Category: Essays

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Books That Shaped Me (Part 2)

  • The Sandman by Neil Gaiman – Technically, not a single book but a 75-volume (not counting spin-off titles) comic book series published by DC. I was in college at this time collecting superhero comics like X-Men, Spiderman, Batman, etc. but this particular title was different. There were no muscled bodies in spandex suits, just ordinary people with ordinary lives briefly touched by a dysfunctional family of seven eternal beings called the Endless (not “gods” as Gaiman puts it, for they “existed before humanity dreamed of gods and will exist after the last god is dead…they are embodiments of (in order of age) Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair and Delirium.

    Favorite Passage: I like the stars. It’s the illusion of permanence, I think. I mean, they’re always flaring up and caving in and going out. But from here, I can pretend…I can pretend that things last. I can pretend that lives last longer than moments. Gods come, and gods go. Mortals flicker and flash and fade. Worlds don’t last; and stars and galaxies are transient, fleeting things that twinkle like fireflies and vanish into cold and dust…but I can pretend. (From Sandman: Brief Lives)
  • All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum – I discovered Fulghum when I was fresh out of college and in my first job as a high school English teacher. I enjoyed the stories and reflections he narrated from his rich experiences, and he told them in a very easy and comfortable voice. Reading a Fulghum book was like listening to a doting grandfather telling you about the people he encountered, the joy, sorrow, hardships and happiness he encountered in his life. He was one of the earliest influences in my writing style as I wanted to emulate his voice.

    Favorite Passage: My favorite book ending is no ending at all. It’s where James Joyce leaves off in Finnegans Wake, in midsentence, without punctuation or explanation. Some scholars believe the last phrase connects with the incomplete sentence that begins the book, implying an unending cycle. I hope it’s so. I like that. But Joyce never said. You are free to draw your own conclusions…The next time I will tell you about frogs; Miss Emily Phipps; a sign in a grocery store in Pocatello, Idaho; the most disastrous wedding of all time; a Greek phrase asbestos gelos (unquenchable laughter); the Salvation Navy; the man who knew then what he knows now; the smallest circus in the world; the truth about high school; and the time the bed was on fire when I lay down on it; and
  • The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White – If there is only one book a writer can read in order to improve their writing, it is this one. Even bestselling horror novelist Stephen King mentions Strunk and White over and over in his memoir of the craft, On Writing. First published in 1959 (and since then has undergone several reprintings and editions), this brief tome contains a wealth of good advice, examples and explanations on the art of writing.

    Favorite Passage: Omit needless words. Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer makes all sentences short, or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

Email me at andy@freethinking.me. View previous articles at www.freethinking.me.

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Books That Shaped Me (Part 1)

One of my readers wrote to me and asked me to share about the books that have shaped my view of life. I scanned my shelf and plucked out certain books. I also searched through my memory for books long gone and half-forgotten.

I began to list them down, but while I was halfway through, I realized that merely presenting a list wouldn’t be half as interesting as telling the story of why they made it to the list. So I decided to present them in a chronological fashion as to when they made an impact on me.

So the first, I’ll talk about books that shaped my early years up to around my twenties:

  • The Bible – The Bible was a huge part of my young life. I was raised to believe in it as the inerrant and inspired word of God. My dad would wake the whole family up every day at around 6 in the morning to do a bible-reading session where we would each take turns reading a verse from the selected passage. I would later on spend much time reading it on my own and even cover to cover a few times.

    Favorite Passage: The truth shall set you free.

  • Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen and The Brothers Grimm – My dad and I slept next to each other. Our bedroom was adjacent to what we called the “study room” and it was only divided from that room by a screen mesh. Dad would wake up as early as 2 or 3 in the morning and begin poring over invoices and other business papers and the light from the study room would sometimes wake me up. If I couldn’t sleep again, I would go there and sit on his rocking chair with a thick book of fairy tales in my hand. This began my love affair with stories of knights and kings, and dragons, magic and sorcery.

    Favorite Passage: And they lived happily ever after.

  • Children’s Digest – Perhaps the greatest impact to my being such an avid reader is this set of booklets a la Reader’s Digest. (To the kids who have no idea what Reader’s Digest is, please just look it up on the net). There was a comic there about Twinkle the Star who had a star-shaped head and a human body and I remember being fascinated with it so much that I asked my sisters to read his story over and over again, until they got tired of it and I eventually learned to read it on my own, as well as many other great stories in that collection. I don’t know why but we had lots and lots of Children’s Digest around the house, but I have those to thank for developing my love of reading and stories.

Email me at andy@freethinking.me. View previous articles at www.freethinking.me.

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Sunlight

While under home quarantine the past week, my wife has been urging me to get up and bask in the morning sun. While I know of its benefits (Vitamin D, increase in seratonin levels, etc.) I did so grudgingly because I still wanted to sleep.

Lately however, I found myself enjoying it.

Today, shortly after our morning bask, I wondered aloud to her, “What will I write about for tomorrow’s column?”

“Write about the sunlight,” she said.

So here I am, on her birthday, writing about sunlight, but perhaps not quite as she meant it.

Those who know her are aware that she loves to sing, and she sings well. One of her signature songs is Kevyn Lettau’s “Sunlight” which she can perform at the drop of a hat.

The lyrics say that I am her sunlight, but to those who really know us, she is more often the sun while I am the moon. She has a strong, take-charge personality while I am more laid back and relaxed. She likes to work during the day, while I, much to her consternation, like staying up late at night.

For a person like me who likes the cold, it’s not comfortable staying out in the sun, and it’s not comfortable either when we have heated arguments and her words are hot and glaring because they are the hard truth. But of course, there are also moments, more of them, where the words are warm and gentle, like a welcome ray of sunshine on a cold morning.

It is a common misconception that the sun gives Vitamin D, as if the sun’s rays magically contain the vitamin and infuse it into our bodies. What happens, rather, is that it is our skin that produces Vitamin D when exposed to a certain ultraviolet light from the sun.

And so when I reflect on our relationship, this is what has happened to me. Her light has made me develop my own strength. She has not overpowered me with her voice but made me find my own.

Maybe the analogy is wrong. I am not so much the moon as I am a solar panel, absorbing her energy, but also very much capable of producing something else out of it instead of just reflecting the light. But saying you are the sun and I am a solar panel is not quite so romantic.

Anyway, happy birthday, my sunlight.

Email me at andy@freethinking.me. View previous articles at www.freethinking.me.

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Why Education Has Failed (Part 3)

Have you ever seen trees bent into unnatural shapes for the sake of art? If you haven’t, go google “tree shaping” to see what I mean. These are trees whose trunks or stems have been bent and shaped while they were growing in order to form something artistic, funny, or even functional when they have fully grown and hardened.

There’s a tree that has been formed into a sort of rocking chair. There are two trees whose trunks are intertwined to form a square knot, and so on. Or just consider the art of pruning bushes, cutting away excess stems and leaves to form different shapes, from simple ones like spheres or cones to more complex animal shapes. 

The beauty of the outcome largely depends on the expertise of the gardener.

We tend to think of education in a similar manner. In fact, think of the words we use to describe education — molding, shaping, guiding — they are quite similar to what the gardener does to these plants while they are young and supple.

Yet, has anyone thought to ask the plants what they want? Would that bush rather be scraggly than clean cut into a nice round shape? Would that tree rather have a straight trunk than be bent into a knot? We don’t know. They are plants after all.

But look what we do with our kids. We send them to school, to be “shaped” and “molded” — into what may I ask? If you look (and really take a long hard look) at the curriculum they are made to go through, you would think we are trying to produce little Googles that can spit out memorized trivia. You would think we are trying to produce the next winner for “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”

Has anyone ever thought to ask the kids what they want — and to take their answers seriously? They are not plants after all. They are humans, like us adults, with their own desires, their own will, their own choices. Or do we just shush them and tell them to go study their square roots and cube roots because it’s good for them?

The educational system is an adult agenda. We bring in teams of expert teachers much like a master landscaper brings in a team of expert gardeners to shape the garden as he wills.

That is why education has failed, because before we can truly “educate” a child, our agenda has to go, and we have to wholeheartedly support theirs as they strive to educate themselves.

Email me at andy@freethinking.me. View previous articles at www.freethinking.me.

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Why Education Has Failed (Part 2)

The child, so full of natural curiosity and with seemingly boundless energy, is now made to go to school, to be “educated.” It’s funny how we use that word — as if the child was not getting an education before they went to school.

Think about it. Even before going to school, your child has figured out how to crawl, stand, walk, run and climb. They have learned how to form syllables, words and sentences, and have mastered the art of asking “Why?” 

Have you ever known the difficulty of learning another language? When adults learn, they already have a native language to serve as a reference — thus “why?” in English is “pourquoi?” in French — and still it takes us a long time to learn. Yet, children seem to easily pick up a language even without any prior reference, and can even learn 2 or 3 before they are five. 

And we think they have to go to school to be “educated?”

What really happens in school? In plain and simple language, here is what happens: The child’s natural curiosity and interest is curbed in favor of the adult’s agenda. You now have some adults saying, “this is what kids ought to be doing” and if your child happens to be doing something else (like drawing, or skateboarding, or climbing trees), they are told to put those aside because it’s now time to learn their ABC’s or some other things that the adult has decided is “more important.”

In this day and age, much importance is given to academics. Yes, people have made a lot of noise about multiple intelligences, and being well-rounded, and so on but look at the actual weight still placed on academics — on math, science and language — and you’ll understand that all that noise is just what it is — noise.

Just a few decades ago, adults openly coerced or forced children into their agenda. “Sit still or you get put into the corner with a dunce cap on, or get your hand or butt slapped with a stick.“ 

When I was in high school, we had punishments called a “jog” and a “post.” A “jog” was a minor punishment where you had to write a sentence x number of times on a piece of paper while a “post” was a heavier punishment that meant suspension and cleaning the toilets.

I learned much later that in the “good old days” a “jog” literally meant that the student had to run around for x minutes, and that a “post” meant tying the student to a post to bask in the heat of the sun. (I don’t know how accurate this is, maybe someone my senior can verify this).

Today, adults have learned that coercion rarely works in the long term and use methods of enticement and seduction instead. Children are put in a classroom and made to feel like they are in control. Teachers are trained to engage the students in whatever interests them at the moment, but then to slowly steer the conversation towards a more academic context.

Email me at andy@freethinking.me. View previous articles at www.freethinking.me.