True story. I just sat in our lounge in the window seat. It's wooden and pretty uncomfortable, but when I sit there I get all of the sun and none of the cold. It's one of my favorite places on campus.
Anyway, I have been horribly unfaithful to this blog. Sorry. I will attempt to bring you all up to speed on my life.
I think the first noteworthy thing I can tell you about it the Karuna School discusison I went to. Karuna is a sanskrit word that means compassion. The idea behind the Karuna school is that it would be a peace high school. They would teach students to be better in tune with themselves, their emotions, and the world around them. It has a very Buddhist base, which was one of the things we discussed (whether or not that would put people off the school). I was one of five undergrad students present at the discussion. It was completely voluntary, and it was for my Gordie Fellman class. PS, I think he knows my name now (!). The Karuna people wanted younger students there who remembered high school more clearly so we could talk about what was good and bad about our high school experiences. I talked about G (world's most awesome theatre teacher, for all you noobs out there) and how wonderful my theatre class was. G gave us so much control over our productions. That was one of the things the Karuna people liked;giving students a hand in their educaiton. I feel like the Karuna school discussion was one of the reasons I went to college. Being in a room full of people young and old who are determined to change the status quo. It was really neat.
Moving on...Friday my War and Possibilities of Peace class had an Israeli soldier as a guest speaker. It was one of the most intense discussions I have ever been a part of. The guy, Ben, was a sergeant and he was 29. My only experience wiht anyone in the military is my friend Alex who most of you know is in basic training for the army. So when Ben started talking abuot these young boys who are being asked to go fight and die to protect their homes, I was tearing up. Then Ben opened the class up for questions. EXPLOSION. Well first of all, before any discussions of Israel/Palestine are opened at Brandeis, the moderator has to remind people to stay civil. With so many Jews and Israelis on our campus, people get very heated about this topic. So it was probably a bad idea to have a soldier in a peace class, but the discussion was fascinating. If terrifying. There were at least 4 Israelis in the class and two of them were in tears and between them and Gordie, Ben had it coming from all sides. Gordie jumped down his throat, and the whole class is anti-war. I don't feel like I know enough to state an opinion, so I was just caught in the emotional rollercoaster. Soooooo intense.
The weekend doesn't bear mentioning. It's over.
If anyone needs a good read, try Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh. SO GOOD. And it's short. Very Buddhist. Very AWESOME.
Love to all!!!
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YOU are very awesome!!!! And THAT is all I have to say for the moment!! xoxoxo
ReplyDeletemom
The solider session must have been super intense. (Which of course, is what you already said.) I don't know what I would have been like at such a meeting, but I wonder. Sometimes you just don't feel you have anything to offer to such a unique situation, and having an Israeli soldier as a guest would certainly qualify for that in my book. I think I would have probably said little, and just absorbed it all. (Not that I'm suggesting there was anything wrong with what any of your classmates did or anything.)
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