Bill McDonough features in ‘The 11th Hour”, the new film by Leonardo DiCaprio that is discussed on TED.com blog. He is an architect who is tackling sustainability with intelligent design. TED is a great place to watch amazing thinkers from all over the globe.
Melbourne Writers Festival
On Monday I’m travelling with some year 9 and 10 students to the “Melbourne Writers Festival – Schools Program”. I look forward to this for a number of reasons. I always enjoy taking the students on excursions, because they are always engaged and at their best. We can only take a small number of students, so only those who are really passionate about reading and writing have gone to the effort, or been selected by their English teachers. I expect this will make for great conversation on the 2 hour + bus trip. I will also enjoy listening to the authors speak about their books. I’m not sure yet, which sessions I will be attending, but I will be sure to tell you after I’ve been.
For those who live a little closer, “Melbourne Writers Festival” is for adults also and there are plenty of sessions to cater for all. Check out the program on the webpage.
UFO’s
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.