Talk

I'm just posting random ramblings to hopefully organize into a chapel talk that I am to give at school next week.

- I need to relay my "educational experience" from burning man.
- I always try to say too much on too wide a variety of topics, because this is precious time.
- We faculty spent 2 hours learning that we need to engage our students by "effectively" walking around the classroom, paying attention to our students, and periodically finding out what they know. The magic is to be found in how we apply the term "effectively".
-can lessons be provided or learned simply by asking questions?
-can a talk be given effectively by only asking questions?
-give out the 500 pvc flutes I didn't get done in time for burning man.
-compare burning man "gifting" to the gifts for Magi and the gifts of Christmas and the Gift of Life.
-compare the Webb uniform to the implied uniform of the Burning Man public works crew.
-there is beauty in both organized sound (music) and chaotic sound (leaves rustling)
-there is beauty in the pvc fife melody and in the sound they make when dropped on the floor
-incorporate the Art II projects into a Burning Man presentation, have them dance around while I burn a candle on my head.
-"Christmas Song" by Jethro Tull
-Why are folks welcomed "Home" to Black Rock City?
-What makes this temporary community "home"?
-Is it family?
-Is it love?
-Is it the "Ten Principles":?

Ten Principles

Radical Inclusion
Anyone may be a part of Burning Man. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.

Gifting
Burning Man is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.

Decommodification
In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.

Radical Self-reliance
Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.

Radical Self-expression
Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.

Communal Effort
Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.

Civic Responsibility
We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.

Leaving No Trace
Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.

Participation
Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.

Immediacy
Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.

- Is it the idea of unconditional acceptance?