Smartening up?
To my good friends–
A recent morning in meditation/contemplation I saw that our parks and exhibits give sound bites and dumb down the information they give people. I suspect it is because we have this thing about writing using 6th grade level language and have confused it with the notion of writing to the 6th grade level understanding. If we stretch people in both vocabulary and concept, can we raise both the intellectual and spiritual and consciousness levels? Do we do a disservice by this dumbing down? We learned this lesson in NSAI (statewide a professional association in which I had a leadership role) and grew when we suited our program content to the growing professional rather than to the wannabe. As a society we could learn by this–and grow.
What would it mean? Our parks and museums would have exhibits with blurbs, but also more detailed scientific signs. Perhaps also printed materials that would go deeper. And then give some other aspects of understanding–ways to dance, paint, draw, sculpt the image, as well as mythic and spiritual ways to enter in. We could develop a 4 or 6 part grid showing how the material is understood from a cultural, scientific, arts, mythic, and spiritual standpoint–always drawing people up and out of smaller views to larger.
The danger is that people would see these as separate realms, some of which are higher than others. The antidote might be to draw people into a consideration of what view is large enough to include–and perhaps transcend–them all.
:- Doug.
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