As I was watching three of the “key-player” boys play, I began to wonder about the details surrounding this group’s fascination with the concept of “baby.” They bring it up in all different ways, and they play a variety of games surrounding the concept.
Today, as I arrived, they were playing a game that involved lying under a table yelling the word “baby” repeatedly at a very high volume at a person lying on the top of the table. I inquired about the game and they explained that when someone goes to sleep, they start to yell “baby” as an “alarm clock” to wake the person up. They continued to play their game.
I began to think about how this group had formed their own meaning for the concept of “baby.” There was an entire social context formed around it. Together with other concepts for which they have created meaning for, they have created their own culture, in a sense.
By the time I had graduated college, the majority of my professional experience had been within the field of youth education; and I had mostly worked with ages 5 through 18. My endeavor in this field was to empower youth and inspire them to be creative, confident, self-sufficient yet interdependent and compassionate individuals. During my time at Pomona, I decided to focus most of my academic time learning about the social and environmental injustice that takes place on a daily basis around the world. Because I am one of those hippy-dippy souls who desires that humankind live in prosperity, peace and love, I was always thinking about what I could do, career-wise, to help humanity’s larger body come into a healthy homeostasis state of being. My mind would come to several solutions, but one stood out amongst them all, and although it would take time, it seemed to be the most effective, that is – educate the people! More importantly, educate the children! Luckily, I had a whole bunch of experience in this arena, so it would seem my life would come together somehow after all.
My new endeavor in the field of youth education is only an expansion of the old; and it is really to help humanity see – so to speak. Help humanity see our oneness, our infinite being, our abundant nature. We have chosen to live in a state of fear and scarcity for so long, and though it is neither good nor bad, it has served its purpose, we have learned those lessons, and it is time for a new beginning, a rebirth. To do this, we need to rediscover our vastness, our immense power.
Today, as I arrived, they were playing a game that involved lying under a table yelling the word “baby” repeatedly at a very high volume at a person lying on the top of the table. I inquired about the game and they explained that when someone goes to sleep, they start to yell “baby” as an “alarm clock” to wake the person up. They continued to play their game.
I began to think about how this group had formed their own meaning for the concept of “baby.” There was an entire social context formed around it. Together with other concepts for which they have created meaning for, they have created their own culture, in a sense.
By the time I had graduated college, the majority of my professional experience had been within the field of youth education; and I had mostly worked with ages 5 through 18. My endeavor in this field was to empower youth and inspire them to be creative, confident, self-sufficient yet interdependent and compassionate individuals. During my time at Pomona, I decided to focus most of my academic time learning about the social and environmental injustice that takes place on a daily basis around the world. Because I am one of those hippy-dippy souls who desires that humankind live in prosperity, peace and love, I was always thinking about what I could do, career-wise, to help humanity’s larger body come into a healthy homeostasis state of being. My mind would come to several solutions, but one stood out amongst them all, and although it would take time, it seemed to be the most effective, that is – educate the people! More importantly, educate the children! Luckily, I had a whole bunch of experience in this arena, so it would seem my life would come together somehow after all.
My new endeavor in the field of youth education is only an expansion of the old; and it is really to help humanity see – so to speak. Help humanity see our oneness, our infinite being, our abundant nature. We have chosen to live in a state of fear and scarcity for so long, and though it is neither good nor bad, it has served its purpose, we have learned those lessons, and it is time for a new beginning, a rebirth. To do this, we need to rediscover our vastness, our immense power.
If my ultimate goal is to empower humanity so that together we are able to recognize our oneness and thrive as a whole, then, I felt, I should get a good sense of how we operate as a species in relation to ourselves, one another and our environment. This was and remains my mentality in working with the youngsters (ages 3 months to 5 years). My agenda in choosing to work amongst the little ones is to gain a hands-on, human development learning experience; to see how humans naturally grow and learn to be self-sufficient individuals as well as active and interdependent community members; and to see how differences in culture and conditioning can affect our diverse, multicultural relationships. I feel that through this process I am able to more clearly understand how humans learn to relate and respond to their environment and it's many layers. Thus, I would be better suited to help people face and accept their fears, then turn them into fuel to drive their passion, and in the process, rediscover their power and break free from the bonds of conditioned mental slavery. In the words of the great Bob Marley, we must emancipate ourselves from mental slavery, for, none but ourselves can free out minds.
So, here I am, teaching preschool, watching these three boys play the “baby game” and Eureka! Suddenly it all makes more sense. (This happens more and more often now, it’s nice!) I realized that the group that I am with, the Moon Beams, has such a strong group dynamic, they have socialized themselves with respect to each other so well, that they have been able to create their own meaning for symbols and language within their social context and group. The word “baby” means something different to the Moon Beams as it does to you or me. Something vastly different. To them, this word symbolizes something that I cannot easily define, for it is completely contextual. Like the words “fuck” or “crazy.” There are times when it means something closer to the “baby” that I know, but it is completely dependent on the context.
This thought ran into another realization that we humans continue perpetuate this cycle, create meaning, fairly arbitrarily, depending on their social (environmental) context, throughout our lives. And at each stage in our development, we continue to create and re-create meaning in order to make sense of the world around us. The meaning continuously changes, especially depending on the social context that we find ourselves in, but most noticeably, with each age. As the years pass, those individuals within our age bracket, which can span from exact year to generation to the “era that we are all alive in” (so to speak) creates meaning as a whole for the context that we are in (which would explain why words like “gay” and “cool” have evolved from one meaning to another). At each age, the same thing is occurring, but the situation and relationships (the context) become more complex.
So, here I am, teaching preschool, watching these three boys play the “baby game” and Eureka! Suddenly it all makes more sense. (This happens more and more often now, it’s nice!) I realized that the group that I am with, the Moon Beams, has such a strong group dynamic, they have socialized themselves with respect to each other so well, that they have been able to create their own meaning for symbols and language within their social context and group. The word “baby” means something different to the Moon Beams as it does to you or me. Something vastly different. To them, this word symbolizes something that I cannot easily define, for it is completely contextual. Like the words “fuck” or “crazy.” There are times when it means something closer to the “baby” that I know, but it is completely dependent on the context.
This thought ran into another realization that we humans continue perpetuate this cycle, create meaning, fairly arbitrarily, depending on their social (environmental) context, throughout our lives. And at each stage in our development, we continue to create and re-create meaning in order to make sense of the world around us. The meaning continuously changes, especially depending on the social context that we find ourselves in, but most noticeably, with each age. As the years pass, those individuals within our age bracket, which can span from exact year to generation to the “era that we are all alive in” (so to speak) creates meaning as a whole for the context that we are in (which would explain why words like “gay” and “cool” have evolved from one meaning to another). At each age, the same thing is occurring, but the situation and relationships (the context) become more complex.
By the time we are adults, we have become so accustom to this pattern of growth, that we no longer see our selves as a part of it (it is questionable as to whether or not we ever saw ourselves as a par of “it” in the first place). It simply is, and that 'is' becomes our reality. And we created that reality, we created that meaning – arbitrarily nonetheless – most of us without even realizing it. If you think about it, if there were a tangible stage of growth beyond the adult stage of the human life (which I believe that there is…and perhaps we will be reassured soon enough), then we clearly see that the main difference between adults and children, is the complexity of the drama and the ability to cope with the stress that ensues. For, we all do the same thing – we create meaning for the world and make that our reality. Here I am creating mine. I have been talking about starting a blog for a few years now, finally today, after contemplating the word “baby” I decided - There’s no time like the present and on the first break I got, I started writing.
Inevitably, I hope to write much more about what I believe and less about my personal life, although I acknowledge that in a holographic and fractal universe, who can really tell where one ends and another begins? When you get down to the nitty-gritty, there really is no difference. As for what I believe, we are beginning to realize the part we play in the creation of our own reality. I believe that we are ready to come together as a whole and, like all of the cells that make up each of our individual amazing bodies, work together to create a present that is fulfilling and healthy for all. I decided to start something today, something that I hope will fuel the movement to consciously make that evolutionary leap into our greater body, Our body, Our Self.
I believe that our mother is in labor and that we are at the dawn of the rebirth of humanity as a whole; as One. As such, we may be experiencing some turbulence currently in our lives as we begin to really question why we get out of bed each day and whether or not what we are doing is really worth it. You know what I mean. The actual birth of a baby is a beautiful thing, but it is a pretty messy ordeal to start with. Just like a room that gets dirtier before it gets cleaned, during the birthing process, the worst part of it comes just before the miracle, then, by some trick of the universe, there is a whole lotta messy stuff that comes along with the miracle. Stuff that has to be washed away and let go. While the baby takes her first breath, she is covered in the remnants of her recent past and distracted by stark difference of her new environment. All the mother feels is immense love for her newborn miracle. As the umbilical cord is forcefully severed, the struggle of the birth (two worlds clashing) is left behind. The newborn need not struggle to get nourishment from - or hold on to - her old surroundings, for it will no longer serve her; and if she does fight to hold on to the past, both mother and child will die.
Inevitably, I hope to write much more about what I believe and less about my personal life, although I acknowledge that in a holographic and fractal universe, who can really tell where one ends and another begins? When you get down to the nitty-gritty, there really is no difference. As for what I believe, we are beginning to realize the part we play in the creation of our own reality. I believe that we are ready to come together as a whole and, like all of the cells that make up each of our individual amazing bodies, work together to create a present that is fulfilling and healthy for all. I decided to start something today, something that I hope will fuel the movement to consciously make that evolutionary leap into our greater body, Our body, Our Self.
I believe that our mother is in labor and that we are at the dawn of the rebirth of humanity as a whole; as One. As such, we may be experiencing some turbulence currently in our lives as we begin to really question why we get out of bed each day and whether or not what we are doing is really worth it. You know what I mean. The actual birth of a baby is a beautiful thing, but it is a pretty messy ordeal to start with. Just like a room that gets dirtier before it gets cleaned, during the birthing process, the worst part of it comes just before the miracle, then, by some trick of the universe, there is a whole lotta messy stuff that comes along with the miracle. Stuff that has to be washed away and let go. While the baby takes her first breath, she is covered in the remnants of her recent past and distracted by stark difference of her new environment. All the mother feels is immense love for her newborn miracle. As the umbilical cord is forcefully severed, the struggle of the birth (two worlds clashing) is left behind. The newborn need not struggle to get nourishment from - or hold on to - her old surroundings, for it will no longer serve her; and if she does fight to hold on to the past, both mother and child will die.
So it is that with a quick snip, the birthing process comes to an end. The baby calms and accepts her new surroundings as she is comforted by her loving mother. The Earth is our mother and we are her child. Let us love our mother, and let her love us - that is all that we must do in order to flow through this transition with ease and grace - that is all that we have to do in order to be reborn as One and thrive as a human race.
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