ABRAM

In the book: The spell of the sensuous by Abram, i enjoy the overall tone of nature and understanding it closer.  It's obvious that the world, the earth, recycles itself.  It gives what we need, and takes what it needs.  It's a beautiful relationship set up by God in my opinion.  However, sometimes it seems that the earth gives more and receives less; hence, we don't do our part to give back to mother earth like we should.  We are so busy, it takes a class like this for us to even realize that we are among those people who don't pay attention.  What wonderful things there are for un to enjoy, learn and express about the earth in which provides for us.  I believe that one of Abram's arguments is that we all just need to try to tie our own self, each and everyone of us, to the fact that the world is colorful. A place in which nature can teach us as much about itself, as it can teach us about our own uniqueness.

Indigenous people lived in a different time.  These people took what they needed to take care of themselves and to feed their families.  Do we, as humans today, not do the same thing?  Is it a curse that we put on nature, or the earth itself, because we have moved on from the bow and arrow?  We have evolved into what we are now.  Humans are what we do.  How, could we now, or ever, even think about receding instead of moving forward?  It's in our nature to grow stronger and smarter.  However, this doesn't mean that the planet will continue to recycle itself without our help.  The earth has the potential to be a place that provides for mankind for ever.  Unfortunately, this is not going to happen without the help of man.  There appears to be a detachment from the natural world.  True, but westerners specifically?  What about the infested, plagued, traffic jammed, polluted places in the East?  Are they really grasping Abrams' concept better than we are?  I'm not so sure.  We experience through language and perception.  This is a call to a knew way of thinking.

I appreciated everything about this class and how it opened up my eyes with the brief trips and tours around our little city.  It was engaging and creative.  I've lived here for thirty four years and can't say i would ever be in any hurry to live anywhere else.  I really enjoyed playing the role of " extreme novice, amateur, wish i knew what i was doing," camera/video guy.  This is something i know 10 yr. olds are doing these days.  However, like the indigenous people of old; as we passed them up with technology through time, so does the the 10 yr. old pass up some of us less technically advanced college students.  -IM