mnemonic devices .. I was so flayed again today by the galloping greed of the 12 ft lizards, the have mores, who are hoovering any confident pursuit of happiness from 90% of their fellows, that I needed a restorative spate of recreation 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 chocolate. The rat sentence is a tiny story. 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.
My fat pal who wanders the Earth with her Teach Peace sign sent me the 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.
=============
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…
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” />[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 & paste 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 lizards getcha down. We 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.
======
copyright http://pogblog.myblogsite.com 2005
. ./ 6 Death . Cimi tzolkin 6 06.07.05 2:31:30 am montues
ff .. for fuller, siempre y todo
Mr. Pogblog,
I think I read somewhere about some woman who wanders the streets with a Teach Peace sign. She's done it virtually every day for the last two years. If I had a fable request, that might be it.
How do we create our own comments, rather than just reply to
someone else's comments. Pass the meatloaf.
Kim
Kim, In order to Post a Comment rather than Reply, you must have Created Your Reader Account (a one-time thing); and Signed In (which you obviously already did). Then at the top of the Comment Section, as an example, you'll see your screen Say Post a comment with earlier comments below it. To start your own Comment, click on that Post a comment, not the Reply under the already existing Comment.
If this isn