Terence Malick.
The Thin Red Line.
The forces laid out on the floor were aligned in battle order.
The infantrymen were placed in front of the artillery with the cavalry waiting in the wings.
With one glorious charge the cavalry shattered the enemy lines, men fell like ninepins.
Victory was sweet.
I had it all planned out in my mind.
"I will join the marines. I want to be a commando."
The storyline changed over the years.
I was watching a conference of Dave Cormier.
At first I thought nothing of it.
I watched it again.
I thought nothing of it.
Then I read a comment stream.
I don't know why.
Boredom perhaps.
There was a conversation going on between Viplav Baxi and Dave Cormier.
There was one comment of Dave Cormier which sparked my thinking:
"I'm in favour of shaping the main instrument of education towards complexity."
"How can education not be an illustration of complexity?" I thought to myself.
Then I read:
"But sometimes I just want to 'learn' how to use my coffee roaster. Tell me what to do. I'll do it."
I thought of ritual, of habitual, of process, of story.
I remembered a comment of my grandmother, aged 80.
"When I look at myself in the mirror, I just don't recognise myself."
I remembered a comment of my mother, aged 75.
"When I look at myself in the mirror, I just don't recognise myself."
They were unhappy with a plot-line which had escaped them.
I remembered a slogan on a t-shirt.
This is not the life we ordered...
I thought of climate change.
I thought of the people gathered together in some hangar, just North of Paris, hugging each other at their part played in some historic agreement.
Heroic.
"What difference do you think you can make - one single man in all this madness?"
Terence Malick. The Thin Red Line.
I was watching a trailer for a documentary entitled 'The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson.'
In the documentary, a man faces up to his imminent demise:
"The idea that death is imminent makes you realise what a wonderful thing it is to be alive."
Wilko Johnson.
He becomes hyperaware of the joy of his existence.
"Everything lifted off of me. The present, future, past, it was all concentrated down into the moment...I'm alive."
Wilko Johnson.
"How does one 'shape education' towards complexity?" I thought to myself.
What is life if not complex?
What is education if not story?
Is complexity compatible with story?
"Everything lifted off of me. The present, future, past, it was all concentrated down into the moment...I'm alive."
Wilko Johnson.
What are these stories?
I thought of Terence Malick.
I don't know why.
"What difference do you think you can make - one single man in all this madness?"
Terence Malick. The Thin Red Line.
