misc.joy

Suffering and happiness are inseparable. We all have both and they both come and go throughout our lives – at least up to this point in my life. Our practice of Mindfulness is an effort to transform our suffering into happiness. It is an effort to move in the direction of joy. It is an effort to move in the direction of being truly present and to be present for our families, our friends, and our community. In doing so, we can alleviate a great deal of suffering for those around us, and to cause less suffering in the future. We can make the world a beautiful place in the present moment.

In the very first talk given by the Buddha, he outlines this foundational concept. The First Noble Truth says there is suffering, ill-being. The Second is about the cause of our suffering, and the Third Noble Truth talks of the cessation of suffering. This is the presence of happiness. We can learn how to produce happiness. We have many practices for this transformation, but I especially am drawn to the two foundational practices of meditation of “stopping” and “looking deeply.”

We can do this. Just a few short hours of practice and we can begin to train our mind. It’s quite simple to discover happiness in the present moment and to transform our relationships.

We have been offered mindful breathing exercises. The first is following our breath – mere recognition. This can be done anytime, anywhere. We can use sounds and images from the world around to remind us to return to our breathing. For example, I have a computer application that invites me to stop every 70-minutes. But it could be the telephone, a red light, a child’s laughter. We stop and come back to our breathing. This is stopping. It can be practiced anytime, anywhere. I love this practice. I begin my training with sitting meditation, but it doesn’t have to stop on the cushion. Learn to discover methods to following our breath. When we feel anger, frustration, or despair, returning to our breath can immediately bring us relief. Try it – it’s true!

The next steps outlined for mindful breathing is awareness of our body and releasing tension. Learning to calm our body. Where is our body? We can do this when we are standing, walking, sitting, and lying down – and know that we are doing each. My emotions often come through strongly in my body. How does my body feel? How does my body behaves? In touching this we can bring relieve. In recognizing the body, we see the connection between body and mind. This is especially true when we practice sitting meditation – we should see the unity of body and mind. For some, walking meditation works much better than just sitting.

If we can practice these first few exercises, then we can also nourish joy, happiness and learn to explore our feelings. Maybe we try something like this:

Breathing in, I feel joyful. Breathing out, I feel joyful.
Breathing in, I feel happy. Breathing out, I feel happy.

It is a simple practice, silly even, but it can bring a lot of transformation. There are people who have no peace and joy because they cannot stop their thinking. We can also practice joy by bringing awareness to those parts of our body we may not always remember – our eyes, our heart, our liver. Breathing in, I know know I have two good eyes. Breathing out, I feel joy.

Happiness goes a little further. The story often given is that of a person in the desert who sees an oasis. She is joyful upon discovering the oasis and she is happy when she takes a drink from the water.

Here I have outlined just the first six exercises of mindful breathing. These exercises of mindful breathing can bring about personal transformation, but it can provide the foundation to bring transformation to our relationships – relationships with our parents, our children, our consumption.

Is there an age appropriateness for film and media? Should we let kids see any movie out there? It seems that some parents seem to think it’s ok and others are horrified at the idea. In a recent Facebook discussion, a parent with young children posted an article When Can I Watch Indiana Jones with my Kids? – it certainly generated a lively discussion and got me to thinking about the topic.

I’m a parent of two children – ages seven and eleven. We all enjoy media and I’m definitely a fan of film. As a child, I was not allowed film or television until my teen years or just before my teen years. And though it was difficult for me, I was in elementary school when Star Wars came out in 1977, reflecting back I don’t feel like I missed much and it provided a different type of upbringing than most other kids.

I firmly believe that we should not legislate how parents raise their children. I don’t believe in the Motion Picture Association’s (voluntary) ratings system. And as a librarian, I definitely don’t believe in censorship because what you think is inappropriate may not be inappropriate for everyone. Parents need to determine the best method to expose their children to books, movies, music, sexuality, etc. Personally, I’m appalled when I see kids in movies with strong violence or significant profanity or sex. For example, the Dark Knight was a great film but I wouldn’t want my kids to see it yet but it would be cool if my 11-year old would watch Star Wars with me. The graphicness, the energy, etc. of a movie from 1977 versus a film from 2008 seem very different to me. This is my opinion, my judgement, and I should be able to make this decision for my children.

Some would argue that by exposing children to violence, sex, and profanity that we are helping them to grow-up and be stronger adults. Ultimately, I believe in letting children be children. There’s nothing wrong with protecting them from the horrors of the world for a while. Children will be adults in no time and the innocence of childhood is a real jewel.

My kids watch movies on Netflix and have seen a handful movies in the theater. My 11-year old has no interest in seeing movies in the theatre because of the sensory overload, but he’ll watch some (very few) at home. This is a case where what might be appropriate for your kid is definitely not for my kid. We’ve stuck to pretty tame and family orientated films, though I’ve tried to get them to watch Star Wars (they aren’t interested). I’m fine with that.

Ultimately, the guides for parents are nice to have but I think every parent has to try making the best decision they can on what to expose kids to in the media (a false reality, at best). Watch the movie first is a good practice. I’m not a prude, but the innocence of childhood is an important thing to protect. What do you think?

I wrote about files in the cloud back in 2009, and in light of the recent attention Dropbox is getting about security, the time seemed ripe to revisit the topic. From a philosophical perspective, two articles, Innovative Consumption from the New Yorker and Why Privacy Matters Even If you have ‘Nothing to Hide’ in the Chronicle of Higher Education, provide a framework for cloud computing, technology, and privacy. It is clear that the convenience of the cloud, the ease of use and access are compelling, but at what cost?

I’m a technologist, and am probably more willing to push the boundaries more than others I know. I started using the then-start-up Mint to manage my finances long before it went mainstream and was purchased by Intuit. Likewise, I happily keep my files in the cloud so that I can easily access the material from any computer including all my mobile devices. It is efficient and effective.

First, let me say I love Dropbox and often recommend [use this link please] the service to all my friends and colleagues. Second, I do have an awareness of privacy and do attempt to take adequate steps to address this with the services I use. I also use a unique (and long) password for just about every site I use on the internet. Since I love Google too, I know that a ton of my data is out there for harvesting. For me, the most important thing to remember is that once content reaches the digital realm, especially how most people use it, we have to assume that it could be compromised at some point. If something is that important or private, don’t put it in the cloud without the appropriate security.

This is where my discourse switches from philosophy to reality. I have files on Dropbox that are of a highly personal nature. Financial and personnel records that should remain confidential. Yes, it is true that Dropbox encrypts my content, which is great, but they hold the keys. So what is the solution?

A product called TrueCrypt is an open source, on the fly, encryption solution. It’s reasonably easy to use and works with Dropbox. With TrueCrypt, I can create a virtual encrypted disk that can be stored on Dropbox and mounted on my computer when I need to use the content. The encrypted disk can be of any size I wish (within the confines of my Dropbox account size). The encrption is controlled by me and it uses the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) cryptographic algorith that may be used by US federal departments and agencies to cryptographically protect sensitive information. TrueCrypt uses AES with 14 rounds and a 256-bit key (i.e., AES-256). Most likely it would take hundreds of years to crack this.

So, fear not. Use the cloud to store your files, have an automatic backup, and use TrueCrypt to protect the sensitive material.

What are your thoughts on privacy and use the cloud?

P.S. – I have recently attempted to use an older encrypted volume of mine and have forgotten my password. This is the downside of AES-256…I have to remember it or will never recover that content. I need to take that drug from Limitless because it’s in my brain somewhere!

Many managers may feel they don’t have the time (or perhaps inclination) to explore and use technology in order to be more efficient. In my experience as a manager, I’ve found a set of tools that put me out in front of the technology pack, provide me with more efficient methods for communication, and demonstrate an engaging and collaborative work environment. Though I happen to be a library manager, there is no reason why these tools couldn’t provide the same results to other types of managers.

Better Communication

No matter your age, it’s important to embrace new communication technologies. In particular, I’ve found text messaging and instant messaging to be highly effective in working with my staff. Most likely your organization has an instant messaging tool. Are you using it? Text messaging is particularly useful if you have a younger staff (under 40) and there are tools such as Group Me that lets you group message. By integrating around Google products such as gVoice, gMail, and gDocs managers have the ability to have a personal database with all the communication and document resources in one place. For example, collaborative work functions very well using Google Docs because it’s an anytime/anywhere solution with built in tracking. Do you post your email address on invoices and other communication from the organization?

In addition to tools that help you communicate and collaborate more effectively, managers should embrace the use of social media to stay informed and stay connected with the profession. The big players, who aren’t going away any time soon, are Facebook and Twitter. Have you taken the time to learn these tools and apply them professionally? In my career, these tools are one of my primary sources of professional development. [Read more →]

As a community college librarian, I’ve often experienced that it’s just go, go, go from day one of the semester. We do what we know because it’s easy and less time intensive.  Finding space for experimentation doesn’t always appear. Then, every once a while, something comes along where we can stop and consider the possibility. I’m at one of those moments thanks to a colleague at Santa Barbara City College.

Consider the possibility of framing critical thinking and 21st century literacy within the framework of blogging. It’s not really a new idea, nor a very innovative idea, but today I was afforded the opportunity to see what it might be like. I was invited to an English class, one level below college English, that has been using blogging this semester to share their writing. The professor asked me to come to the class and use blogs to open a discussion on critical thinking. There wasn’t really a “research” component to the visit, just more of a discussion. I was invited because we were recently talking about blogging and I had shared some recent research on the topic (see Beyond Peer Reviewed Articles)

The class was fun. It was interactive. It was informative. It was relaxed. It was engaging. And I’d love to do it again.

I’ve taught social media independently of my librarian role, and have definitely included elements from the social media landscape within the framework of my traditional library instruction sessions. This English class felt different. This felt richer. This felt more appropriate to student learning. We can all see the content landscape shifting and students need these skills to understand, think, and navigate effectively. Faculty need to embrace it.

This was my first time with this format, and I only prepared a most basic framework (links) for the discussion. I’d like to do this again with other classes. So much valuable content is provided using blogging foundations – even from traditional media sources. How can students capitalize on this content? How can faculty learn to embrace this content as appropriate for learning?

Today is the first day of school for my 7-year old daughter.

We have two children, ages seven and ten, who have been homeschooled their entire lives. Since our older child was very young, our intention was to homeschool them for as long as it seemed feasible and right. During the last ten years, the homeschool approach to learning connected with our values, and has become a part of who we are as a family. We have built a community around this life-learning. Homeschooling provides flexibility that you can’t find in a traditional school environment. Homeschooling provides for our family to remain a tight community. Homeschooling allows the children to learn what they find interesting, at the time they are interested in the topic. Homeschooling provides a method to learning that doesn’t force learning to the most common dominator. Homeschooling doesn’t teach children how to stand in line, doesn’t rely on exhausted teachers who must follow the state “standards” for learning (not saying that my wife Leslie doesn’t get exhausted).

Though there is great joy and enrichment from homeschooling, it hasn’t been without struggle, frustration, and difficulty – both for the children and for the parents. The two learners have different needs and different styles. Perhaps it hasn’t servered both the children in the same manner due to their different personalities. Further, our son has moderate special needs and demands a great deal of focus and attention. From time to time, we sit down and assess if we are moving in the right direction; to see what is working and what isn’t working. A lot of the issues surround our son and his needs.

Ironically, our little village of Ojai has about 14 schools in the area. Most of them are private boarding schools. Last month Leslie decided to make an appointment to visit the Montessori School of Ojai. I took the day off work and went to observe the classrooms and meet the teachers. Of all the types of schools we have available, this school appears to be the most flexible with integrating different children together by grouping ages (a homeschool value), providing flexibility in how often our children attend, and having open enrollment. They also have a scholarship program to assist with the tuition. The class sizes are very small and the teachers have a long history with the school. Children can be learning at different levels in the same classroom. For example, a children could be reading “above” grade-level and writing “below” grade level and that isn’t a problem.

So our grand experiment begins today. There is about six weeks remaining in their school year and we hope this will give us a chance to experience having children in school. If it works well, then we may continue it next year. This is a significant change for us and involves a lot of letting go of ideas. It’s a great opportunity for me to practice the vows I’ve taken to be open and not attached to views. Who knows what the future may hold. Please send us your support and loving energy, both for Leslie and the children.

Next week: my son’s first day of school.