Biodesign class Archives

Excerpt: Biodesign Out For A Walk.

On an unscripted whim, I had them close their eyes and asked  them how many of them had a soul? Every hand shot up. “Hands down,” I said. “How’d we vote?” someone asked.  I answered, “One hundred percent positive. I guess this class has a lot of soul.”

“The soul is the name for the unifying principle, power, or energy that is the center of our being. To be in touch with soul means going back to the sacred source, the site of life-releasing energy, the activating force of life, the god-grounds; to venture forth and confront the world in all its marvelous and terrifying forces, to make sacred our hours here; to learn to pay such supreme attention to the world that eternity blazes in to time with our holy longing. Soul-making this.” The Soul of the World, by Phil Cousineau and Eric Lawton.

One year, shortly after we reached the top of Yosemite’s Half Dome, a group of rock climbers were completing climbing up the face. They were surprised to be greeted by a welcoming party of excited young adults. I was setting up our camp area about 200 yards away, but voices often travel clearer and farther in the mountains.

Climber: “What are all you guys doing up here?
Student: “We are all in a high school advanced biology class.”
Climber: “You’re bullshittin’ me!”
Student laughing: “No it’s true.”
Climber: “So, your biology class just happened to wander up here?”
Student: “No, our teacher led us up here.”
Climber: “Damn! He must have big balls!

I laughed out loud, but was suddenly embarrassed by what I considered to be a crude metaphor and that I had been eavesdropping. More importantly, however, I was tempted to hurry over and tell him that it was the students who were the courageous ones. I wondered if he had read Carl Jung:

“Whenever there is a reaching down into innermost experience, into the nucleus of personality, most people are overcome by fright, and many run away…The risk of inner experience, the adventure of the spirit, is in any case, is alien to most human beings.”

Jung etal, described the spiritual journey as potentially far more scary than any physical or mental challenges. On the other hand, maybe the climber was acting out Joseph Campbell’s purpose of life; “The Soul’s High Adventure.”

Perhaps it didn’t matter. After all, The Class was not only experimental, but experiential and existential. This meant that any discoveries that students made would be their own and not of my doing. Over 24 years there were many books that I discovered that would have been very helpful, but they also would have altered the many paths of discovery that were vital to the students’ spiritual growth. The best example of this (and now one of my favorite treasures) is a small (but powerful) book, “The Soul Of The World.” Phil Cousineau paired amazing quotations with Eric Lawton’s spectacular photos into a breathtaking book. It has been a deep source of inspiration for me since it was released in 1993. Cousineau included profoundly inspiring “poems, prayers and promises” from men and women from all walks and major religions, including people who are Red—Yellow—Black—White. He paired the inspirational lines with photos of some of the most beautiful and or sacred places on planet Earth. The book proved to be a powerful validation of the collaborative journey that about 500 students had shared with me. I was able to draw freely from it for the last five years of the class.

Nearly 15 years after the Biodesign Class of 1979 decided to embark on a journey of the soul, Cousineau and Lawton confirmed just how spiritually aware those students were. Jung, Thoreau and John Muir were correct when they noted that many people will live their entire life without probing their own spirituality. John Muir wrote: “Most people are on the world, not in it—have no conscious sympathy or relationship to anything about them—undiffused, separate, and rigidly alone like marbles of polished stone; touching but separate.”

The rock climber demonstrated tremendous courage climbing the face of Half Dome, but I wonder if it equaled the courage that it took for each of the 700 students to follow Loren Eiseley, Carl Jung and John Muir by embracing wonder and terror and thereby discovering that “Going out For A Walk was really going in.”

Christmastime is a wonderful time to awaken us to the fact that the journey we are on is a “spiritual journey,” a journey that would not be possible without the gift of Soul.

Wishing all of you a soulful, merry Christmas.

Lowell H. Young
Author: Biodesign Out For A Walk

www.facebook.com/biodesignoutforawalk
www.biodesignoutforawalk.com
www.linkedin.com/LowellYoung
www.goodreads.com/BiodesignOutForAWalk

“I love kids, but they are a tough audience.” – Robin Williams

In terms of human history, mandatory education is a very recent social obligation and one that does not suit all students equally. In addition to the Biodesign Class, my yearly schedule of classes included one section of entry-level, life science students. Each class typically included students with varying learning difficulties, language limitations and attention deficit issues. There were always a few who thought that school was a prison or at best, a boring waste of time. Meeting the needs of these kids was often challenging and stretched my creative/adaptive skills (and patience) to the limit.

One day, we were discussing the variety of cells in the human body and I mentioned that, in order to survive, every cell needed a continuous supply of the gas called oxygen. I pointed out that red-blood cells in the circulatory system pick up a load of oxygen in the lungs and transport it to all 100 trillion cells. I was trying to get them to appreciate the wonder of life and the privilege that it was to be alive.

One of the boys was listlessly slouched in his desk, not particularly impressed with my enthusiasm. It irked me and I decided I needed to prod him a little. He was a spindly kid and my hands easily fit around his throat. I didn’t know it, but we both were about to experience an event that would never be forgotten.

In an exaggerated, dramatic voice I roared, “Mr. Parchim, do you not realize that you are never more than one breath away from death?” Just as if the scene were scripted, his head drooped off to one side. I was impressed with how quickly he understood the little drama and agreed to cooperate with the ruse. However, when I let go of his throat and his head remained dropped over, a horrifying thought flashed through my mind; “Maybe this wasn’t such a bright idea.” At that moment, a student in the back of the room shrieked, “You killed him Mr. Young and now you are in big trouble!”

Over the 37 years that I taught high school biology, I experienced many diversely profound moments, however, none can compare with the horror I was enduring. The next few seconds remain a blur now, but I remember Parchim slowly regaining consciousness. He shook the cob-webs out of his head and said, “Wow! That was cool. How’d you do that?” The students were not quite sure how to process the dramatic disaster; however, all of them, including Parchim, suddenly had a keener interest in the subject matter that we were studying.

As soon as the school day was over, I grabbed a phone and called his mother. After explaining my grossly inappropriate actions, shockingly, she laughed and said that she felt that way dozens of times and that he probably deserved it. I protested that he did not and that it would never happen again.

Ironically, a couple of years later, Parchim’s father died of a rare (untreatable) disease of the circulatory system that involved irregular blood flow. I was saddened by the news, but profoundly shaken that one of my students might have died by my hands.

Somehow, I think Robin Williams would have found great irony and humor in this story.

Lowell H. Young: Author, Biodesign Out For A Walk

Biodesign class

Soul: The Greatest Christmas Gift

Robin Williams (aka John Keating) Teaching Moment