I wish I could have a notepad or piece of paper with me each time I go to class because every time there's something that challenges my perspective on things and I want to write it down to think about and debate over with myself later. I feel like going to class is like going to sleep. In a good way--let me explain...
You know that point when you're trying to go to sleep, comfortable under your covers, but then your brain doesn't stop whirring with ideas and recollections and questions that come from the day or out of nowhere? Going to class is like that. Except I can't decide which I prefer, for the brain whirring. Because even though it interrupts my sleep, at least I'm an arm (or a step down and across, since I'm on a loft bed right now) away from a notepad and I can wake up and have it there, solid. In class it's always on the surface of my brain, with the constant threat of vaporizing out through my ears or something.
That's the convenience of having stuff written down. Given that last class I was out-of-it-tired, I could this time absorb the information at my own pace. That's why this class is different. If you're absent, you're absent. You don't have it, you missed out. You can't just do a make-up on the steps or the re-telling. Not just because of the material, but the way in which it's presented and the environment and tone in which it's presented.
So was writing (or just printing, that's less contestable) a tool of convenience, efficiency? Do we lose intelligence at the expense of efficiency? I mean think about it. All those people who write computer programs and invent machinery and whatnot are freaking geniuses. And they're the only ones that are, since we take their genius, skip their genius in order to make things easy for ourselves. (That's why I ultimately decided not to pursue math and stuff....) The way that we're learning, you've got to be quick and attentive. Maybe we've lost that agility or transferred it somehow to writing over time? Over human evolution? Over a lifespan/through growth?
I thought it was interesting how Francis mentioned that we learned how to speak the language and communicate with it before we ever learned to write it. So it's like in this class we're going back to basics, going to the simple and organic, the essence of animal and baby and child. Which is cool and completely different from how we're used to. That's what I was going to mention in the entry that I didn't have time to write--that I'm used to writing and visual and this is all physical and auditory.
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I'm constantly thinking about the contrast between individualism and the community and/or conformity in this class. It's almost counter-intuitive for me. Like when we were outside in a line in a narrow hallway and in order to figure out what we were supposed to do, you had to look at what the people immediately in front of you were doing. And I saw the people in front of me doing the foot motions and for the briefest of a second I thought, "Just because they're doing it doesn't mean I should be." And then I had to think, of course, I'm in a class, I'm supposed to be copying what others are doing because it's how I'm supposed to learn. So it's such a different mindset, going back to fundamentals with which then maybe later on you can do you own thing...
And then there were CAK CAK CAK's. There was this weird point when we were learning the different beats/sounds and Francis just came in with new sounds and it was interesting to observe whether or not people changed their BONG's to PONG TIT's or CAK's. It was an odd sensation: to follow what Francis was doing, to be the first one to follow what Francis was doing, to be the one who followed what the person who followed Francis, to follow what everyone else seemed to be doing. It's almost like a thin comparison between leadership and learning, if that can be compared at all to individualism and the community and/or conformity.
Shady.
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I got chills when Francis was talking about being in the middle of the circle. I wonder if it's real. The feeling, and the feelings that he sensed by being in the middle.
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I didn't write an entry about Tuesday's class, but I wrote notes for it:
I LOVE THIS CLASS!"I LOVE THIS CLASS!" : particularly that day, it was because of the beauty movement and of song and music and the words and language and shapes. Lovelovelove.
eyes never in other dances (major multitasking)
i'm bad at languages
met bobby and tom
"eyes never in other dances (major multitasking)" : It's weird because I feel like I'm all right at multitasking, but not in type of task (i.e. physical/body). In addition to eyes, during today's class, we added an awareness and liveliness of toes! in Balinese dance.
"i'm bad at languages" : but that's okay because I love them anyway.
"met bobby and tom" : Today I met Jen. I should make it a goal to meet at least one new person each day. I wonder how many classes it would take for me meet everyone (probably a while, since I feel like I know people but they don't know me or I just don't know them very well).
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Francis told us to write about our experience with the Ramayana...
I reallyreally like it. Well, now I do. In the beginning it was all intro and I didn't know a lot of the terms and it was boring and difficult to read. But now the pace has quickened and I feel like I'm actually reading a good story with emotions and histories and it's enjoyable. Perfect for bedtime reading.
Sam said, though, that after the part that I'm at it slows down again, which I'm not anticipating. And apparently the ending goes that Rama is a douchebag to Sita and she ends up in the earth because Rama didn't appreciate her as much as she appreciated Rama, which makes me think that the Ramayana is really unfair and sexist and I would really like to see how it continues to keep Rama as a god-figure because he's not acting as much of a man the way Sam described it. I was starting to think that Rama was only revered as he was revered (this is to page 192 where I am right now) because he was a reincarnation of god which made people gravitate towards him. I mean, for the length of the book (again I haven't finished it yet so I have to see for myself), they don't give THAT much evidence as to his awesome hero characteristics. It seems that it's always like, "Rama was loved, Rama was respected, Rama was a great man, etc. etc." but they never really give many instances outside of flat description to qualify him as such a hero. Him not trusting Sita's fidelity (when, really, she was, extremely) and banishing her for 14 years and throwing her into the fire and into the earth seem like pretty strong counterexamples here. This could be a premature bias speaking. I really have to read the rest of it thoroughly to decide for myself...
I think I'm just kind of disappointed that the Ramayana didn't end like it did in A Little Princess. I LOVE that film.
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