You know a college degree ain’t worth the paper it’s printed on when you can’t even sell it on eBay to pay off your student loans. Enlow, a recent college grad who found himself heavily in debt without a job that pays enough to make the monthly payments tried to sell his diploma to pay off his loans and eBay pulled his auction down. They are heartless. Suddenly we learn just how political the topic “education” has become these days and how the cronies stick up for each other.

eBay Halts Indebted Purdue Grad’s Diploma Auction
Purdue Diploma Removed from Ebay

Of course eBay tells a different version (of course): “diplomas can not be listed for sale due to the sensitivity and nature of the item.” eBay cares more about this “emotional” issue and less about the former student who can’t pay his loans after “investing” in his college education. The Purdue President earns a yearly salary of $529,000. Something is wrong with this picture. Who is eBay supporting in this equation? In the meantime, Enlow states, “Going to college made my life worse.”

Check out the salaries of some of the other university presidents: Salaries. But have no fear; salaries are “leveling off.” It's too bad tuition hikes don't level off.

All of this, combined with my own personal experience with universities where I have worked and/or attended makes me wonder whether all of the money I have invested is going to do me any good. Personally, I do not want a “job” or to work for a “boss,” especally if it means I can't afford to pay all of my loans. If I had not come across Joe's work, quite miraculously (and had the good fortune to meet him in person), I would really be in dire straits. Joe's theory can get us all out of this mess.

I am very disappointed about my university education and I feel that I am at a crossroads right now. Do I want to continue investing for a PhD that I am not totally certain will be worth what I paid for it by the time I am finished? Will it get me a job? No, I don’t want the kind of job I have been “trained” to work at. I want to create my own work. But my degree did not preprare me for that and this is where Joe's theory comes to the rescue. PLUS I am contemplating transferring back to my home state university and writing my PhD for them. The only problem with transferring at this point is that every university seems to want extra money, so they force you to take and pay for more courses before working on the dissertation.

But returning to Oregon State University works for me because I am an “Eager Beaver” at heart. My home state is “the Beaver State” (Oregon) and I earned my B.A. and Masters degree at Oregon State University – the OSU Beavers! Perhaps, since I am such an Eager Beaver, I should check into the new innovative program they have started which combines the arts and sciences. That would be a great department for pushing forward Joe’s advanced conceptualization of the multidimensional, multidisciplinary critical bricolage as I intend to do with my dissertation. I will think about it.

I did have much more to say today, including some music from my Master Teacher, but I think I will stop here for today. I sense that something big is coming “up the pike.” (That’s a treasure hunt.) In the meantime, here are some great OSU Beaver videos. At least if the diploma is no good, we got the Beaver Spirit!

Beaver Fight Song

It’s Saturday already! Where do the days go?

And last night I actually missed meeting with my Master Teacher. I was very tired, went to bed early, and then was up early this morning. It’s ok, though, he doesn’t mind. I did meet with him VERY early this morning just before he headed out the door to another important meeting. Nevertheless, he took time to go into great detail about celebrating Memorial Day, how to organize my research, and how to proceed with some of the projects we are working on together. Plus. he provided me with a lot of music.

I do plan to have a royal Memorial Day celebration for all of my loved ones who have passed over, and, of course, including the entire critical knowledge network. It should be interesting. I really want to take time to make them each a special gift – at least the ones I know well. But my teacher said not to go to so much trouble and that they really do not expect “shrines.” Well, I think some of them really deserve shrines for all of the hard work they did while they were living in what essentially might be called hell here on earth. And since this site is dedicated to Joe, I often think about how hard he worked, how dedicated he was to leave such monumental works for us to use to move education forward. But my teacher said they will all be happy if I just spend some time writing to them. They like that.

As far as the research, he had no definite suggestions for an organized process. He told me I already know how it works – we just engage in the process, put our hearts into it, and then divine guidance kicks in, leading us to the appropriate information at the right time. He did suggest that I continue to work on getting my files organized, taking notes on articles, and to keep a list of definitions that I encounter. He wants me to replace some of the terms with more familiar terms, stating that while we do not want to “dumb it down” we also don’t want to use elite educational jargon that the “chosen” few can relate to.

Of course, the words in quotation marks were clues to songs that relate to our mission to change education and make the world a better place. So I will look those up on YouTube right now, taking the first song to the top in each case. (My Master Teacher loves to communicate with music). I should note here, that it is important to bring music and all of the arts back into the curriculum. A complete education honors taking care of the mind, body, and soul. Music and the arts attend to the soul.

I will look up the songs on You Tube right now.

“shrines.”
OMG – Check this video out. “Genius Saves World!” are the headlines on a newspaper in the opening segment of this video. That is so significant! And this video was put up just yesterday. I’ll tell ya, my Master Teacher does stay on top of things! I love it! And of course, if you have read my previous blogs and if you are familiar with Joe's work, Joe was a true geunius who believed we are all geniuses if only we free up people to learn naturally. As it stands, people are being prevented by our educational system from achieving their potential because we think we know what we need to teach them, have dumbed down the curriculum, and force them to waste their brain power on memorizing random, decontextualized information. Check this out! Genius Saves the World! Yes, indeed. And there are more interpretations for this video.

And WHO runs the Charter Schools?

It sounds like a set-up to me, but who is fighting in this war? Is it REALLY the bad guys against the good guys? Or is it the good guys against the good guys? Or is it the bad guys pretending to fight against the bad guys, thus they are ALL lunatics?

Given that this is the vile FOX News (a heartless media mogul), I think I will choose the latter. If people would just take time to read Joe’s little booklet, a precious GEM he left us, Understanding The New Right and Its Impact on Education (1983), they would quickly come to realize that these lunatics who are so good at pulling us all into their drama are sacrificing our children, their futures, and the future of the earth for money, greed, and power. The “New” Right is a fabrication. The “Left” is a fabrication, folks. Some other fabricated imaginaries include: Democrat- Republican, Progressive-NeoConservative, creationism-evolution, liberal-conservative, etc. etc.  Just like these fabricated wars (War on Drugs, Education War, War on Poverty, blah blah blah) --THEY DO NOT EXIST. They exist only in our minds because that is what the politicans, the media, and the power moguls at the top PROGRAM us to believe. As long as we believe we are divided this way, they have us under their control, and importantly, they can rob us blind.

Americans and people of the world! Listen up! We all have much more in common and we are much more in agreement than has been constructed for us in our consciousnesses. It is time to realize this and begin fighting the monster, which is powerful but much smaller than you think. And we have the cosmos on our side this time.

Just think, if the cosmos has the power to create beautiful and erotic love scenes in the sky (see my blog, Psyche and Eros: Lovers in the Sky), then we simply must know that we have God on our side, however you prefer to conceptualize God and no matter what religion you are or are not. Do not be deceived by the conflict the media, politicians and the transnational corporate moguls construct. They want to own the world. We do not have to allow that. And how do we prevent this? The same way it has always been done in the past: through the Great Phoenix Rising. That is, we start from the bottom up, avoiding the traps, blasting through all of the gates, and making our own rules. (The old rules don’t work anymore.)

This video is just one more example of the way the media hypes up things with a political agenda. My guess is that this hype will turn us against each other once again so that big business can come in and take over the charter schools. The goal of No Child Left Behind was a public education takeover and these people are patiently waiting like vultures, wanting us to believe that charter schools are the “golden chalice” for education so that we are all fighting, kicking and screaming for the opportunity (which will be but a fleeting moment, once their real agenda kicks in).

Investigate charter schools. Who owns them? What is the trend in this ownership over the past few years? How does this Education War video play right into the hands of the corporate take-over of education? How is this going to affect education in the future? What can we at the bottom do to circumvent this?

My Meetings With My Master Teacher

I love the song he gave me last night. After our meeting he told me to get some rest so that I could get up in the morning and “hit the ground running.” So, I plugged those words into YouTube and look what came up: A really sweet song. I guess he wants to keep me around (not that I would EVER leave him! We are in this together for eternity!)

“hit the ground running”
 

Also, I was not sure about the messages yesterday in the video game YouTube video, but I followed up on it some (partially, at least; I think there is more to this video). But I looked up the lyrics for the first song in the video, which is “Cowboy Dreams.” It is really sweet (I do love my Master Teacher, so it’s ok that he sends me this kind of music). The lyrics are here: Cowboy Dreams. Looks like my Master Teacher is back into LOVE SONGS. I can't complain about that, especially given all of these "wars" that keep being fabricated around us.

He gave one other video yesterday and said it was significant and that I should look up the synopsis for this movie. The clue was “Catch me if you can.” I have not seen the movie. I looked it up online and it appears to be about a man who went around the world impersonating an airline pilot, doctor, attorney, and history professor and he cashed more than $2.5 million dollars in fraudulent checks in 26 different countries. It’s a cat and mouse chase with the FBI involved. OK, I will need to find out why this is relevant. It does amaze me when I hear about these people who can impersonate various professionals and are convincing. How do they do it? They must receive divine intervention to be able to pull it off.

“Catch me if you can”


My meeting this morning was very short; my Master Teacher stays busy these days. I told him I did not know what to write in the blogs today and as usual when that happens, he said to just start writing, so I did, and this blog is what we have. He gave me some business advice which I appreciate so much, and then he signed off with “GOLD,” meaning that the advice he gave me was "gold," so that means I'd better follow up on it. This is ANOTHER song, I am sure. I will check it right now on YouTube. I don’t know whether people reading these blogs realize the significance of the music and videos provided, but I do know I really love getting the music from my teacher – so here goes; let’s see what this one simple word, "Gold" brings up today.

Since the song cannot be embedded, here is the link:

GOLD
Here are the LYRICS. I LOVE it. Another LOVE song. I guess this means
my teacher is happy with the work I am doing. J

It is interesting that so many of my colleagues seek my advice with their research, even though I am a rookie. We all seem to be groping in the dark when it comes to navigating the research process. Frankly, many universities do not teach students how to research at all. In doctoral programs, instead of learning how to research, we are forced, once again, to take a long string of required classes of watered down, politically biased courses that are taught on the basis of textbooks that include major misconceptions, deceptions, gross obfuscations, ommissions, and in some cases, even outright lies. And always, the textbooks present the reified Western view of things. I have written a number of papers in my courses pointing out these issues and I have even rewritten the curriculum in some of my courses to escape this nonsense, but of course, I am a hick from the country who is quite voiceless. I took a great deal of time reading Joe’s version of the critical bricolage and often discuss it with my colleagues and they intuitively see that the approach that is being forced on them by upper faculty is often misguided, but they cannot see in what way. And so they often come to me – I think I need to go into the dissertation consultation business.

One thing for sure, education needs my dissertation done already. As I agreed with one of my colleagues, the critical bricolage involves mixed methods; that is true. (She had the recommendation from another colleague to not refer to it as the bricolage, but to just call it “mixed methods.”) The bricolage, however, uses multiple perspectives, theories and methods to look at the object of inquiry from many angles and then, as she had stated, weaves or quilts them together. However, we can only SPECULATE up front what some of those methods might be and so we state that the process is IMPROVISATIONAL. Maybe the researcher will need to do interviews at some point, maybe look at different theories, maybe see how a trend noticed during the investigation compares with some other trend (there are infinite options, but you select what will answer some of the new questions that come up as you go through the process and if using Joe's critical bricolage, the criteria for selecting are ways to promote social justice, or as he always so sweetly stated it throughout his work, the criterion is "to alleviate human suffering"); you do not determine all of your questions up front -- new questions always come up so why restrict your question to those you have up front during the time you have the least understanding of what your research might show?)....so you make those decisions during the research process as you uncover things. To say that we know what we are going to discover in research is backwards. As both Einstein and Joe had contended -- IF WE KNEW WHAT WE WERE GOING TO FIND, IT WOULDN'T BE CALLED RESEARCH. Not only that, science is not out to PROVE anything, it is out to INVESTIGATE, PROBE. It amazes me how many people even at our level think that research is out to "prove" something. I even find myself using the word and I know better.

It is a misconception to think that we can come up with some final nearly definitive answer. You can't. ALL research is interpretation, even positivism, and the best you can do is find a good stopping point at which you have gained a greater understanding and have moved knowledge forward -- maybe a lot, maybe a little. The research can always be picked up again and continued on sometime down the road when conditions change.

Note that the briocloage does not throw out positivism; positivism may have its place for ONE PIECE of the quilt. Joe was often criticized for throwing out positivism. If you read his work, he was highly critical of the fact that education has a love affair with positivism, but he had NOT eliminated it from the toolbox.

Many committee members appear to be hung up on putting the cart before the horse. Most students, even at the doctoral level have not been taught how to DO Research. We literally have not been taught and the dissertation process is much like the blind leading the blind in some cases (not all, fortunately).

This is one of the very reasons I selected the bricolage to research USING the bricolage. I can explain all of this right up front and I can bypass or clear up any misconceptions on the part of the committee, if there are any. Unfortunately, for whatever reasons, at my university, we often do not have free choice of our committee members, which means we may end up with someone we do not know and who is not familiar with our work. By the end of my dissertation I hope to put forth a greater understanding of the bricolage and how it can be applied. I truly hope -- if I am allowed to finish this process, and I have serious doubts about that, given my status as trailer trash -- that I open doors for future research. Educational research is not only at a standstill right now, it is taking society tragically backwards.

I explain the following, to once again remind people reading my blogs that they are:

1) The critical bricolage in action and they are phenomonenological in nature;
2) Based on Joe’s critical complex epistemology and the critical bricolage. This is NOT to be confused with critical pedagogy as it is practiced today, which is an entirely different ideology, FROM MY PERSPECTIVE -- please refer to my previous blogs about how Joe’s work was leading us on a path AWAY from critical pedagogy and this is all in his book, Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction; although Joe defines his version of critical pedagogy, which is an element of his theory, he has moved us much further out on the paradigmatic spectrum, which is where I am most comfortable.
3) TOTALLY IMPROVISATIONAL. I do not PLAN these blogs. I meet with my Master Teacher each day during which he teaches me on an improvisational basis and also gives me his, what I like to call “magic music” that provides additional perspectives or sometimes simply consoles me during the trials and tribulations in my life -- and the music always projects love to the cosmos. My blogs are written much the way people CHANNEL information down through the cosmos. That is just one way to explain how I write and many writers use this same process, but most of them refuse to talk about it or reveal all of their secrets. Unfortunately, we are not taught this method in school. The bottom line is, we do not need to plan out and struggle with our writing. It just flows. This is one of the hidden secrets that many educators, famous authors, scientists, etc., know and use, but they have refused to pass down the information lest we all become great writers and, with their false notion of scarcity (there is not enough money or fame to go around), they keep these things hidden. We have free access to greater knowledge and abilities quite naturally. I will contend that we all can become great writers if we learn to capitalize on this process and practice it. The tactic in education is to force us to cram our brains with nonsensical “knowledge” so that our creativity does not have a chance to surge forth. This process is clearly explained in my blog, Mental Processes Require Exposure to Difference.
4) As stated above, everything is merely interpretation, including all research. In the Disclaimer for this site, on this page, there is a long explanation of what that means.
5) The purposes of these blogs are multiple and include, but are not limited to:
a) my dissertation research;
b)a way of putting forth multiple interpretations and perspectives so that we are no longer restricted to the Western worldview as we go forth with Joe’s critical complex epistemology and critical bricolage. These theories REQUIRE multiple worldviews. We simply must accomplish this soon because as it stands, unfortunately, globalization is far ahead of humanity’s ability to relate with each other and work together to make decisions that are just and equitable. Even in the United States, as highlighted with the border issues and the Texas textbook issues, we are not able to find resolutions for our own issues. This must be remedied and the Western World needs to come to its senses before attempting to tell “OTHERs” what to do, not that we should ever be telling people in other countries what to do or pretending we have superior knowledge when we do not (and I find that label "Others" which the educational community tosses around far too frequently highly insulting for myself as well as for the other people it has come to represent, as I discussed in a previous blog). Cultural differences simply will never allow Western rules to be applied all over the world. It cannot and will not ever work. Joe was highly concerned about this very issue and he called over and over again in all of his work for the opening of our minds to diverse perspectives. We can no longer be the dictators of “WHAT IS” no matter how we might wish to rationalize it, define it, sanction it, put it in stone, or defend it; as long as we are using Western policy and practices, we are in deep trouble with the rest of the world.
c) We must learn to critically think via Joe's formulation of a complex criticality. As I asked in a previous blog, “Can we TEACH critical thinking?” No, we cannot teach it, but we can provide the tools and opportunities for people to develop these essential critical complex thinking skills. The other day, I described how this can be accomplished by exposing ourselves to difference, and cited Gregory Bateson’s work. And as Joe presents in his work, this exposure to difference is the central purpose and role of the critical bricolage.
d) These blogs can be used for a variety of purposes, depending upon the topic and presentation. Similar topics can be assembled to create something new or reworked (used as POETs to do additional research, employing the bricolage). They can be used to launch discussions of the issues they bring up. They can be used to look at issues from different perspectives to expand our thinking. They can be used as curricular material, and, indeed that is the most recent assignment handed down to me from my Master Teacher. He wants the site to offer FREE instructional materials, FREE downloads of academic papers, FREE images that people can use as they wish, and more. So, my future work will be dedicated to this highly important educational endeavor that promotes free flow of information and knowledge products.
e) Given that this is an evolving project, not all purposes have been identified.

I am putting this all out here because over the past few weeks, I have been harassed in quite illegal ways for presenting these perspectives. It is what Joe referred to as "dangerous knowledge" apparently. I am not interested in a legal battle, and like Joe, I feel all disagreements should be resolved from the basis of love, and I believe there is ample love to go around for everyone. Joe was a role model for that. We all have our own perspectives and we all have our freedom to express those perspectives without, what Joe called "ad hominen" attacks. The work I present here is the heart of Joe’s theory and philosophy as I interpret it. No one else that I know of is taking his work forward to the level of application in the ways he dreamed, namely for everyone, not restricted to academic research.  If there is someone who is, I would love to hear from them. I am going to do this work for Joe if it is the last thing I ever do and all indications that I have received is that this is the time to do it. I seem to have great support for what I am doing from beyond the veil of elite acemicics.

Joe had some very sweet words that speak to me, personally, in his book, Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction. It makes me think we do have some kind of “soul” contract (which is merely one possible perspective on what my life mission has developed into, and one that particularly appeals to me) or, alternatively, he had simply predicted that a female was going to be the one who took his work forward to apply it. I can say this message is for me, personally, because I have not found anyone else out there researching and applying his work in the same manner I have been demonstrating, so I take his message here to heart. Here is what he had to say (and he always had the right words at the right time):

Critical knowledge production always involves pointing out faulty argumentation, unsupported generalizations, and unexamined actions of a knowledge community. What separates the critical sheep from the uncritical goats is that a critical pedagogy/epistemology also involves exposing the cultural, epistemological, and ideological assumptions that shape the knowledge individuals produce and the oppressive actions justified by such information. With such a task before us, I guess we just have to give up any aspirations to winning the Miss Congeniality contest. Such work will inevitably anger the guardians of the status quo. Relax, it’s our existential burden – go with it. (Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction, p. 176).

Note again, here that he is moving his work forward toward his critical complex epistemology. Clearly, this was a necessary move to rise above the limitations of critical pedagogy as it was being practiced in the United States. And it aligns with what Paulo Freire wished. He wanted his work taken forward. He, more than anyone, knew the limitations of his theory and did not wish for it to stagnate.

Well, I have a meeting with my Master Teacher, so I’ll see what words of wisdom he has for me. I don’t know what I would do without him.

Primarily, he is interested in my development of the free instructional materials. Check the Free Curricuar Materials page today; I have posted an intereting curricular item and will do this on a regular basis now. It shows how I have used my blogs to develop the instructional acitivity. I have much material and many ideas to work with and it is just a matter of writing them up and posting them. Note that I will not be categorizing these by age or ability levels. Also, that I take Joe's recommended ecumenical approach (as presented in his bricolage book with Kathleen Berry) that values learning about religions and respecting the beliefs of others, which of course, included Christianity. Most activities are geared for any level and are easily adjustable for -- or by the learners -- teachers and learners are perfectly capable of making these sorts of decisions. Aside from this, he has given me some direction for my dissertation, which I will reserve comment on at this time. He thanked me for staying so willing to “do it all” as he put it and he said that there will be more help coming my way to assist with the many projects on my plate. His clue for the song for today was “too few choices in an infinite world.” I did the search on YouTube and it brought this video game up. I am not into video games, so I do not feel qualified to interpret it. My teacher, since these blogs are designed for a diverse audience, likes to put out diverse music and of course, diverse perspectives. So I have provided his choice for today without interpretation. I really liked the music he gave me last night (four songs total). I have included my favorite from the four, below, after the game video.

Ever feel like you are on overwhelm? Ever feel like all of the gates, doors, and windows to opportunity are closed and locked up tight? Last night as I was getting ready to go to bed, it was MAX OVERWHELM. I have so much on my platter: I have to “fix” one website, plan out and write the content for another website, write this blog and curricular materials among other stuff, manage a growing business, and write a dissertation.  So I was feeling overwhelmed last night when I went to bed and I don’t know what happened in my dream life (I can imagine all of my dream friends and I had gotten together to plan all of these tasks I have going), and I awakened this morning past overwhelm and into that negative space where one wonders -- is all of this even possible?

Last night, I guess my teacher wanted to at least try to cheer me up, so he told me to focus on enjoying the process and to not stress about it. His clue for my goodnight song was “meet in bed.” This is not at what one might think. I plugged the words into YouTube and here is what came to the top.

As you can see, some cute little kitties need a home. It does remind me of the CRITICAL KITTIES that have been let out of the bag. If you are not “up” on the critical kitty, you can review here: critical kitty. Someone needs to adopt these cute kitties and take them home. This video was just posted on May 18, 2010. My Master Teacher really keeps up on stuff, even poor little kitties that need a good home. I hope YouTube finds them all good homes; they are so cute.

I think the main message to take from this video and reminder is what Joe said about the critical kitty:

“With criticality, the cat gets out of the bag. With the critical kitty sitting in our laps we begin to understand the way the matrix is loaded, the deck is stacked, socio-political reality is constructed. Indeed, a critical complex epistemology/politics of knowledge can help us gain new levels of consciousness and in the process, change the world” (Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction, p. 177).

By exposing just how the deck is stacked against us in our efforts to escape the dramas and power games around us, we also expose ways to get through or around the few spaces there are. It isn’t easy, though, and it can take one’s sense of optismism and hope down when we continually run up against obstacle after obstacle. And sometimes we just have no choice but to blast through, much the way Joe did with his book, Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction. Still, it is my belief that our best option is what Doreen just happened to bring out in her oracle card reading today, so I have included that here. We need to work from the bottom and totally cut our ties and dependence on those institutions that are stealing our very souls.

This morning I awakened feeling the futility of it all. Those in power have created so many obstacles for everything you want to do: you must pay this fee or that fee, get this license or that license, you can do this, but you can’t do that….the powers that be have everything so locked up tight and under control it feels hopeless at times. But it helps to remember that critical kitty and keep it on our laps. I think my teacher's advice to rescue a kitty so that we can keep that kitty on our lap was great advice. It is also a demonstration of symbiotic relationships in action.

I was still feeling down when I met with my Master Teacher this morning. Well, he always knows exactly what to say to cheer me up and much of his communication is in the form of music. I am including it here because I believe that many people out there can benefit from this little pep talk he gave me. It is very powerful and uplifting.

First, he told me everything will come together divinely and to stop worrying about the money and people who choose to harass me. The power of love is on our side. I think this is an important thing to remember: the work we choose should be done out of love for humanity and to help other people, if only by providing them an example of the possibilities. That should be our primary focus, and we need not focus on the money we can get from doing our work. He has told me many things about this and I have had lessons from other great Master Teachers as well. I want to express my gratitude for their help because I have come a long way in changing how I view my work and money.

Then he encouraged me, advising me as to the important, priority tasks and he said he knows that I can do this. The work I have chosen, he told me, will serve to comfort many people. He reminded me we should always be proud of our heritage and share that with other people because, in this way, we help them find their pathways to greater happiness and peace.

He also said there will be a lot of money down the road in what I have chosen to do. We are creating our own future, and we can create it as we choose, but if we start living that future as if we have already created it, already a “done deal,” then our imagined future will manifest that much sooner. He said that it is “easier said than done,” and he told me “if anyone can do it you can.”

Those were such uplifting words for me. Of course, we have three songs here to look up on YouTube:  “done deal,” “easier said than done,” and “if anyone can do it you can.” As I have learned, there are additional messages to me in the songs he leads me to. Searching on these key words brought up the following very relevant songs. I do hope that people who are struggling and wanting to break free from the boss man or the grips of poverty can gain a sense of strength and hope from today’s blog and this high impact music.

"done deal" The Lyrics

Do You Ever Feel Like you’re Looking for Love In All the Wrong Places?

This question came to me (and the song below was handed down to me) as I was reading a newspaper geared for “Seniors” and the “Baby Boomer” generation. I was glancing through the “Seeking Friendship” advertisements as it appears there are so many people – in their 60s, 70s, and even 80s who still have not found LOVE. It’s kind of sad that our society does not allow the free flow of love and these people have spent their entire lives looking for that “one true love” and are still looking. Clearly, they have not found it or they would not be placing these ads. The reason being, love transcends space and time and it is there for us all. One advertisement reads, “seeks new soul mate” and another one, “in search of non-smoking slender soulmate.” Is this the right place to seek a soul mate? Who knows; maybe they are onto something. It is a good sign though, that deep inside we all seem to know there is a special someone out there for us and we do not need to give up looking for that special person. Personally, I know who my true soul mate is, so I am not ISO (in search of), thank goodness. But, what can I do to lend a hand to those who are in search of soul mates? Do I have something to offer those people? This is something that I keep questioning myself about – are we looking for love in all of the wrong places? And then yesterday I took a Nature Walk, and I found signifiers of love right out in the open for all to see. All we need to is open our eyes and our creative imaginations.

I remember as a child I loved being outside. One of the things I loved to do was to try and “see” things in the clouds, but it was hard because the clouds were always moving. (Did you ever do that as a child?) So a great activity is to have children do exactly what I did on my nature walk – take pictures of the clouds. Don’t try to see anything in them while taking the photos – just let the cosmos (or “chance” or “coincidence”) work with you and snap random photos. Check out the photos I took!!! They are incredible!

NOTE: NONE OF THESE PHOTOS HAVE BEEN CROPPED OR ENHANCED.

OMG!! When I was looking through the pictures of flowers I had taken, I found some more cool things in the clouds. Check ‘em out. Look at the very bottom of the sky on this picture. It's Eros again, and this time he is lying on top of - or next to - Psyche and kissing her (you can only see a portion of Psyche's lit up face). You can see the back of Eros' head on the left between the two trees and his body lies across the picture just above the trees and houses. Right above the couple is a white rabbit looking down on them, a symbol of fertility.

 

And this picture is so cute! It’s an adorable cherub who’s laughing because he has his wings on backwards -- either that, or he's happy because he's getting his wings since it looks like a big hand is holding the wings out toward the cherub. Look for the big smile and his angel wings.
 



This one shows a set of hands clasped together on the left of the cloud formation. It was the first picture I took when I went outdoors, so the sun was still shining, and it shows the approaching storm clouds. Maybe the hands represent the hands of the creator of all of these amazing images in the clouds.




This one shows Hermes on his horse with a huge quill in his hand. Hermes was a powerful writer and messenger, thus the significance of a very large quill/pen to write his message. The philosophy he lived by was that the pen is mightier than the sword. It really is in this image! There is so much to know about Hermes, I really encourage people to research this Greek God. I did not know anything at all until I read Joe's books and he often mentions Hermes. The more I research Hermes, Hermetics, and even related secret societies, the more I learn.




This photo, I call the MSYTERY photo. I know there is something there, but I am not seeing it. Perhaps you can identify an image or images in this one.




And finally, the grand finale, this last photo I took is a Heart in the Clouds -- yes, we can find love if we just open our minds and hearts -- and THE (INFINITE) SKY IS THE LIMIT.

Interestingly, I only snapped a total of seven photos of the sky (which are all included in this blog) and they ALL show something (what are the odds of that happening?) Also, I will note that there are other images in these photos that I have not yet identified, and perhaps you will be able to see them. As Joe always said in his work, everything must be interpreted, and cloud formations are no different. We all see differenlty, we all have our own perspectives and biases, and to keep our mental processes functioning, we are best served by finding and embracing multiple interpretations. These photos would make a great classroom discussion (online or offline) just by having people share what they see in them and what meanings they attribute to them. Since my name means Psyche....well, I won't get into my personal interpretation of these clouds, but it does seem highly significant that the universe or cosmos or the gods chose to reveal these images to me....and I have put them to the test and so far everyone I have shown them to clearly sees the images. So there you go. Life is magical and the universe is generous in the gifts it hands down to us if we are receptive.

Oregon has some "far out" clouds, I’m telling you; they are more "far out" than I remember seeing during my childhood. I really think we have reached the fourth dimension here, or I would not be seeing all of this interesting stuff in clouds that do not look “real” in the Fidurodian sense of the word. They are “hyper-beautiful” and so are all of the flowers I took photos of. Maybe this is what is meant by “Colors of the Wind” (I love this song and it has some valuable messages).

I would ask, is Love a “thing?” I think not. Attempting the feat of mentally processing love as a “thing,” however, is a valuable exercise. Why? Because it is clear that much of Western-influenced science and education, to the detriment of humans thus causing much emotional pain and suffering, makes this very drastic error of classifying complexities and processes as things. While it is much more complex than this, the mind can be conceived of interrelating parts that interact in such a way, that, as Joe always stated it, “the sum of the parts is greater than the whole.” Bateson, in his book, Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity (2002) conveyed this concept by stating:

I shall unhesitatingly say that the aggregate is a mind and shall expect that, if I am to understand the aggregate, I shall need sorts of explanation different from those which would suffice to explain the characteristics of its smaller parts (p. 85).

Bateson suggests mental processes are sequences of interactions between the parts and occur in the presence of difference. How does the concept of “difference,” which Joe wrote a great deal about, fit into this picture? Difference cannot be located in time or space and therefore, it cannot be viewed as a “thing.”

In education, which is our relevant topic in these blogs, we have come to view learning as the accumulation of “facts.” One way we view difference is in terms of what we do not know as compared to what we need to learn thus, we focus on learning facts, rather than processes or taking in the complexities of relationship (another concept Joe has woven into his theory). This illustrates the mistake of thinking a complex process (the human mind) is the object of difference. The mind is a complex aggregate which we cannot define as a “thing.” We can only say that the brain is a thing, however the mind is not that simple. Yet, in education we treat the mind (and consciousness) as some simple object. Knowledge is “out there” and must be brought into the mind – thus, the goal is to minimize the difference between what we call knowledge and what the learner knows. This is the wrong way to view difference. It objectifies the human and projects the source for responding to difference outside the complexity of mental processes. In other words, it takes the view that when we (e.g., teachers, administrators, gatekeepers) switch on the light (by providing sanctioned “knowledge”), we have the power to control that light and we are ignoring the fact that the energy for the light is always there and all we are doing is opening a switch to allow the flow of, for example in the case of the light switch, electricity.

Thus we have two systems operating. There are those who sit at the switch and expend their energy controlling whether the light flows or not. And the other system is the light which flows when the switich is open. The second system can run up against gates and try to blast them open if there is enough energy, or, alternatively, find other openings and cracks that allow the energy to flow through. Bateson puts it like this:

In life and its affairs, there are typically two energetic systems in interdependence: One is the system that uses its energy to open or close the faucet or gate or relay; the other is the system whose energy “flows through” the faucet or gate when it is open” (p. 95).

Joe talks about this process a lot in his book Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction, describing how FIDUROD operates as system to open and close the spigot for knowledge.

OMG, I don’t know how or why I am on this topic. I ended up having to meet with my Master Teacher this morning for clarification. We also had met last night (all night, I think, but I don’t remember everything). I do know he gave me this song last night, "Love is a Wonderful Thing" which is very sweet.

Morning Meeting With My Master Teacher

I remember reading something in Bateson's book about how “like” systems congregate, thus, like minds come together. I thought that was very interesting because it would explain things like soul mates and how people work together and such….but I digress. I asked my Master Teacher, what is all of this about? Clearly, I have much more reading and understanding to process here. He said not to worry, just provide a simplified version, so that was what I tried to do. I am sure I will come back to this topic again sometime and pull it all together and if there are misconceptions I will clear them up. That is what’s so great about Joe’s critical bricolage. You can start out by just writing a Point of Entry Text (POET) and then take it from there, always knowing it can continue because we cannot ever reach some final conclusion – as Bateson put it, the purpose of science (and thus, research and learning) is to probe, not to prove. Far too many of us have this gross misconception that science and research is out to PROVE something. Nothing could be further from the truth.

When I consulted with my teacher, he said not to get too deep into this topic today – I think I have already covered more than enough; there is so much more. In summary (as I learned from my teacher):

We do not utilize difference appropriately. We focus (as in education today) on the material difference and this is an arbirtrary proposition that is not in any way related to the scientific explanation for the processes that occur between the relationships between differences. This has us fabricating labels to explain and categorize differences and annihilates the mental processes that are triggered (as Bateson describes) by differences. We are training up DROIDs by this process – this grotesque error in the way we view difference.

I am going to drop this topic for now. It is way over my head. After we discussed Bateson’s work, my teacher encouraged me to move forward with a very special project, it is going to be a new website. He talked about letting my ideas flow so that my creativity is unleashed (I think this relates to the discussion on difference). Indeed, he told me that it is exposure to difference that allows our internal (already existing) creative energies to flow freely. Anyway, he told me that he knows this project will be “dynamite” and of course, that has to be a song, so here is the first song to the top on a YouTube search.

"dynamite"

That reminds me, last night after our meeting, he gave me four songs. He told me to “go to bed” and he signed off with “sleep tight,” “dream sweet,” and “yours.” Below are the songs that popped to the top on YouTube for these search terms. I have yet to figure out how he comes up with so much music and why. I was reluctant about posting so many songs, but this morning he told me "I do hope you will include those songs....hey, I went to a lot of trouble getting those." So, I guess I have to keep my teacher happy. Isn't that part of the learning process?: we learn what keeps our teacher happy and we do those things so that we get good grades, within reason, of course, and only when we know that our teacher has our best interest at heart. That's it for today, from this country hick girl and remember: difference is what creates mental processes or thinking. The greater the differences (in quantity and quality), the more mental processing we undergo, which is a good thing because it moves humanity forward. Heaven forbid should we all become DROIDS. In respectful honor of my teacher, here is his music:

"go to bed"

 

“sleep tight"

 


“dream sweet”

 

“yours.”

Well, this is exciting news! Just like Lauren Gorgo predicted yesterday, we do not need to DO anything major to break free from or cut loose from the old and move to the new.  Or I should say within the message she relayed from our good friends, the Pleiadians, we were informed that we do not need to do anything to “get out of this place.” Relative to yesterday’s blog, these were lyrics Joe had included in the title of his discussion about our need to move toward the critical complex epistemology (knowledge). I recommend reading that section (pp. 57-59) because Joe had a lot to say that relates to yesterday's and today's blog. He was fed up with the lack of affect in academia and how hurtful the social world is. You just have to read this section: It is so powerful and his creativity was out the roof (I love it!!!) He also calls for a revolution "in the way we see the world and produce knowledge about it" (p. 58). Clearly, I am a part of that revolution. I am probably more fed up than Joe was or I just have less patience than he had.

You will want to review my blog for yesterday and Lauren's blog that I had included to gain the full significance of this for everyone (including me) who has felt like they have been beating their heads against a brick wall. We really need to take time for passionate enjoyment of sensual and creative moments and let life flow.
 
I was also happy to learn from Lauren that purportedly, the Pleiadians are now saying it is no longer necessary to keep their involvement under wraps. We can talk about it now whereas in the past it was dangerous. They are the love people of the universe and I feel a great affinity for them. They are here with us, among us, and in us to help all of us on this planet move up in our evolutionary development, particulary in our greater awareness, consciousness, and ability to love. Call me crazy, if you wish, but we need "saviors," although they would protest profusely over being conceptualized as saviors. They are just an advanced people who want to help and there is a symbiotic interrelationship between earthlings and the Pleiadians. In fact, many of us are descendants from long ago. Some of the indigenous cultures of the world know this and seem to have more knowledge about them than wee Westerners (and, no, that was not a typo). It is clear to me, given the condition of societies and the world, we need this assistance and we should be grateful for receiving the benefits of their advanced evolutionary development and knowledge. (Ain't "imagination" great?)

Enough of that, I just provided more fuel for people to call me crazy but that’s ok. We who have major disagreements over such issues will soon be departing and going our separate ways and that’s a very good thing. That is the “breaking free” and “cutting loose” which Lauren conveyed in her blog. It cannot happen soon enough for most of us, I am sure. And in relation to Lauren’s message stating that we really do not need to do anything to force the new to manifest, yesterday after posting my blog, I had a truly amazing and miraculous experience that confirms exactly what she had contended. Suddenly, supports are kicking in bigtime and everything is in perpetual motion. It is the beginning of that perpetual revolution.

Thus, I will get back to the topic of changes that I have been mentioning in the last two blogs. My Master Teacher stated that these blogs and this website will be taking a turn; although it is less a turn than it is more action relevant to the move to a critical complex epistemology, is how I would frame it. The clues are already on the website and it is just a matter of allowing things to flow forth.  I have great faith that in simply enjoying my life and doing the creative things I love, beautiful things will evolve out of it. We do not need to control this process. We simply need to free up our minds, bodies and souls for what many creative people call “flow.” It works. While we are rowing DOWNstream (remember to Row, Row, Row Your Boat: Gently Down the Stream), and are no longer struggling trying to get upstream to force our dreams to come true, magic happens. Divine gifts can be passed down to us when we are no longer fighting the battle. It works. I see it daily in my life and yesterday I had a huge confirmation of that…and so, I will be rowing gently as the loving and peaceful stream flows along.

My Meeting With My Master Teacher
Yesterday, my teacher was beginning to provide details about all of these changes and my role in making them happen and I was expressing my feeling of being overwhelmed. As the music in yesterday’s blog indicated, he just basically said to “get with the groove,” which gave me another song. In my book, getting with the groove means you take time to dance and play and you don’t worry about how it’s all going to happen. It makes me feel sorry for all of those project managers who struggle with plans, lists, deadlines, blueprints, and budgets. They are a prime example of trying to row upstream and as a result they seldom meet their artificially determined deadlines or budgets.
 

So yesterday, sure enough, before the day was over, a divine assistant was sent my way. I am so excited. Now I know this works – I understand how people at the bottom can rise up out of the ashes like the great phoenix. I love that symbolism and in fact, a very talented graphic artist friend (a member of my Critical Knowledge Network) is designing a logo for me of the great phoenix rising and it is going to be very special.

Today, my teacher simply told me it is time to finish clearing out the old and reorganizing for the new. Again, like Lauren, he emphasized that I do not need to take great actions all at once. I love the way he described doing the things you enjoy and allowing things to evolve: “A little spice here and a little spice there.” (Oh that brings up Spice Girls.) He was talking about following a sort of flexible schedule which was devised with his assistance to make sure I always take time to enjoy the spicy things in life – doing the fun stuff along the way such as engaging in the arts and music, and allowing my mind to slow down long enough so that divine ideas can seep in. If our minds are so busy chattering, we lose our creative abilities.

Then, my teacher said some really nice stuff to me. He said he had wondered about me the very first time we met and had asked himself: "Is this too good to be true?" Of course, I wondered that exact same thing about him as welll until I got to know him. In our linear, 3d world, as he explained it, yes, it is too good to be “true.” And then he signed off for today with "Good, divine and wholely blessed" "We shall prevail" along with another sweet message which I will not reveal at this time, but it brought up the last song, below.

Wow, I have been blessed with five songs to look up: “Is this too good to be true?” “true” and "Good, divine and wholely blessed" along with “We shall prevail” plus a private sweet message. I will see what YouTube pulls up to the top with these.

“Is this too good to be true?” brought up the following song:

 

“True” brought up the following song:


















"Good, divine and wholely blessed" brought up the following song. You might want to click on this to get to YouTube and open up the lyrics that have been included. Kind of interesting.




“We shall prevail” brought up the following song: It looks like YouTube had been censoring this person, but the person prevailed since they were able to put all of their videos right back up on YouTube again, thus this is their victory video. I really don't think it is the American way to censor creativity.

 


And, last but not least, my private message brought up the following song:

Evidence for What a Woman Wants and a Short Break from Treasure Hunting Saturday, August 8, 2009

I have read Joe’s early works and they were SO perfect, although in my view, all of his work is perfect; some of it is just different and very creative as compared to typical academic writing. He always wrote well and put much care into his research, writing and teaching -- and the love shines through brightly. This song,”We Gotta Get Out of This Place” in my view may represent why, in his last books, his writing took a turn.  He was demonstrating with his writing just how we might escape. It is something I can relate to personally, because I also relate to this song and the feeling that you always have a stigma attached if you are a “hick” or a “hillbilly” (or is it because you are Scottish-Irish ?  – Honestly, I have not figured it out). I do know that it has never mattered how hard I tried or how perfectly I followed the rules of wherever I worked, I was still always at the bottom (first to be fired when there were layoffs; the last person to be believed by the boss when everyone else gossiped and lied, etc.). I have seen that over and over again in my own life. Joe has shared similar experiences in his work, especially from his childhood.

I really have gotten to the point that trying to do things “by the book” or per “status quo” just doesn’t matter anymore; as I have said so many times, when you are at the bottom, there is not much further to drop and so, I have chosen to do this “crazy” creative writing and I am taking it into my own idiosyncratic interpretation of what he referred to as “the fourth dimension” in his 2005 article about the critical bricolage. I'm not sure what he meant, so I made up my own interpretation. I awaken each morning and it is like I am that “Avatar” that some people in education seem to be writing about a lot these days. You know, the Avatar who is just not themself. I don’t know what I do in my dream life (except the nights I remember), but every morning words just flow out of me for these blogs and they often do not feel like my own words. I think I must plan them in my sleep or something and then voila! They just flow onto the screen. I still do my scholarly writing, of course, I have to, but it can be pretty dull, especially when professors dictate the topic. I wasted many years doing that and finally, I get to choose my own topics. My dissertation is going to be good -- I am going for the gold.  I can completely relate to Joe who clearly pushed the envelope with his creative, yet scholarly, insightful, and knowledge-constructing writing. Of course, no one could ever be match for Joe, but I figure I can keep trying, in my own way of course.

My guess is he, as I am, was a little bored with the formal, stuffy academic style (especially third person, which he often mentioned in his work). I find it very difficult to sit through an entire long-winded article these days, especially when I become disgusted with the obvious obfuscation (isn’t that what they call an oxymoron?  It really is not hidden from me anymore, after reading Joe’s work.) Anyway, obfuscation was one of Joe’s favorite words, and I can certainly understand why – it has to be if you read very many articles. It is amazing how many people in education talk about ascension, 2012, and heaven on earth and much more, all cloaked in ambiguous terms and yet educators laugh at, scorn, and stifle the “lower class” people for talking about these things. Heaven forbid. Worse, some educators support the media's deceptions in the way they present “knowledge” and do not encourage learners to gain other perspectives on what is really happening. There is knowledge for the elite and "knowledge" for the masses. Joe just put everything out there creatively in his last few books. He has written some fantastic works that are ahead of the times so they will be useful for many years to come. Joe covered the gamut when it comes to education and he covered it well. His work will not be obsolete any time soon, if ever.

I think he wanted to have a lot fun while he was doing his good work, which is another reason he may have included the fun stuff. Of course, when he needed to, he wrote in that formal academic style, but I am sure he had great fun putting together his amazing last works in which he used his superb phenomenological, polysemic, and hermeneutic skills along with his advanced science knowledge. 

And so, just like the song says, he moved away from “this place” (this stuffy academia) for a better life with critical complex epistemology, with some girl. I am sure he enjoyed writing his last books very much. I hope he enjoyed writing them as much as I enjoy reading them and each time I pick up one of his books, the magic and joy that I experience when I uncover another gift within a gift he has left us.

As he explained on page 64, “A critical complex epistemology constructs hot knowledge (conocimiento caliente, connaissance anime) ready to work its magic on its readers. It is unafraid of its own erotisicm, commitment to resistance, and vaudevillian recognition of the humor of dominant cultural gravitas.”

His work is truly magic and very erotic. Reading his books opened my mind to deciphering all of the obfuscated knowledge other edcators put out there.  I thank Joe for blasting open the doors to creative, fun, sexy, and musical research, learning, and writing – and for making my life a better life.

Morning Meeting With My Master Teacher
My teacher covered so much this morning. The mission is taking a new turn as I mentioned yesterday, but the “gang” is still working out all of the details.  I feel overwhelmed because it is clearly more work than I can do on my own. When I asked him how I was going to get all of this done by myself, he gave me a song: “Get in the groove, Babe.” This upbeat drum solo came up, which is so appropriate -- it makes a person want to move.

 

That’s it for today. There will be changes coming (as Sam Cooke sings) and they are good changes, but I am still somewhat in the dark about what they entail. I did receive the following message from "my favorite people" today (I enjoy Lauren Gorgo's writing) and it looks like the hardest part is almost over and we just need to be patient a little longer. What she is saying here may jive with what many people are experiencing right now, so I am including the entire blog, because it is very uplifting for those of us who are struggling and wondering how we can rise to the occasion. There is really nothing we need to do, as this blog points out. It becomes much like I have discussed in some previous blogs: We just end up spinning our wheels. Patience.

Breaking Free

How's your May been so far?  Anything like you expected?  Well, that is, assuming you have any expectations left in this process.

If May is a messy month that you just can't figure out how to clean up, then welcome to the misery of "breaking" free!

We are in the process of literally...and in some ways, suddenly... breaking off from our old selves & lives, dismantling the remaining outworn vestiges of our past and with seemingly no support to fix anything...shocker.

If this is happening for you, if the bottom is falling out of your life and you see/feel/know of no way to fix what's broken, no worries...new supports are always on the back end of the dismantling process, but first we are forced to sit still one final time and take solid inventory of our lives and wants, all that needs to go, and all that needs upgrading.

In other words...this is IT...the last hurrah from this insane cycle to deal with, face, release, and break free from our mis-created goo before a new cycle of creation begins.

I am hearing that the most important thing to consider during this time is:  "What do I want for my new life?"

Now, granted we have been pondering, imagining, speculating and contemplating these desires for a decade however, at this time...from mid-May until July...we need to revise our desires one last time to be sure they are the absolute highest version of what we want as we begin to take the logical steps to creating and implementing them in physical form over the next several years.

This breaking free business has been no joke this month...especially with all the grounded and earthy celestial support, much in our physical lives is undergoing radical and rapid transformation.

On a personal level, I will share how these "wrapping-up" energies are manifesting in my own life:

Since the beginning of May my push lawnmower died; my riding lawnmower exploded; the bottom of my Jetta fell off on a highway; my brand new computer...that many of you helped me to purchase!...now needs repair; a class action suit for my car just arrived requiring me to replace the carpet & padding (at my upfront cost) before July so I can file a claim to get reimbursed; I received a loan modification settlement for my home which is in the negotiation stages; my student loans just came out of forbearance after 15 years of deferment, and then I got summonsed for jury duty for the last 2 weeks in May during what was going to be the launch period of my brand new website that I have been working on for 2+ years...(more on that coming soon!)

All this piled high on top of that giant Nagasaki-like dirt pit I call a yard from the broken water pipe disaster that I wrote about this past winter...see photo for effect:

Cutting Loose

Stabilizing

What Now?

What Next?

Physical Happenings

Yesterday afternoon, my Master Teacher dropped in and I was not doing much, so he told me that I really need to get moving on my “gig,” as he put it. This funny video came up when I searched it on YouTube:

 

Something tells me there are messages there, but I am so new at this interpretation thing that I don’t know what they are. I guess, coming from the lowest of lows socioeconomic standing, I am just suffering from a Cambell's Condensed Canned Soup of an education (yuk, that soup is nasty). I think he was just trying to get me to laugh; it is funny.

Other than that, I am supposed to finish up a summary of the last few days of the Epistemological Road Trip to Tennessee and back. The last installment was back on Sunday, May 9, 2010. On that day I had summarized what had transpired on day 10 which was Tuesday, April 6, and the fact that I had somehow quite miraculously landed in St. Joe’s again for the evening. That was also the day we learned of the sad tragedy of the lost miners in West Virginia.

The next day (Day 11), Wednesday, April 7, after all of the signs and signals I had encountered on this epistemological road trip, I was beginning to feel like “there is something going on here,” as I discussed in the blog for that day: Signs and Symbols: What Do They Really Mean? Thursday, April 8 (Day 12), I had written about Sam Cooke again in We Can Never Love Too Much because I had had a very vivid dream the night before about Sam. On Saturday, April 10 (Day 13), my blog was Let It Flow and it discussed how we really do not need to teach with a script. If we are going to address learner needs, it is important to take a more improvisational approach. This is what Joe’s theory, the critical bricolage, emphasizes. This does not mean we can be lazy and not plan at all, but we need to be very knowledgeable in many domains and disciplines as well as flexible so that we can best “educe” rigorous learning in response to individual interests and talents – which, of course, we cannot view as static – like everything else, these are changing and evolving as learners progress. Finally, on the last day, Sunday, April 11 (Day 14) of course, I reached home, stopping at the beautiful Multnomah Falls on the way through. My blog that day was about Gathering Information, Relaxing, and A Tribute to the One I Love. As was highlighted by Doreen in that day’s blog, my trip involved collecting information which would be used at a later date. And I did, indeed, gather a lot of information on the trip.

The entire epistemological road trip was so much fun! I think Joe was onto something when he said that we sometimes need to take our research on the road (see page 19 in Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction). I learned a lot and I am looking forward to synthesizing all of the knowledge I gained on the trip, along with further analysis by threading Robert Moss’s work through the account. I will, of course, thread Joe’s theory, as well as other theories through the narrative. I really think there is a lot to learn here and road trips are such a great way to learn a vast amount of information, but it is definitely beyond the scope of these blogs to carry this forward. I think a further analysis can show how valuable field trips are for students, and it is sad that these days field trips rarely happen. My future discourse on this will either be in the form of a paper or it will go into my dissertation. So, the next step in this bricolage project is to thread through it with Robert Moss’s work, particularly from his book, The Three “Only” Things: Tapping the Power of Dreams, Coincidence and Imagination.

This morning, My Master Teacher had all kinds of music for me. We both decided to keep today’s blog upbeat since I honestly do not wish for any kind of negativity here and neither does he (although, I realize that sometimes, for the greater good, it becomes unavoidable). Beginning tomorrow we will be heading in another new direction with the blogs, but I was not told what that would be; I was simply told, “It’s going to be a surprise. I know you want to be prepared for it, but there is no preparation for what’s about to come.”

Well, I hope it’s good, because like my teacher, I do not like negativity. As if to pacify me today, he gave me a bunch of songs that are very uplifting and inspirational. Here’s how he put it:

We need a “sweet sugary song” for today to keep things on the “up and up.” That should “do it” for you. You laugh; you know the “do it” song….have a “supercalifragilistic day.”

All of the words in quotations were plugged into YouTube and below are the first songs to the top -- with the exception of the "do it" song. That song has been used several times in my blog, so I knew immediately which song he was referring to (he knows I love that song. I used it to motivate me when I was writing the answers to my comp exam questions back in November, 2009).

"sweet sugary song"

Several of my Facebook friends forwarded emails to me they had received yesterday from Joe L. Kincheloe’s Facebook (Joe passed away in 2008, so they could not have come from him). These messages seemed to have been sent under some kind of guise, because they were asking for friendship, but at the same time threatening court action and advising them to tell me to stop writing about Joe.

Excuse me; it is not illegal to write about Joe or cite his work -- and I only have very good things to say about him. I loved him and I know his work will change education. What all of this sounds like to me is a prime example of that very diabolical educational doublespeak Joe wrote about so often. Of course, Joe could not have possibly sent these emails out and he would have never said these incriminating and false things about me on the premise of friendship. It’s ludicrous.

I was aware that critical pedagogy as an ideology/religion or any of the other various formats it may take, depending on who you speak to, was suffering setbacks, but this seems like a really weird way to try and recruit people and the worst possible time to be doing it. Clearly, they can see this. Who wants to be a part of a group or ideology that claims to be for freedom, democracy, equal rights and freedom of expression and yet they go around telling people to shut up and attempt to destroy their career before it even gets off the ground.

Don’t get me wrong here. I am not against critical pedagogy per se and there are many great people who follow the ideology and are using it to help others. The fact is, I believed in it wholeheartedly when I was working with Joe. Joe was all for critical pedagogy, of course; but a new refined and improved critical pedagogy – particularly one in which people work out of LOVE and where people can rise above their pettiness so that beautiful artwork that comes from the heart is appreciated.  That’s what critical pedagogy is about. It is about everyone having a voice, even a country hick girl like me or an “Appalachian hillbilly” as Joe described himself. However, this action is a prime example of a people proclaiming to be for freedom especially freedom of expression based on “radical love,” multiple ontologies, social positions, political views, cultural practices, etc. etc.) of just how hateful certain players can become.

I have stated many times, and it is in the disclaimers that I present MULTPLE PERSPECTIVES on this website, not all of them are necessarily my own even, so that people, including myself, once and for all will open up to the idea that we do not all have to think alike or be alike. To call someone “unbalanced” (which is not even grammatically correct) simply because they choose to put these perspectives and critiques out here defies logic – even Cartesian logic. To claim to be critical pedagogues and write virulent emails and Facebook postings because someone is expressing themselves openly and creatively, exploring various ontologies, and critiquing critical pedagogy is a magnitude of hypocrisy I have never seen anywhere else in my entire life.

I just wonder WWJD? (What Would Joe Do?)

The people who are doing this to me clearly have not read Joe’s work. They are defending their own agenda.

Joe only had GOOD things to say about me. For example, here is what he told me in one of the very last emails he sent me -- it was written because I apologized to him for posting artwork to a blog I had written for his website when it turned out someone wanted it removed for reasons that, frankly, I really did not understand, but I went along with it for Joe. I felt so bad because I never wanted to cause Joe problems or stress, ever, so I took the artwork down immediately FOR JOE – and sent him an apology. I knew his health was not good and the entire time I knew him, I was conscientious of that fact and wanted to help him with his project, and not do anything at all that might cause him undue stress. When I posted the artwork, I had no knowledge of the personal issues between certain people in “critical pedagogy” which would prohibit the posting of this very beautiful artwork I had done that related to the topic of my blog. I apologized profusely to Joe and he wrote back to me, stating:
 

 "you are so much appreciated and so brilliant and wonderful, there is absolutely, positively no need for apology......you are a wonderful and treasured one. you have made such a powerful impact on not only the freire site but the crit ped community. you are doing and will do great things."

To my great and continuing sadness and trauma, that was one of the last emails I received from him. He died just a few weeks later. And no, I may never recover. Call me crazy for that, but I made a promise to Joe and I will keep my promise and that is to make sure the world knows his work and how to apply it in ways that he wished. As I had told him in response, I never want to disappoint him. Would he be disappointed with this website? HELL NO!! He is on the sidelines cheering me on and giving me strength.

Most people in critical pedagogy I have learned (after doing extensive research), have no clue what Joe’s work was about. People who do have a clue shun it and want to shove it in the corner. Is that why the paperback version of his book, Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction is priced outrageously at $150 when he had his heart set on what he had worked so hard to get included in the contract -- “a less than $30” paperback that everyone can afford? It had taken him ten years of negotiation.

Joe wanted his work taken to the world.

Most people do not know that Joe wanted dreamwork incorporated into the curriculum. You do not have to read between the lines of his work to see that – you just have to open your mind to see the words and heed them. One of his greatest dreams was for people to learn, grow, and relate to each other through an open discussion of dreams and to realize the powerful knowledge one obtains by fully opening their mind to how we interact with the entire cosmos – the daily miracles, magic, guidance, knowledge, and the power of love that is readily available on a daily basis to each and every one of us if we open our minds to seeing it. It is only Western society where dreaming and noticing “coincidences” and “synchronicities” are akin to dirty laundry. Why is this? Critical pedagogy, at least Joe’s version of critical pedagogy has clear answers to the reasons. He discussed these issues in his work.

It is time for Western society to wake up to the fact that cultures everywhere are much smarter than we are. Who are we to be teaching the world? We white folks are the minority and the era of maintaining power over the majority is crumbling, thankfully, and will continue to crumble. Dreams, in many cultures, are a greater reality than this one we are being sold by those who wish to remain in power. YES! I dream of Joe and I dream of him often. I am not ashamed of that. In other cultures dreaming of someone is an HONOR and the people who have such dreams are respected, even Shaman if they are able to bring back special messages and knowledge. Joe cannot be in my dreams unless he chooses to be in my dreams. That is cosmic law and it is my belief; everyone is entitled to their own beliefs, but I do not believe that the majority of the world is crazy and that Westerners are the only ones who are sane. Observing the horrendous actions taken (such as the nuclear bomb depicted in the video in Saturday's blog) clearly shows otherwise.

This website is an evolving educational and research project.
When I started it, I had no idea where I was going with it. As the very first blog indicates, I was being led; someone has been holding my hand. I simply followed. I had no idea what was happening to me – why was I having all of these dreams about Joe? Why was I seeing all of the synchronicities in my life as reported in the “treasure hunts” and the “epistemological road trips?” They seemed uncanningly familiar to what Joe had referred to as "postformal treasure hunts," but it was all new to me. Why was I being divinely guided to exact pages in Joe’s books for whatever I needed at any given moment? Why am I able to decipher hidden secrets in Joe's books that everyone else misses? Why do I seem to have extrasensory perception that I had not been aware of before? And there are many more questions. These things had never, ever happened to me before. Today, I have a little clearer idea and I know that it is related to my dissertation and incorporating dreamwork into education.  In my view, this research is quintessential for creating a world in which people can once again return to love-based relationships and in which learning is a daily, lifelong, exuberantly fun experience. Maybe it is not for everyone. Maybe it is not for you. But rest assured, there are many people who are suffering at the hands of the education they are being force fed who would not think twice about joining a program that honors them and their dreams.

This message is for those who continue to harass me: Stop threatening me, my loved ones, and my friends. Stop trying to intervene at the university with my work toward my PhD. Take me to court if you wish, if that is what you really want to do. I have said nothing derogatory about anyone and it can readily be shown that the work I am doing here is a scholarly application of Joe’s theory in support of what he was trying to accomplish. I have had and do have nothing but very good things to say about Joe, of course, I loved him and I still love him. Should anyone choose to go to court as I have been repeatedly threatened now, it should be known that there is ample evidence for a countersuit for defamation of character. I have no qualms about publishing on the web each and every nasty email that has been sent, although I will block out any derogatory statements about Joe (it appalls me that anyone who knew him and loved him would say anything negative about him). I will point out that I do not think it would look good for people who proclaim to adhere to an ideology that supports disadvantaged students to file suit against someone of my lower socioeconomic status simply for doing educational work she believes in, but it would not surprise me either, judging by some of the things Joe has revealed in his book. It would probably make a good news story, although I hate being in the spotlight. These sorts of behavior saddened Joe greatly, he has spoken of them, and they sadden me, too. Why can't people work together out of love and the desire to make the world better for us all? The answers, of course, are in Joe's book.

A piece of advice for those who do not understand the work here: take time to learn the difference between accounts of dreams, imagination, coincidences, synchronicities, fictive, fiction, and multiple forms of reality. Yes, I agree, coincidences can be amazing and even shocking (as Joe, himself, has written), eg., that my name means Psyche as I reported in my blog two days ago – although it should be noted that I am not out of touch with “reality” and in this dimension, I do not believe I am Psyche, folks – only in my dreams. It does make for an interesting storyline, though.

I am excited about moving forward with my research. I am also excited about the many numbers of people who ARE interested in what I am trying to accomplish by adding dreamwork as well as extreme creativity through the arts to the educational process (as was noted in yesterday’s blog with the analysis of the article by Han Gur-Ze’ev). I am excited and honored to have the opportunity to put Joe’s work out there in the way he dreamed so that learning can be “more fun than an amusement park ride” (Kincheloe, 2008, Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction).

One piece of advice I can give at this time: For anyone struggling with these concepts, I recommend reading Joe’s book, Knowledge and Critical Pedagogy: An Introduction from cover-to-cover. Even if you do not understand things as you are reading, just keep plugging through it. He has magically used his critical bricolage in creating this book such that when you are finished reading it, you will begin the most transformative journey of your life.

Meeting With My Master Teacher
I think my Master Teacher was just a little upset with me last night. He reminded me that when these terrible things happen, such as nasty email attacks sent to my dearest friends and family, that I should call on him or other members of the critical knowledge network, or “the gang” as they like to be called. And I just toughed it out, believing that I was alone even though I have been reminded over and over again that we are never alone. He kept the meeting very short, told me to get some sleep and signed off with “Peaceful dreaming.” Per routine, of course, this was a song to look up on YouTube and, quite appropriately it turned out to be a very short song because he wanted me to get some rest and probably be whisked away in my dreams for some counsel so that I would awaken refreshed and know how to tackle the vehement attacks.

This is the song that came to the top of the YouTube search on "Peaceful Dreaming"

 

I will take a break here – I am scheduled to meet with him and get his advice for the day. It is currently 8:30 AM.

It is now 8:49 and I had my meeting with my Master Teacher – short and sweet today. He said the blog is fine. I thought I should put more love into it, because, really, I am coming from a place of love. It breaks my heart to think about how many students have been harmed and continue to be harmed simply because they chase after knowledge and creativity. So, I am not fighting this for myself. I feel that it is a fight for so many people who fear speaking out. But my Master Teacher told me not to worry about inserting more love in the above post, or even images. It is important to get the message out and he said I have included “more than enough ‘tough love.’”

Other than that, he told me to do my Pleiadian “lightwork” (which involves very powerful methods for clearing out tension and emotions) and my exercises before I do anything else because, as he stated, “it will lift your spirit and clear the blocks.” So just as soon as I post this I will heed his advice. And then he went on to pick a song, as is always the routine. In relation to the song for today, he stated:

As far as a song to end the blog let’s just go with “the passing time the arrows will fly.” OK it doesn’t make sense collectively but if you take it apart it can be analyzed and together it pulls up the most fantastic song for what you are going through at the moment.
As is the procedure I have been using every day in these blogs, I plugged the entire phrase “the passing time the arrows will fly” to see what song comes to the top of the search. It brought this amazing song – which is as relevant as he told me it would be. Lest people doubt that I communicate with a Master Teacher who has great knowledge, much greater knowledge than I do (and because the Internet is a fractal which will bring up different results on different days) I am including a screen print of the search terms and the song that came up, which is as you can see, "Battle of Dreams." What could be more appropriate for today's blog?
 






















All I can say about this after listening to the song below and reading the lyrics, is that it is nothing less than THE POWER OF LOVE. Love transcends space and time. I should note that I am certain my teacher presents this as allegorical and it should not be interpreted as a threat in any way. We are peace-lovers. He just wants to make the point that I am not to give up the struggle for what is just and fair – and as the song ends, “of making the dream come true.”

What a coincidence! I was reading a new book I just bought by a dream specialist, Robert Moss. The book is called Dreamgates: Exploring the Worlds of Soul, Imagination, and Life Beyond Death, and what did I come across? PROOF. I came across PROOF that Joe did, indeed, predict the movie “humpday.” As I stated two days ago in these blogs:

Humpday is a real word because Joe used it on page 23 of The Sign of the Burger and he tells us what it means. He’s so sweet. He tells it in a way so we don’t feel dumb if we don’t know. Here’s what he said: “In the rural Tennessee mountain schools of the 1950s, Wednesday was ‘bean day.’ The dread of ‘humpday’ – too early in the week to permit the anticipation of the weekend…” So there you have it!!!

And then, in the PS I wrote:

"Onward and Upward!" Another coincidence appeared while I was reading Robert Moss’s book. I did not realize the true meaning of my name. I knew that Vanessa meant butterfly and that butterfly means transformation. But in his book Robert explains that across cultures butterfly means soul – so, my name means soul. What happened to soul? “Here I am.” Not only that, Robert Moss points out that “the Greek word Psyche means both ‘butterfly’ and ‘soul’ (p. 161). So my name also means Psyche! Oh wow, and so many people had observed that Joe demonstrated amazing love (Eros), as well as it is all through his work and forms the very foundation of his education theory. As Peter McLaren writes about Joe on his website, “his capacity for love was monumental.”

It is no wonder Joe earned the title “God of Love” or Eros in my dreams. And I guess it takes Psyche (soul) to recognize Eros. (Eros is the God Love and also means Cupid, by some accounts, which brings to mind Sam Cooke’s song that has come up in past blogs, “Cupid.") Me and Joe. Psyche and Eros. And what’s the deal with Hermes and Aphrodite? I know that Joe’s work clearly is the work of Hermes – but am I Aphrodite ("the goddess of love, beauty and sexual rapture")? Only in my dreams, of course. If we are going to dream, we might as well make them what Roberts Moss calls "big dreams." I just happened to come across this great bas-relief of the four of them. Eros and Psyche are leading the way for Hermes and Aphrodite.

I don’t know about you, but I have been STRUGGLING recently with so many things – getting back into a routine of exercise, playing music, working, eating right, etc. I was beginning to think I really need that knight on a white horse Joe talked about in his 2005 article conceptualizing the bricolage. I thought maybe it was the planet alignment or the retrograde that was holding me back. But today I was told that a new surge of energy is available for us all -- and I can actually feel it. Maybe it’s because the roses are blooming as I wrote about in yesterday’s blog and maybe it is something else. But whatever it is, today this new surge of energy is available and it will help us all get back on track.

I keep saying I will return to the Epistemological Road Trip that I took to Tennessee and finish that account (I left off with about three days remaining before returning home). However, I was told that this is Mother’s Day Week and I am to make it a vacation and to pick up where I left off on the trip on Sunday. That makes me wonder, what does “the gang” have in store for me today and Saturday? It should be exciting.

Here is what came up:

 

The First Yellow Rose bloomed on Father’s Day last year. I dedicated it to Joe in appreciation for all that he had contributed to education along with a special poem I wrote for him (in fact, I had planted four yellow rose bushes in his memory when I moved into my house in February 2009). Yellow roses signify spiritual power, wisdom and joy.

Well, it looks like this year, the gift has been returned to me more then 10-fold – lots of yellow roses blooming already and just in time for our new Mother’s Week Celebration!!

In yesterday’s blog I announced the new holiday format—Mother’s Day has been extended for a full week. Yellow Roses! What a wonderful gift in exchange for The First Yellow Rose I dedicated last year on Father’s Day. I must be doin' sumptin' right.

And this is significant. When the roses bloom, they magically release increased insight and knowledge for those of us who are receptive to that. I experienced it all last year and was sent out on many interesting and entertaining treasure hunts all summer and received many, many gifts. Already, the power is being felt. Yesterday, I was able to identify one of Joe’s predictions in his book, a movie that had not even been produced at the time he wrote his book (see yesterday’s blog and scroll all of the way to the end to read about it).

Oh, and about that very last song in my blog yesterday, the “hangin’ around” one that my Master Teacher gave me -- I figured it out, too!!! Someone is tired of “hangin’ around this old town.” The girl who got on the bus is me – and he finally decided to leave that old town and travel with me. How cool is that?

I have figured Joe was at least 100 years ahead of everyone else with his advanced theories and many people just are not ready for it. Some magic tricks are needed here. Perhaps we can speed up time a bit to catch up with Joe’s work or plant a lot more roses. We really do not want to leave anybody behind.

The following music for today was handed down to me. Not sure what they all mean. A lot of semiotics happenin' here. Everything is open for interpretation when it comes down to me from my Master Teacher.

Search term: “sleep”

Search terms:“dry the tears” (a healing song)