This blog was originally written for my
children, grandchildren and my great-grandchildren. Given that, it is also here
for anyone who has an interest in consciousness, relationships, what may be
inferred by bonding and long- term friendships.
When I was a child, my father, Stewart Springer, having no interest in religion explained the right and wrong of things using Aesop’s fables. That was some 80 years ago. I also heard many hours of explanation of concepts and stories from his father, Horace Springer. Gramps efforts were directed towards my need to know that everything in real life is relative and can be explained through politics and sociology. He too avoided religion as well as Aesop’s fables. My mother, Vergie Fayard Springer, skirted around both my father and grandfather by insisting that I receive a serious Catholic education. Three are sharply focused different points of view!
It has been well researched over the years that very young children choose a balanced diet even though they are fed a cafeteria line of healthy and unhealthy foods during their childhood. One of my consuming interests through the years is how in the hell does a child choose between all the conflicting information and choice of food. I seek an answer to this complex situation. As a child I listened dutifully to my Mother, my dad and my grandfather.
When I was a child, my father, Stewart Springer, having no interest in religion explained the right and wrong of things using Aesop’s fables. That was some 80 years ago. I also heard many hours of explanation of concepts and stories from his father, Horace Springer. Gramps efforts were directed towards my need to know that everything in real life is relative and can be explained through politics and sociology. He too avoided religion as well as Aesop’s fables. My mother, Vergie Fayard Springer, skirted around both my father and grandfather by insisting that I receive a serious Catholic education. Three are sharply focused different points of view!
It has been well researched over the years that very young children choose a balanced diet even though they are fed a cafeteria line of healthy and unhealthy foods during their childhood. One of my consuming interests through the years is how in the hell does a child choose between all the conflicting information and choice of food. I seek an answer to this complex situation. As a child I listened dutifully to my Mother, my dad and my grandfather.
I am going to suggest to you is that there is
a sorting process within the child’s unconscious that saves a child from a
terrible tangle of the mind. I am also going to suggest that this sorting
process has developed within the human for thousands of generations; saving
each child from a terrible fate of a tangled of mind. Much of this evolutionary
process remains a deep mystery.
For many years Noam Chomsky has maintained that children understand language in far greater depth at an early age (5to10)that we give them credit for. He believes that they bring this language knowledge from generation after generation of children before them. He does not discuss it from the science of DNA or molecular biochemistry but from simple observation of the child’s learning process. Children know what we don’t think they could’ve possibly understand but we teach them anyway. This gives rise to widespread boredom in the youngster. Children learn from each other and an occasional teacher.
In a lame sort of way I am saying what Carolina Madera quoted from Cloud Atlas in her guest blog of this past month:
“To be, is to be perceived, and so to know thyself is only possible through the eyes of the other. The nature of our immortal lives is in the consequences of our words and deeds, that go on and are pushing themselves throughout all time. Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future." Somni 451 Cloud Atlas movie/book
So there you have it. I can only know myself through the eyes of the other. I don’t think it’s important to know how many others there are. But it is important to know in my heart the depth of the connection between myself and the other. There are few connections that are strong and getting stronger. In some the strength is based on long standing experience. In others the bond is based on some kind of experience which happens under fire. In others I believe it is based on a common indescribable thread between our hearts.
These threads between myself and the other untangle my mind. These threads are my emerging consciousness. There is no self without the other.
For many years Noam Chomsky has maintained that children understand language in far greater depth at an early age (5to10)that we give them credit for. He believes that they bring this language knowledge from generation after generation of children before them. He does not discuss it from the science of DNA or molecular biochemistry but from simple observation of the child’s learning process. Children know what we don’t think they could’ve possibly understand but we teach them anyway. This gives rise to widespread boredom in the youngster. Children learn from each other and an occasional teacher.
In a lame sort of way I am saying what Carolina Madera quoted from Cloud Atlas in her guest blog of this past month:
“To be, is to be perceived, and so to know thyself is only possible through the eyes of the other. The nature of our immortal lives is in the consequences of our words and deeds, that go on and are pushing themselves throughout all time. Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others, past and present, and by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future." Somni 451 Cloud Atlas movie/book
So there you have it. I can only know myself through the eyes of the other. I don’t think it’s important to know how many others there are. But it is important to know in my heart the depth of the connection between myself and the other. There are few connections that are strong and getting stronger. In some the strength is based on long standing experience. In others the bond is based on some kind of experience which happens under fire. In others I believe it is based on a common indescribable thread between our hearts.
These threads between myself and the other untangle my mind. These threads are my emerging consciousness. There is no self without the other.
