-visual senses, I believe  attitudes towards visual impairment might start to evolve.  When you consider that our populations in the West are ageing.  With an inevitable associated increase in the occurrence of sight loss.  It becomes clear that the  expectations and aspirations of and for the visually  impaired will  have an increasingly direct and important impact on our societies and economies.   But what do I say to the concerned loved ones?

  Well its an old adage, but the best way to show someone you love them, is to set them free!. 

     Andy Shipley

Learning From Infant Explorers

As infants we yearn to enjoy the world   with all our senses. Watch any  toddler   with an new object.    See how much they want to connect with   it. To explore and know it thoroughly, to hear what it sounds like; shaking it,  beating the ground with it.  To explore its shape and various textures not only with their fingers but with their more sensitive lips and tongues.  Seeking out and sensually consuming every  knowable feature of it.  I remember, in primary school, each of my classmates were as distinctive by their smell as their appearance.   I’m always struck by how children are just as likely even perhaps more likely to describe someone, particularly an adult they don’t like, by their smell, as how they look.  

Thinking back to the earliest days of my education, I realise how almost from the outset, visual recognition and classification dominates our learning.  We learn to identify objects principally by their visual properties, sometimes     solely informed  by a pictorial representation. Often in support of our linguistic development.  I wonder however, what our perception of the world would be like, if at every opportunity, when encountering an object, we were encouraged to discover all it’s properties on equal sensory terms.  How much richer would our understanding of the world be, if, as well as describing  an object   by it’s shape and colour  we were equally concerned with qualities such as oder, resonance, surface texture and spatial context.  And in turn, what questions might our awareness of these properties  raise for us?  Take the oak tree for example.  We are taught to identify it by it’s distinct  outline, the unique shape of it’s leaf and of course by it’s fruit the acorn.  But  does it possess a uniquely oakish scent?  When played by the breeze,Is the  sound of it’s canopy distinctly oakish in tone?    Does the trunk resonate at a particular frequency when struck?   If you lick it, does it’s bark have a uniquely oakish flavour?  Does it  have a particular relationship with it’s neighbours?

If our education, both formal and informal,  perpetuated and expanded the process of immersive learning we adopt as infants, I wonder how different might our adult relationships be with the substance of life.

Andy Shipley

The world is full of confusion and contradiction. We cannot expect to do anything that is absolutely right. We can only measure rightness by the truth within ourselves. And our own truth will never be quite the same as somebody else’s. I wish that I could touch you and be sure that it was the right thing to do. I only want to touch you briefly. Just once so that you will know. We are flesh and blood and full of faults. But we are also full of warmth. The world is full of confusion but there is compassion in its midst. communication via simple touch can transmit so much of us in just one minute. Like a painting or a piece of music…”

Jay Woodman

“Hearing has consequences. When I truly hear a person and the meanings that are important to him at that moment, hearing not simply his words, but him, and when I let him know that I have heard his own private personal meanings, many things happen. There is first of all a grateful look. He feels released. He wants to tell me more about his world. He surges forth in a new sense of freedom. He becomes more open to the process of change. I have often noticed that the more deeply I hear the meanings of the person, the more there is that happens. Almost always, when a person realize he has been deeply heard, his eyes moisten. I think in some real sense he is weeping for joy. It is as though he were saying, “Thank God, somebody heard me. Someone knows what it’s like to be me.”

Carl rogers