Empathy begins the process of connecting us with others, as we share their emotions. Our own life experience enables us to understand something of the life experience of others. That emotional understanding is the distinction we call empathy: “. . . the capacity to share the feelings of others . . .” “Empathy is a complex capability enabling individuals to…
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Value for Wednesday of Week 47 in the season of Harvest and Celebration
Being Fully Engaged
Being fully engaged goes far beyond stepping out into the world. The difference between the two is like the difference between dipping a toe into water, and jumping headlong into it.
- This is the real secret of life – to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play. [Alan Watts]
- To be fully engaged, we must be physically energized, emotionally connected, mentally focused and spiritually aligned with a purpose beyond our immediate self-interest. [Jim Loehr]
Engaging the world is a basic building block for ethical and personal development. This refers to engaging at some level, like coming out of a cocoon.
“Engagement is an experience in which someone fully deploys their skills, strengths, and attention for a challenging task.” “When people are engaged in their work, or in a state of ‘flow,’ they are completely involved in the present moment and the specific activity at hand.”
Engagement as an aspect of flourishing refers to being fully engaged in the affairs of life: in one’s activities and relationships. It implies enthusiasm, a let-the-juice-run-down-your-chin bite into the watermelon. When a person lives this way, life seems more meaningful. For one thing, a person who is fully engaged is too busy to feel depressed. For another, engagement builds the relationships that serve as building blocks for spirituality.
Real
True Narratives
Technical and Analytical Readings
- Amy L. Reschly & Sandra L. Christenson, eds., Handbook of Research on Student Engagement (Springer, 2nd ed., 2022).
- Barbara Imperatori, Engagement and Disengagement at Work: Drivers and Organizational Practices to Sustain Employee Passion and Performance (Springer, 2017).
- Amy L. Reschly, Angie J. Pohl & Sandra L. Christenson, eds., Student Engagement Academic, Behavioral, Cognitive, and Affective Interventions at School (Springer, 2020).
- David J. Shernoff, Optimal Learning Environments to Promote Student Engagement (Springer, 2013).
- K Ann Renninger & Suzanne Hidi, The Power of Interest for Motivation and Engagement (Routledge, 2015).
- Zinta S. Byrne, Understanding Employee Engagement: Theory, Research, and Practice (Routledge, 2nd edition, 2014).
- Michelle J. Scallon & John J. Liptak, Cultivate Hope and Engagement in Your Life (Whole Person Associates, 2024).
Photographs
Documentary and Educational Films
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
Poetry
Now as the train bears west, / Its rhythm rocks the earth, / And from my Pullman berth / I stare into the night / While others take their rest. / Bridges of iron lace, / A suddenness of trees, / A lap of mountain mist / All cross my line of sight, / Then a bleak wasted place, / And a lake below my knees.
Full on my neck I feel / The straining at a curve; / My muscles move with steel, / I wake in every nerve. / I watch a beacon swing / From dark to blazing bright; / We thunder through ravines / And gullies washed with light.
Beyond the mountain pass / Mist deepens on the pane; / We rush into a rain / That rattles double glass. / Wheels shake the roadbed stone, / The pistons jerk and shove, / I stay up half the night / To see the land I love.
[Theodore Roethke, “Night Journey”]
Other poems:
- Edgar Lee Masters, “Conrad Siever”
- Edgar Lee Masters, “Edmund Pollard”
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
La Monte Young, The Well-Tuned Piano: this one-of-a-kind, five-hour performance on a specially tuned solo piano epitomizes complete engagement in music.
Béla Bartók, The Wooden Prince, Op. 13, Sz. 60, BB 74 (1917) (approx. 48’) (list of recorded performances), is a one-act ballet “based upon a fairy-tale which focuses upon the themes of love and loneliness, the contrasting natures of men and women, the artist's relationship to creativity and the triumph of love over adversity.” A princess dances, as a prince “sets out to see the world”. The prince is smitten, pursues the princess, is at first impeded, then triumphs. They depart together. Here is a link to a video-recorded performance of the ballet by unidentified performers. Top audio-recorded performances are conducted by Kocsis in 1969, Boulez (New York) in 1977, Boulez (Chicago) in 1991, Iván Fischer in 1997, Măcelaru in 2023, and Dausgaard in 2024.
Zdeněk Fibich’s 2nd and 3rd symphonies have a sordid history, arising out of an affair he had during not one but two consecutive marriages. Yet whatever we might say about the ethical quality of his conduct, he was fully engaged in his life. The music reflects that in a more integrated way than his life did.
- Symphony No. 2 in E-flat Major, H 304, Op. 38 (1894) (approx. 33-40’) (list of recorded performances)
- Symphony No. 3 in E Minor, H 324, Op. 53 (1898) (approx. 36-37’) (list of recorded performances)
Franz Berwald’s two piano quintets:
- Piano Quintet No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 5 (1853) (approx. 26’) (list of recorded performances)
- Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 6 (ca. 1853) (approx. 32’)
Sandro Fuga’s three cello sonatas:
- Cello Sonata No. 1 (1938) (approx. 25’)
- Cello Sonata No. 2 (1972) (approx. 20’)
- Cello Sonata No. 3 (1989) (approx. 20’)
- “Heat” (2022) (69’): “The Heat shimmers off this hypnotic album: it’s simultaneously exciting and soothing as three horns play over African rhythms, with two drummers and two bassists.”
- “(A)live!” (2020) (42’). The group says: “The spirit behind this album is to emphasize the existential need for our music to be performed live, and the fact that it can only live and thrive as a collective phenomenon in an organic exchange with the audience. The emotions and sounds created in these moments are never private. Each and every person in the audience contributes to the process, in a constant interaction with the musicians.”
- “Gris Gris” (2019) (94’): “The opening track, ‘I Can Feel the Heat Closing In’, sets the tone of the album, beginning with the double bass pair laying down rambunctious bass grooves which are supplemented with alternating percussive rhythmic patterns. The horns add to the scene by weaving in a harmonious North African modal melodic line . . . raising your blood pressure and flow of adrenaline as a sense of impending pandemonium washes over you.”
- “Rise and Rise Again” (2018) (43’): “Shake Stew is back with six new Kranzelbinder compositions that create a hypnotic mixture of afrobeat and jazz grooves shaken up by the powerful and enigmatic soundscapes created with a combination of two drummers and two double bass players.”
- “The Golden Fang” (2017) (64’): “The enormous joy that all involved in creating the ‘The Golden Fang’ felt is almost tangible. The energy, momentum, and wit of Shake Stew are contagious.”
Albums:
- Charles Lloyd & The Marvels, “Tone Poem” (2021) (70’): “Prettiness is an undervalued quality in jazz, and Lloyd has no qualms about exploiting it.”
- Cordelia Williams, “Nightlight” (2021) (80’), piano works by Evans, Liszt, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, Scriabin and Tomkins
- Théotime Langlois de Swarte, “Leclair, Vivaldi, Locatelli” (2022) (77’)
- Romain Leleu, “The Trumpet as Movie Star” (2022) (89’): “You might describe this entertaining disc as trumpeting (apologies) the extraordinary talents of Romain Leleu through a medium well used to making a star of his chosen instrument.”
- McCoy Tyner/Freddie Hubbard Quartet, “Live at Fabrik, Hamburg 1986” (127’)
- Alexander McCabe, “Body & Soul” (2021) (41’): “This is pure exciting jazz that flows and swings in all the right ways . . .”
- Brown Boots, “Striding Out” (2023) (49’) is an album of joyous, ebullient music on fiddle and melodeon.
Music: songs and other short pieces
- Lee Ann Womack, “I Hope You Dance” (lyrics)
- Paul Simon, “So Beautiful or So What” (lyrics)
- Tim McGraw, "Live Like You Were Dying" (lyrics)
- OneRepublic, “I Lived” (lyrics)
Visual Arts
- Vincent van Gogh, Two Peasant Women Digging in Field with Snow (1890)
- Vincent van Gogh, Two Peasants Digging (after Millet) (1889)
- Vincent van Gogh, Arles View from the Wheat Fields (1888)
- Vincent van Gogh, Meadows near Rijswijk (1882)
- Paul Cezanne, Life in the Fields (c. 1875)
- Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Summer (1568)
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