Mystery & Delight

Welcome!

“Life is a mystery, but people want to reduce it to a problem.” – Osho

A few days ago I awoke to read this as an “update” from an Astrologer who I am linked to on LINKEDIN.   Trusting only my excitement -no clue who Osho is- turns out a somewhat controversial Indian Guru –Rajneesh- I decided to book my second ever astrology appointment.

Ran into two Medical Doctors this week too, a pulmonary specialist and an ob gyn.  I verbally explained this Blog project three times (good practice) and learned about “Variable Analysis” – a thing doctors do to try to understand causation.  Is there a direct link between smoking and lung disease?  I don’t know let’s look at other confounding variables to be sure the link is real….  How do we precede at a birth?  How are decisions made at this most intense moment?  These are the conversations I was lucky to have this week.  In fact the Ob Gyn is remarkably brilliant, has passed the FLEX exam for foreign doctors who want to work in the US, and will need to redo years of residency here.   Now that shows commitment!

So where is this going… Mystery, Delight, Doctors & Astrologers?  What’s the connection? 

Maybe doctors and astrologists both share a great passion for mystery and the complexities of their work.  Maybe both delight in their detective work.  The deeper they go the more complexity they find.  One cause being intrinsically interconnected with many others….  

Teasing out variables, trying to solve the mysteries of disease or how to best proceed at a birth.  If, then, if not, then… Astrologers, weighing moving parts in a giant archetypal playground called the universe, trying to connect the individual with the archetypal meanings and forces of the planets. A predictive system in its own right….

Are medical doctors and astrologists really so different when it comes to their relationship to thinking? 

And is school a place where mystery is celebrated?  Do teachers allow students to see that the mystery of life requires simplification for the classroom, but the deeper you go the more you see, hear, feel, sense, observe, know?  Can we inspire curiosity?  A delight in mystery?

Definite intention decided July 14^th 2011 8:25pm: As an educational tool, a K-12 Throughline of Variables Thinking intends to inspire curiosity.  It will do so by teaching as self-evident the continuum of the simple to the complex and the potential of solving mysteries as a root of happy life long work. 

A simple concrete example:  7th graders study metabolism. “Change diet & exercise, in order to see changes in metabolism. Gain or lose weight.  Isolate diet for one week by controlling exercise, then isolate exercise the next week, while controlling diet.”  Chart it.  Explain findings.  Easily take this up a notch in complexity by introducing the idea of additional “confounding variables” and revealing how totally imprecise this experiment would be without exact measurement etc..

A complex concrete example: 12^th graders study “the self.”  “Write a 1-3 page outline response to the question: Who am I?  Consider what makes you you.”  Optional: cite previous readings, conversations or experiences that helped you form your outline.

We talk about helping kids problem solve.  Good!  Inspiring delight in mystery could be a part of that long term equation.

Thanks for reading (more soon.)-L

P.S. Apparently Saturn (how we experience “reality”) has been lining up with my progressed Mercury (reason, common sense).  Terrific news for this thinking project!