Re: {PBJFlorida} The value of community

Wow, Jim, thank you for that - it's beautiful and inspiring and the questions you posed in your second response are questions I struggle with myself. It's so hard to undue the damage our society has done to us, not only as an individuals, but as a collective. Sometimes I think children are our only hope because I also believe they are naturally empathetic and it just needs to continue to be nurtured into adulthood. Like in this story, those children have obviously learned about Ubuntu since birth, so therefore it is ingrained in them, it is part of their cultural ethos that is needed for their survival. How do we incorporate that in our society? Where do we start? School is a good start, but it's something that families and all of society needs to embrace. I've been racking my brain about that lately because I know it's the line of work I want to pursue, but just don't know where to start. I follow an emotional intelligence group for kids in Australia that has a program and they do wonderful things, but in our education system here there's no room for this type of education because it's so focused on academics. My only hope is that it is evolving and our society will realize that this is what is necessary for survival. 

BTW, I know I've been MIA, sorry about that - miss y'all! 

On Mon, Jul 30, 2012 at 9:32 PM, jim belcher <jimbelcher350@me.com> wrote:

To me this is why I participate in PBJ:

"An anthropologist suggested the following game to a group of children in a tribe in Africa: He placed a basket full of fresh fruits under a tree. He then said that whoever reached the basket first in a race would be the winner of all the fruits.

As he gave the signal to begin the race, the whole group held hands, ran bonded together and then sat and enjoyed the prize together.

When he asked why they had done such thing, when he had offered the possibility to one to be the ultimate winner.
They replied: " UBUNTU"-- how could one of us be happy (feel happiness) while the rest are in despair, unhappy?

UBUNTU in the Xhosa culture means: "I am, because we are."

This is the possibility I see.

jim

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