Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Violence and Contact

For this topic, which appropriately enough comes after exposure to a group of parents and children on "play day", the focus was on whether or not violence results from a lack of love. All three articles/sources seem to touch on the subject, and thus I have prepared a short list of bullet points from the youtube video and two articles that will summarize the key aspects of violence and touch.

Key points:

It seems as if close contact and affection are closely related to peace. While there is violence galore in unstable households and cities, a foreign tribe that focuses on physical contact, love, and affection have little to no violence in there community.

Physical contact helps develop an indescribable bond that seems vital for proper and healthy development.

There is an inverse nature between affection and violence.

Ferocious tribes were characterized by repressive sexual taboos.

Brain development can be impaired when a mother is not present to show the necessary affection.

Breast feeding is supposed to go on for at least two point five years to ensure proper development.

Infliction of pain must be eliminated for proper growth and development.

There are seven B's of parrenting attachment: Bonding, breast feeding, babywearing, bedding close to baby, belief in crying, beware of baby trainers, balance.


Based on my reading and comprehension of these three articles/sources, the emotions that I feel are that of happiness towards the prospect of parenthood. It seems that if you take the right steps and make the right preparations, you can ensure that your child will live in environment of peace, have an aversion to violence, and feel nurtured. The youtube video was sad, because to showed that A. there are plenty of people out there living perfectly peaceful lives and B. We live in a society where violence is everywhere. Accordingly, it is depressing to think that our own lack of love, our own lack of affection, and our own lack of contact has caused some of the atrocities that have occured. I am not putting it all on our parenting and affection, but the death and murder rates may be lower if we all just learned a little bit about love and affection.

The connection I see here is to the mothers that came in to share their children with us. It seemed as if they were perfectly functioning kids, probably because their mother had shown them an adequate amount of love and affection. It helps that their mothers were all psychology professors and thus had prevalent access to this information. These articles also bring up topics addressed by Jensen. Would he have been different if his father hadn't beat him. It seems clear from all sorts of class material that affection is vital for the proper development of kids.

According to these recent and long term discoveries I have made about love and affection, I intend to be as loving and affectionate as I can from now until I die. If my physical contact and emotional connection with children can foster a society of peace and discourage violence, I intend to do so with all of my heart. It is amazing to here how isolated tribes live so differently and thus have different levels of emotional and physical well being. From now on I intend to foster optimal emotional and physical well being in my kids and all of the children around me.

Questions:

What if kids turned out ok regardless of physical touch and emotional care? Is there some way kids can overcome terrible parents?

Is a mother intrinsically more connected to her kids than the father is?

Playing By Heart, Ch 1,2,3

In order to briefly summarize what was stated in "Playing By the Heart", I will state three key points from each of the chapters:

Ch.1
Children and adults have different perception of reality

Mystic contact with the earth is available all around us. In other words, we can connect with the earth in varying ways.

Play brings us close to the substance of the universe.

Ch. 2
Play is intrinsic to creation, not something created by culture

Kindness from play transcends "sociocultural motivations" and deals with life

Our existence is embedded in the universe, and play brings us closer to that

Ch. 3
Play is not forced, it is in the nature of things just like gravity

Adults cannot be taught to play, but they can be untaught their nature in order more effectively absorb the play of kids

Play emphasizes the community of "we" or "you and I"

As expected, this article brought about emotions of joy and happiness in me. I love play, and it is refreshing to hear about the positive things that come from it. What was most surprising was the intrinsic nature of play. It came as a surprise to me that play was not be created by modern or past cultures, play has been embedded in the earth since its inception. Thus, it is natural for us to play and unnatural for us to behave in a way that condemns or stunts play. Accordingly, I was overjoyed to heart that my tendency towards play is a positive and sustainable thing.

The connection I see with this article and other class activities, is the time where we played in class. It was a magical day in my college career, and I will never forget that hour and fifteen minutes of pure joy I felt. What we experience is really backed up by the information found in this article. Although the 16 of us aren't necessarily best friends or used to socializing with each other, we were able to interact in a play setting without a single hitch. It was as if we had all grown up together and played on the playground in a group everyday since we were five. This proved to me that play is not cultural, but natural. That it is intrinsic with life.

What I will take from this is a greater desire to play. That doesn't necessarily mean that I will gather friends for red rover ever chance I get, but it does mean that I will seize every opportunity I can to play. Here's a great example. Ever since I was a young child I have loved swimming pools. Something about them makes me feel free, weightless, and unstoppable. I never really understand why I felt so at home swimming for leisure, but I now understand that this tendency is closely ingrained with my intrinsic desire to play. So, instead of shying away from my affinity from pools as a I grow old, I intend to embrace this watery infatuation by playing in and under the water every chance I get.

Questions:

If play is so natural, what brings us away from it as we get older? And when does the decline begin?

Are there ways that adults play that kids don't? Like are poker nights play?

A Language Older than Words 27, 28, 29

Jensens last three chapters are as powerful as ever. He closes of the book strong, but maintains his anecdotal style.

Chapter "out of Mourning, Play" touches on the idea of our relationship with the forests around us. We have been forced into this relationship, and must respect the fact that we need to have extended vision and concern. "Forest, too, have been playing with us."

Trauma and Recovery talks about just that, trauma and recovery. It first touches on appalling attrocities, and then goes on to talk about how the symptoms of trauma are thing like "sutting down feelings, a constrictions of emotions, intellect, and behavior." The ultimate conclusion though is that if we are wrong in thought, then our actions will be wrong and follow accordingly. Also, it is important to not that after trauma, the recovery process is communal and not solitary.

Some key points from the final chapter of "A Language Older Than Words" include ideas like production value over life, and that cooperation overcoems atrocities. We must band together to get rid of poor practices. Failing to do so is suicide for ourselves and our societies.

After finishing the book, I feel overwhelmed. Jensen suggests that to survive we must band together and overcome attrocities. I see two problems with that. A. it is going to be extremely difficult to organize and B. overcoming atrocity is very hard because attrocity is fueled by greed and power. Somehow though, the sane and the brave must cooperate for change...either that or it is suicide.

The connection I see her is to the rest of Jensen's book. Everything has sort of been building to this call for cooperation. He leaves us on an optimistic yet scary quote. "God's speed" as if we are only going to be able to accomplish this with a miracle. Everything seems to come together alright though. Early stuff about schools stunting growth, about the environment having feelings, and about using violence if necessary. It all boils down to change.

I have learned quite a lot from Jensen overall, but it is tough to put my finger on all of it. Here is the message that I will take away from the last three chapters and the book as a whole. I can no longer sit back and watch injustice. Ignorance can no longer be bliss. I must work hard, suffer, struggle, and maybe even approach death in order to band together for change. Cooperation is the key.

Questions:

I really want to know what your five other books are about? You fill this thing with some pretty heavy stuff. What do you have left to write about?