Lijit Search
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Excerpted from Between Silence and Light: Spirit in the Architecture of Louis I. Kahn by John Lobell, published by Shambhala Publications.
Read by Tom Livingston: "I'm an architect in my 35th year of practice in Alaska."
An Alaskan since Statehood, Tom enjoys engaging Alaska while skiing,
biking, fishing and hiking. Jan, his wife of 37 years, and their
daughter Annie lend much-appreciated support to his lifelong pursuit of
fine architecture. Two organizations he is involved with: the Aurora Waldorf School and Anchorage Youth Symphony.
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Architect Louis Kahn was greatly influenced by the ancient architecture of Italy, Egypt, and Greece. In this passage, he explores the "beginnings," a recurring theme in his work.
"The wall did well for man. In its thickness and its strength, it protected man against destruction. But soon, the will to look out made man make a hole in the wall, and the wall was pained, and said, 'What are you doing to me? I protected you; I made you feel secure -- and now you put a hole through me!' And man said, 'But I see wonderful things, and I want to look out.' And the wall felt very sad.
Later man didn't just hack a hole through a wall, but made a discerning opening, one trimmed with fine stone, and he put a lintel over the opening. And soon the wall felt pretty well.
Consider also the momentous event in architecture when the wall parted and the column became."
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Taken from Ability Development from Age Zero by Shinichi Suzuki, published by Ability Development Associates, Inc.
Read by Melissa Bledsoe Fischer: "I'm a professional jazz musician here in Anchorage and a proud mother of four." An Anchorage jazz diva, Melissa is a pianist/vocalist with over 25 years of professional music experience. With 4 CDs to her name, she has established herself as one of Anchorage's premiere performers. Link to her website: www.jazzmom.net.
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In Ability Development from Age Zero, Shinichi Suzuki describes telling a violin student:
'"Stop playing the violin for one week. There is something you must learn besides the violin. It is the spirit of doing things for other people. ... To begin with, pick up your friend's books when they have fallen.... Live by looking for things to do for other people. This is your homework for the week."
[The student asked] "...what does doing things for other people have to do with violin practice?" ...
"When listening to your performance, I could clearly feel that you were self-centered in your heart. If your heart is set to work for others, then your mind should be able to work more sensitively in an expanded world. If you do so, then more abundant, delicately beautiful expressions will enter your performance. ..."
... art becomes higher as humans develop higher. ...great talent and a deep, beautiful feeling in the heart are closely tied together."'
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Taken from The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families by Stephen R. Covey, published by St. Martin's Griffin.
Contributed by Kate Nasse of San Francisco. Read by Dick LaFever: "My wife Mary, a music teacher, tells me the rests, or spaces between notes, are essential, even more so than the notes alone. As I become older and, I hope, wiser, I find this to be true in many areas of my life." Dick is a 30-year resident of Alaska, and has traveled to over 100 communities throughout Alaska working with clients. Crossroads Leadership Institute (CLI) provides strategic planning, team building, conflict resolution services, and quality improvement programs for organizations.
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In several of his books, Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, mentions this experience:
"...many years ago when I was in Hawaii on a sabbatical, I was wandering through some stacks of books in the back of a college library. A particular book drew my interest, and as I flipped through the pages, my eyes fell on a single paragraph that was so compelling, so memorable, so staggering that it has profoundly influenced the rest of my life.
In that paragraph were three sentences that contained a single powerful idea:
Between stimulus and response, there is a space.
In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response.
In our response lies our growth and our happiness.
I cannot begin to describe the effect that idea had on me. I was overwhelmed by it. I reflected on it again and again. I reveled in the freedom of it."
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Taken from Do Alaska Native People Get Free Medical Care*?, UAA/APU 2008-09 Books of the Year Companion Reader, edited by Libby Roderick.
Read by Larry Merculieff, a contributing writer. Larry is an Aleut from St. Paul Island and has served in a number of leadership capacities locally, nationally, and internationally, working on indigenous issues and the environment. Currently Larry is an independent consultant and deputy director of the Alaska Native Science Commission.
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Do Alaska Native People Get Free Medical Care*? is the companion reader for UAA and APU's Books of the Year, from which this passage is taken.
'"Traditional ways of knowing" and "traditional knowledge and wisdom" are western terms that have evolved out of a gradual awareness on the part of western scientists and researchers that Alaska's Native peoples are experts about their environments and embody worldviews critical to the human future.
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Because their lives have depended on the natural world for at least ten thousand years, Alaska's Native peoples have traditionally been trained to observe the subtlest changes in wildlife and environment, and are therefore often aware of trends and anomalies in their regions far in advance of the western scientific community. No other peoples in the world, and no science, can replicate what Alaska Native Elders and cultures know and understand about their immediate environments and the wildlife that breed in their areas.'
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Taken from The Book of Qualities by J. Ruth Gendler, published by Turquoise Mountain Publications.
Read by Barbara Hood: "In a democracy, each of us has the power to help shape the world around us. But finding our power and the courage to use it doesn't always come easily." Barbara Hood is Communications Counsel for the Alaska Court System, where her duties include advancing law-related education and civic learning in Alaska. Barbara is also a member of the Alaska Legislature's Citizen's Advisory Task Force on Civics Education, which issued recommendations for improving civic learning in the state in February 2008.
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In The Book of Qualities, J. Ruth Gendler tells the stories of 74 human attributes. This is the story of Power:
"Power made me a coat. For a long time I kept it in the back of my closet. I didn't like to wear it much but I always took good care of it. When I first started wearing it again, it smelled like mothballs. As I wore it more, it started fitting better, and stopped smelling like mothballs.
I was afraid if I wore the coat too much someone would want to take it or else I would accidentally leave it in the ... dressing room. But it has my name on the label now and it doesn't really fit anyone else. When people ask me where I found such a becoming garment, I tell them about the tailor who knows how to make coats that you grow into. First, you have to find the courage to approach him and ask him to make your coat. Then, you must find the patience inside yourself to wear the coat until it fits."
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