We Will Teach Them To Love

I love to learn. As an entrepreneur, consultant and activist, I research and study relentlessly. I truly find great joy in the process. I’m a lifelong world traveler and explorer, constantly studying culture, humanity, science and spirituality.

It’s not just my work. It’s not part of a graduate program. It’s a lifestyle I’ve chosen deliberately.

My performance in any form of traditional education was less than impressive, to say the least. I barely squeaked out of an alternative learning program for high school, and my only experience at any university is when I am asked to come and teach.

As I’ve traveled the world, developed scores of businesses and worked diligently to educate myself, I’ve realized that our actions, inactions and beliefs are a result of our perspective. And our perspective is the amalgamation of all the experiences and human influence we’ve encountered. Environment shapes us.

We become the reflection of our perspective.

This is why I have focused all my writing and teaching on developing a deeper, more broadly influenced perspective of interconnectedness. The world’s problems are always an extension of a pervasive cultural perspective.

As a parent of four children, my wife and I have many long discussions about how we want to educate our children. This ultimately caused us to really question what it is we’re actually training our children for. What is the outcome we are hoping for? And what is the best path to bring that outcome into fruition?

Our desires are molded at such a young age, in those development years. I want to afford my children the desire to be love, in all they do.

Perspective Elements“Be the change you wish to see.” {Gandhi}Your example means more than your words.Relationships trump everything.Everything in the cosmos is interconnected.Everything is spiritual.Exemplify love in everything you do.Time is an illusion.Time has little relevance to the things that really matter in life.Live deliberately and “suck the marrow out of life”. Carpe diem.Music is a conduit to experiencing the beauty of the universe.Every day presents an opportunity to reinvent yourself.Practice awareness. It will serve you well.Follow the ways of the Lakota, the Samurai, Lao Tzu and Jesus.Learn to flow, not to fight.Do everything with great care.Comfort, safety and security are illusions, most often used as bate.You came into this world limitless. Never let anyone take that away from you.Imagination and wisdom are far more powerful than knowledge.Embrace the mystery in your life.Earn a reputation for being whimsical.Don’t let anyone convince you not to live like Peter Pan. You can fly!Never seek personal gain at someone else’s expense.If ever you are down and need to be lifted, U2’s Joshua Tree is the best cure.The most extraordinary things in life are rarely explainable.The earth is your family, not your property.Simply put, eat natural food. Only.Fear is at the root of all the world’s problems.Love is all that matters.Fear is the opposite of love.Life is meant to be lived, not survived.What matters is who you are, not what you have.“Be shapeless, formless, like water.” {Bruce Lee}Don’t ever let anyone convince you that you are aren’t good enough, for anything.You are not here to control or fix anything.Your purpose in life is to align yourself with God, the Source, Wakan Tanka.Our souls are intrinsically intertwined. All of them. No exception.Choose extraordinary over easy.Take time to connect with nature, daily.Fall in love with the moon and the stars. They are magical.What others consider “super natural” is what we believe to be the exemplification of natural.Environment matters. It forms you. Be mindful.Violence never leads to peace.The revolution will not be televised.

There are certainly more. But this list represents some of the most important aspects of the perspective we wish for our children to embrace. And we certainly expect them to evolve beyond what either of us could even comprehend at this stage of our journey.

I have chosen a path of self actualization for my life. One that has led me to this perspective. The Lakota call this the “Red Road”. The Black Road is often full of ease, comfort and security, but it leads to mediocrity and emptiness. The Red Road can be turbulent, difficult and painful, but it leads to an extraordinary, purposeful and fulfilling life. The choice is ours, in every moment.

I’ve realized that much of my Red Road journey has consisted of me un-learning the majority of what I spent the first half of my life believing as truth. As a father, I have the opportunity to prevent my children from having to endure the same. I’d prefer to start them out a bit further down the road, just as my parents did for me.

It makes sense to me to continue this evolution, rather than to teach my children to conform and spend half their life learning how to survive in a corporate owned system I’ve spent the last 15 years trying to reform.

When confronted about how we are educating our children, I always have to stop and ask, “What are we really training our children to understand and embrace?” And more importantly, “Do you believe our formal education systems and social environments are designed to bring those desires into fruition?”

I want to teach my children to thrive, to love and to experience the true awe and wonder of this magnificent universe. So I choose to spend my life investing in their perspective. Most of all, I want to teach them to love. After all, my role as a father will be my greatest humanitarian act.

If you’re interested in learning more about alternative forms of education, or the need for them, I highly recommend the following resources.

The wasteful fraud of sorting for youth meritocracy  This articulates Seth Godin’s brilliant perspective on education. It also includes his “Stop Stealing Dreams” TEDxYouth video.

Do Schools Kill Creativity? | Sir Ken Robinson | TED Talks Sir Ken Robinson is one of my favorite resources for this discussion.

Changing Education Paradigms More from Sir Ken Robinson.

If you want a full-fledged education, and coaching on alternative education and more of the philosophy I’ve just highlighted, I highly recommend checking out Ashley Logsdon’s, “Mama Says Namaste” website. It has a wealth of insight and information on this subject and she offers excellent resources for deepening your understanding. (I can vouch for her. She’s my sister.)

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