Ian Somerhalder Foundation Book Club discussion

Kim Falconer

Learning

In Path of the Stray we experience a contrast of learning environments. ASSIST education on Earth is getting more and more militant and narrow minded where as training at a temple in Gaela is hands on learning, involving both hemispheres of the brain. There is an awareness of holistic, mind-body- spirit learning. Ruby’s time at Treeon Temple is contrasted with her experience of ASSIST academics.

Temple Training

Jarrod learns about temple training on Gaela. Pg. 119

He learned about the temples, mostly while lying in
the arms of apprentices from Corsanon. The spiritual
halls were places of learning, magic and devotion, full of
culture and ritual. As far as he could glean, ‘magic’ was
simply using thoughts to create events. Interesting that
here in Gaela — a pre-industrial hegemony — they used
a technique so sophisticated that it had only just been
‘discovered’ by the scientific community on Earth. Of
course, witches and shamans had known about it for
thousands of years.


* * *

Celia talks to Ruby about Treeon Temple. Pg 309

‘Have you thought about training in a temple?’
‘Could I?’ Ruby’s mouth fell open.
‘If we hide your Lupin connection, it’s possible.’
‘We’d have to hide all my connections to Earth.’
‘Obviously. There would be no mention of the portal
in your application.’ Celia sat opposite Ruby, her eyes
bright. ‘It would be one way of using your time on
Gaela to the best advantage. I want you to consider it.’
Ruby tilted her head. ‘You need a spy?’
‘I do. It could help us locate Jarrod, not to mention
keeping tabs on the Corsanons — all while educating
you.’
‘I’m going to university when I get back.’
Celia brushed that away with her hand. ‘Your
education in the arts of magic, I mean, and defence.
Those could be improved here. The goddess knows
you’ll need them on Earth.’

* * *

Celia and Ruby when they first arrive at Treeon. Pg 325

You’ll apprentice with the equestrians, Ruby. I’ve
told her you’re brilliant with horses and, aside from
astrology, it’s where you shine.
Is that it?
I’m sure there’ll be other classes. Hurry along.
Ruby caught up to Celia and Delic. She looked at her
boots, the autumn leaves scattering with each step.
Cheer up, Ruby. Temple wars are brewing.
Why is that cheerful?
It means sword training is required for all apprentices.
It is? She smiled.
Oh yes. You’ll be learning that art — along with
everything else.


* * *

Ruby at Treeon Temple contemplating the differences. Pg. 347-348

It was still a luxury, immersing in pure hot water. It made her
moan as much as the fresh food and sunshine. She took
a deep breath, pretending to be unaffected by the way
the initiates bathed together, male and female alike. She
needed a new story to get past her reticence. She knew if
she told it a different way to herself, it would create new
pathways of experience. Tell it like you want it to be,
both Janis and Celia had schooled her.
All right. She imagined herself talking to her family.
It’s refreshing, she said. She thought of something
beautiful — the view from the top of the valley — so

she would smile. It’s refreshing how the body isn’t seen
as a performing gender … necessarily. We’re all here,
natural and free, just having a bath. Getting cleaned up.
Isn’t it fun?
Undressing wasn’t always an erotic invitation. The
naked body was an expression of self, like a smile or a
frown. Nothing to do with sex really, until it was.
Theoretically, the idea was liberating.
Theoretically.
Ruby still had to pretend she was comfortable with
her nudity. She forced herself to act as easy about it as
anyone born and bred on Gaela, but it was all an act.
Inside, she squirmed, wrestling with feelings of self-
Consciousness and inhibition. So far, those earthly
feelings, grown from social conformity, stayed
repressed. She even had moments of genuine light heartedness.
It reminded her of her earlier childhood
when she felt carefree about such things. But her
education, in spite of her mother’s and Loni’s liberal
ideals, had put limits on those easy childhood feelings.
She had to fit into the new paradigm — avoid exposure.
In the course of doing so, she had conformed. The
mandates of ASSIST were having a lasting effect.
And then there was sex . . .

* * *

Ruby contemplates her relationship to knowledge and learning while thinking about Ethan. Pg 523

Ruby cringed. She loved knowledge and learning. It
was like a god to her, but she’d learned to let go of value
judgements like ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ during her time at
Treeon Temple. There was always a new way to look at
an idea, and evidence could be found to support
anything at all. She’d mentioned that to Ethan once, but
never again. He nearly imploded with resistance to that
thought . . .




Discussion

What different learning styles have you experienced? Likes? Dislikes? How can education honor different styles of intelligence and learning? What happens to people when they get field experience versus just reading a grimoire or text? Some students have said that hands on learning truly changed their lives. After having studied a species and then actually
observed it in the wild, they felt changed, engaged, engendered, and obligated to protect it! It links up the organ of knowing with the organ of doing, right? Thoughts?

What can we offer in 2012 that would help people more deeply engage?

Let’s think tank together and generate a list that could be posted on ISF. Who wants to study at Treeon Temple?

The more I learn the more I am encouraged. While you may sit in a 'Wildlife Management' college class (around here the courses are owned/run/managed by the Timber corporations, so you can imagine what bull they are forced to teach) even if you do not agree with what they are feeding you, don't forget to question. Maybe you have more patience to sit though it than I had. Instead I traveled to Australia with my Dad to attend a Watershed/Stream Management Conference that he was speaking at (while I was in the midst of a Philosophy class questioning everything.) We drove from Sydney along the coast to stay in Adelaide & back through the outback. I learned so much & as I had grown up in Japan, Hawaii, the Redwoods, I was ready for adventure. How much I could learn on the road traveling! Hitchhiked to Alaska & trained horses in the fall, dog mushed in the winter. Hitched around the U.S. & jumped out into the Mattole Free State to protect the Old Growth trees head on. Sometimes our paths are written before we realize it & we are popped out on the other side still trying to get a handle on it all.

Learning can be done through osmosis or it can be intentional. What you read & who you hang with makes a huge difference but how you interact with people that you don't agree with also is very influential. Out in the woods, 20 miles away from anything public (or even at a protest in the middle of town) choosing your words & your physical language makes a huge influence on how you are received, especially when the officials are not working on your behalf. How much is that person going to absorb what you are saying or are they going to shut down & hear nothing. I found a lot of protesters would verbally attack the loggers because everyone is very emotional. In Humboldt's forest defense we live by a strict code of Non-Violence.

Words can be violent, or certainly induce violence (the Timber workers are definitely not bound by any code other than profit & their own judgement) The thing is that I have gone to high school with a lot of these guys, or their kids. There aren't a lot of locals working in the woods, mostly in the mills & driving truck, but still, some choke-setters are local & they are here because they don't want a desk job in town. You talk to them as people & they agree with us: they don't like the Clear-cuts just as much as we don't. They know it is not sustainable & their kids' kids won't follow in their footsteps as they are following in their granddads'. They are not the RPF (registered professional forester) who marked the trees to cut though, they wield the chainsaws only. They get paid by board foot not per hour. When we are in the woods it is 'Last Resort' law suits, acquisition, etc are much nicer ways to go... But sometimes the cutting has to be stalled. Tree-sits are only good for publicity since one tree is not a forest or a complete ecosystem. The current Tree-sitters in Humboldt (@McKay_09) are outside of Eureka in an area where the County has made a deal to buy from Simpson Co (Green Diamond) & turn it into a community park, though Simpson wants to cut these big fatty Redwoods before the sale goes through. My ex-boyfriend, Farmer, has recently tied in about 50 trees with traverse ropes in hopes they won't be able to cut that grove. In '98 Farmer was protesting as a 16 yr old in Grizzly Creek when he saw David "Gypsy" Chain get killed by a logger who felled a tree on him. Instead of charging the logger they tried to charge the protesters... anyway, it is a weird twisted small politics community. It has been loggers vs hippies. Long hairs vs Red necks. The corporations try to keep us separated while they rape & pillage the forest around us, Hurowitz's Maxxam recently went 'bankrupt' & skipped town leaving us with GAP's Fisher family & a load of restoration to be done (that no one can afford) while our poor struggling working class loggers are having to find new jobs & new housing since most lived in the company town. 40 or 50 year old men having to take computer classes at the community college, who really prefer the sounds of a trickling brook & to watch the Golden Eagles catch a wind current gliding to the ocean & back in a few breaths.

We have always had a bad economy here, so when the 'economy collapsed' it didn't hit us so hard because it has always been hard. It is starting to creep in though. I am fortunate with my skills with animal husbandry, people sold a lot but the ones who decided that their pets or livestock were one thing that really mattered in their life they decided that they ought to take good care of them. So I give vaccine shots, hoof trimmings & general care or exercising horses.

I have learned that markets change constantly. Started with a flock of 35 Dorset sheep I bought for $900, bred them & sold them the next spring for $200 each. I used to sell Alpacas on a commission for good money & w/out the cost of housing them. Now I am lucky to sell sheep for $50-$75 & an alpaca for $200 (compared to $20,000) Some years fleece/wool is worth more than the live animal, other years it is mulch. Horses have seen a huge change as well, it is very sad, because of hay prices going from $11/bale last year to $25/bale there are many free horses & people are unable to give them the care or training they need.

Some how there needs to be 'Green' Jobs! These loggers would love to work hand in hand with all of us enviros. We can plant trees while they use their big machines to decommission old logging roads. Why is there so much more money available to fuel Columbia Helicopter's Chinooks who log here, there, "in Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Ecuador, Chile, Canada, Mexico, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, and New Zealand"... "Columbia Helicopters is based in Portland, Oregon, but works under contract around the world. Currently, the company has offices open in Papua New Guinea and Peru." Gross.

So, as a kid I learned to keep my head down... in college I learned to stand up to the multi-national corporations & learned what it looks like in the cities... in my 20's I learned to stand up for my homeland... & at present I have learned to keep afloat in these fluctuating markets. Now what?

I have been learning SO MUCH from you guys!!! I used to try not to read the news & now I know what is happening all over the world, the good & the bad news. It squeezes my heart & makes me take deep breaths it is such a huge planet & the ISF family is so ENCOURAGING! Thank you so much for these forums! It is extremely liberating & I am excited to see what the future may teach us.

There are several ways of learning, several methods, each individual is unique. We use our sences for learning, hearing, sight, touch, smell. To stimulate our intellect, we must address our questions, they are often linked to our history, our life experience.
In LEARNIG, use it all, but also requires a link between the student and the teacher. a teacher does not have all the knowledge, and the student is not a blank page, he has lived. Learning is based on an exchange.
Certain person are visual, auditory else. books, tapes, films are good tools, but they should be used with experiences of land. so, give them a sense a reality.
From questioning the student is finding motivation. It is much easier to learn when you love, when you want découvrire answers to our questions

This method makes me think of "humanism", it was a movement of thought during the Renaissance. it gave a central place at man in its natural environment , the individual must develop these qualities in a goal, integration, and not domination. Make part of a whole. Learn to improve, not,deform. Knowledge to help, and not destroy .

Catherine wrote: "This method makes me think of "humanism", it was a movement of thought during the Renaissance. it gave a central place at man in its natural environment , the individual must develop these qualitie..."

Love your thoughts on humanism here, Catherine, and the connection between student and teacher. Learning is based on an exchange! The participation mystique. Thank you!

Kim wrote: "Catherine wrote: "This method makes me think of "humanism", it was a movement of thought during the Renaissance. it gave a central place at man in its natural environment , the individual must deve..."

I try to understand the individual and his interaction with the world around us. and I think that knowledge is learned in the understanding of things. and not in judgment.

Catherine wrote: "This method makes me think of "humanism", it was a movement of thought during the Renaissance. it gave a central place at man in its natural environment , the individual must develop these qualitie..."

Humanism is still quite popular, especially among atheists who don't believe one needs a god to do good things.

Kendra wrote: "Catherine wrote: "This method makes me think of "humanism", it was a movement of thought during the Renaissance. it gave a central place at man in its natural environment , the individual must deve..."

the good and the bad things are the acts of men. they are capable of thinking ! Their beliefs, or their beliefs, have shapes, varied and diverse, and names,diverse and varied. Every one should find it own inspiration, and set their own goals. the ultimate goal is to find its place in our universe. In, the equilibrium, for every living, for develops in harmony.

Kendra wrote: "Catherine wrote: "This method makes me think of "humanism", it was a movement of thought during the Renaissance. it gave a central place at man in its natural environment , the individual must deve..."

Hi my name is jules.ive recentley joined.its great to see all the reviews etc so interesting.on the topic of humanism, i feel that you can still believe in your god but do good deeds from your own thoughts.not just because you have a faith that prompts you to be so.

Jules wrote: "Kendra wrote: "Catherine wrote: "This method makes me think of "humanism", it was a movement of thought during the Renaissance. it gave a central place at man in its natural environment , the indiv..."

Welcome, Jules! Lovely to have your voice here.

Jules wrote: "Kendra wrote: "Catherine wrote: "This method makes me think of "humanism", it was a movement of thought during the Renaissance. it gave a central place at man in its natural environment , the indiv..."

Humanism is a stream European cultural, which developed in the Renaissance
not a religious movement. Humanism of the famous : Erasme, Thomas More, Rabelais.
I mentioned this as an example, this is the text that inspired me this reflection. But I am delighted that developed the exchange, and questioning. this also is teaching!