Each One Teach One

Dancer Junaid Jemal Sendi (Ethiopia) 2004/2005 protégé of Saburo Teshigawara (Japan)

Today I learned of the Rolex Mentor & Protégé Arts Initiative award that connects creative people of many genres. Masters like playwright Wole Soyinka, opera diva Jessye Norman, musician Youssou Ndour, novelist Toni Morrison and many others from all over the world passing along their memory, vision, technique and encouragement to a new generation is exciting, not to mention necessary.

How amazing it would be if there were to be a kind of structured linking of everyday grandparents, old guard community artists/activists, retired professionals with younger members of their tribe. Imagine!

In the meantime, check out this video of Morrison interacting with her protégée, Julia Leigh of Australia.

Matt Lauer in Bhutan

Above image from www.barmatours.com.bt

Above image from www.webwombat.com.au

Recently, I watched a video of Matt Lauer with young (elemetary school-age) monks in the country of Bhutan. He and an American woman very familiar with the culture of Bhutan kept speaking, with some amount of envy and astonishment it seemed, about how "happy," how peaceful the people of that country are. As they commented on this, my mind kept circling back to lessons that Eknath Eswaran, Thich Nhat Hanh and K. K. B. Fu-Kiau teach about how inner peace and contentment start with the individual, extend out into the immediate community and into the nation as a whole. It also spoke to how true education involves training a person to live in such a way that they grow a mature and fully-developed soul. I believe this is why in ancient times as well in some of today's indigenous cultures, "school" is logically connected to the places where spiritual rites occur-- be that in the thick of a forest, in a kiva or in the sanctum of a stained glass temple.