Journey to the East

Journey to the East

We are still on our "Journey to the East"--in fact we will always be on a Journey to the East!

T&T

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School Days...

Ruins of a Vanished Civilization , Aztec, New Mexico.

I was out walking yesterday morning at about seven-thirty--it gets so hot so early here in Redding, CA, that if you don't walk early you don't walk at all because the temperature is soon over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit--anyway I was out fairly early and school has started again or I probably wouldn't have noticed anything--BUT...

We live near a high school.

Now I know high schools. I have worked at them a lot over the years as a teacher--and I attended one many years ago and I know that they don't change very much. You might say they resist change as much as any bedrock bureaucracy you can think of and I think you'd be about right.

Anyway--the street corner where I walk across without hardly pausing when school is out was a flood of automobiles--a river of steel, glass, plastic, rubber and everything else that cars are--barely pausing at the "stop" sign for a pathetic pedestrian--me--to hastily cross.

"WHAT A WASTE!" I thought.

"MAN! What a waste!"

I suddenly thought of all the other high schools across this broad land with all their highly automobilized young patrons all forming a vast stampeding herd of lemming-like consumers on their way to and from school--wasting resources just as fast as they can--and I felt more than slightly sick.

Especially because I know VERY, VERY well that almost ALL of these young people have absolutely NO interest in attending ANY school on ANY day and that what they will learn at their high school is probably not worth knowing anyway!

It is ALL a colossal WASTE!

Now here is a suggestion that NONE of you will like and that will NEVER become reality:

Only conduct high school classes one or two days a week--and only allow young people who prove by their attitude and their scholarship that they will profit from attending classes to be students at these public schools.

See what I mean!

You don't like the idea do you??!

I thought not!

It is NOT what you remember from your high school days--and it is NOT what your parents or grandparents remember from their high school school-days!

But, don't you know--things HAVE changed!

As a global warming expert said yesterday as he described the drowning of polar bears trying to reach northern ice bergs--"We have reached the tipping point!"

In other words: Things will NOT return to normal!

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papier mache masks

Dancing Mask

The "Pilgrim" mask is one of the Dancing Masks for the Redding, CA festival.

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frog in watercress mask

Frog in watercress--Sacramento River Trail

This frog is one of the "Dancing Masks" for the projected folk dances.

I think the Turtle Bay Rainbow Bridge--the "World's Largest Sundial" would be an excellent venue for a yearly series of folk dances--featuring birds, animals and people of the Redding California area.

Since the huge gnoman of the Rainbow Bridge points the absolutely accurate time of the year by the sun--this could be the telling time for the dance series.

A six month-long series of perhaps six annual dances would be good, I think--to begin on December 21--the shortest day of the year--and to end on June 21--the longest day.

This same period is often used by the ancient peoples all over the world for their seasonal dances--and though most of the people in Redding are not the original ancient people of the area--(in terms of anthropological roots they are more usually fairly new transplants)--a series of new folk dances might be enjoyable for them too.

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Dancing Masks

Maggie the Part-time Cat and the Wise Woman Dancing Mask

Several of the papier mache masks I now have displayed at the Redding California Public Library are meant to be "Dancing Masks"--not simple face masks or wall decorations.

These masks may be used in a series of folk dances in Redding--commemorating the changing seasons of the year.

The Wise Woman mask (above) is a character which will appear at every dance.
representing the eternal wisdom of the female--the "great mother" of mythology.

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