Ask Dr. Druid . Day 34 . Rats, Ice Cream, Pigs, Granny, & Gandhi

 

Ask Dr. Druid . Day 34

Rats, Ice Cream, Pigs, Granny, & Gandhi

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    Ah, mnemonic devices .. When you need a restorative spate of recreation, play with mnemonic(knee-mahn-ik)devices. A mnemonic device is some nifty trick so you can remember something. A lifetime later I still remember A Rat In Tom’s House Might Eat Tom’s Ice Cream as the mnemonic device whose first letters spell arithmetic. George Eaton’s Old Grandmother Rode A Pig Home Yesterday spells geography. Muy yum (the only palindrome I ever invented – a palindrome meaning that it reads the same backwards as forward, the most famous probably being ‘Madam, I’m Adam.’)

   The enduring quality of a mnemonic device speaks in miniature to the astonishing power of story to the human brain – we really prefer stories to crack or even chocolate. The rat sentence is a tiny story in which we rather gleefully & shiverally fear that a Rat might be stalking Tom’s ice cream.  Then there’s George Eaton, Granny, & the pig. It is this bardic, storyness that makes us rich – those who spend their time accumulating paltry bottomlines wear emperor’s clothes. Stories don’t rust or get stolen or shame your lucred soul.  

     My doggèd pal who wanders the Earth with her Teach Peace sign sent me the following mnemonic device for remembering Gandhi’s 9 steps for decreasing violence, increasing non-violence or conducting cooperation. Gandhi was very practical, not mystical. In this case, the first letters highlight a key word in the practical steps or seeds that increase cooperation on our sure if zigzagging path to peace.

   

 Dancing Penguins Should Have Long Nights Doing Fancy Polkas

1. (D) Define the conflict.

2. (P) It isn’t you against me .. it’s you and me against the problem .. the problem is the problem.

3. (S)  List the things we do share. Need for food, shelter, water, safety, & art, for instance. Need cats too.

4. (H) Don’t ask antagonists for the self-justifying ‘What happened?’ Ask for a factual list of ‘What did you do?’

5. (L) Practice active Listening Skills..not passive brooding sullen hearing.

6. (N) Resolve conflict in a neutral  place. Treaties are not made on the battlefield. Too toxic & hot there.

7. (D) Proceed with doable steps. Don’t try to swallow the pumpkin whole..Have a single piece of pie to start.

8. (F) Practice forgiveness skills, not vengeance skills. Go quickly to neutral..on the way to eventual forgiveness.

9. (P) Purify my heart. Purify my own heart. Easy to see stubborn flaws, lousy attitude, & blindness of others…  

[10. Practice active Laughing skills. Sweet sweet irony cools the melon. This is a bonus step.]  

..adapted from pp.40-41 Colman McCarthy I’d Rather Teach Peace

….!!…

These steps unfurled show you can teach peace indeed! I hope you'll copy the little piece & send it along to people. Some folks put it on their websites. I’ll gloss this more or meringue this more soon. Am too sleepy at the mo. Whatever time of the 1440/86400 (minutes or seconds of your daynight) this finds you deliciously in, don’ let the 12-ft-tall lizards getcha down. The poets and the poetry-eyed do win. Because we’re more fun, & the multi-verse or many-poem place finds calculating success in money bizarre. Eat lots of buttered toast.

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Notes:

. muy yum .. muy is very in Spanish (pron mmmwhee); yum for yummy;

. lucred . verb coin from lucre, ill-gotten gain; In the 16th century, Tyndale translated a slur re money in the Christian bible as ‘filthy lucre,’ giving it the cast we feel today.

. 12-ft-tall lizards .. There is a group on an island somewhere that is convinced that those greedy leaders of today who extol the corporate over the person are really 12-ft-tall lizards in disguise. The notion has an undoubted resonance and is divinely droll at the very least.

.   

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Ask Dr. Druid, 66 Days from Lead to Gold, Secrets of  Alchemy You Can Use, a druid shaman’s playbook .. Intro; Prologue; Day 1; Days 2 & 3; Day 4; Day 5; Day 6; Day 7; Day 8; Day 9; Day 10; Day 11; Day 12; Day 13; Day 14; day 15 Review 2; Day 16; Day 17; Day 18; Day 19; Day 20; Day 21; Day 22; Day 23; Day 24; Day 25; Day 26; Day 27; Day 28; Day 29; Day 30; Day 31; Day 32; Day 33; Day 34;

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If you know or are an agent, aspiring agent, editor, or publisher person who would handle this kind of druid material, please let me know at .. askdrdruid@gmail.com. Please put ‘agent’ in the subject line.

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.. keep your heart bright. beauty is rising.

.for bombadilobo & diablobo.

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the education-obsessed world begins today with you ..

.. let’s spend the $820,000 per minute Military-Corporate Budget on education instead ..

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4 thoughts on “Ask Dr. Druid . Day 34 . Rats, Ice Cream, Pigs, Granny, & Gandhi

  1. I'm working on getting these Dancing Penguin steps embedded in the grey matter. The mnemonic trick really does help. I go over it waiting at stoplights with the little cheat sheet I scribbled to carry with me.

  2. Droll cl. I'm juggling HWP & WPE today. History's Worst President & Worst President Ever.
    iotas, Gandhi's Steps would be kinder & finer on the stone tablets than the Grumpy Prohibitions. Worth embedding in the gray matter indeed. Thanks for reminding me of the stoplight/cheatsheet. We'll send one to cl.

  3. I'm interested in that idea in #8 of going to neutral on the way to forgiveness. I'm not sure I can get to forgiveness on the nuclear betrayals, but I might be able to close in on neutral.

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