Ramayana I : Adventure

the plain white rice represents a life without adventure and the onions represent things learned through experiences and life trials

“You shall not have your rice unseasoned. I’ll throw in a bag of onions,” (1007). This is consolation Red Eyebrow offers Swallow’s mother when she is bargaining for possession of her beautiful daughter. The story of Swallow was added to the Ramayana later in order to frame the classic Indian epic, but was this addition necessary? I think so. Though there are always those who believe the original in its purest state is far superior to any modern rendition or translation. And usually I would agree that something is lost rather than gained by adding to or changing a work from its original composition, because even the perceived mistakes or archaic language tell us something about the time and situation in which it was composed. Admittedly something is lost in translation with the Ramayana, but as I cannot read Sanskrit, the translation will have to suffice. With a story as ancient as the Ramayana however, the translations have themselves become “works of great literary merit…” and without them this great epic would not have reached so many people (1004G).

Much like a story changes slightly every time it is passed orally from one story teller to the next, the Ramayana has undoubtedly been recited with incalculable nuances. Every rendition is an important piece of history in its own right and to say that a translation or an addition should not be considered with the same esteem as the original is denying history. In a way, the continually shifting nature of epic stories actually distills the story in the long run, contributing to its cultural potency. Orally, the story of Rama is never told in the exact same way, and in written language, many of the original Sanskrit words have no perfect translation in other languages. The only thing that stays consistent is the basic series of events, the outline or skeleton of the story. When comparing this skeleton with the skeleton of all other epics the world over, certain archetypes and moral lessons become evident. Epics usually involve quite a bit of supernatural events, and besides teaching children cultural values and ethics, these stories also instill in children a sense of wonder and curiosity because they must suspend disbelief. I consider this lesson just as important as any other lesson an epic can teach. It encourages creative thought and mystery at a young age, which I consider an extremely important part of childhood.

The Ramayana certainly provides the mystery and wonder that I mentioned as well as a sense of adventure. It tells children that the best things can sometimes be gained in times of the greatest discomfort and uncertainty and it can be beneficial to leave the security and comfort of home. Rama goes into exile almost voluntarily; he could easily have avoided leaving for his father’s entire kingdom with the exception of Kaikeyi was one his side. Initially Rama was content to accept his father’s throne, but when the idea presents itself to Rama of giving up his possessions and living as a hermit he cannot resist call for adventure. And indeed an adventure Rama gets; if he had not left the kingdom the story would not be nearly as interesting or appealing to children.

an example of people seeking adventure.

The story of Swallow contributes to this encouragement for children to seek adventure. The Ramayana alone seems too disconnected with reality of the average reader’s life and it is difficult to relate to. The suspension of disbelief that is required is such a stretch that Rama’s adventure becomes just a good story rather than something to emulate. Swallow is more similar to the average child that might be exposed to the Ramayana. Her story is very similar to Rama’s in that she at first reluctantly leaves a place of comfort and consistency to go out into a world of uncertainties, but does so partly to save her parents but also out of curiosity for the mountain Wu Shan and in search of the better life it may hold. The supernatural aspects of Swallows story are more believable and the way her story develops into the Ramayana makes the Ramayana more believable because it portrays its true nature as something more open to interpretation. Whether the story of Rama and Sita is a true story form the past or just a dream from Swallow’s imagination is not made totally clear. Even Swallow’s realization that she is Sita and that the Hermit of Wu Shan is Rama is not entirely believable and could be just a metaphor for how two people fell in love. For people who do not totally believe in past lives, Swallow’s story is still inspirational and motivating because of this slight ambiguity. Children can more easily relate to the story with this framing addition. Swallow’s adventure is thus more influential in encouraging children not to be content with the plain unseasoned rice they are given and to throw in a bag of onions every once in a while to season the blandness of a life without adventure and self-discovery so that you may later look back at your own life and say to yourself “’How you are grown!’” (1077)

Gardens: Completely Free

There is a quote by Louis Kahn, my favorite architect, which seems relevant to the Other Side of the Hedge story and the Tower Garden. Kahn said, in reference to his Kimbell Art Museum, “a museum needs a garden. You walk into a garden and you can either come in or not. This large garden tells you you may walk in to see the things or you may walk out. Completely free.”
A garden at the Kimbell. Completely free.

Kahn means that a garden provides a transition from inside to outside and visa versa. But he could also mean that they provide an escape from the troubles of life, because they are welcoming and free. You can easily walk into a garden and forget about your insignificant problems and at the same time be reminded of nature and the larger world. The narrator in The Other Side of the Hedge is so concerned with getting somewhere that he doesn’t realize it when he’s already gotten somewhere worth staying.
This lesson is a truth about life and the skewed values of people in the modern age. So many are so concerned with achieving their preconceived ideas of success that they overlook the things that really make a person successful.
Money is a big concern in capitalist society and it is usually the first thing people associate with success; however, most people would agree that money does not always bring happiness. What is the reason for this inconsistency? People view money as an indication of success, yet there seems to be little to no relationship with money and happiness. The only conclusion I come to is that success and happiness are viewed as two separate goals, even conflicting goals. The conflict between happiness and success can be seen in this statement by the narrator of Forster’s story about his brother, “he had wasted his breath on singing and his strength on helping others. But I had traveled more wisely, and now it was only the monotony of the highway that oppressed me…” (Forster). The narrator’s brother is happy, yet the narrator views his own unhappiness as the wiser more successful route and his brother’s happiness as foolish. This paradox is so surprising in the context of the story, but it is so consistent with the way people actually behave. People are so careful about spending money or time doing something that they know will make them happy just so they can have that money and time later, but for what? What makes some later acquisition money or time better spent than a current one? It is true that immediate gratification can frequently result in a much less happy future and that sometimes people must make sacrifices for their future happiness, but people can so easily get caught up in the idea of saving money that they never stop to think what they are saving it for and if this ultimate goal is even worth all the sacrifices they have made along the way. People spend all of their time working, neglecting family and friends for what they think is a worthwhile cause, but in the end they have done nothing but waste life that could have been spent in happiness. Retirement is what many Americans spend their entire life looking forward to. They say ‘I hate my job, but it will all be worth it when I retire,’ but will it? That seems like a complete waste to me, to spend the majority of life doing something you hate. What level of happiness could possibly make all of those years of unhappiness worthwhile? The narrator of The Other Side of the Hedge sees the paradise and leaves it because it does not lead anywhere. He would rather spend an indeterminable amount of his life in misery and monotony trying to get somewhere rather than enjoy what he has already found.

A garden reminds us of what we have already found. The Tower Garden is more like Kahn’s vision of a garden in that it is completely free, allowing students to walk in or walk out at any point. Forster’s garden is not free in the sense that you can easily walk in and out, but it is in that it frees people from their insignificant concerns and fruitless goals. Similarly, the Tower Garden at UT invites students to take a break from studying, and instead spend some time doing something that they want to do, whether or not it is spent in the actual garden. Maybe this is what Kahn really meant when he made that statement about gardens.
The Tower Garden reminds students not to spend all their time worrying about future goals and success, but to always try to live happily.

Who Are You?

I am Brian Anderson, but then again that’s just a name; if I say it over and over again in my head it even starts to sound foreign to me. There is nothing unique about a name no matter how unusual it is because anyone can just as easily have the same name. There are plenty of other Brian Andersons at UT right now but we are all different people and have arrived here because of different reasons. I am here because I wanted to study architecture at a good architecture school; but I know that’s a cop-out answer because the next question is why architecture? Perhaps my passion can be traced back to the first time I was exposed to the Kimbell Art Museum in my hometown of Fort Worth.

So I answer, ‘I got interested in it after participating in a summer program here.’ Then you ask, ‘What made you want to do a summer program?’ And I say, ‘My friend Johnny told me about it.’ And then you ask, ‘Who is Johnny and where did he come from?’ And the questions never cease because the answers are always insufficient at explaining why I’m here.
The truth is that there are an infinite many factors that have lead me to where I am now. I am here by some irreproducible series of events and any minute difference in this series of events would have resulted in a different person—the Brian Anderson of some other dimension. My being at this particular university is insignificant and at the same time its influences are inescapable. I could be anywhere as long as I am somewhere and wherever I am is a part of who I am. Being at UT does not provide any certainty about my future, but because my experiences here could never happen in exactly the same way as if I were anywhere else, UT has shaped me. Whether the University of Texas at Austin has shaped me for the better or worse is indeterminable because there is no better or worse, there is just what is. Who is to say that any one person is better than somebody else? People have come from all different backgrounds to rise to success, if one can even distinguish success from failure. Money is not really important and neither is fame or power or possessions. Happiness is subjective because it depends on what makes an individual happy and even then, how happy can a person be? What is the maximum happiness?
I think the best measure of success is in knowledge and not just in one area, in a whole range of areas. The more information a person has the better off a person is. That is the only way in which a place can predetermine success—in the richness and variety of the information it provides. That is why Universities are important to society and to me as an individual. They are places in which a vast amount of varied information is condensed. The more information the better, and by information I don’t just mean books and data. I am referring to the diversity of student body, variety of sensory experiences, richness of culture, as well as books and data. That is why the University of Texas at Austin is a better bet for me reaching self-actualization than say Lubbock--there is more information to learn from. John Newman hinted at this goal before the founding of this university when he said, “It is a great point then to enlarge the range of studies which a University professes, even for the sake of the students; and, though they cannot pursue every subject which is open to them, they will be the gainers by living among those and under those who represent the whole circle” (Newman). Diversity in students creates a richness of experiences and variety in the environment that is beneficial for all those involved.

However, experience alone does not make a person unique. It is what that person learns from those experiences. All knowledge we take in from the environment we then incorporate into ourselves whether we know it or not. We go from being “knowledge consumers to knowledge creators and interpreters” (Discovery Learning Project). The more knowledge that we interpret and incorporate into ourselves, the closer we are to finding our passions and passion is what allows us to be happy. The surer we are in our passions the happier we can be. The University of Texas has already led me to discover what I am passionate about. Talking about architecture, viewing architecture, and especially designing architecture makes me happy and I am very grateful that life has lead me here. If life had lead me in any other direction, I would have still learned and experienced and searched for my passion. Whether my passion in another dimension is architecture is once again indeterminable, but knowledge would be the only way to find out.
The Salk Institute by Louis Kahn -- a building that makes me happy

I encourage everyone to see and experience as many things as possible. UT is a great place to start because of the diverse atmosphere, but there is no limit to the things that can be observed and learned. Everyone can find their passion if they have enough information.

Alice II - Imagination

Alice in Wonderland is truly a work of genius in my opinion, making the creator, Lewis Carol (Dodgson), a man of genius. So if being a genius makes a person a hero, then Lewis Carol is indeed a hero. Whatever he is, he is certainly more than just an excellent writer because the Alice stories are certainly more than just books. Somehow Carol was able to tap into that childlike imagination that doesn’t make any logical sense, but somehow speaks to us on a deeper level. He knew that there is so much more to life than trying to make sense. There are so many feelings and ideas that the human brain can experience because of the unique possession of humans known as the imagination. It is how we are able to experience the impossible, conceive of what has never been done and could never be done, and create made-up worlds with made-up beings that could never exist within the parameters of reality. Lewis Carol fully employs his own imagination in the writing of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, which is something most of us really have trouble doing. This difficulty probably has something to do with the society we live in and it’s insistence on real, tangible truths and no “nonsense”. This is unfortunate I think because of the vast right-brain experiences we loose by limiting its imaginative capabilities. Part of the reason why Alice is such a popular story for adults as much as children is because it reminds us of the mysteries of our own imaginations, which we are very seldom in touch with but still have some faint, ever-fleeting memory of. It was easiest to find our imagination when we were children, but as we get older and our minds are tainted by the realities of the world, the times of true unfettered imagination are confined to our dreams.

This mysterious quality of the imagination only makes it more intriguing and desirable, and thus people are continuously looking for ways to tap into it. However, it is one thing to imagine and quite another thing to take those imaginings and represent them in a way for other seekers of imagination to understand. Those who are successful, usually in the form of art or writing—are frequently idolized. Lewis Carol is undoubtedly one of these people. He is a hero because he was able to freely wield the abstract ideas of his right-brain and combine them with the language of the left-brain.

SL Discussion: Diversity

[9:44] Pose Ball: LincolnLog Rokocoko, say 'Hide' to hide me, or 'Show' to make me show. Or just right-click and sit on me to use me.
[9:45] No room to sit here, try another spot.
[9:45] LincolnLog Rokocoko: good slightly-before-noon
[9:46] You: yes, what a gorgeous day
[9:46] LincolnLog Rokocoko: is it a diverse day?
[9:46] You: We have quite opposite apporaches to facial hair
[9:46] You: our hair is diverse
[9:46] doolie Wycliffe: hello!
[9:47] LincolnLog Rokocoko: i can't really see yours
[9:47] LincolnLog Rokocoko: is that a flava sava
[9:47] LincolnLog Rokocoko: ?
[9:47] doolie Wycliffe: what's a flava sava
[9:47] You: I've been bald for a couple decades now
[9:47] LincolnLog Rokocoko: a soul patch
[9:47] You: no no
[9:47] LincolnLog Rokocoko: oh
[9:47] LincolnLog Rokocoko: lol
[9:47] LincolnLog Rokocoko: maybe you just need a napkin
[9:47] You: Many of the leaders I've followed have been bald.
[9:47] You: HEY
[9:47] LincolnLog Rokocoko: haha
[9:48] LincolnLog Rokocoko: ghandi?
[9:48] doolie Wycliffe: leadership and diversity
[9:48] You: NO, but greatly influenced by many meditative traditions.
[9:48] You: Zen in particular
[9:48] LincolnLog Rokocoko: buhdda
[9:49] You: Though I'm white, many who I have followed are not white
[9:49] LincolnLog Rokocoko: i dont know how to spell budda
[9:49] You: buddha
[9:49] LincolnLog Rokocoko: right
[9:49] LincolnLog Rokocoko: i know theres an h in there somehwere
[9:49] Latte Littlething: Bonjour
[9:49] doolie Wycliffe: haha
[9:49] doolie Wycliffe: hola
[9:49] You: when you think of diversity, is race the first thing that comes to mind?
[9:49] doolie Wycliffe: i htink culture
[9:49] LincolnLog Rokocoko: truthfully yes
[9:49] Latte Littlething: No, individuality and expression comes to mind
[9:50] LincolnLog Rokocoko: but i definitely dont think it should be
[9:50] doolie Wycliffe: which includes race
[9:50] Latte Littlething: No
[9:50] You: yeah, thats interesting
[9:50] Latte Littlething: culture involves expression, not race
[9:50] doolie Wycliffe: yes but much of our culture comes from our ethnic backgrounds
[9:50] You: Are leaders subject to the same stereotyping tendencies that most people succumb to?
[9:50] doolie Wycliffe: not all but there are things
[9:50] Latte Littlething: But I was more referring to the pursuit of passions
[9:51] You: leaders are defnitely passionate
[9:51] You: that is one thing that unifies the diversity of leaders
[9:52] You: Do you think leaders generally influence a single demographic?
[9:52] You: a group similar to themselves?
[9:52] doolie Wycliffe: no
[9:52] Latte Littlething: Yes, but inducing the pursuit of individual passions of the crew, recognizing them as individuals and accepting the diversity among them creates a feeling of community, one of the most important factors for exploration and discovery
[9:52] You: Yes recognizing diversity can be very empowering
[9:53] You: it is bad if we ignore our individuality
[9:53] doolie Wycliffe: wait yes to a group similar to ourselves in some ways
[9:53] You: we must know ourselves to lead
[9:53] doolie Wycliffe: depending on beliefs and culture as a way of life
[9:53] Latte Littlething: and a captain may preserve this diversity by respecting his crew's beliefs
[9:53] doolie Wycliffe: yes but if his views differ he should not conform
[9:54] You: and there is a delicate balance between perceiving the beliefs of others and projecting our own beliefs onto them.
[9:54] You: especially in instances involving disparate cultures
[9:54] Latte Littlething: Precisely, social standards should never factor into pursuit of passion
[9:54] Latte Littlething: or obstruct it
[9:54] doolie Wycliffe: what would you define as culture?
[9:54] doolie Wycliffe: the way of life? the language? the religious beliefs?
[9:54] You: I was trying to find a word to sum up disparate bacgrounds...
[9:54] Latte Littlething: I found a way for my interets to correspond with my work during the war that paved the way for my explorations later in life.
[9:55] You: culture entails a shared use of symbols
[9:55] Latte Littlething: Yes, a common feeling, experience, ideology
[9:55] You: some unity that allows a group to perceive themselves as related
[9:55] LincolnLog Rokocoko: sorry my mind shut down for a minute
[9:55] LincolnLog Rokocoko: lol
[9:55] LincolnLog Rokocoko: I've got to catch up
[9:56] You: a leader must
[9:56] doolie Wycliffe: as a christian leader i would influence other christians, but perhaps not all the same people from the same regions
[9:56] Latte Littlething: I once used the book 20,000 leagues under the sea as a common experience with which to unify my crew
[9:56] LincolnLog Rokocoko: can someone sum up what has been said. what conclusions have been arrived upon?
[9:56] You: what do you mean? christians from a broad area? or christians inconcentrated areas?
[9:56] doolie Wycliffe: especially in america where there are so many different religions in the same areas
[9:57] Latte Littlething: A bit of culture to which everyone could relate
[9:57] You: so selectively influence within a broad culture?
[9:57] doolie Wycliffe: christians all over the world
[9:57] You: do you think this makes christians diverse?
[9:58] Latte Littlething: Lincoln, we are talking about culture and religion, how they influence a leader and his mission
[9:58] You: the fact that they are spread across the world
[9:58] You: It is important to find a way to UNIFY.
[9:58] LincolnLog Rokocoko: thanks
[9:58] You: unity is som important, coherence of messsage.
[9:58] doolie Wycliffe: well my point was that its hard to define culture because sometimes you include religion and sometimes you dont as well as other things
[9:58] LincolnLog Rokocoko: what are some things that everyone shares
[9:59] LincolnLog Rokocoko: ?
[9:59] Latte Littlething: childhood
[9:59] doolie Wycliffe: needs
[9:59] You: right. so lets just call culture a group with some shared symbols
[9:59] LincolnLog Rokocoko: growth in general
[9:59] Latte Littlething: As I mentioned before, childhood is a fantastic way to unify a crew
[9:59] LincolnLog Rokocoko: intellectual needs, need to be loved and to love
[9:59] You: childhood?
[9:59] LincolnLog Rokocoko: what are some others?
[9:59] Latte Littlething: It is a common experience
[10:00] LincolnLog Rokocoko: religion can provide these
[10:00] You: do you find diversity within your crews?
[10:00] LincolnLog Rokocoko: and culture
[10:00] Latte Littlething: love
[10:00] Latte Littlething: passion for living
[10:00] Latte Littlething: passion for exploration
[10:00] LincolnLog Rokocoko: a need of belonging
[10:00] Latte Littlething: discovery
[10:00] doolie Wycliffe: expression of emotions
[10:00] Latte Littlething: Yes, all these things are ideas which people of all backgrounds can relate to
[10:01] You: inherent human qualities.
[10:01] You: but we are conditioned by the culture we live in as well
[10:01] LincolnLog Rokocoko: i think discovery can be of the world or within one's self
[10:01] Latte Littlething: yes!
[10:01] LincolnLog Rokocoko: we are definitely conditioned by culture
[10:01] You: internal discovery can certainly be alife long endeavor
[10:01] Latte Littlething: And discovery of others!
[10:01] doolie Wycliffe: yes and i think it is important to learn about others cultures
[10:02] doolie Wycliffe: but without having to believe in the same thigns
[10:02] You: learning about ourselvles enhances our ability to learn about otherse
[10:02] LincolnLog Rokocoko: i think it is important to think about the underlying motivations for people, despite the culture theyare from
[10:02] You: how do we do that?
[10:02] doolie Wycliffe: observation?
[10:02] LincolnLog Rokocoko: everyone has an unconscious i beleive
[10:02] doolie Wycliffe: contact with other peoples
[10:02] You: how do we separate their underlying motiviations from the culture that has conditioned them?
[10:02] doolie Wycliffe: get to know them?
[10:02] You: I agree
[10:02] LincolnLog Rokocoko: and basic primitive drives
[10:03] You: and there is collective unconscious as well
[10:03] LincolnLog Rokocoko: connect everything we do to these drives and you can transcent cultural boundaries i think
[10:03] Latte Littlething: doolie: culture is an integral part of who we are as individuals. recognizing the culture within each person makes a leader more influential, as he develops a relationship with his crew
[10:03] You: get to know them?
[10:03] Latte Littlething: collective unconcious?
[10:03] doolie Wycliffe: as in know people better. really listen and learn
[10:03] You: there is no context outside of contexts... we cannot remove a person from culture
[10:04] LincolnLog Rokocoko: really listen
[10:04] LincolnLog Rokocoko: listen subjectively
[10:04] LincolnLog Rokocoko: actively making connections that are not said
[10:04] You: yes, that's true. subjectively. do you think we can "break past" cultural conditioners?
[10:04] Latte Littlething: A leader who is personable, meaning one who listens, truly listens, is able to inspire an "esprit de corps" spirit of the body
[10:04] You: so beyond verbal
[10:05] doolie Wycliffe: you can recognize the culture within each person, but letting yourself be swayed by every culture would compromise yourself as a leader in a way
[10:05] Latte Littlething: Yes, through the unifying passion for exploration sprinkles
[10:05] doolie Wycliffe: a leader should stick with what they believe
[10:05] You: can we truly listed (understand) someone without the same symbol systems as we have
[10:06] LincolnLog Rokocoko: it is difficult
[10:06] You: doolie?
[10:06] doolie Wycliffe: ?
[10:06] LincolnLog Rokocoko: that is where cultural boundaries compicate things
[10:06] You: unwavering leadership?
[10:06] You: noc ompromise?
[10:06] You: compromise?
[10:06] doolie Wycliffe: compromise as in
[10:07] You: how does compromise relate to diversity?
[10:07] Latte Littlething: yes, symbols become irrelevant under the fundamentals of life
[10:07] Latte Littlething: and living
[10:07] LincolnLog Rokocoko: if your leadership is only valued by a specific culture, who is truely leadership?
[10:07] You: it seems like unifying diversit requires some compromise
[10:08] doolie Wycliffe: okay like for example politicians who vote against homosexual rights yet practice homosexuality have compromised what they SAID they believe
[10:08] LincolnLog Rokocoko: it's using a particular cultural tradition to your advantage
[10:08] You: I think your leadership can be recognized by other cultures
[10:08] You: even if its influece was not as strong on that culture
[10:08] LincolnLog Rokocoko: i think by doing that a leader is rejecting other cultures
[10:08] doolie Wycliffe: leadership can definitly be recognized by other cultures
[10:08] Latte Littlething: At least respected, and that is the key to understanding
[10:08] You: yes respect.
[10:08] Latte Littlething: and building a relationship
[10:09] LincolnLog Rokocoko: good leadership can, thats my point
[10:09] You: thats true, we must respect others to build relationships.
[10:09] Latte Littlething: what is "good leadership" lincoln?
[10:09] You: part of respecting others is respecting yourself.
[10:09] LincolnLog Rokocoko: if a leader is only a leader in a particular niche he/she is not truely a leader
[10:09] Latte Littlething: and recognizing the passion within
[10:09] You: hmmmmm...
[10:09] Latte Littlething: and pursuing it regardless of social standards
[10:09] LincolnLog Rokocoko: a leader's characteristics are universal
[10:09] You: but everyone is in a particualr niche
[10:10] You: no one incorporates all contexts
[10:10] Latte Littlething: Nice talking with you all.
[10:10] doolie Wycliffe: yeah
[10:10] You: strenth comes from acknowledging your context
[10:10] Latte Littlething: Esprit de corps, remember
[10:10] Latte Littlething: spirit of the body
[10:10] You: THANKS GUYS
[10:10] LincolnLog Rokocoko: everyone one should incorporate allcontexts
[10:11] LincolnLog Rokocoko: connect!
[10:11] LincolnLog Rokocoko: good talk
[10:11] doolie Wycliffe: haha

SL Discussion: Leadership

[8:56] Pose Ball: Daisy Bosatsu, say 'Hide' to hide me, or 'Show' to make me show. Or just right-click and sit on me to use me.
[9:02] Pose Ball: Cameron Reinard, say 'Hide' to hide me, or 'Show' to make me show. Or just right-click and sit on me to use me.
[9:05] LincolnLog Rokocoko: hey nice of you to join me
[9:07] You: Good Morning Friend
[9:07] LincolnLog Rokocoko: gutten tag
[9:07] LincolnLog Rokocoko: i dont know if that's th correct spelling
[9:07] You: How have you been doing?
[9:07] LincolnLog Rokocoko: but you get the idea
[9:08] LincolnLog Rokocoko: pretty good and yourself?
[9:08] You: Ya more or less
[9:08] You: I'm doing great, I went on a 14 mile hike before this.
[9:08] You: So, we're supposed to be here to talk about what a leader is.
[9:08] LincolnLog Rokocoko: for real or are you in character?
[9:08] You: You decide
[9:08] You: haha
[9:08] LincolnLog Rokocoko: lol
[9:09] LincolnLog Rokocoko: ok make things interesting
[9:09] LincolnLog Rokocoko: lets see
[9:09] LincolnLog Rokocoko: I was just analyzing my dreams
[9:09] You: What are the top three qualities you believe a leader should possess?
[9:10] Denton Dawg: Good morning
[9:10] You: Then well talk aobut your dreams
[9:10] You: Good morning Denton
[9:10] LincolnLog Rokocoko: a good listener, conviction, and commitment
[9:10] You: Nice
[9:10] Denton Dawg: Morning Freud...and...?
[9:10] Denton Dawg: May I ask for your name?
[9:11] You: Mine I believe are someone willing to speak out, possesing the abbility to see the whole picture, and to listen to both sides of a story then make judgment on all information, whether popular or not.
[9:11] You: My name is Vida, But my friends call me Grayson.
[9:11] You: Denton what do you think a leader is?
[9:11] LincolnLog Rokocoko: alright Grayson
[9:11] LincolnLog Rokocoko: i think those are great qualities
[9:11] Denton Dawg: A leader knows how to teach by example
[9:11] You: Thanks, I really like yours too
[9:12] Denton Dawg: One who is persevering
[9:12] Denton Dawg: and confident
[9:12] Denton Dawg: and simply gets the job done as a collective
[9:12] You: I feel like all of these qualities sort of intertwine
[9:12] LincolnLog Rokocoko: definitely
[9:12] You: Like if you have the ability for speak for what you want, you must be confident
[9:12] You: And so forth
[9:12] LincolnLog Rokocoko: i think that there are some more vague underlying qualities that all of thes thigns share
[9:12] LincolnLog Rokocoko: we should try to figure out what they are
[9:12] You: And if your committed to an idea, you will speak out for it
[9:12] Denton Dawg: I definitely agree
[9:13] You: I would like that
[9:13] LincolnLog Rokocoko: so confidence
[9:13] Denton Dawg: Passion drives leaders, I believe
[9:13] You: We all have passions that propel us forward
[9:13] LincolnLog Rokocoko: passion
[9:13] Pose Ball: Daisy Bosatsu, say 'Hide' to hide me, or 'Show' to make me show. Or just right-click and sit on me to use me.
[9:13] Pose Ball: Daisy Bosatsu, say 'Hide' to hide me, or 'Show' to make me show. Or just right-click and sit on me to use me.
[9:13] You: Exactly Lincoln log
[9:13] Pose Ball: Daisy Bosatsu, say 'Hide' to hide me, or 'Show' to make me show. Or just right-click and sit on me to use me.
[9:13] LincolnLog Rokocoko: lol you can call me Siggy
[9:13] You: What are some of your guys passions?
[9:13] LincolnLog Rokocoko: haha
[9:13] Daisy Bosatsu: hey sorry i was in the wrong group
[9:13] Denton Dawg: Medicine.
[9:14] Denton Dawg: and music
[9:14] You: Alright Siggy, any nicknames for you denton?
[9:14] Denton Dawg: Just Denton.
[9:14] You: Hey daisy!
[9:14] Daisy Bosatsu: hey
[9:14] You: Alright that works
[9:14] Daisy Bosatsu: hi denton
[9:14] You: We have been talking about what qualities leaders should possess
[9:14] LincolnLog Rokocoko: my passions?
[9:14] You: Any things in particular?
[9:14] You: Let's wait for Daisy to answer first, then well all talk about passions
[9:14] LincolnLog Rokocoko: art, architecture, music, mocies
[9:15] LincolnLog Rokocoko: i think i just really like creating things or things that were created
[9:15] LincolnLog Rokocoko: but particularly things that a lot of thought were put into
[9:15] Daisy Bosatsu: i think a leader should first of all be a very strong person in several aspects
[9:15] You: Such as?
[9:15] LincolnLog Rokocoko: oh sorry
[9:15] You: Hold on Sig
[9:15] You: haha
[9:15] LincolnLog Rokocoko: lol
[9:15] Daisy Bosatsu: motivation, determination, etc
[9:15] You: Nice
[9:16] You: Ya we all decided passion
[9:16] Denton Dawg: Common threads
[9:16] Daisy Bosatsu: i really think straight right now!!!
[9:16] Denton Dawg: Daist, may I ask for your name?
[9:16] You: So Siggy, anything created- does that include nature?
[9:16] Daisy Bosatsu: jessica
[9:16] Denton Dawg: Embodied by?
[9:16] LincolnLog Rokocoko: absolutely
[9:16] You: I mean ultimately it was created by some thing
[9:16] Daisy Bosatsu: hey what are guys talking about
[9:16] You: Fantastic, nature, or exploring an discovery are my passions
[9:17] Denton Dawg: We are talking about passions
[9:17] You: What passions motivate us
[9:17] Daisy Bosatsu: ok, cool
[9:17] You: What about you denton?
[9:17] Denton Dawg: Medicine and music.
[9:17] Denton Dawg: And of course, my wife, Louise
[9:17] Daisy Bosatsu: my biggest passion is working hard and helping others
[9:17] You: Those are all fantastic.
[9:17] Daisy Bosatsu: that was sweet denton
[9:18] You: So in what ways of you guys pursued your passions while exhibiting leadership?
[9:18] You: have*
[9:18] You: Or exhibited leadership while pursuing passions rather
[9:18] Daisy Bosatsu: being promoted to supervisor at my job
[9:18] LincolnLog Rokocoko: what about you Grayson? what are your passions?
[9:18] You: Very nice, working hard definetely got you there
[9:19] You: Exploring, discovering, growing
[9:19] LincolnLog Rokocoko: growing in what way?
[9:19] LincolnLog Rokocoko: learning from mistakes?
[9:19] Daisy Bosatsu: vida what have you explored
[9:19] You: I feel happiest when I am in nature, so hiking fishing and camping are some of my favorite activities
[9:19] You: Yes precisely,
[9:19] LincolnLog Rokocoko: actual growing as in nature
[9:19] You: I have lived a long life, and learned most through experience gained from mistakes
[9:20] Daisy Bosatsu: mistakes is one of the best ways to learn from
[9:20] You: Nepal, Mongolia, Turkey, India, Russia, Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, Italy, France, England, many more
[9:20] You: But my house, in Colorado, offers the most tranquility
[9:20] Daisy Bosatsu: wow, those are amazing places
[9:20] LincolnLog Rokocoko: why is that do you think?
[9:20] You: What learning from mistakes?
[9:21] LincolnLog Rokocoko: no, that CO is the most tranquil?
[9:21] Daisy Bosatsu: i have never got to travel much, but i would love to
[9:21] You: It is hard to make a mistake, and recognize how you erred and how it affected you enough to make an effort to not repeat it
[9:21] Daisy Bosatsu: thats true vida
[9:21] Denton Dawg: Shall we unify this convesation?
[9:21] Daisy Bosatsu: yes please
[9:21] You: It offers mountains and streams, memories of childhood, and a sense of place and identity
[9:22] You: I have gone through many rebirths there, much self discovery
[9:22] You: and Much change and growth
[9:22] LincolnLog Rokocoko: thats great
[9:22] You: Because it is so important, I am on the President of the Board in Boulder
[9:22] Denton Dawg: would you say that CO embodied the birth of your leadership traits?
[9:22] Daisy Bosatsu: denton what do you feel is the best trait a leader shoul posess
[9:22] LincolnLog Rokocoko: i bet it offers a lot of opportunity for reflection and introspection
[9:22] You: It certainly motivated them
[9:22] LincolnLog Rokocoko: Colorado that is
[9:22] Denton Dawg: Me?
[9:23] Daisy Bosatsu: yes
[9:23] Denton Dawg: Aside from passion, confidence
[9:23] You: Very much so, as an extrovert naturally I always need a place to gain some inner perspective
[9:23] Denton Dawg: Confidence allows you to do the unexpected
[9:23] Daisy Bosatsu: yes thats very important
[9:23] Denton Dawg: and follow through
[9:23] You: Tell me more about that denten
[9:23] You: denton*
[9:23] Denton Dawg: and eventually succeed
[9:23] You: What unexpected things have you accomplished thanks to confidence?
[9:23] Daisy Bosatsu: i can imagine that being a successful doctor, you have to have alot of confidence
[9:23] Denton Dawg: Being a doctor, confidence is one thing I was instilled from the beginning
[9:23] You: Lets each take turns answering this
[9:24] You: Very true.
[9:24] You: ANd you Daisy?
[9:24] LincolnLog Rokocoko: does anyone else have a particular place that they go to for introspection?
[9:24] Daisy Bosatsu: whats the ? again i got lost in all of the typing
[9:24] You: Hey, let's stay on this confidence track for a bit and then roam to introspection?
[9:24] Denton Dawg: I concur
[9:24] You: Just because we have plenty of time
[9:24] LincolnLog Rokocoko: yeah sorry, im jsut having trouble keeping up
[9:24] You: But write that down Siggy
[9:24] You: haha
[9:25] You: Sig what accomplishments have you attained due to confidence?
[9:25] LincolnLog Rokocoko: I have put forth many new and challanging idea in the feild of psychology
[9:25] Daisy Bosatsu: like what
[9:25] You: I am sure that takes confidence, as many people probably doubted you
[9:26] Pose Ball: Denton Dawg, say 'Hide' to hide me, or 'Show' to make me show. Or just right-click and sit on me to use me.
[9:26] LincolnLog Rokocoko: like the idea that everything you do is driven in some way by the unconstious
[9:26] Daisy Bosatsu: thats interesting
[9:26] You: So that is where your analyzing dreams comes into play
[9:26] LincolnLog Rokocoko: haha
[9:26] LincolnLog Rokocoko: yes
[9:26] LincolnLog Rokocoko: and introspection
[9:26] You: Very nice
[9:27] You: it is hard to be introspective, I very often get so caught up in the now, i don't have time to truly evaluate my self
[9:27] Daisy Bosatsu: denton where did u go
[9:27] LincolnLog Rokocoko: it takes a great deal of honesty to the self to be able to admitt the uncontious drives for certian actions
[9:27] You: Hence why colorado is my sanctuary
[9:27] You: It certainly does, that ties into the whole idea of learning from mistakes as well
[9:28] LincolnLog Rokocoko: yes it does
[9:28] You: Being able to recognize a characteristic in yourself that caused you to act in a certain way, good or bad
[9:28] LincolnLog Rokocoko: to be able to admitt where the mistake actually occured
[9:28] You: Precisely
[9:28] LincolnLog Rokocoko: even the small ones
[9:28] LincolnLog Rokocoko: and seeming accidents
[9:28] Denton Dawg: That, too, is part of leadership!
[9:28] Denton Dawg: Would you think so?
[9:28] You: Confidence, one of my best characteristics, has pushed me to do new things as well
[9:29] LincolnLog Rokocoko: what things?
[9:29] You: Most definetely, a good leader is a sympathetic leader
[9:29] LincolnLog Rokocoko: you run marathons
[9:29] LincolnLog Rokocoko: you seem to be very driven
[9:29] You: Well, for instance, I fought for the feminist movement, as well as civil rights movements
[9:29] Daisy Bosatsu: people really respond to sympathetic leaders
[9:29] LincolnLog Rokocoko: is there something particular that drives you?
[9:29] Daisy Bosatsu: good for you vida
[9:29] You: Growing up in a small town, I knew I was meant for more
[9:30] You: It was hard though, we had servants who called me "Miss Grayson" and it was practically custom
[9:30] Daisy Bosatsu: i know what you mean about the small town vida
[9:30] You: But After fighting for what I believed in, losing friends and family, then gaining them back by leading them with me, I became a very successful attorney
[9:30] LincolnLog Rokocoko: did you also feel a need to escape daisy?
[9:30] Denton Dawg: What sparked you to lead, Vida?
[9:30] LincolnLog Rokocoko: that you were meant for something greater?
[9:30] Daisy Bosatsu: yes i did
[9:31] You: yeah
[9:31] You: Tell me about your small town, maybe ours are similar
[9:31] You: Although I was born almost 75 years ago
[9:31] Daisy Bosatsu: small towns shelter you, and they dont allow you to fully develop into the person you become
[9:31] You: yes, they can be a huge deterrence, most of the time just because communities can be that more judgmental
[9:31] Daisy Bosatsu: well. its very country. alot of land
[9:32] You: The "social norm" is much harder to break when everyone talks
[9:32] Denton Dawg: I grew up in Houston
[9:32] Daisy Bosatsu: but its beginning to grow, more people are moving there
[9:32] You: I grew up in Beaumont
[9:32] You: What city is it?
[9:32] Denton Dawg: and I have lived a majority of my life there
[9:32] LincolnLog Rokocoko: it is hard to really listen in a small town becuase you get caught up in what you want to ehar and think you should be hearing
[9:33] You: Right.
[9:33] You: It's hard to break free
[9:33] Daisy Bosatsu: thats very true
[9:33] You: College really opened that up for me
[9:33] LincolnLog Rokocoko: there are so many social morres
[9:33] You: I went to Randolph Macon, a decision I later regretted , because they considered a college education practically unnecessary since we were all supposed to end up as Housewives
[9:34] Daisy Bosatsu: well i didnt really get a chance to go to college until recently, but working in the city helped my mind to expand
[9:34] You: Did any books in particular help you guys learn what or how to be a leader?
[9:34] Daisy Bosatsu: i dont get a chance to read much
[9:34] Denton Dawg: Why is that?
[9:34] You: Oh, big worker?
[9:34] LincolnLog Rokocoko: i love poetry and philosophy
[9:34] Daisy Bosatsu: well, im a single mother. so im working most of the time
[9:34] LincolnLog Rokocoko: passions that are somewhat strange for a dotor to have
[9:35] You: I feel like reading is extremely important, because learning not only from your mistakes but also others can be useful.
[9:35] Daisy Bosatsu: i agree
[9:35] Denton Dawg: I do too
[9:35] You: I know the feeling, My husband died when my eldest of three boys was only 8.
[9:35] Daisy Bosatsu: wow, that had to be challenging
[9:35] Denton Dawg: however, in a highy stressful environment of a doctor, we usually learn from each other rather than from books
[9:35] LincolnLog Rokocoko: reading and listening
[9:36] LincolnLog Rokocoko: i suppose reading could be a form of listening
[9:36] Denton Dawg: Journals are the key to our unification, however
[9:36] You: It was... i tried so hard to create a happy home, a good living, and be a supportive mother
[9:36] Cameron Reinard shouts: until otherwise shown, we can
[9:36] You: In the end, they all turned out like fine individuals
[9:36] Daisy Bosatsu: i think books and one on one interactions with people helps you learn
[9:36] You: Yes.
[9:36] You: Listening is key.
[9:36] Denton Dawg: How do each of you instill positive traits in others?
[9:36] Daisy Bosatsu: yes, so did i but i wasnt able to spend alot of quality time with my children
[9:37] You: Listening most of the time
[9:37] LincolnLog Rokocoko: listening is definitely key!
[9:37] LincolnLog Rokocoko: and passion
[9:37] You: I also don't like to project my ideas on others, i just lead through example
[9:37] You: I firmly believe actions speak louder than words
[9:37] Daisy Bosatsu: well, i install positive traits in my children by telling them how much i love them everyday
[9:37] LincolnLog Rokocoko: i think listening is one of the best way to help people
[9:38] Daisy Bosatsu: ...and to go after their aspirations
[9:38] LincolnLog Rokocoko: only then can you truely understand their problems
[9:38] You: If people recognize your passions, they feel compelled to understand them, and if they are good passions, the learners ultimately gain positive traits
[9:38] Daisy Bosatsu: i agree vida
[9:38] Denton Dawg: I try to make an environmen conducive to growth
[9:38] You: Being a good leader is knowing how to listen, to lead, and to love all at the same time
[9:38] Denton Dawg: envorinment*
[9:38] LincolnLog Rokocoko: leading through example is great, but action is necessary too i think
[9:38] You: Me too Denton
[9:39] You: Well by example i mean action- liking making a stand or example
[9:39] Daisy Bosatsu: i agree lincolnlog: by practicing what you preach shows that it can be done
[9:39] You: That is one of teh main reasons I started going to Colorado, it is an environment conducive to growth
[9:39] LincolnLog Rokocoko: actively seeking opporunities to help other poeple, by showing them the light for instance
[9:40] You: Right
[9:40] LincolnLog Rokocoko: illuminating the lives of others through what you have learned in yours
[9:40] Denton Dawg: Works well in psychotherapy
[9:40] Daisy Bosatsu: i do that with my clients
[9:40] LincolnLog Rokocoko: do you really?
[9:40] LincolnLog Rokocoko: i do too....
[9:40] LincolnLog Rokocoko: lol
[9:40] Daisy Bosatsu: i try to help them make the best out of their situations
[9:40] You: So nice talking to you all.
[9:40] LincolnLog Rokocoko: likewise

Freud's Adventures in Second Life

I’m just going to delve right into it, starting at the beginning.

I ended up choosing Sigmund Freud for my role model somewhat last minute. For the RDB on role models (see blog entry "Footnote: the [logs] are in your favor."), I tried to look at the concept of a role model in a unique way than I, the typical elementary student, had done in the past. So rather than choosing from the list of stock historical figure role models like Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., I decided that an object might be an interesting choice. I tried to think of times in my life when an object had possessed some of the same qualities as a more conventional role model would—an object that had provided some kind of inspiration for me. I thought of Lincoln Logs partially because they had inspired me, similar to the way Martin Luther King Jr. or John F. Kennedy have been inspirational to many thousands of people, and also partly because I was amused by the irony of picking an object so closely related to one of the “typical role models” that I had initially wished to avoid—Abraham Lincoln. I did not realize at the time that choosing such an abstract role model, because of the nature of this series of assignments, would actually come back to bite me in the ass. I could either try to write 4 pages about personified chunks of wood or relinquish my dignity by picking an actual person. Since I had little dignity to begin with, I went the latter route.



*two of the stock historical figures commonly chosen as role models: M.L.K.Jr. and Abe Lincoln








I decided that the main reason that Lincoln Logs had inspired me, the creativity and introspection they allowed me in my times of isolation, had more to do with me than the Lincoln Logs themselves. I realized that the ability to be introspective—to see into one’s own mind and honestly evaluate oneself—is a trait I value greatly in people. I decided not to declare myself my own role model for fear of sounding like an egotistical jerk. But, expanding on the idea of introspection, I came to the conclusion that it was closely related to the skill of listening in that it deals with listening to one’s own soul. Listening is also a skill in which I could definitely use improvement, not only in the aspect of introspection, but especially in listening to others and to nature. Thus, I set out on a quest to find “The Listener”.

I eventually arrived upon Sigmund Freud as an example of a person who demonstrated both an incredible ability to listen to himself, by recording and interpreting his own dreams and thoughts, and to others, through the method he developed called psychoanalysis (See Freud, The Listener). Although I don’t necessarily aspire to be Sigmund Freud (many of his ideas are equally creepy as they are interesting) I do think he provides an excellent example of the powers of listening to uncover truths about (human)nature.

Freud, the Listener with his trademark cigar

Like I said, I don’t particularly wish to be Sigmund Freud. Set aside his questionable propositions, his personal life was odd at best and he had a tendency to womanize. However, the prerequisites for this paper required me to virtually become Sigmund Freud and that I did (minus the womanizing) via Second Life. I won’t lie; In the process of creating my Sigmund Freud avatar in Second Life, I did not achieve any profound sense of freedom or independence, that is unless suddenly exclaiming, “I’m going out of my mind! Everybody out!” constitutes an out-of-mind/out-of-body experience (sorry, that was a stretch). The frustrations I experienced with Second Life can be separated into technical difficulties and conceptual difficulties.

Overall, Second Life was not terribly frustrating technically. I did run into a few problems in the installation process and then downloading updated versions of the software before I had even used the first version I installed. Once I had Second Life running and had created an account (LincolnLog Rokocoko), which is reminiscent of my original wooden role model, there was also a formidable learning curve and just getting the hang of things. At first, I found the process of actually making my avatar look like a particular person annoyingly difficult with the limited options given in the inventory. Our researcher friend and technical whiz, whose name I cannot remember at this time, showed me how to access a much more specific application for changing the appearance of one’s avatar. This made creating a virtual Siggy much easier and consequently more enjoyable.

Conceptually, using Second Life as a discovery-learning tool in the classroom is an interesting idea. Second Life is a 3-D virtual world where people can interact with one another as “Residents” with pseudonyms and modifiable appearances and it is considered by some a kind of computer game, although it does not possess most of the elements of a conventional game. SL has garnered so much attention as an educational medium because of its professed ability to connect teacher, student and world through the use of a self-motivating and fun activity.

The idea to use games in the classroom as an interactive learning experience is not a new one, and my attitude toward such endeavors can best be described as hopeful, yet skeptical. Sometimes it works; sometimes it don’t (sic). The trick is in knowing when to call it quits when it doesn’t. In my opinion, the complications that arise from requiring the use of an application that is intended as a leisurely activity for the spare time of those so inclined to consider such an activity leisurely too often outweigh the educational advantages of using such an application in the classroom. I for one would probably not use Second Life if it were not required of me as part of this assignment, because it just isn’t something that appeals to me. Of course, if given the choice between using Second Life to explore the idea of discovery learning and writing a report on the subject of discovery learning, I would invariably choose Second Life.

I was slow to explore the many islands of Second Life because P1 did not require it and thus there was a lack of academic motivation (and little personal motivation). But with the academic motivation of doing research for this essay, I have since explored Second Life beyond UT island, which I must say that, as a research method, is much more fun than reading books on Freud. I found several rather intriguing places to go and things to see in my travels. One of them being Svarga Island—an island entirely devoted to an experiment in artificial life, with interactive plant life, animal life, and even natural phenomenon. There are many fun interactive activities to do on Svarga, like the room full of musical instruments that one can play solo or jam with a group of friends. I strongly encourage everyone to take the hover-pod tour! I have also discovered that Second Life is host to several virtual contemporary art museums and live concerts. Architecture firms such as Crescendo Designs use Second Life as a professional tool to gain “a unique perspective on both the challenges and opportunities inherent in bridging the SL/RL
gap.” If it weren’t for an initial academic motivation (requirement) to use Second Life and explore for research I would never have come across these interesting virtual projects.

Svarga Island. For more information click the link or teleport to it in SL and take the tour.

If I were to compare my motivation for writing P2 to that of writing P1, I wouldn’t say I was any more excited about having to write either one of these essays than the other. I will say that thinking about P2 was more stressful than thinking about P1 and less stressful in the actual writing process. The extended length of P2 compared to P1 was worrying to me, especially considering that it was on a topic that I thought I had very little to say about. Although I was concerned about the required length of P1 also, I felt confident that I could accumulate enough information to write a four-page paper about Sigmund Freud if I just did enough research. I checked out eight books form the library and commenced the to extracting useful information from them, a process that proved to be quite time consuming, albeit not particularly difficult and even marginally interesting. The whole experience ended up being extremely stressful and not the least bit enjoyable.

P2 was to be even longer and on a topic that could not hope to find one book in the library on, let alone eight. After having said that, this paper is turning out to be quite a bit easier than P1 and less stressful (assuming I can find some quotes and media to incorporate). The topic is much more personal in nature, asking questions about my own experiences and my own opinions involving Second Life and this project. I am finding (does any one else find it extraordinarily perplexing to write P2 and write about P2 at the same time?) that in writing P2, my ideas seem to flow better than in writing P1. I attribute this to the personal slant of the prompt, rather than a prompt to write primarily about someone I don’t even know other than through the biographies I skimmed through.

What research I did do for P2 was by discovery learning in Second Life, a drastically less stressful and more enjoyable endeavor than reading biographies. In doing research for P2 I actually discovered several utilizations of Second Life that were especially interesting to me, such as the example of the architecture firm and the live music that I mentioned.

So the two main distinctions in my motivation for the two projects are the prospect of research and the nature of the prompt; I was more motivated to do research in SL and the personal questions in the prompt made the writing process easier.

The experience of actually using SL to conduct conversations as if I were Sigmund Freud on the topics of leadership and diversity is difficult to describe. The conversations seemed contrived and unnatural at points. This I attribute to three factors. The first of these factors was a difficulty for some people, including me, to get into character and still have a natural conversation. Does the prospect of having a natural, impromptu conversation between a three to five people when each person is trying to act like someone else not seem contradictory? Secondly, I think that the subjects of each conversation were just inherently unnatural subjects. They are certainly not issues I would want to discuss with someone in Second Life outside of the context of school. Finally, the issue of keeping up with conversation—who is responding to whom, what has already been said, and whose turn is it to speak—was stressful for me. I felt that several people were trying to assume leadership at the same time in conducting the conversation. I assess the topic of leadership in actually conducting the conversation as follows: unless a leadership position can be firmly established early on, others will attempt to take control out of the chaos in directing the conversation and, unless successful, will only create more confusion. With a classroom full of aspiring leaders, no one person in each group was able to gain control. This increased the stress level, as the conversations became a slight power struggle and even gave the discussion a tinge of hostility in some cases. Even if a statement was said jokingly, it is nearly impossible to read that in this medium of conversation. The addition of visual aspects (the avatars and complete virtual world), when compared to any regular text-only chat, does not make any difference in the lack of visual clues for reading people’s tone and because we did not use microphones, no auditory tone could be accounted for either. Besides this, the visual features in Second Life did no good if we were unable to divert our eyes from the chaotic conversation for fear of loosing track.

In the actual discussion on leadership, the members of Group 1 (See blog entry SL Discussion: Leadership) seemed to come to consensus on the a few essential traits that a leader always seems to posses. Those traits are passion, confidence, and the ability to listen, learn, and then teach. I chose Sigmund Freud as my role model because of his role as a listener, a trait I consider myself to possess particular deficiency in. The psychoanalytic method relies totally on the therapist’s ability to listen. This is what initially made Freud an appealing role model to me, however, after I had done some research on his life, I saw that the characteristics which make Freud such a successful and important person in history extend far beyond his ability to listen. Freud began to embody all the essential characteristics aspects our Second Life discussion group decided that an ideal role model and leader should. Freud knew the importance of listening—not only to others, but also to himself—and through listening he learned. Freud had an intense passion for exploring mysterious regions of thought and science. He had the confidence to ask controversial questions and challenge social norms. What Freud learned, he taught, thus illuminating the mysteries of the mind for the all-encompassing benefit of mankind. His passions were not driven by a selfish need to understand himself, nor did his passions stem from a desire to understand his patients, who were mostly middle to upper class Viennese women. These two endeavors were simply his window for exploring his true passion, that of uncovering the mysteries of the human mind—an ultimately diverse and heroic endeavor that transcends individual, social, and cultural boundaries, talked about in the second round of discussion (see blog entry SL Discussion: Diversity), by shedding light on something that well all share—a mind.

Freud is not the only person to have attempted to explain the human mind. Trying to understand the minds of others is an important process in everyone’s everyday life. People are able to do this using the sympathetic imagination. The idea of creating an avatar to resemble a specific person and then conversing with that person in an attempt to convey their admirable personality traits is conceptually closely related to the sympathetic imagination and identification. However, the actual act of creating an avatar that only has similar physical characteristics of a real person and then talking to others “in character” was actually very much divergent from the idea of sympathetic imagination.

Sympathetic imagination deals with attempting to imagine another person’s thought process and course of action given a certain situation. In our conversations in SL, we tried our best to talk about the topics of leadership and diversity, making points we thought our role model might also make and asking questions we though our role model might also ask. This is not sympathetic imagination however. The main difference is that of intellectual versus emotional identification. Walter Jackson elaborates on the difference:
“The act of identification consists not in reading into the object subjective feelings aroused by it in the observer, but in perceiving, by instinctive but sagacious insight, the essential character and reality of the object itself.”
The kind of imagination we employed by using information we learned about our role models and their accomplishments to derive conclusions about leadership and diversity was almost purely intellectual. Sympathy implies emotion, and sympathetic imagination requires imagining and identifying with the feelings that our role model might experience in a given situation. Did we really consider what our role model’s might feel in that circumstance? I didn’t. And furthermore, what do we really consider what the “circumstance” is? Is it a conversation about leadership and diversity, a conversation about leadership and diversity with other important historical figures and role models, a conversation about leadership and diversity with computer representations of role model figures in a virtual world, etc.?

Employing Second Life as a contemporary tool for discovery learning is an intriguing idea. “The mission of the Discovery Learning Project is to improve student’s abilities to think and work creatively and independently. (343C)” I think that this project accomplished that goal. However, this type of project also presents complications. For instance, it required every person and every computer to be on the same techno-level and relies on the ultimately unreasonable ideal that computers don’t ever malfunction except due to user error. Whether the extent to which it accomplished that goal was enough to outweigh the complications, I don’t know. Most of the stress generated from this activity was due to some technical problem for me at least. The fast paced and jumbled nature of the actual chat/conversation was also stressful, but fun overall. Research for the assignment was particularly enjoyable because it involved discovery learning through exploration of the virtual world of Second Life. Overall, this assignment was more enjoyable and comfortable, with a much lower stress level than P1. In the casual environment of the classroom and Second Life, we were able to spitball off of each other ideas about leadership and diversity to come to interesting conclusions in a more unique, but not necessarily more natural, way than could have been achieved in a usual class discussion. The experience ended up being an overall positive experience for me, which is saying something, considering my general distaste for writing and computer games.

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The Self-Taught Man

A person does not need a university education in order to be successful. The only thing that is required for success, and by success I mean lifelong happiness and satisfaction, is passion. Many people, however, lack the initiative to go out and seek their passion. This is where a university becomes a useful tool. The tool only becomes useful with the will to use it, and use it correctly.

A university can offer courses in every field on earth and those not of this earth—fields ranging from basket weaving to philosophy and maybe even philosophy of basket-weaving. A university can provide massive quantities of resources--books and articles, scholars and experts, lectures and demonstrations. A university can even make it seem like we have to attend these courses on a regular basis, read these books and witness these demonstrations, even write an essay or a blog every now and again (and again and again…) by making us pay in advance for something as abstract as an education. And it’s true; by doing these things we stand a better chance of discovering a passion for something or some things (“things” are not necessarily tangible objects in this case). In this sense, a university can be the hammer that drives us into the diverse media of Academia, forcing our exposure to and making connections between multiplicities of subjects. However, mere exposure is only half the distance. John Henry Newman expresses these same sentiments:

“…It is not mere application, however exemplary, which introduces the mind to truth, not the reading many books, nor the getting up many subjects, not the witnessing many experiments, not the attending many lectures. All this is short of enough; a man may have done it all, yet be lingering in the vestibule of knowledge….”

Like Newman, I also feel that a cultivated mind is key to understanding the truth and real value of our world. However, I believe that this cultivation is only attainable through passion. That is why my idea of an ideal university is a place like Christminster--the side of the wall where Jude lives and spends his life as a mason, with only dreams of becoming a student at the university. Hardy gives those in the town an air of dissatisfaction and exclusion. But I see the town as a place where people have passion in performing their various crafts and trades. Jude has a passion for learning and if not for his lack of initiative and resourcefulness he could learn truths about life and the world just as well if not better than a college student. He is going nowhere by dreaming of the education he will never have. The self-taught man is superior to the man who goes to classes, reads books, and attends lectures but never uses his knowledge in his day-to-day life. The self-taught man learns through trial and error, which may be inefficient and primitive, but is the only true way to satisfy one’s passions. By surrounding one's self with people like this, I think one can more easily find his or her own way and passion.

Nice Virus

Maybe I’m thinking about this sympathetic imagination thing too literally, but the way I understand it is that the way in which mankind identify with one another, with other creatures, with inanimate objects is completely selfish in nature because it assumes that that alien “object” is similar to us in more ways than is reasonable to assume. Obviously the practice of “sympathetic identification” works somewhat more successfully between fellow humans than other objects because of fundamental similarities most people share i.e. similarities of the body and mind, similarities of environment, and similarities in basic needs. A deviation from any of these fundamental similarities would not only cause the outlier to experience the world differently, but it would also affect the way he/she/it thinks and reacts to the environment. Any time we try to sympathetically identify with another object, we assume it thinks and reacts to the environment in the same way we would if we were in “the like situation.” As the actual similarities differ more widely, these projections of our own psyche onto other objects become increasingly more inaccurate.
Human can identify with each other with relative accuracy. Although differences in culture, in resources, in climate, even in height or eye color cause every individual person to experience the world differently and therefore think and react differently to their environment, thus making it impossible to completely sympathize with them, certain fundamental similarities cause us to react unavoidably similarly to the world. Nearly every human possesses nearly identical body parts (with respect to gender) and therefore, nearly identical physical limitations with how we are able to interact with our environment. For instance a person with 3 extra limbs would experience the environment completely differently than the rest of us and would thus be much more difficult to identify with, no matter how sophisticated the imagination. We can get a sense of this difference in perception caused by physical dissimilarities by comparing a person who was born without sight and a person who has been blinded at some point in their life because of some unfortunate occurrence. The person who has never experienced sight does not think of the world in terms of images or visions at all, yet a person who was able to see and has since become blind still probably thinks of the world in terms of the images he cannot see. The person who has never experienced vision is much more difficult to sympathetically identify with because, even though it is impossible to grasp the concept of perceiving the world without seeing for most of us, we try to compare that person with ourselves anyway and run a greater risk of being completely off the mark. Obviously, as the differences increase this problem worsens. People try to relate to animals as if they were other people, even though an animal’s perception of the world is far beyond the point of sympathy and is similar only in the most basic ways. The identification between a plant or even a rock or a steel beam and ourselves is at the point of total personification and in no way could we ever hope to experience the feeling of being immobile, thoughtless, and lifeless.
The sympathetic imagination is useful and somewhat accurate in attempting to predict actions or thoughts only between two people, anything beyond that is in the realms of creative abstraction. That is why poetry is so conducive to the idea of personification--it is all about creative abstraction and is ultimately centered around man and they way man perceives things.Naturally, a virus has eyes and a mouth and teeth just like humans. It isn't very nice of this particular virus to want to kill that man. If I were a virus, I wouldn't try to kill people. I would be a nice virus.

Freud, the Listener

“…a man with immense powers of intellect and observation, an intriguing personality, and a complex family history,” is how Patrick Mahony, author of Freud as a Writer, describes Sigmund Freud. Sigmund Freud is without a doubt a major cultural hero, especially for the city and people of Vienna and even Europe, but he is also my personal hero. Particularly, his incredible ability to observe, to listen, and to shed light on the mysteries of the mind are the attributes that make him my role model. The skill of listening for me has always been a shortcoming, but I have only recently realized it. When I thought I was listening, I was only hearing objectively and only seldom had I actually been able to subjectively listen. Freud, excuse the pun, had subjective listening down like a science, as it was essentially the backbone of possibly his greatest contribution to the field of psychology: psychoanalysis.

Sigmund Freud was born in Freiberg, Monrovia on May 6, 1856. His mother Amalie was twenty years younger than his father, a Jewish wool merchant, and his third wife. Freud was his mother’s favorite child and she continually expressed this, calling him her ‘golden Sigi’. He later attributes all of his inner confidence to his mother and this term of endearment.
Freud's mother was especially fond of her "Golden Sigi".
When Freud was 3 years old, his family moved to Vienna, where Sigmund would continue to live and work for the next 80 years, despite the fact that throughout his life he expressed a strong dislike for the city. Jonathan Miller, writer of Freud: The man, his world, his influence, describes Freud as “…a Viennese Jew who was constantly fighting a heroic battle for his identity and self-awareness in a hostile milieu, in Vienna—a city he both loved and hated.” This is just one of many apparent contradictions in Freud’s strange but intriguing life.
Although Freud was born a Jew and his family practiced minimal Jewish customs, Freud was never religious and later professed himself as an atheist. However, throughout his life, Freud always had a deep sense of pride for his Jewish-ness and identified with the Jewish cultural ideals and values, despite the rampant anti-Semitism in Vienna at the time. He later felt that this very lack of acceptance by the community fostered the intellectual autonomy and independence that allowed him to be so innovative in the field of psychology. Paul Roazen, biographer of Sigmund Freud, describes Freud in his anti-Semite surroundings as “…a Jew trying to escape from what he experienced as a constricting cultural background.” Freud’s need to escape from his surroundings was only one of the many forces that seemed to drive him to success.

Even as a boy, Freud was an extremely hard worker and intellectually precocious—always the top in his class at school. At a young age he spoke German, French, English, and Spanish fluently, and had read and comprehended the classics such a Homer, Cervantes, Shakespeare and Goethe, with the latter two being his favorites. Freud had a passion for knowledge and particularly philosophical knowledge. Here arises another apparent contradiction in Freud’s personality. “As a young man,” Freud reminisces, “I knew no longing other than for philosophical knowledge…. I became a therapist against my will.” And on a number of occasions he admitted that he had no particular inclination toward the subject of medicine.

With so many dualisms of Freud’s personality: distaste for Vienna, yet a reluctance to leave; Jewish pride, yet atheism; love of philosophy, yet pursuit of science; it is only natural that from such a conflicting personality should come a psychology that centers on conflict. Similarly, most of these apparent contradictions begin to make sense when considering Freud’s character and what forces drive him in his specific approach to science.
Portrait of Goethe, Freud's favorite writer.

According to Freud, it was an essay by one of his favorite writers, On Nature by Goethe, which made him decide to enroll in the School of Medicine. Billa Zanuso, writer of The Young Freud: The Origins of Psychoanalysis in Late Nineteenth-Century Viennese Culture observes, “So a great poet was responsible for directing Freud’s steps toward science, albeit a peculiar science, probing beyond the boundaries of observed reality into areas which are more usually the preserve of poets and novelists.” This I will consider Freud’s philosophical drive, however, there is a deeper drive in Freud that connects his love for philosophy and his practice of science. Freud himself reveals his true character and ambition.

“For I am not really a man of science, not an observer, not an experimenter, and not a thinker. I am nothing but by temperament a conquistador—an adventurer, if you want to translate the word—with the curiosity, the boldness and the tenacity that belong to that type of being.”

Freud’s study of philosophy and career in medicine were just a manifestation of his true passion, “realizing his intense curiosity in nature and human relations (Looking and Listening: The Construction of Clinical Knowledge in Charcot and Freud by Daphne de Marneffe). Freud’s ‘intense curiosity’ provided an obvious contribution to his success as an individual, a scientist, and a philosopher. “In my youth I felt an overpowering need to understand something of the riddles of the world in which we live and perhaps even contribute something to their solution.”(Freud) In this statement we not only see his conquistadorial desire to fearlessly explore the unknown, but also a need to shed a light on “that abyss in the human mind” and then to lead those still stuck in the dark (Miller). Paul Roazen elaborates, “It was the adventurer in Freud, the seeker after new knowledge, that, despite the conventionality of his everyday life, led him eventually to challenge not only the psychiatry of his day, but ordinary commonsensical assumptions about human behavior.” This statement alludes to the rebel, the leader, the deliverer side of Freud. It is no surprise that Freud’s boyhood heroes included the likes of Hannibal, Alexander the Great and Moses.
Moses, a boyhood hero of Sigi's

Freud considered himself a “saver of souls” and through psychotherapy he found a way to do that. He soon discovered that in this endeavor, listening was paramount. Scientists before Freud, such as Charcot, one of Freud’s friends and mentors, had mastered the art of observation. “To gaze, to look, to keep looking, always: thus only one comes to see.”(Marneffe) From a young age, Charcot developed an artistic eye and later in life he used it to observe his patients and record their symptoms of hysteria. These observations, though they led to many relative breakthroughs on the subjects of hysteria, were purely objective however—as if taking a picture. Charcot himself admits, “But in truth I am nothing more but a photographer.” Freud admired Charcot's observational skills but he thought this kind of observation alone was “simply inadequate” and instead he “realizes the importance of thoroughly listening” to his patients (Marneffe). Freud not only employed his skill of detailed listening when dealing with his patients in the process of psychoanalysis, but he was constantly in a state of awareness to his surroundings. He paid painstakingly close attention to detail with regards to the people around him, especially of his friends and himself—behaviors, conversations, thoughts, dreams—that he was able to formulate many of his theories on his everyday experiences alone. Not only did he formulate his theories by listening, but he was also able to recall specific “neurotic symptoms, dreams, everyday errors and slips of the tongue, and even works of art” that led to these conclusions and then use them as examples in his scientific writings, thus substantiating his highly controversial theories (Miller).
A painting by Dali that Freud might have analyzed

Miller explains, “By choosing to present his revolutionary innovations as standard pieces of scientific theory…he made the largest possible claim for their objective truth.” Probably his most detailed and impressive example of listening is his Interpretation of Dreams in which he analyzes his own dreams, which he religiously recorded over an extended period of time. In this unique form of autobiographical writing, Freud “presented the most personal thoughts and dream material with total candor” (Marneffe). This incredible example of listening, introspection and dedication, to actually record his own dreams—the deepest, most enigmatic, most private thoughts of his troubled mind—and then publish them for the purpose of elucidating mankind is truly heroic and inspiring.

Sigmund Freud is a cultural hero in his timeless contributions to science, to philosophy, and to mankind. And although he was nearly 50 before he made his greatest discoveries, his influence on society is incalculable. Jonathan Miller compares Freud to a quarry and a volcano: “a quarry form which builders fetch stones to construct their own relatively modest homes…a volcano, in that his ideas and energies erupt unexpectedly like molten lava just when they are thought to be extinct.” He is also a personal hero for me, in his awe-inspiring ability to listen to his patients, to his friends, to his environment and especially to himself. Patrick Mahony makes another intriguing piscatorial analogy: “Many of us, gazing over the water, have had the thrill of glimpsing a fish arching into the air; so Freud, we imagine, sunk in introspection, watched for ideas to break through the unconscious, ready to seize and hold them in their transitory flight.”