Excerpts from 512 Project - Cultural Elements

[Music] I said why is it that the number 1/8 means something you know why is it that at 1/8 suddenly I'm expected to be a certain way all my freedom is lost I don't get to be free to follow my heart and do my own thing but my friend here who is 1/6 gets to have all the time to do whatever he wants and so he's getting better at these skills but he doesn't even know what he has cuz I'm 1/8 and I got to work to pay for my own truck he's 1/6 and he doesn't you know like what is it with that you know and then it certainly it paints that picture you know we actually do have expectations that are age-related and in this culture of allowance there is just this willingness to actually look with curiosity really at the fact that this child really accelerates in certain skills while this child doesn't and for the Bushmen it's like they're waiting for the present to be open you know like oh that's so interesting that this one's doing this and this one was doing that but it has no value associated with it it's just that one is this one that one is this one and they're both beautiful and we love them both and aren't they both wonderful I get to be me exactly as I am because there's no expectation of how to be me on the other side of that there's no right way to be me there's no right way to be an adult there's no right way to be a child there's no pressure on me all right that's but it's rare for people to experience that same thing happens with trackers you know you go out to an experience and you're with trackers and you know they're all being rugged individuals and they're all rebellious and doing their thing that this passion but they all are regalia you know and it sometimes shows up in the form of that they've got that thing right on their hip that they can measure with right when you're out with the trackers they they always have some kind of important conservation project on their hat that they're wearing you know it's like a badge I help this bear project and so they got something that identifies that and they want you to ask him about their hat you know they're just waiting because if you ask somebody about the regalia then they got to tell you a story you know and that and that sort of inspires something and it gets this energy moving and you'll notice that when people get to talk about their regalia if they're not being shy or in that moment rude and they drop into that storytelling place they actually get do you see the electricity in their body you see them using their hands in a certain way because if they're passionate about something that they're gonna wear it when they talk about it the electricity Rises in the body and I think this is the link you know to regalia so I went to this high school Christian Brothers Academy which was my first project and I was working with these high school sophomores in an after-school program and anyway and I had spoken about it and he was the co-founder of this project back in 1983 and I said anyway this greeting custom thing we need to build it into the after school program at Christian Brothers and he said yep he said the Akama had a great greeting custom you know the Bushman had a great greeting custom I think that's a good idea so we looked at the at the elements of a greeting custom that I just shared with you and I just presented them to these high school sophomores and I said can you guys come up with a greeting custom that takes about five minutes that will do every Tuesday when we meet first thing when we gather and it has to achieve these things you know it has to make you feel present it has to make you feel safe it has to make you feel great full what do you want to do with that and then we'll go into whatever we're gonna do for the day in this after-school program which was a wilderness awareness school program well they came up with these elements they said well what we should do is sit in a circle so you know because they've been in classrooms all day so they don't like the hierarchy and the feeling of the teacher-student thing they wanted that not to be there even if I was coming to teach they wanted me to be in the circle with them so that we were all equal they want it basically everyone to take turns saying hello something they were grateful for from the day something they really enjoyed from their day and maybe something that was really challenging for them for the day and that they all agreed that they would really be present to hear each other's stories so they wouldn't be thinking about what they were gonna say while that person ahead of them was talking they've tried to be as present as possible okay so at first I didn't understand why this would benefit the nature connection journey for them but a few months into it one day I was sitting listening to the greeting custom happening and I had my eyes closed and my head down and it got to be Ken's turn he was 15 years old he was number one in his class and he said he didn't talk for a minute like so I was listening to voices one right after the other it got to Ken and Ken didn't say anything and there was this pause and before I looked up and opened my eyes to see what was happening tears started flowing from my eyes but I didn't hear anything from him yet but when I open my eyes and looked at him don't you know his eyes are all red and there's tears coming down his cheeks and I'm looking around the circle and several boys he says a sophomore all-boys Catholic High School super competitive in sports this is New Jersey this is not an open warm touchy feeling community okay this is a very you got to suck it up and show you're a man kind of place okay but there's several young men that are have tears coming down their cheeks ken hasn't even spoken yet I just want you to note that for starters then what happens is ken begins to speak kind of swallows his tears and he says I come from one of the best families I'm told I go to one of the best schools in the state and maybe the country I might be the best student in my class because he was number one right and he's talking about all the best things he says but you're the only people who see me for who I really am you're the only ones who let me be me and I love you all so much I will forever be dedicated to this work that we're doing here this is my favorite activity this is the thing I'm gonna give my life to and today he's an environmental lawyer by the way he's in his 40s and he's very successful and then I got it because that boy was so connected to this group of kids so connected to the experience that he gave himself fully to it is there anything that you wouldn't accomplish at a much higher level if you gave yourself fully to it all right he was literally in love with the experience and that was the result of the greeting custom and you're all familiar with it if you had the experience I did in school where the gym teacher would kind of get everyone in the space because it wasn't always a room sometimes it was outside would kind of gather everyone in this mob and say start counting off by threes right 1 2 3 1 2 3 right 1 2 3 1 2 3 and then okay all the ones over here all the twos over here all the threes over here and sometimes didn't even know what you were about to do raise your hand if you remember that experience so you were thrown into what an anthropology they would call a moiety moiety is a funny word it basically means sort of nonspecific groupings to disturb the tendency towards cliquish this yes in them insular behavior right because if you don't check that behavior then you can actually believe yourself you know if it goes unchecked through your teen years and you go into young adulthood then you start to identify with a group of people and then you sort of have anti identity energy towards other groups of people that are different from you so by stirring that up with these nonspecific groupings activities setting things up well those of us in the environmental ed field or you know wilderness adventure guide field whatever that might be whether it's wilderness therapy or just leading kids on you know rites of passage camping experiences or outdoor rec we get to do a lot of you know count off by three type stuff and you get to see with your own eyes the power of direct observation of taking children who don't know each other and putting them into a group and then giving them an activity you

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Length: 9min 31sec (571 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 18 2017