Where learning is concerned the present and the past are most definitely connected along a complex trajectory. Our past learning clearly influences how we perceive and act in the present but also what we do in the present can be connected to our past. Over the last few weeks, two incidents in my life have drawn my attention to this principle.
Two weeks ago my wife and I spent a very enjoyable evening with some friends swapping life stories and family histories. During the evening our host mentioned that he had written several articles, including some that had been published in the Hindu Times, a prestigious Indian newspaper. He spoke at length about one of these articles, which was concerned with a trip he had made with his family to the place of his birth - Kashmir. His family home had been burnt down in the conflict that emerged in the 1990's and they had fled the country. Even though Kashmir is still quite dangerous he made the journey with his children to show them his country and to see for himself what it was like. I was moved by his story and the next day I found and read his article 'Back to the Valley' and was moved even more by his story. I kept reflecting on what he had said until I realised that he had created an ecology in his present life to revisit and explore his past so that he might, experience and understand more deeply his past and his relationship with it and his family might know him better and appreciate their relationship with his past.
Two weeks ago my wife and I spent a very enjoyable evening with some friends swapping life stories and family histories. During the evening our host mentioned that he had written several articles, including some that had been published in the Hindu Times, a prestigious Indian newspaper. He spoke at length about one of these articles, which was concerned with a trip he had made with his family to the place of his birth - Kashmir. His family home had been burnt down in the conflict that emerged in the 1990's and they had fled the country. Even though Kashmir is still quite dangerous he made the journey with his children to show them his country and to see for himself what it was like. I was moved by his story and the next day I found and read his article 'Back to the Valley' and was moved even more by his story. I kept reflecting on what he had said until I realised that he had created an ecology in his present life to revisit and explore his past so that he might, experience and understand more deeply his past and his relationship with it and his family might know him better and appreciate their relationship with his past.
This week I am fortunate to be on holiday with my wife – in fact the first we have taken without our children. So that is quite a novelty in itself. I found the cheapest deal on-line and it happened to be in Tenerife. As I write this we have just returned from a day trip to Mt Tedei the dormant volcano which dominates the south centre of the island. We took a taxi from outside our hotel and drove an hour into the mountains, through the steep pine clad slopes and clouds and then out into the stunning brightness and our first site of the towering volcano with its classic pyramid shape reaching 3700m.
We spent the next four hours driving around the volcano and I was happy as Larry. Why? because just for that few hours I reached back in time to a life I once had and I became a geologist again. By that I mean my interest was engaged like a geologist, I thought like a geologist, I wondered and puzzled like a geologist, I poked around in the rocks and picked rocks up to examine them like a geologist, I saw and observed like a geologist, I speculated on the structures I was seeing, I drew on my knowledge if volcanic geology and my past experiences of seeing volcanic geology to interpret what I was seeing, I tried to make sense of what I saw and tried to explain what I was seeing to my wife (who didn’t know me when I was a geologist and had never seen me in this mode). Actually, she was interested and that encouraged me to say more.
We spent the next four hours driving around the volcano and I was happy as Larry. Why? because just for that few hours I reached back in time to a life I once had and I became a geologist again. By that I mean my interest was engaged like a geologist, I thought like a geologist, I wondered and puzzled like a geologist, I poked around in the rocks and picked rocks up to examine them like a geologist, I saw and observed like a geologist, I speculated on the structures I was seeing, I drew on my knowledge if volcanic geology and my past experiences of seeing volcanic geology to interpret what I was seeing, I tried to make sense of what I saw and tried to explain what I was seeing to my wife (who didn’t know me when I was a geologist and had never seen me in this mode). Actually, she was interested and that encouraged me to say more.
I felt like a geologist (well as much as one could be without actually being systematic, taking samples and making a map). I certainly gained a sense of satisfaction when I came across a public notice that explained the geology and it more or less confirmed what I had been seeing and saying. Not only that, I wanted to talk about some of my experiences as a geologist and the people I had worked with as a geologist which took me into my past when I worked as a geologist in Saudi Arabia (far left).
My experience amongst the landscapes and rocks of Mt Tedie triggered something quite deep that was cognitively, emotionally and physically a part of me. A way of being that although I did not practice it: a bit like riding a bike. The experience was overwhelmingly positive I felt pleasure, excitement and joy at being in the landscape and puzzling the geology of that landscape, handling the materials of the landscape and remembering knowledge I had not used for many years. It reminded me that even though I don’t have a label called geologist.. being a geologist is part of my identity and I will carry it to the grave (or at least as long as I am conscious of my past).
This incident in my current life, brought about by the circumstances of our holiday, provided a good example of how the physical things we do in our present can connect back to the past and remind us of who we are, what we have done and how we have felt, far more than an act of remembering alone could ever do. One could argue that I created an ecology for achieving this experience involving the context – the holiday in Tenerife, the affordance – in the geology of the particular place and space, the resources - our taxi driver who provided us with access to the space, the knowledge I had developed in the past and the knowledge available in the public notices, the conversations with my wife, the relationships with the rocks and landscape, with the subject, the spaces – that contained these things and my relationship and interaction with all these things.. and my past.
One of the fundamental principles I learnt as a geology undergraduate, made famous by geologist James Hutton, is the 'present is the key to [understanding] the past'. These two seemingly unconnected incidents in my life conspired to create the belief that exploring our past through the things we do in the present is a subject worth exploring so we will use this idea as the theme for the October 2017 issue of Lifewide Magazine. If you have a story that is relevant to this idea, and you would like to share it through our magazine, please leave a comment or get in touch.
Source
Raina S (2016) Back to the Valley Hindu Times
http://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/back-to-the-valley-back-to-jammu-and-kashmir/article6386499.ece
My experience amongst the landscapes and rocks of Mt Tedie triggered something quite deep that was cognitively, emotionally and physically a part of me. A way of being that although I did not practice it: a bit like riding a bike. The experience was overwhelmingly positive I felt pleasure, excitement and joy at being in the landscape and puzzling the geology of that landscape, handling the materials of the landscape and remembering knowledge I had not used for many years. It reminded me that even though I don’t have a label called geologist.. being a geologist is part of my identity and I will carry it to the grave (or at least as long as I am conscious of my past).
This incident in my current life, brought about by the circumstances of our holiday, provided a good example of how the physical things we do in our present can connect back to the past and remind us of who we are, what we have done and how we have felt, far more than an act of remembering alone could ever do. One could argue that I created an ecology for achieving this experience involving the context – the holiday in Tenerife, the affordance – in the geology of the particular place and space, the resources - our taxi driver who provided us with access to the space, the knowledge I had developed in the past and the knowledge available in the public notices, the conversations with my wife, the relationships with the rocks and landscape, with the subject, the spaces – that contained these things and my relationship and interaction with all these things.. and my past.
One of the fundamental principles I learnt as a geology undergraduate, made famous by geologist James Hutton, is the 'present is the key to [understanding] the past'. These two seemingly unconnected incidents in my life conspired to create the belief that exploring our past through the things we do in the present is a subject worth exploring so we will use this idea as the theme for the October 2017 issue of Lifewide Magazine. If you have a story that is relevant to this idea, and you would like to share it through our magazine, please leave a comment or get in touch.
Source
Raina S (2016) Back to the Valley Hindu Times
http://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/back-to-the-valley-back-to-jammu-and-kashmir/article6386499.ece
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