loving art, science and creative kids
10/28/2022 6:32:42 PM
Gold Static
The positive thinker sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible. — Winston Churchill
Ho ho, hee hee, ha ha - oh!
It’s well established that humans possess an intrinsic instinct for mimicry. Frown at someone, and they will most likely glower back. Smile and there’s a good chance you’ll inspire a reciprocal grin. Laugh and others will laugh with you.
A similar capability is at work in positive thinking. Our bodies respond instinctively when we consciously choose to introduce positive thoughts into our minds. It's a way we gain power over negative events life throws our way and gives us the strength to face adversity. When the mind signals that all is well, a switch is turned on in the body that makes us more confident and content. It creates a positive feedback cycle that can be quite powerful. With low points viewed as normal fluctuations we all experience, we're better able to focus on the positive, and help ourselves to move toward the goals we want to achieve.
Positive thinking is often used interchangeably with positive psychology, but it is not the same. Positive thinking is about maintaining optimism and looking at things from a positive point of view. It is about setting an intention and being open to possibilities.
Positive psychology studies the causes and effects of optimism and when it is good to use. Research findings show that positive people have a higher sense of meaningfulness in life and more resilience when faced with difficult events. They are more likely to exercise, avoid smoking, eat a healthy diet, and get quality sleep. They develop coping skills, are less depressed, healthier, and live longer.
Laughter can help get you there. No thinking is required...and it's good for your health. See what happens when you fake a smile, then giggle. Laugh slowly gradually increasing the tempo and volume. I bet it tickles your funny bone. For a hearty laugh, spread your arms up and direct laughter to come from your heart. Raise your arms up and try it again. Try saying silly words and making gibberish sounds, laughing while doing it. Sing a funny karaoke song, dance like crazy while nude in your bedroom, or watch a funny movie.
Laughter relaxes the whole body, relieves physical tension and stress, and boosts the immune system. It triggers the release of endorphins that make you feel good.
Whether striving for a gold medal, aiming at a big promotion, volunteering for a non-profit, or working tirelessly to raise a happy family, staying on the bright side does more than just benefit you. It has a positive effect on those around you as well. As J.M, Barries wrote in Peter Pan, "Just think happy thoughts and you'll fly."
With that in mind—Did you hear about the mathematician who’s afraid of negative numbers? He’ll stop at nothing to avoid them.
And then there’s the woman in labor who suddenly shouted, “Shouldn’t! Wouldn’t! Couldn’t Didn’t, Can’t!” Her doctor responded calmly, “Don’t worry. Those are just contractions.”
Ever wonder why scientists don’t trust atoms? Because they make up everything.
We are living through hard times yet need to stay involved. It is more important than ever to maintain a positive attitude and not drop out. Hope is our future.
Have a good laugh on me!
A day at the Spa
References:
Cherry, K. (2022) What is Positive Thinking? Verywellmind. retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-positive-thinking-2794772#
Quotes about positive thinking:
https://www.inspiringquotes.com/13-quotes-on-the-power-of-positive-thinking/YTD0f4T5EQAH_Ism?utm_source=top-content&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1561566189
Ripoli, Ramon (2017)Simulated Laughter Techniques for therapeutic Use in Mental Health. MedCrave. retrieved from https://medcraveonline.com/JPCPY/simulated-laughter-techniques-for-therapeutic-use-in-mental-health.html
website. (2022) Laughter is the Best Medicine. HelpGUide. retrieved from https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/laughter-is-the-best-medicine.htm
Books. Over the Peanut Fence and Lives of Museum Junkies are available in book stores and online. Go to https://www.amazon.com/Books-Marilynne-Eichinger/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3AMarilynne+Eichinger to purchase.
10/21/2022 9:51:03 PM
Loyalty and Responsibility
Most people I speak to consider homeless teens to be self-centered misfits who don't care about society. Yet, the opposite is true. One of the surprising things I learned while researching Over the Peanut Fence is that homeless youth follow a strong ethical code. Though they may appear to be antisocial in their parents’ homes, on the streets they develop a loyalty to their friends and obey unspoken rules that help them survive.
Zach, the young man I wrote about in Over the Peanut Fence, described a situation he found himself in when responding to a friend’s invitation to couch surf at her place. She and two girlfriends shared an apartment, but when ten street kids were invited there to party, her roommates didn’t approve. As the evening progressed, the celebrant's raucous behavior was more than the roommates could take and they asked them to leave. Their request was ignored. As more drugs and alcohol consumed the noise escalated, adding to the roommates' upset. They finally took matters into their own hands and called the police. Zach shared what happen next.
“Me and a friend were outside smoking at the time and enjoying fresh air when we seen a police car approaching.” Zach said, “We ran inside to clean up.”
I stopped his story, for I was surprised he didn’t run. When asked why he returned to the apartment, he answered as though I were a nitwit. “You never leave your friends hangin’. It’s the first law of the streets.”
The boys returned to gather up the remnants of pot, bongs, pipes, and related drug paraphernalia and hid them under mattresses and in holes covered by toilet paper stacks. When the police pounded on the door, Zach's friend did not want to let them in, but her roommates shouted out that they were the ones who had called the police, so there was no stopping them from entering. The partiers were put in a back room except for Zach, who had talked back to the cops, and the boy who had been smoking with him outside Yet, though they seared the house, they found little of interest.
“All of a sudden,” Zach went on, “I realized that we had cleaned the apartment but forgot about what we was carrying on our bodies. I had a wad of pot in my pocket ready to be used in my soda-pop pipe. The bulge was so obvious that the cops found it and cuffed us immediately. Then they found that my friend was carrying heroin. That’s when I got really scared. The police grabbed us both and got ready to take us to the station to be charged with possession of illegal drugs.
“I went crazy and screamed that I never used heroin. Luckily I was backed by Jenny. Since the only thing the police had on me was possession of a small amount of marijuana, I was let go, but they were angry because I acted belligerently. I was given a $1,200 ticket while my buddy was pushed out the door and taken to jail.”
The fine was staggering for a person with no income, and Zach would never have paid it off if it wasn’t for us insisting that he do so. We lent him the amount of the fine without interest, and over time, he paid most of it back. The boy Zach called his friend, was a kid he had just met earlier that evening. After the boy was hauled away, Zach didn’t follow up to see how he was doing. He thought of everyone on the street as a friend and part of his family until something happened and they moved on.
Social workers say that youths who follow the rules of the street can be rintegratedinto society. It is a sign that they are engaged and feel loyalty and responsibility to others. The goal is to help these young people to transfer those feelings to society at large. After mentoring Zach for five years, that transformation took place. As a young adult, he is a caring, respectful member of his community.
Homeless youth don't belong in the same category as unhoused adults, for they are malleable and can be educated and inspired to become their better selves.When I see them floundering on street corners, I hope they'll seek assistance from organizations like Outside In, Naya, and New Avenues for Youth. They are young and feel trapped, but most can be helped to find a way that won't lead to a lifetime of drug addiction and crime. They are worth paying attention to if we want to part keep our cities livable.
Do share your stories and interactions with homeless and runaway youth in the comment area below.
Over the Peanut Fence is available in paperback and ebook formats in bookstores and online. To purchase on Amazon go to https://www.amazon.com/Over-Peanut-Fence-Barriers-Homeless-ebook/dp/B07Q7SLRM3
10/14/2022 6:14:42 PM
The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
The riverfront museum I opened thirty years ago.
Impression 5, the museum I founded in Michigan celebrated its fiftieth year. Both passages are hard to believe.
Wading Through Complex Thoughts
Analyzing your way through complex situations is not easy. On a rainy day in 1972, I was in Lansing, Michigan with four rowdy children and challenged with keeping them from tearing the house apart. So, I started a science museum in my basement. There were only twelve science centers in the United States. Exhibits were push-button displays that mixed chemicals and asked yes and no questions. Fanciful walk-through hearts on Oregon, descent in into the depths of a coal mine in Chicago, fighter jets, and locomotives in Philadelphia covered the floors. What they lacked were interactive activities that called on visitors to experiment and think. A white paper was written that pointed fingers at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry for being a pawn of corporate Industry.
Public education was also under attack for the way children were held hostage for hours each week. Being pinned to their seats and made to memorize historical facts and formulas was not the way to inspire minds to greatness. John Holt, Howard Gardner, Piaget, and A.S. Neil were among those promoting child-centered ways, age-appropriate ways of teaching.
The table-top exhibits built in the basement of my home with my son recognized that children were not little adults but instead were youngsters with unique ways of learning. Science, engineering, and psychology professors at Michigan State University contributed exhibits and guided me through the learning process. The scientific method became my platform for conceiving interactive displays.
Scientists approach problems through a seven-step process: make an observation, ask a question, from a hypothesis or testable explanation, make a prediction based on the hypothesis, test the prediction, and use the results to make new hypotheses or predictions. It is the way research progresses.
This way of thinking made sense to me and today is embedded in my psyche as a way to tackle life’s problems and idiosyncrasies. When ASTC, the Association of Science and Technology Centers started, there was an explosion of science centers throughout the world. I suddenly had colleagues and reached out to seven small museums, including OMSI and the Pacific Science Center to secure a National Science Foundation grant to study visitor interaction with displays that solved problems. We built exhibits that traveled to each other’s sites. Our staffs met to study hands-on education philosophies and to critique how we tackled interactive construction.
We, and the other science centers introduced visitors to computers, technological innovations, and discoveries in genetics, and bio-engineering. What we learned by experimenting with hands-on learning techniques, was incorporated into teacher education and outreach programs. Our museums became a model for the free school movement. They were places where visitors moved freely through displays, learning in their own way, at their own pace.
You might ask, why I am saying something about this now. I am still involved with the education of young children and am more concerned than ever. Reliance on the computer for teaching has gone ballistic. Children no longer see that moss prefers to grow on North-facing surfaces. They don’t know how to use a hammer and nails to build a birdhouse. Teens don’t know how to change the oil in their car or sew a seam on a dress. They don’t have the patience to build a balloon-powered card using cardboard and bottle caps to see how far it will go. They are too hyper to start a grow box and watch the way seeds turn into plants. They would rather play computer games than construct a solar oven to cook marshmallows, one that introduces them to thermal energy, reflection, and convection.
All museum activities were designed to help young experimenters question and think. They required patience, dexterity, and a willingness to try and at times fail. These are basic requirements that adults as well as children need to have to conduct their lives.
When I moved to Oregon to run a science museum with greater resources, I was more determined than ever to show visitors how the scientific method is useful when tackling everyday problems. We built a new waterfront museum where people could satisfy their curiosity by conducting experiments on the floor of the exhibit halls. When designing Busy Town for young children, for example, we included a component for parents that focused them on observing their children so they could question their preconceived ideas about the way they learned.
As the world grapples with environmental change, economic challenges, and pandemics, we need clear minds, and a citizenry willing to dig into issues and think problems through. Analyzing these issues can be great fun if we put our heads to it. It calls for more feet on the ground stomping through communities and parkland. It means putting more hands on binoculars, hammers, saws, needles, and thread as a complement to eyes on the computer screen. It requires reading, discussing, arguing, and coming to conclusions you are willing to test. The scientific method provides a way to proceed. If you practice solving little problems, the large ones will fall into place.
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Art is always for sale. Check out my new cart-enabled website eichingerfineart.com to purchase the painting of OMSI or any other that tickles your fancy.
Please share your thoughts on below. Do you spend hours on the computer without remembering that there is a physical world outside filled with beauty?
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To read about the development of hands-on science centers and get a glimpse of what goes on behind the staff doors in a museum, you can purchase Lives of Museum Junkies, available online and in stores in paperback and ebook editions. Go to https://www.amazon.com/Lives-Museum-Junkies-Marilynne-Eichinger/dp/0999892223
