See me - Feel me
Ideas in teaching:
SEEING < = > FEELING
Seeing involves a lot more than just your eyesNow we know from the preceding page that there are also receptors in your eye that SEE without light, let's take a closer look at how we see and feel:
'I FEEL uncomfortable' and 'I FEEL at ease' also has all to do with what you see at the moment
When the doctor asks 'How are you' he can see right away that you have fallen out of your bed and you say "Honestly, not great!"
Looking away when you ask someone "How are you?" is generally not a good idea, because you miss a lot of information and (of course) it is impolite. We say it all the time, and all too often we don't even look.
When you are on a bus next to someone you know or you do not know, (don't look) can you FEEL that person's presence? Without looking!
When you are in bed with someone (must have happened to you one time??) Without looking: can you FEEL that person's presence?
Of course, much is happening because you know someone is there, but even than, there is also what you FEEL.
Is it because we have lost part of our ability to FEEL. Could it be that indigenous cultures or or those with an animistic worldview feel more?
Here is one creature that loves to be in my bed, Mientje
Whenever she finds the bedroomdoor open, she eagerly jumps in bed and hurries to find a place under the cover. I know that she is there, I hear her snoring, but we both feel our presence, without doubt. Animals possess a heightened ability to feel.
Here is something to try if you can't sleep:
Lie still in the dark with your eyes closed (don't move!) Try to FEEL every inch of your body, you can really! And it makes you sleep before you know it. Some people call it yoga.
Imagine yourself in the school's gym, it has been made completely dark and you are sitting in the middle on a chair. Now another student is entering the gym and moving around. Of course you try to hear this person but also you try to FEEL this person's presence. Imagine that.
Taking this a little further, because not every gym can be made dark.
You are sitting in the gym on a chair .. and to the back of this chair let's say 50 cm. or so is another chair with someone else in it. Back to back so you can't see each other, but again you FEEL each other's presence. You could even try to communicate, not in words but in feelings.
On the way to school there are a lot of things that you DO NOT see: silly advertising, the trees in a row on the pavement (is that what they call nature?), cars, lots of people you do not know. But what you DO see is when something changes (I hope). Black cat in the street, or worse.
Even from the corner of your eye, stay alert and careful on your bike.
Your class is writing a test and the teacher walks in the class somewhere behind you. I bet you can SEE him/her even without looking!
With the back of your hand stroke your cheek. No, not SCREEECK, it is not to test if you have to shave!
Gently, please do it again. Some people start crying if they do that
I know this has nothing to do with Seeing, I just wanted to see a whole class do it, just for fun ..
Now a little more difficult:
Your teacher is sitting opposite you and has a box with a few objects you can not see. Under the table your teacher gives you one of these items in your hand. Don't look!
First try to feel what it is. It could be a fossil of a million years old. It could be a small part of a roof tile made by the Romans, an arrowhead or a small statue from a family altar, etc. It was made many centuries ago, so it does have a significant meaning. Do you FEEL that? Can you RELATE to its age and to the one who made it??
Give it a try, it is worth it when you are serious about it.
Did you know that drawing something is easier when you have, besides seeing it, have touched it?
Tree hugging is stupid, if you ask me. The tree was there long before you came and will be there probably long after you have gone.
But lying in the grass with a straw in your mouth watching the clouds go by. And that is not stupid?