Last week as a Lincoln School Board member I participated in a three day intensive strategic planning exercise with students, teachers, parents, administrators and other Board members. The sessions were facilitated by a education specialist from Upstate New York, not far from where I grew up, outside Syracuse.
As one of the first exercises in this process, Steve (the facilitator) asked each of us to make a list of some of our core beliefs that we would share with our small group. Then the small group made its own list of core values that were later merged with the other groups working on the same task. These then were an initial step in creating a set of Core Values for Lincoln School.
On my personal list of core values, I included:
1. Nature is the greatest teacher.
2. Wisdom is shared, never personal.
3. Every person has a voice.
4. Life is sacred.
5. Anger is a form of hurt.
6. Truth is usually hidden.
7. Trust is a form of love.
I think I'll spend some more looking at my own list and reflecting to myself on why these were the thoughts that appeared to best represent the higher values that 54 years have offered me. There must be more for me to 'see' within these brief expressions. Some aspects that distill all I have felt, learned and lived.
Some of the words pop out to me even now. If I was to reduce each of these seven aphorisms to a two word koan, they would be:
* nature-teacher
* wisdom-shared
* person-voice
* life-sacred
* anger- hurt
* truth-hidden
* trust-love
I think that there's a lot for me to still 'unpack' even these seven word tennis matches... Maybe a lifetime of contemplation...
Curiously, my friend, Roger, who used to work with me while I was at Save the Children, at one point during those three days turned to me and said to me, out of the blue: 'Keith, you missed your true calling, you should have been a poet.'
Strange, no? I've spend a quarter century as an INGO community development director and human rights advocate, but a person-stranger-colleague who knows me (methinks) only slightly turns and says that I should have spent those years doing something different.
Yet, what I think Roger was saying was that I should spend more time with words. Poetry or not, I do know that words touch me almost like nothing else. Roger must have heard that in my voice, I suppose. It's fascinating what others see in each of us that we have a hard time perceiving as directly in our selves...
Even during our evening Board meetings in the LS library I can't stop myself from bringing a book back to my seat to glance at while the meetings go round and round. Last time it was Styron's "Sophie's Choice" and a verse novel set in California by Vikram Seth. I half wished I could just curl up on a couch there and just disappear in to those great and rich worlds far from the necessary demands of Board debates, discussions and decisions.
Even 34 years later, I still recall the last lines of Elie Wiesel's poetic, humanist novel, "The Gates of the Forest" where he describes the commitment the protagonist makes to be 'honest, humble and strong'. Four simple, unexceptional words, except for the fact that they touched me so deeply that they remain etched in my long-term memory while so much else has faded away.
Ranier Marie Rilke did the same to me in a book I first saw about the same time in my early life (at Jane Leiper's lovely hillside Berkeley home) of Ben Shahn etchings titled, "For the Sake of a Single Verse". In a handful of expressions, Rilke's words (and Shahn's prints...) seemed to encapsulate the nature of life and the raw, irrepressible fact of being alive.
A few years ago, when Amazon.com said that copies of the Rilke/Shahn book was completely out of print, I went on a hard-to-find book site and bought a $100 copy for either Shakun's birthday or our wedding anniversary. Honestly, I don't think I know of a more beautiful book...
Does it ever get better than being alive? Fully alive. Awake.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Saturday, March 22, 2008
Wisteria, Peaches and Bamboo Groves in March
it's a lovely late march day here in kathmandu, total spring, with the lilac-colored wisteria in full bloom hanging over the house, a cloudless blue sky on the hills above our home. the bright red, pink and white peach blossoms have already begun turning into small, olive colored baby peaches on the trees. there are mango and avocado buds on the trees, orange flowers in bloom and new bamboo shoots coming stalk-like out of the ground. dry bamboo leaves are falling to the ground (which they do in the spring) and eager new leaves appearing all over the willow and sequoia trees.
leah & i just took a mid-morning bath so she's laying on the terrace out in the sun wrapped in a towel. josh is organizing his stuff to get ready to head back to the states. ezra just woke and is about to shower. shakun is out in the garden admiring her red and blue poppies.
outside i hear tek steadily breaking the obdurate below ground concrete barrier that has kept out our 40' henonis phyllostachus bamboo from running into our yard. there's a 18' stretch along the western wall, below karma lama's house, where we're extending the bamboo grove another 10' into the garden by shifting the water canal (that sits beside the concrete barrier) along a more meandering route so that the 5' wide henonis grove can become much broader and more attractive. it's a lot of work, though. we have to remove 8" of the concrete so that the shoots can push out into the new open soil, then replace that immutable barrier w/ a new concrete one 4' deep so that the relentless phyllostachus (running) shoots are controlled imperpetuity. it'll be lovely when it's done.
i've got my work in the garden, too, when we come back from taking joshua to the airport at 1 pm. his flight is 3:45 pm to delhi on jet air. then, he's got to wait til 1 am for his continuing flight to jfk via brussels on jet. the connections are pretty good and if all goes well, he'll arrive at jfk two hours before his nmh bus departs for school again. he'll be in the air until we wake tomorrow and then arrive in new york when we're ready to go to sleep tomorrow (sunday).
such an odd world, nature in all of her beauty while our children depart for their own lives on the opposite side of the world...
leah & i just took a mid-morning bath so she's laying on the terrace out in the sun wrapped in a towel. josh is organizing his stuff to get ready to head back to the states. ezra just woke and is about to shower. shakun is out in the garden admiring her red and blue poppies.
outside i hear tek steadily breaking the obdurate below ground concrete barrier that has kept out our 40' henonis phyllostachus bamboo from running into our yard. there's a 18' stretch along the western wall, below karma lama's house, where we're extending the bamboo grove another 10' into the garden by shifting the water canal (that sits beside the concrete barrier) along a more meandering route so that the 5' wide henonis grove can become much broader and more attractive. it's a lot of work, though. we have to remove 8" of the concrete so that the shoots can push out into the new open soil, then replace that immutable barrier w/ a new concrete one 4' deep so that the relentless phyllostachus (running) shoots are controlled imperpetuity. it'll be lovely when it's done.
i've got my work in the garden, too, when we come back from taking joshua to the airport at 1 pm. his flight is 3:45 pm to delhi on jet air. then, he's got to wait til 1 am for his continuing flight to jfk via brussels on jet. the connections are pretty good and if all goes well, he'll arrive at jfk two hours before his nmh bus departs for school again. he'll be in the air until we wake tomorrow and then arrive in new york when we're ready to go to sleep tomorrow (sunday).
such an odd world, nature in all of her beauty while our children depart for their own lives on the opposite side of the world...
Thursday, March 20, 2008
The Lotus Sutra
That I have attained the Lotus Sutra
Was possible only through
Making firewood, gathering herbs,
Drawing water, and laboring thus.
Gyoki
Hokke Sutra
668-749 AD
Was possible only through
Making firewood, gathering herbs,
Drawing water, and laboring thus.
Gyoki
Hokke Sutra
668-749 AD
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Tao te Ching # 50: No Illusions
The Master gives himself up
to whatever the moment brings.
He knows that he is going to die,
and has nothing left to hold on to:
no illusions in his mind,
no resistences in his body.
He doesn't think about his actions;
they flow from the core of his being.
He holds nothing back from life;
therefore he is ready for death,
as a man is ready for sleep
after a good day's work.
Tao te Ching
'The Book of the Way'
Lao-Tzu
translated by Stephen Mitchell
to whatever the moment brings.
He knows that he is going to die,
and has nothing left to hold on to:
no illusions in his mind,
no resistences in his body.
He doesn't think about his actions;
they flow from the core of his being.
He holds nothing back from life;
therefore he is ready for death,
as a man is ready for sleep
after a good day's work.
Tao te Ching
'The Book of the Way'
Lao-Tzu
translated by Stephen Mitchell
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Joshua's Founders Day Benediction at NMH
Who am I? Who are you?
These are the questions that we ask ourselves everyday as we try to
discover our place -- not only in our own individual, personal
worlds, but also in the vast emptiness of the silent universe that
surrounds us.
There have been times during this school year when I have found
myself laying awake in the night discussing with my roommate our
feelings of insignificance, while attempting to discover our place
in this infinite, spacious and, at times, lonely universe.
Looking beyond our comfort zone on earth, we begin realize that,
even collectively, human beings are like a single grain of sand on a
vast astronomical sea.
However, our limited presence in this world this does not stop any
of us from trying to reach out and ennoble the world around us -- to
push out of our comfort zone. This is an idea that D.L Moody sought
to instill into each of the pupils who have walked through these
precious NMH doors.
Our desire to reach out of our comfort zone is one of the core
lessons that gives us the confidence to explore the world around us
and within ourselves.
Fifty-five years ago two young men, a Nepali-Tibetan and a New
Zealander, Tenzing Norgay and Ed Hillary, climbed Mt. Everest, a
mountain believed to be insurmountable. But with their innate self-
confidence and a desire to go beyond the comfort of their places on
earth, they climbed to the highest point in the world, proving that
even a daunting challenge, such as Everest (or Sagarmartha, as the
Nepalis call her), can be conquered by the human spirit.
Tenzing Norgay declared that standing atop Everest was one of his
most fulfilling moments of his life, proving how rewarding an
experience can come from reaching beyond the comfort zone in which
you live.
Therefore, I would like to dedicate this moment of silence not for
the person by your side, or a friend halfway across the world, but
for yourself.
In the quiet of this passing moment, I want you to concentrate on
one of your most treasured comfort zones and, in the privacy of your
thoughts, explore the possibility of breaking it, of going further
and better than you ever have before.
I ask you try to imagine conquering your very own personal Everest.
Let us now be silent.
These are the questions that we ask ourselves everyday as we try to
discover our place -- not only in our own individual, personal
worlds, but also in the vast emptiness of the silent universe that
surrounds us.
There have been times during this school year when I have found
myself laying awake in the night discussing with my roommate our
feelings of insignificance, while attempting to discover our place
in this infinite, spacious and, at times, lonely universe.
Looking beyond our comfort zone on earth, we begin realize that,
even collectively, human beings are like a single grain of sand on a
vast astronomical sea.
However, our limited presence in this world this does not stop any
of us from trying to reach out and ennoble the world around us -- to
push out of our comfort zone. This is an idea that D.L Moody sought
to instill into each of the pupils who have walked through these
precious NMH doors.
Our desire to reach out of our comfort zone is one of the core
lessons that gives us the confidence to explore the world around us
and within ourselves.
Fifty-five years ago two young men, a Nepali-Tibetan and a New
Zealander, Tenzing Norgay and Ed Hillary, climbed Mt. Everest, a
mountain believed to be insurmountable. But with their innate self-
confidence and a desire to go beyond the comfort of their places on
earth, they climbed to the highest point in the world, proving that
even a daunting challenge, such as Everest (or Sagarmartha, as the
Nepalis call her), can be conquered by the human spirit.
Tenzing Norgay declared that standing atop Everest was one of his
most fulfilling moments of his life, proving how rewarding an
experience can come from reaching beyond the comfort zone in which
you live.
Therefore, I would like to dedicate this moment of silence not for
the person by your side, or a friend halfway across the world, but
for yourself.
In the quiet of this passing moment, I want you to concentrate on
one of your most treasured comfort zones and, in the privacy of your
thoughts, explore the possibility of breaking it, of going further
and better than you ever have before.
I ask you try to imagine conquering your very own personal Everest.
Let us now be silent.
Zen Mind in the Secular World
Sit in meditation, and behold the pedestrians,
On the Shijo Bridge, on the Gojo Bridge,
Emerging like trees on the mountain ridge.
Myocho
National Master Daito
1282-1337
On the Shijo Bridge, on the Gojo Bridge,
Emerging like trees on the mountain ridge.
Myocho
National Master Daito
1282-1337
Dreaming of Finding Buried Licchavi Icons While Waiting for Joshua to Come Home
it's saturday morning, a bit hazy outsides while i'm upstairs w/ a view of shivapuri's forested shoulder and the bevy of ochre-colored nepali villages overhead on the ridge. we're obviously fortunate with our views of nature & the gifts of life.
we have joshua coming in on sunday morning. he left jfk tonight on a jet air flight to delhi then k'du. it's his spring break and he's dying to get away from the winter of western mass. and enjoy both the warmth of home and the environment here. spring is definitely in the air in kathmandu w/ peach & apricot blossoms on the branches.
joshua will be w/ us two weeks before going back to finish his first year. this year has been a major challenge for him, particularly being away from us and deep in the back woods of america. but he's done remarkably well, doing very well academically, finding new american & international friends, making both the jv soccer and basketball teams, being invited to give the founder's day benediction and being selected as a student leader for next year.
of course, as you can appreciate, we miss him profoundly on a daily basis within our family, but josh was really ready for a change and nmh has matured him in so many ways that sometimes only a new environment can achieve. what my friend, mickey, years ago used to call 'repotting'...
next week, we will learn whether or not ez has been accepted at nmh (he applied, as well...) and whether or not he wants to go. he's very much on the fence with sam & luke davis encouraging him to stay and become a heroic leader at lincoln while he feels a bit bored with a few of his classes this year and rather curious what's on the other side of the global pond. already he mopes, at times, that he hasn't accomplished anything in his brief 15 years of life as he has large ambitions for himself.
personally, i'm totally torn. i don't know how we can stay here w/o josh & ezi while i feel that the challenges & opportunities at a school like nmh can offer so much for these young men... josh has stretched himself in so many ways this year while ez, no doubt, can grow dramatically if in the right environment.
there's alot going on at lincoln school, as usual. our beloved lincoln seems to have gone into the woods recently. a mid-life crisis, possibly, for our 53 year old institution. there's a sense that the old lincoln is slipping away and no one is quite certain what new lincoln they desire. the strong tie to nepal that the school has always had is no longer as certain and even some of the long-term teachers feel the change & wonder about their own future commitment to the school.
it could be that nepal itself is changing, as we can all perceive. the love that we have all felt for our romantic vision of kathmandu and nepal is rapidly slipping away. the city has grown, the traffic, pollution, political crisis, entropy, poverty, density -- it's just not the bucolic and remarkable residue of the 19th C. that we all witnessed and loved when we first came here a few decades ago.
overall, it's been a tough couple of years for the school (aren't they all?) and w/ the tight budget, increasing expenses, limited number of full-paying students, dependency on the limited international community and extremely uncertain political enironment, it makes it hard to manage the school as we would all like. then, for some accidental reason, i got back on the board two months ago (liesl messerschimdt left to go to portland to have her baby), so i get to 'enjoy' these issues a second time around.
on a related note: my work with the national human rights commission ends at the end of march, so for the first time in 25 years i'll be w/o a regular job in nepal. that, too, will be interesting and, j'espere, peaceful and relaxing, at least for a few months. then, once we know what ez is doing and which way nepal is pointing, we can make some decisions about the fall.
of course, given the luxuriant growth of our one acre botanical garden that we've created around our home in budhanilkantha, on the outskirts of kathmanud, it's almost inconceivable to leave. but it's also almost inconceiveable to have our two adorable sons 10,000 miles away, as well. is this what they mean by living on the horns of a dliemma''?
at least ms. leah (in first grade) is trundling and tumbling around our feet, with her pal, gumbi, our apso/shitsu cream house dog, to always remind us of the joys & innocence of childhood. ms. leah prajna rose is a joyous earthly spirit who already knows that she wants to be an artist when she grows up.
now it's time to go muck around in the dark, moist soil in the back. i'm trying to dig out two rather large boulders out in a lower part of the backyard. it's fun to play amateur archeologist as well as landscape designer without leaving home. i'm sure one day a licchavi stone or clay 'murti' will miraculously appear as i'm removing soil around one of these boulders or, possibly, a whole 7th C. temple be uncovered that was buried by a powerful earthquake landslide off the 8,000' shivapuri ridge a thousand years ago.
the local villagers do say that this whole skirt of shivapuri was covered by a massive landslide in the ancient times (like noah's great flood, i presume...). given the reality of scattered ancient shrines and divinity's icons littering this valley, who knows? it's a powerful draw as i'm hoeing the soil and breaking the earth to allow these himalayan rocks some air time to enhance the beauty of the garden.
'back to work', as they say...
we have joshua coming in on sunday morning. he left jfk tonight on a jet air flight to delhi then k'du. it's his spring break and he's dying to get away from the winter of western mass. and enjoy both the warmth of home and the environment here. spring is definitely in the air in kathmandu w/ peach & apricot blossoms on the branches.
joshua will be w/ us two weeks before going back to finish his first year. this year has been a major challenge for him, particularly being away from us and deep in the back woods of america. but he's done remarkably well, doing very well academically, finding new american & international friends, making both the jv soccer and basketball teams, being invited to give the founder's day benediction and being selected as a student leader for next year.
of course, as you can appreciate, we miss him profoundly on a daily basis within our family, but josh was really ready for a change and nmh has matured him in so many ways that sometimes only a new environment can achieve. what my friend, mickey, years ago used to call 'repotting'...
next week, we will learn whether or not ez has been accepted at nmh (he applied, as well...) and whether or not he wants to go. he's very much on the fence with sam & luke davis encouraging him to stay and become a heroic leader at lincoln while he feels a bit bored with a few of his classes this year and rather curious what's on the other side of the global pond. already he mopes, at times, that he hasn't accomplished anything in his brief 15 years of life as he has large ambitions for himself.
personally, i'm totally torn. i don't know how we can stay here w/o josh & ezi while i feel that the challenges & opportunities at a school like nmh can offer so much for these young men... josh has stretched himself in so many ways this year while ez, no doubt, can grow dramatically if in the right environment.
there's alot going on at lincoln school, as usual. our beloved lincoln seems to have gone into the woods recently. a mid-life crisis, possibly, for our 53 year old institution. there's a sense that the old lincoln is slipping away and no one is quite certain what new lincoln they desire. the strong tie to nepal that the school has always had is no longer as certain and even some of the long-term teachers feel the change & wonder about their own future commitment to the school.
it could be that nepal itself is changing, as we can all perceive. the love that we have all felt for our romantic vision of kathmandu and nepal is rapidly slipping away. the city has grown, the traffic, pollution, political crisis, entropy, poverty, density -- it's just not the bucolic and remarkable residue of the 19th C. that we all witnessed and loved when we first came here a few decades ago.
overall, it's been a tough couple of years for the school (aren't they all?) and w/ the tight budget, increasing expenses, limited number of full-paying students, dependency on the limited international community and extremely uncertain political enironment, it makes it hard to manage the school as we would all like. then, for some accidental reason, i got back on the board two months ago (liesl messerschimdt left to go to portland to have her baby), so i get to 'enjoy' these issues a second time around.
on a related note: my work with the national human rights commission ends at the end of march, so for the first time in 25 years i'll be w/o a regular job in nepal. that, too, will be interesting and, j'espere, peaceful and relaxing, at least for a few months. then, once we know what ez is doing and which way nepal is pointing, we can make some decisions about the fall.
of course, given the luxuriant growth of our one acre botanical garden that we've created around our home in budhanilkantha, on the outskirts of kathmanud, it's almost inconceivable to leave. but it's also almost inconceiveable to have our two adorable sons 10,000 miles away, as well. is this what they mean by living on the horns of a dliemma''?
at least ms. leah (in first grade) is trundling and tumbling around our feet, with her pal, gumbi, our apso/shitsu cream house dog, to always remind us of the joys & innocence of childhood. ms. leah prajna rose is a joyous earthly spirit who already knows that she wants to be an artist when she grows up.
now it's time to go muck around in the dark, moist soil in the back. i'm trying to dig out two rather large boulders out in a lower part of the backyard. it's fun to play amateur archeologist as well as landscape designer without leaving home. i'm sure one day a licchavi stone or clay 'murti' will miraculously appear as i'm removing soil around one of these boulders or, possibly, a whole 7th C. temple be uncovered that was buried by a powerful earthquake landslide off the 8,000' shivapuri ridge a thousand years ago.
the local villagers do say that this whole skirt of shivapuri was covered by a massive landslide in the ancient times (like noah's great flood, i presume...). given the reality of scattered ancient shrines and divinity's icons littering this valley, who knows? it's a powerful draw as i'm hoeing the soil and breaking the earth to allow these himalayan rocks some air time to enhance the beauty of the garden.
'back to work', as they say...
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