A morning spent reading on the Internet has been a little journey into the past for me today, riddled with co-incidences and revelations. I read my weekly ‘Mystic Medusa’ horoscope and her latest blog post:Bibliomancy: Tekhne led me to a link to review of a book she is reading about metaphysics, history and myth, some of my favourite subjects. The John E Mack Institute website however, was the real find for me.
Without wanting to reveal too much of my flakey past, I did a ‘spiritual’ course once and met John E Mack. He was one of the participants. My friend Shirley and I and around 20 others had this adventure that was so shoddy. Shirley and I discussed it last time we caught up and she asked whether I’d heard anything about John, as she really liked him. I thought he had died and today, that was confirmed on that website. He was a very interesting, humble and gentle man. When he listened to you, you really felt heard and Shirley was especially touched by his ability to listen and hear.
He died 3 years ago in an accident.
He was quite sick on that course and that was one of the objections I had about the course. They wouldn’t allow him to deal with his health issues and I felt that was crazy and almost cruel as I could see he was in pain and I felt almost in collusion by being there and watching them deny him care. It was a very unpleasant experience for me. I ended up being totally outraged and basically throwing a tantrum, which was then put down to a flaw in my spirit. Still, on reflection, I learnt lots from that course about myself and about deferring to others. I had perhaps lost touch with myself and that was what it took to make me realise who I was.
Earlier this week in class (although I was hardly there, I did have a couple of lessons), a student asked me whether I believed in UFO’s. John came into my mind. I told the kids what he’d told me about his research and that although I had no evidence, I trusted his and I personally do believe.
Courage to Care
This week has been excursion week for me. I think I have overdone it a little. I’ve been out 3 out of the general 5 working days at school. On Tuesday and today I went to Leongatha to the ‘Courage to Care’ exhibition. We took all our year 9 students to this event and since our school motto is ‘Strong Minds, Compassionate Hearts’, I think it was a valuable use of time.
The stories and speakers were courageous and focussed not on the horrors of their experiences but of the heroism of those who supported their survival of these wicked times. The exhibition has display boards of stories of the righteous.
The discussion groups after the talks and viewing the display helped us to apply the lessons and to see how we must retain our humanity and resist prejudice, treating all people as humans.
Poor Ned, You’re Better Off Dead
I loved the Redgum song about Ned Kelly when I was a teenager, Poor Ned. Today I have been immersed in the legend of Ned Kelly.
First stop was to the State Museum in Melbourne to see their Ned Kelly exhibit and to participate in some art activities. The State Library of Victoria has the Jerilderie Letter online. They have the real thing at the library as well as the armour. My students completed an art activity making the armour in a well prepared session. I learnt today the letter was not published until the 60’s as it was held by the government. When I say letter I would like to add this was an 8000 word document and was dictated to Joe Byrne (one of the Kelly gang) by Ned Kelly.
From there it was off to the Arts Centre to watch a performance called ‘The Legend of Ned Kelly’. This performance was inspired by the Sidney Nolan Paintings and these paintings were featured in the performance. The performance was a mixture of puppetry and video and light. Some of the effects were quite impressive.
It was not mentioned today but I think it is interesting that ‘The Story of Ned Kelly’ was probably the worlds first full-length feature film. There have been many books and films made about the legend of Ned Kelly, the notorious Australian Bushranger. There was much discussion between teachers and students as to whether he was a hero or a villian. I was interested to note that many students saw him as neither, but rather a victim of circumstance. The Irish in my ancestry makes me want to believe he was a hero, yet I think the students were right.