Half Magic

Gulu Walk

The Gulu Champions! Won't Linden make a                     11km! I loved this family and their dog!
great Sarah Palin for Halloween! Becka is a              Theo and Linden did hop on the subway for 2 stops
friend of Ashley's that works for War Child .               but next year Theo says she will be able to do it!
I met her when I was 9 months pregnant with            Hopefully, there will be no need!
Piper to hear Noam Chomsky speak at McMaster University.

 Theo's Auntie invited her to the Gulu Walk this Saturday and to my surprise Theo was really eager to participate. The story behind the Gulu walk was actually quite meaningful for her because of the book, Ryan and Jimmy  And the Well in Africa That Brought Them Together. Coincidentally friends of ours produced and filmed the documentary that followed Ryan's journey to the village in Uganda and the subsequent friendship with his pen pal, Jimmy. Which of course led to a series of events that found Jimmy himself kidnapped. He escaped and ended up being adopted by Ryan's family here in Canada. So the Gulu walk was important to her on that level and that's all she needed to know at her age. Please check out the website Ryan's Well Foundation.
I am so lucky to come from such a big extended family, I get to connect on a regular basis with people from every decade and so do my kids. This time it is the twenty something generation and despite the bad press of this cabbage patch generation that is criticized for their sense of entitlement and lack of creativity, I can't help but notice that it is this generation that is choosing to work for NGO's over 6 figure jobs.

A documentary in the making...

 

 
Deborah on an earlier visit with my kids.                  The guard dog/goose!

Just in the nick of time I filmed a day at the Willow Country School before all the leaves dropped. It is a documentary about two schools, the other being in Lahore, Pakistan and the seasons will carry the story.

A friend who operates a camera suddenly had a free day, the equipment was available, and the rain stopped at 5:30 am ( I was awake at 4:30 listening to it). We didn't get our sunrise due to lingering clouds but we were able to accomplish so much more than I ever dreamed. The children, although curious about the camera, were far more interested in their lessons. Deborah, the teacher, was astounding. We could barely keep up- one minute the class was reciting their morning verse,reading math from the board and then down on the floor becoming Roman Numerals and forming a mathematical equation. Then they were out the door reciting counting rhymes through the old apple orchard then back drawing letters in chalk on the floor under their desk and somewhere in between was a crab walk.

Ted , the camera operator, and I would download our footage in the comfort of the owner's sunny kitchen chatting over a coffee while kids crawled over us to see what was on the computer. My father-in-law even dropped by to check up on my progress as he is also in film and even he left with two eggs warm from the hen house. 

Of course there were the usual technical glitches that made me late picking up my kids, compounded by traffic, and a poor dog at home desperate to be let out for a pee. Always a balancing act...

No sunrise this time.                                                Ted was the perfect cameraman-

Redefining Genius 2

Highlights of Sir Ken's speech:
What he liked about Kurt Hahn and Outward Bound-
There's more in you than you think.
When you connect to nature you realize you are part of a larger order.

His number one concern is global warming.

Our present situation: thinks a revolution is required but we are lacking resources- in humans that have capacity to evolve- hence the limited creativity behind the financial fiasco.
Challenges we face are unprecedented.
We have educated ourselves out of reaching our natural potential.
The current education system is based on conformity and standardization to suit an 18th C industrial economy.
The present financial crisis is sign of turbulence to come. We are in transition( like medieval to renaissance) yet no one can even predict next 5 years.
He feels we need to look at creativity which is imagination applied- ideas with value.
He helps businesses and organizations view this as an operational idea- creativity is tangible like literacy and one can train and develop it.
The basis of creativity may be imagination but it also is infused with discipline and rigor. A composer still had to learn his scales.
Within a company/organization celebrate personal differences and use diverse teams rather than separating the 'creative ' team from the accountants for example.

Redefining genius.

Divergent Thinking: lots of associations and alternatives/ideas rather than a logical line of thought. Average person may come up with 20 different ways to use a paper clip but a 'creative' person or 'divergent ' thinker would come up with 300 ways.
A longitudinal study on this type of thinking:
3-5 yrs old 98%. Almost 100%- we are all born with the potential.
8-10yrs old dropped to 32%
13-15 yrs old 10%
Adults 2%
Why the drop? They got educated- not intentional but systemic.
We create conditions that inhibit- such as tests, narrow curriculum, only one right answer, don't talk or accused of cheating- in outside world would be called collaboration. A degree use to guarantee a job, no longer true. Everyone should not be aiming for a university degree- too narrow for a society.

He believes there is a miracle in every one of us and it is not too late to bring it out.

Redefining Genius

 
Exploring at the 'tree farm' creek this Thanksgiving      Red Rum runner beans- imagine Theo's delight!

"Ignite the human spirit, invite self-discovery, inspire human potential."

On Wednesday Outward Bound hosted a Leadership Breakfast Series with Sir Ken Robinson that I was lucky enough to attend at 7:30 in the morning. I am a huge fan of Sir Ken and am eager to interview him for one of my documentaries but he is impossible to get a hold of unless you have $25,000 to book him as a speaker never mind a free interview.So I admit I had ulterior motives for paying $100 to hear him speak. I woke up at 3am nervous I would miss my alarm and never fell back to sleep rehearsing my plan of attack.
When I arrived they couldn't find my name but let me in anyway.Then, as I was pouring myself a cup of O.J. he was five feet from me grabbing his own breakfast. I thought, here you go, perfect opportunity, hand him your proposal, take a deep breath and... walk away and find a seat! Well, he may be thinking about his presentation, probably better to wait to the end...loser!
I was happy I waited because hearing him speak reaffirmed why I wanted to interview him so badly; the man is brilliant, funny, and he inspires the very thing I am trying to explore and understand. So putting all my insecurities aside I mumbled something pathetic and not particularly clear (why else would he be cocking his head like English was his second language) and I handed him the envelope containing my treatment to which he promptly placed in the inside pocket of his jacket  and charmingly replied that he hoped it was stuffed with cash!
My next entry will highlight his actual speech. Here is a link to watch Sir Ken when he was at TED

The Arts

A scene from the movie, Only.
Now that I am actually close to having a project of my own materialize it was so inspiring to watch Only a movie made by a Waldorf mom,Ingrid Veniger,and starring two Waldorf gr.8 kids from our school, one being her son. She made it for $5000.00 and shot it in 2 weeks and it's good! It has surprised the critics and moviegoers at two film festivals and is now heading off to the Rome Film Festival. It is about a 12 hour romance between two tweens that meet at a rural motel set against a winter backdrop. So um, small town Canadian, that I started to squirm reliving a sense of aimless wandering but I was hooked by the honesty and beauty of the acting by two kids who actually managed to convey the blush of that first kiss. The soundtrack is awesome as well, and can be found on the movie's website.
On another note that I am determined to see as positive, the editor of Adbusters , Kalle Lasn, informed me that my article got bumped but they are looking for place in their next issue. Oh, be positive!!!

Food for body and soul

Happy 'slaves' digging in Nana's garden                          A well-read treasure re-discovered

We are the official guardians of my husband's family history as his parents have downsized and we have the space- sort of. I am not sure of how I feel about closets full of photo albums, and boxes of more photos stuffed under everyone's mattress, and Time Life series, and National Geographic collection,but I admit there are treasures to be discovered such as a well worn book of poetry called, Four Feet and Two; An anthology of verse compiled by Leila Berg. By chance I pulled it out desperate for a line of poetry to write in an 8 yr olds birthday card and have been reading it to my children ever since; poems on nature, welcome and unwelcome beasts,bird songs, loving-kindness, special moments, and sharing the Earth. That started a year ago and although sometimes it sits gathering dust by a window ledge we really enjoy spending that moment reading a new poem together and it introduces them to the greats like Emily Dickinson, John Keats, and Lord Byron plus so many more. Here is the recent favourite about cats (Piper even carries the book around with her!)

Cats

by Francis Scarfe

Those who love cats which do not purr,

Or which are thin and tired and very old,

Bend down to them in the street and stroke their fur

And rub their ears and smooth their breast, and hold

Their paws, and gaze into their eyes of gold.

And since every family blog seems to share recipes I have added two favourites. I have made this bread several times thrilled to use up my Red River Cereal supply. It is a truly delicious bread to have with soup or salad. The other recipe is a vegetarian dish that I was attracted to because it talked about not being spicy to the tongue but spicy as in warming up your insides- a very ayurvedic approach to cooking and that is exactly where this recipe come from.

Download red_river_bread.htm

Download spicy_vegetable_rice_recipe.pdf