Monday, October 26, 2009
Holiday Choir
How would it be if, within my dancing community center, we created a holiday choir for those of us who like to sing holiday songs... especially for those of us who don't go to church and have no other opportunities to sing these joyful tunes?
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Others who have the right idea!
This is a response to a blog about what community means:
Re: What's Your Definition of Community?
Community is:
A call from a neighbor when you haven't said hello lately
A business where the owner knows your name
A place where you can sing and dance and laugh
A place to find help
A place to share your gifts
At the Mid Maine TimeBank we value all these things, so much so that we pay for community building with local "Time Dollars." For every hour that our members help build community, sharing gifts, space, time and caring, they earn one Time Dollar. They can use this local currency to purchase what they need or want. By embracing technology and the Internet, we can become closer, not isolated in our homes. We can find a friend who is willing; we can gather together.
For those interested, TimeBanks are springing up all over the country. Check it out at www.timebanks.org, or www.midmetimebank.com here in Maine.
By Stacey Jacobsohn on 7/28/2009 8:56 AM
And the response by the blogger:
Re: What's Your Definition of Community?
Thx for the response, Stacey. Your definition seems to suggest that communities are not bound by geography or place. Rather, it is we -- members of a community -- who give meaning to the term through our actions. Hmmmm.
By Meredith Jones on 7/31/2009 7:49 AM
And a further response:
Re: What's Your Definition of Community?
Community is a way of thinking, thus "what effects me effects you"---good or bad. My work (serving those around me), My education, My health, etc., all has an effect on those who share in the environment in which live. So...Let's all make way to serve at our own business or at that of another, to be open-minded and knowledgeable, and to be healthy for the vibrance of our respective communities.
By Yolanda Taylor on 8/5/2009 7:36 AM
Another Blog: Madcap Logic, about arts in children and such.
How Arts Training Improves Attention and Cognition
September 18th, 2009
Does education in the arts transfer to seemingly unrelated cognitive abilities? Researchers are finding evidence that it does. Michael Posner argues that when children find an art form that sustains their interest, the subsequent strengthening of their brains’ attention networks can improve cognition more broadly.
Check out this fascinating article at The Dana Foundation’s website - http://www.dana.org/news/cerebrum/detail.aspx?id=23206
Also, someone special forwarded this email to me a couple days ago and I find it poignant.
Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine.
I got to thinking one day about all those women on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back. From then on, I've tried to be a little more flexible.
How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn't suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed? Does the word 'refrigeration' mean nothing to you?
How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched 'Jeopardy' on television?
I cannot count the times I called my sister and said, 'How about going to lunch in a half hour?' She would gas up and stammer, 'I can't. I have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain.' And my personal favorite: 'It's Monday.' She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together..
Because Americans cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!
We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Steve toilet-trained. We'll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet... We'll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.
Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of 'I'm going to,' 'I plan on,' and 'Someday, when things are settled down a bit.'
When anyone calls my 'seize the moment' friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for five minutes, and you're ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Roller blades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord..
My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-Decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy..
Now...go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to........not something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?
Make sure you read this to the end; you will understand why I sent this to you.
Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night? Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask 'How are you?' Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? Ever told your child, 'We'll do it tomorrow.' And in your haste, not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say 'Hi?
When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift....Thrown away...... Life is not a race Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.
That's what I've found so far. I'll keep you updated as I find more.
Re: What's Your Definition of Community?
Community is:
A call from a neighbor when you haven't said hello lately
A business where the owner knows your name
A place where you can sing and dance and laugh
A place to find help
A place to share your gifts
At the Mid Maine TimeBank we value all these things, so much so that we pay for community building with local "Time Dollars." For every hour that our members help build community, sharing gifts, space, time and caring, they earn one Time Dollar. They can use this local currency to purchase what they need or want. By embracing technology and the Internet, we can become closer, not isolated in our homes. We can find a friend who is willing; we can gather together.
For those interested, TimeBanks are springing up all over the country. Check it out at www.timebanks.org, or www.midmetimebank.com here in Maine.
By Stacey Jacobsohn on 7/28/2009 8:56 AM
And the response by the blogger:
Re: What's Your Definition of Community?
Thx for the response, Stacey. Your definition seems to suggest that communities are not bound by geography or place. Rather, it is we -- members of a community -- who give meaning to the term through our actions. Hmmmm.
By Meredith Jones on 7/31/2009 7:49 AM
And a further response:
Re: What's Your Definition of Community?
Community is a way of thinking, thus "what effects me effects you"---good or bad. My work (serving those around me), My education, My health, etc., all has an effect on those who share in the environment in which live. So...Let's all make way to serve at our own business or at that of another, to be open-minded and knowledgeable, and to be healthy for the vibrance of our respective communities.
By Yolanda Taylor on 8/5/2009 7:36 AM
Another Blog: Madcap Logic, about arts in children and such.
How Arts Training Improves Attention and Cognition
September 18th, 2009
Does education in the arts transfer to seemingly unrelated cognitive abilities? Researchers are finding evidence that it does. Michael Posner argues that when children find an art form that sustains their interest, the subsequent strengthening of their brains’ attention networks can improve cognition more broadly.
Check out this fascinating article at The Dana Foundation’s website - http://www.dana.org/news/cerebrum/detail.aspx?id=23206
Also, someone special forwarded this email to me a couple days ago and I find it poignant.
Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven't thought about it, don't have it on their schedule, didn't know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine.
I got to thinking one day about all those women on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back. From then on, I've tried to be a little more flexible.
How many women out there will eat at home because their husband didn't suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed? Does the word 'refrigeration' mean nothing to you?
How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched 'Jeopardy' on television?
I cannot count the times I called my sister and said, 'How about going to lunch in a half hour?' She would gas up and stammer, 'I can't. I have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain.' And my personal favorite: 'It's Monday.' She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together..
Because Americans cram so much into their lives, we tend to schedule our headaches. We live on a sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect!
We'll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Steve toilet-trained. We'll entertain when we replace the living-room carpet... We'll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.
Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of 'I'm going to,' 'I plan on,' and 'Someday, when things are settled down a bit.'
When anyone calls my 'seize the moment' friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk with her for five minutes, and you're ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of Roller blades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord..
My lips have not touched ice cream in 10 years. I love ice cream. It's just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process The other day, I stopped the car and bought a triple-Decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy..
Now...go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to........not something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?
Make sure you read this to the end; you will understand why I sent this to you.
Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight or gazed at the sun into the fading night? Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask 'How are you?' Do you hear the reply?
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? Ever told your child, 'We'll do it tomorrow.' And in your haste, not see his sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say 'Hi?
When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift....Thrown away...... Life is not a race Take it slower. Hear the music before the song is over.
That's what I've found so far. I'll keep you updated as I find more.
Why don't Americans have a dance that defines part or our culture?
This is an excerpt from my thesis on why Americans don't dance anymore.
"In today’s world, other people are a threat and an obstacle to our personal ambitions (Ehrenreich, 2006). Although humans have evolved to be more highly social than any other primate species, capable of developing strong bonds to unrelated people, and enjoying pleasurable activities with large numbers of individuals, we now share our planet with over six billion other humans who are all competing for land, water, and oil. To be a socially focused individual these days seems naïve and careless, and it certainly doesn’t put a person on the fast track to success. Success in this sense is the achievement of financial security. Ehrenreich questions whether this problem with modern civilization is just a matter of scale. She notes that the rituals and festivities of indigenous people evolved to encourage living in larger groups, usually about a few hundred people at a time. With a group this size, everyone can hear the un-amplified music and interact with each other. Civilizations today, however, include hundred millions of individuals who are bound not by community or safety, but by economic, military, and legal dependency. French theorist Debord described ours as the “society of spectacle” which exists during “an epoch without festivals” (in Ehrenreich, 2006). Today, people don’t generate collective pleasures; rather they absorb, or consume, the spectacles provided them. Commercial entertainment, consumer culture, nationalist ritual, and advertisement after advertisement oozing the satisfaction of personal ownership, have replaced dance as a daily ritual. However, as Ehrenreich (2006) concludes, although these things may be true, they do not defeat the possibility of festivities surviving within large-scale societies. In 1790 Paris, entire cities were caught up in the Festival of Federation, and dancers lined up in the streets and into the countryside. Rock concerts sometimes last for days, with tens of thousands of people peacefully socializing and dancing. Carnival remains the largest event in Brazil. Based on these occurrences, it is therefore not impossible for dance and celebration to exist within Western Culture.
The daily price we pay for the emotional emptiness that exists within many of us throughout the majority of our lives, when there is no Woodstock nearby, is evident in the high rates of social isolation and depression (Ehrenreich, 2006). While not fatal on their own, those who have suffered from these conditions know it is no way to live. These conditions also increase the risk of suicide and many other debilitating and deadly diseases, including cardiovascular disease. The current state of the world is increasingly ominous, and not just because of depression. Of the almost seven billion people on the planet, half live in debilitating poverty. Epidemics spread faster than the plague. Global climate change and natural disasters devastate millions. However, we seem mostly paralyzed against action. We seem to lack the means or willingness to collectively organize for survival. Our self-serving agendas and drive for power have eroded the notion of the common good.
Insofar as we compress our sociality into the limits of the family, we do not so much resemble our Paleolithic human ancestors as we do those far earlier prehuman primates who had not yet discovered the dance ritual as a “biotechnology” for the formation of larger groups. Humans had the wit and generosity to reach out to unrelated others; hominids huddled with their kin (Ehrenreich, 2006, p. 254).
Our consumer culture encourages us to distract ourselves and deflect our desires into obtaining and displaying our stuff: cars, shoes, plastic surgery, all of which promise to make us more popular, less lonely, and perhaps invincible to what is happening to those in less fortunate situations. However, despite all of our ‘things,’ most people who can avoid addiction to entertainment, consumerism, and drugs ultimately arrive at the conclusion that something is missing from life. You can feel that hollow in your chest, though what is lacking is difficult to pin down. Spirituality and community are vague ideas attached to this space. Intellectuals cite the absence of strong connections with people outside our immediate families as the missing link in society. Regardless of what it definitely is, we occasionally get glimpses of its eagerness to return. We see carnivalized sports events, dancing religious pilgrimages, and music festivals pop up in unlikely places. It exists in situations where there is no point to it. It is the chance to acknowledge and celebrate the miracle of our shared existence.
The real benefits of dance lie not in the dance itself, but in what the act of dance creates. Through my research, I believe I can boil down the benefits of uninhibited dance to three words: communication, connection, and celebration. Dance communicates concepts and feelings to oneself and to others on a level that no other form of communication can. Dance allows one to connect all parts of themselves, all parts of their community, and all parts of their environment. Through dance, one can feel truly whole. Celebration is the openness to feeling joy and peace in any situation. Dance is the natural way to celebrate. Communication, connection, and celebration are three elements of life that seem to me to be severely lacking in American society.
I am not suggesting, as Ehrenreich (2006) might be, that dance is the solution to the personal quest for fulfillment or the solution to all the worlds modern problems. However, I do believe that Americans are united not by common culture, but by geography, and that being united in this way lacks commitment to the community. I believe that most American believe in the American government and society because it perpetuates the ideal of doing what is best for the individual rather than the community and provides the best way for an individual to achieve personal success. I love my country and I love the people in it. I believe we can all be better if we find a way to unite in a commitment to the union. America is defined by being the “melting pot” in which cultures mix and blend together. Being culturally diverse doesn’t mean that we can’t unite under something supra-cultural or that in uniting we would lose our cultural or personal uniqueness or values."
Works Cited
Ehrenreich, B. (2006). Dancing in the streets: A collective history of joy. New York, NY: Metropolitan Books.
"In today’s world, other people are a threat and an obstacle to our personal ambitions (Ehrenreich, 2006). Although humans have evolved to be more highly social than any other primate species, capable of developing strong bonds to unrelated people, and enjoying pleasurable activities with large numbers of individuals, we now share our planet with over six billion other humans who are all competing for land, water, and oil. To be a socially focused individual these days seems naïve and careless, and it certainly doesn’t put a person on the fast track to success. Success in this sense is the achievement of financial security. Ehrenreich questions whether this problem with modern civilization is just a matter of scale. She notes that the rituals and festivities of indigenous people evolved to encourage living in larger groups, usually about a few hundred people at a time. With a group this size, everyone can hear the un-amplified music and interact with each other. Civilizations today, however, include hundred millions of individuals who are bound not by community or safety, but by economic, military, and legal dependency. French theorist Debord described ours as the “society of spectacle” which exists during “an epoch without festivals” (in Ehrenreich, 2006). Today, people don’t generate collective pleasures; rather they absorb, or consume, the spectacles provided them. Commercial entertainment, consumer culture, nationalist ritual, and advertisement after advertisement oozing the satisfaction of personal ownership, have replaced dance as a daily ritual. However, as Ehrenreich (2006) concludes, although these things may be true, they do not defeat the possibility of festivities surviving within large-scale societies. In 1790 Paris, entire cities were caught up in the Festival of Federation, and dancers lined up in the streets and into the countryside. Rock concerts sometimes last for days, with tens of thousands of people peacefully socializing and dancing. Carnival remains the largest event in Brazil. Based on these occurrences, it is therefore not impossible for dance and celebration to exist within Western Culture.
The daily price we pay for the emotional emptiness that exists within many of us throughout the majority of our lives, when there is no Woodstock nearby, is evident in the high rates of social isolation and depression (Ehrenreich, 2006). While not fatal on their own, those who have suffered from these conditions know it is no way to live. These conditions also increase the risk of suicide and many other debilitating and deadly diseases, including cardiovascular disease. The current state of the world is increasingly ominous, and not just because of depression. Of the almost seven billion people on the planet, half live in debilitating poverty. Epidemics spread faster than the plague. Global climate change and natural disasters devastate millions. However, we seem mostly paralyzed against action. We seem to lack the means or willingness to collectively organize for survival. Our self-serving agendas and drive for power have eroded the notion of the common good.
Insofar as we compress our sociality into the limits of the family, we do not so much resemble our Paleolithic human ancestors as we do those far earlier prehuman primates who had not yet discovered the dance ritual as a “biotechnology” for the formation of larger groups. Humans had the wit and generosity to reach out to unrelated others; hominids huddled with their kin (Ehrenreich, 2006, p. 254).
Our consumer culture encourages us to distract ourselves and deflect our desires into obtaining and displaying our stuff: cars, shoes, plastic surgery, all of which promise to make us more popular, less lonely, and perhaps invincible to what is happening to those in less fortunate situations. However, despite all of our ‘things,’ most people who can avoid addiction to entertainment, consumerism, and drugs ultimately arrive at the conclusion that something is missing from life. You can feel that hollow in your chest, though what is lacking is difficult to pin down. Spirituality and community are vague ideas attached to this space. Intellectuals cite the absence of strong connections with people outside our immediate families as the missing link in society. Regardless of what it definitely is, we occasionally get glimpses of its eagerness to return. We see carnivalized sports events, dancing religious pilgrimages, and music festivals pop up in unlikely places. It exists in situations where there is no point to it. It is the chance to acknowledge and celebrate the miracle of our shared existence.
The real benefits of dance lie not in the dance itself, but in what the act of dance creates. Through my research, I believe I can boil down the benefits of uninhibited dance to three words: communication, connection, and celebration. Dance communicates concepts and feelings to oneself and to others on a level that no other form of communication can. Dance allows one to connect all parts of themselves, all parts of their community, and all parts of their environment. Through dance, one can feel truly whole. Celebration is the openness to feeling joy and peace in any situation. Dance is the natural way to celebrate. Communication, connection, and celebration are three elements of life that seem to me to be severely lacking in American society.
I am not suggesting, as Ehrenreich (2006) might be, that dance is the solution to the personal quest for fulfillment or the solution to all the worlds modern problems. However, I do believe that Americans are united not by common culture, but by geography, and that being united in this way lacks commitment to the community. I believe that most American believe in the American government and society because it perpetuates the ideal of doing what is best for the individual rather than the community and provides the best way for an individual to achieve personal success. I love my country and I love the people in it. I believe we can all be better if we find a way to unite in a commitment to the union. America is defined by being the “melting pot” in which cultures mix and blend together. Being culturally diverse doesn’t mean that we can’t unite under something supra-cultural or that in uniting we would lose our cultural or personal uniqueness or values."
Works Cited
Ehrenreich, B. (2006). Dancing in the streets: A collective history of joy. New York, NY: Metropolitan Books.
Hello World
First of all, I don't have the answers. I have absolutely no experience building a community be it online or in life. Although the ultimate goal here is to create a real place where people can go to dance and connect with their community, I'm reaching out here for help in getting to that goal.
Personal History
I grew up in Alaska and have been intrigued and moved by dance since birth. I have really been dancing my whole life, though my technical training really only started 8 years ago. I went to school at the University of Northern Colorado. I took the opportunity to study in Buenos Aires for 6 months to study Spanish, Latin America, and Tango. The experience was invaluable, but I found it difficult to be away from my family and friends. There are many things that I miss about the culture though: the sense of never being in a hurry, long meal times, the fact that so many people there dance. I hardly went to a party or place where people weren't dancing. When I came back to Colorado I became frustrated with the major programs offered as UNC and the lack of support for the dance program so I decided to design my own major based on a dance therapy program. My courses included Psychology, Biology, Kinesiology, and of course, as many dance classes as I could fit in. I also completed and undergraduate Honors thesis titled Dance: a Natural and Necessary Part of Life as Indicated by Indigenous Cultures from Around the World. It sounds long and complicated but the short title is A New Journey in Dance. I'll come back to this in a second. Since graduation I've moved to Denver with my boyfriend (an actor) and found a job with a company that deals with indoor air pollution. However, I have bigger dreams.
The Thesis
I studied indigenous cultures from the Americas, Africa, Australia, and Asia in the effort to narrow down the reasons why these peoples lives were so interconnected with The Dance. Different peoples used dance for different reasons, but in every situation, dancing brought the people together, uniting the community. I know from my own experience that when you dance with someone, you create a relationship with them without even trying. When people in a community dance together, the relationships they build with themselves, their neighbors, and their environment become very strong. The people become so dedicated to the community that the community itself gets stronger. The people are united by more than proximity.
Although I really love my country, I have always felt a sense of loneliness, of disconnect from the people around me, of lack of community. I was very fortunate to grow up in a very loving and supportive family... but that was where it stopped. I have found through my current work that it is the minority of people who know their neighbors last names, or the first names of the people two houses down. And unless they go to church on Sundays, very few people have social hobbies.
The Dream
I long for a place where people can go just to be together and to enjoy dance, exercise is an added bonus ;). I imagine a community center where a hundred people come every Friday or Saturday night. Where they choose from a list of dance styles offered and, for and hour, learn basic steps and gain the confidence to move across the floor. Then everyone comes together and we spend the rest of the night going through the various musical styles. Those that didn't take the class have the opportunity to learn from those who did and everyone gets to dance and be together. We will dance because we love to. We will dance because we want to be together. We will dance to laugh and learn. This will be a place where everyone can dance no matter their age, gender, or level of ability. We are not dancing because we are particularly talented at it... we just love to do it.
Personal History
I grew up in Alaska and have been intrigued and moved by dance since birth. I have really been dancing my whole life, though my technical training really only started 8 years ago. I went to school at the University of Northern Colorado. I took the opportunity to study in Buenos Aires for 6 months to study Spanish, Latin America, and Tango. The experience was invaluable, but I found it difficult to be away from my family and friends. There are many things that I miss about the culture though: the sense of never being in a hurry, long meal times, the fact that so many people there dance. I hardly went to a party or place where people weren't dancing. When I came back to Colorado I became frustrated with the major programs offered as UNC and the lack of support for the dance program so I decided to design my own major based on a dance therapy program. My courses included Psychology, Biology, Kinesiology, and of course, as many dance classes as I could fit in. I also completed and undergraduate Honors thesis titled Dance: a Natural and Necessary Part of Life as Indicated by Indigenous Cultures from Around the World. It sounds long and complicated but the short title is A New Journey in Dance. I'll come back to this in a second. Since graduation I've moved to Denver with my boyfriend (an actor) and found a job with a company that deals with indoor air pollution. However, I have bigger dreams.
The Thesis
I studied indigenous cultures from the Americas, Africa, Australia, and Asia in the effort to narrow down the reasons why these peoples lives were so interconnected with The Dance. Different peoples used dance for different reasons, but in every situation, dancing brought the people together, uniting the community. I know from my own experience that when you dance with someone, you create a relationship with them without even trying. When people in a community dance together, the relationships they build with themselves, their neighbors, and their environment become very strong. The people become so dedicated to the community that the community itself gets stronger. The people are united by more than proximity.
Although I really love my country, I have always felt a sense of loneliness, of disconnect from the people around me, of lack of community. I was very fortunate to grow up in a very loving and supportive family... but that was where it stopped. I have found through my current work that it is the minority of people who know their neighbors last names, or the first names of the people two houses down. And unless they go to church on Sundays, very few people have social hobbies.
The Dream
I long for a place where people can go just to be together and to enjoy dance, exercise is an added bonus ;). I imagine a community center where a hundred people come every Friday or Saturday night. Where they choose from a list of dance styles offered and, for and hour, learn basic steps and gain the confidence to move across the floor. Then everyone comes together and we spend the rest of the night going through the various musical styles. Those that didn't take the class have the opportunity to learn from those who did and everyone gets to dance and be together. We will dance because we love to. We will dance because we want to be together. We will dance to laugh and learn. This will be a place where everyone can dance no matter their age, gender, or level of ability. We are not dancing because we are particularly talented at it... we just love to do it.
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