She runs through her day in the simple joy of being a child -- pretending, playing, imagining -- all the things that children do so well, and should be allowed to do with freedom. Let your inner wild child run free this week and go ahead, think a thought that defies convention!
What absorbs us, catches our attention, causes us to stop and completely focus? Is it a thought of our own, a moment of imagination and play? May it be so -- may we be enchanted and entranced by nature and life.
A few years old but a very neat piece from evolutionary #anthropologist Karen #Kramer. How do children learn best? Packed into same-age classrooms listening to an adult?
'...work among with the Pumé of Venezuela and the Maya living in the Yucatan Peninsula—resoundingly suggests that they learn from one another.'
...
'IN THE CHILD-populous world of hunter-gatherers, little separates the spheres of adults and children. The places they work, play, relax, and sleep are not segregated. Privacy, alone time, and adult-only spaces are concepts unknown to the Pumé, for example. They live in open-walled structures that children freely run in and out of without requesting entry. Pumé children also aren’t restricted from what might be considered adult spaces and activities, such as menstrual huts (special structures where women in many traditional societies go for the few days a month when they menstruate), watching births, being around the dying, or participating in all-night social dances, called tohé, where the band joins together to sing, conduct healings, and tell stories.'
Today in Labor History December 17, 1760: Deborah Sampson was born on this date in Massachusetts. Sampson disguised herself as a man in order to fight with the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. She called herself Robert Shirtliff (as in don’t lift my shirt) and stood 5’9”, taller than the average man in those days. She fought in several skirmishes with British forces before being wounded and discovered and then honorably discharged from the army. She later petitioned the government to be repaid the wages that had been denied her because she was a woman. Her friend Paul Revere advocated for her full compensation. Finally, in 1816, Congress granted her request. There are several other women known to have secretly fought in this war. Sampson’s story has been portrayed in several plays and works of fiction, including “Portrait of Deborah: A Drama in Three Acts” (1959) by Charles Emery, “I'm Deborah Sampson: A Soldier of the Revolution” (1977) by Patricia Clapp and Revolutionary (2014), by Alex Myers, one of her descendants. Whoopi Goldberg played her in an episode of “Liberty Kids.”
Psst (whispers to the fediverse): I haven't issued a call for pitches yet, but MIT Technology Review will have a magazine issue next year on #Play. What do you want to see in it? Who do you want to see in it? You can reply publicly or privately!
"It's Monday and I'm Bored", a short play featuring Nick the Abyssinian
Nick: Hey you.
Me: Yes?
Nick: I'm bored, it's raining outside and blocking the sun.
Me: Observant cat, good boy.
Nick: Fine, you can get up and feed me.
Me: Tell your mom.
Nick: I did and she told me to go tell you.
Me, calling out: Kathy did you send Nick down to tell me to feed him?
Kathy, calling out back: Nick who?
Nick: You both suck, you know, sometimes.
Me: I need to get coffee anyway, let's go.
Finished #firewatch just now... I'm so melancholic right now. Loved the characters, the pace and the story. One of the #games I liked more, maybe just a little less than #toTheMoon.
Worth every single penny.
We are happy to announce that the program for the 60th anniversary meeting of the American Society for Cybernetics is online. We are looking forward to five days with eighty cybernetic conversations.