Font Styles Speak

Chapter Eleven

Welcome to the Web of Life: Understanding How Every Relationship Can Build a Positive World

Chapter Inspiration:

“Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.” –Chief Seattle

“Peace is not a relationship of nations. It is a condition of mind brought about by a serenity of soul. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is also a state of mind. Lasting peace can come only to peaceful people.” –Jawaharlal Nehru

“Treasure your relationships, not your possessions.” –Anthony J. D’Angelo, The College Bluebook

“Relationships of trust depend on our willingness to look not only to our own interest, but also the interest of others.” –Peter Farquharson

“As bad as physical disease is for the eyes, there is another disease, which can ruin your relationships. It is the ‘I’ disease where your conversation contains the words, ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘my’ and ‘mine’, every eight to ten words. If these words were removed from most people’s conversation they would have nothing to say.” –Sidney Madwe

“Without relationships, no matter how much wealth, fame, power, prestige and seeming success by the standards and opinions of the world one has, happiness will constantly elude him.” –Sidney Madwed

“Religion holds the solution to all problems of human relationship, whether they are between parents and children or nation and nation. Sooner or later, man has always had to decide whether he worships his own power or the power of God.”–A.J. Toynbee

“My true friend is he who loves me for what I inwardly am And not for what I outwardly have.” –Sri Chinmoy

“Our differences disappear the moment we come to realize that all hearts are one.” –Sri Chinmoy

Chapter Story:

When Helen Keller was less than two years old, she suddenly became ill with a fever. The fever was very strong and she became unconscious. When the fever finally went away, her family was happy, but then they realized something was wrong. Helen could no longer see or hear. The fever damaged her brain and took away her senses of hearing and vision.

Between the ages of two and seven, Helen lived a very difficult and chal lenging life. She could not communicate with anyone. Without the ability to see or to hear the world she could not really understand the world. Sometimes she became very frustrated and angry at her condition. Other times she became very frightened, and she felt alone and sad.

Helen’s life changed forever when she was seven years old. That is when a teacher named Anne Sullivan came to live with Helen’s family. Anne Sullivan had received special training that taught her to help someone who was blind or deaf, but she had never worked with somebody who was both blind and deaf.

Helen was very excited at first to have a teacher who was going to help her. Yet things were not easy at first. Everything Anne Sullivan tried to commu nicate she did by drawing on Helen’s hand, for it was only the sense of touch that was left as a connection between them. It took a tremendous amount of determi nation and courage for Helen to learn from Anne. And it took great imagination, patience and love for Anne to be able to teach Helen.

There were times when Helen became angry that she couldn’t learn. Anne was able to identify with Helen’s condition and to sympathize with Helen, so it did not bother Anne when Helen became angry, even the time that Helen threw down her rag doll on the floor and broke it into pieces. Anne never judged Helen in a harsh way or made her feel bad, and in this way she gained Helen’s trust. Because of the very close bond of friendship between Helen and Anne, Anne was able to teach Helen how to read using a method called Braille. Using Braille, Helen became a prolific reader and she read as many books as she possibly could because she always felt she had to ‘catch up’ to the people who had sight and hearing.

Eventually Anne was even able to teach Helen how to communicate with the world. Anne and Helen spent many years together, learning from each other. Then, sadly, in 1936, Helen’s teacher Anne Sullivan passed away. Helen went on to live another 32 years. She lived a very full life, helping the blind and being an advocate for racial and gender equality. She learned to speak and to deliver speeches. She wrote books, including her famous autobiography and she even performed in theater productions. Helen Keller went on to live a very full and even happy life, in spite of her condition. She believed that people who are blind or deaf are like everybody else – they want to get the most out of life and to feel connected to other people. The friendship between Helen and Anne is a tremendous example of how a positive relationship can change someone’s life.

Chapter Overview:

Understanding the web of life means being aware of how all things, living and non-living, are interconnected. Everything in the universe has some relation ship or connection to every other thing in the universe. Sometimes we cannot see the connections between things but we can come to understand that they are con nected. For example, we cannot see raindrops leaving a cloud and falling to earth, but we know that raindrops come from clouds because when there are no clouds there is no rain.

The connection between living things is very significant because we all share the same planet. All of us living things --plants, animals and humans -- use the same air, the same water, and the same minerals in the earth. We also need each other in many ways. For example, the kind of air humans and animals breathe out – carbon dioxide – is the very thing that plants need to breathe in. And the kind of air that plants breathe out – oxygen – is the exact kind of air humans and animals need to breathe in.

Human beings have a very special connection with each other because human beings are the stewards of the planet. This does not mean we are the boss es of the planet but that we have a special responsibility to care for our planet. In order to best care for the planet, human beings need to learn how to get along with each other – how to work and play together. Human beings need to learn how to share. Human beings need to learn how to learn from each other and how to help each other. The story of Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan is a wonderful example of how much people can help each other if they really try.

Chapter Lessons:

Lesson #1 - The Web of Life Game (Copyright Andrew Kutt 2005)

Note: For this activity you will need ten strands of yarn about four to six feet long. The strands should be of the colors indicated below if possible. The strands, when stretched out should all be connected to a central point – some kind of stationary object, for example, a ball of multicolored, uncarded wool. The strands can be attached with a safety pin, a clip, Velcro or in some other manner. Instead of the uncarded wool ball you can also use an ordinary ball of wool thread, a decorated beach ball, or something in the shape of a heart. If necessary or if you prefer, a person or persons can become the central point where all the strands of yarn connect, instead of a ball. The person(s) would have to have all the strands of yarn attached to them, or the person could hold them all. Two peo ple standing or sitting back to back might be ideal. The activity is for ten people at a time.

Today we are going to play the Web of Life Game. We are going to unwind all of our strands of yarn. Each person will take the end of one strand and gently stretch it out so we make one large circle around the center – where all the strands come together. We are going to begin with a special poem we will say at the beginning and at the end of our game. Then, whatever color you have, you will take turns saying the poem that goes along with that particular color. After we say all ten poems for all ten strands, then we will gently put the end of our strand down on the floor and move to the strand to our right. Then we will repeat the poems, except this time each person will have a different strand of yarn and so each person will say a different poem. We will repeat this up to ten times, so that at the end each person has had the chance to say each poem once. At the end we can all say the beginning and ending prayer together. Note: It will be helpful to have the poems written or typed on cards.

Here are the preferred colors of yarn, the meanings of the colors, and the poem that goes with each color:

Red:

Red is for the blood that goes through every human’s veins; that gives us strength and health. All human beings have the same blood. We are all part of the same species. We are all one family.

Red is the blood in you and me,

It’s red no matter what, you see.

Whether we are black or brown or white,

We’re all one color deep inside.

Blue:

Blue is for the air we breathe and for the sky that gives us inspiration. Blue is for beauty and for inspiration. Blue is a heavenly color, which shows us the way to transform earth.

Blue is for the sky above,

Your beauty, which our eyes do love.

When we can breathe the purest air,

We know we’re safe in blue sky’s care.

Brown:

Brown is for the earth. Brown, our Mother Earth who gave us birth and who nurtures us always. Brown is for the soil made of the same substance as our bodies and to which our bodies will return.

This I say to Mother Earth:

You were the one who gave us birth,

Your soil is fertile and so deep,

Your loving care we always keep

Yellow:

Yellow is for the sun - the source of our energy, or comfort and warmth, our inspiration. The sun is the source of food, through photosynthesis, for all plants. Plants, in turn, provide food for all animals and humans.

Oh great sun that shines so bright,

You give us life you give us light.

You provide food for plants to eat,

And when we’re cold you give us heat.

Black:

Black is for space, the mystery of how we came to be, for the night in which we dream and have visions. Night is dark, but it is there we can see the majesty of the stars and the vastness of the universe.

Black, you stand for deepest space.

We cannot see your hidden face.

But when the stars and planets shine,

We can see your smiles divine.

White:

White is for goodness and purity and wisdom. White is for the knight who comes to help his brothers and sisters. White is the color of our hearts when we give the best of ourselves.

White, you stand for all that’s true,

For purity and wisdom too.

In you all colors find their home,

With you we’ll never feel alone.

Green:

Green is for creativity and imagination. Green is for newness. Whatever is old cannot be green. Green reminds us to keep our hearts joyful and our minds young.

Create, create, forever green,

Every day a brand new scene.

Imagination is the key

To staying happy and carefree

Lavender:

Lavender is for healing, caring and compassion. Lavender reminds us that our better nature is sweet. It softens us when we are harsh, so we can be a heal ing force.

Lavender is a healing thing,

It helps us when we hurt or sting.

Just like lavender, we can be

Ahelp to those with injury.

Orange:

Orange is for bravery, courage and determination. Orange is different because it has no fear. Orange always shines no matter what. Orange reminds us to stay determined.

Orange no one can imitate,

Your bravery’s what makes you great.

Courageous means to say what’s true,

No matter what your fears tell you.

Burgundy:

Burgundy is faith and loyalty, burgundy is the color of our royalty. It is the color of the banner of peace we hold when we walk in the way of love and compassion.

There is nothing quite like burgundy

When it comes to loyalty.

If we have faith in who we are,

We can twinkle like the stars.

Beginning and concluding poem:

We weave a web of life each day

In our work and in our play.

The strands we cannot always see,

But they weave together you and me.

Each thought or action done with care

Means someone’s happy here or there.

Whatever goodness we can sew

Will make our fabric strong and grow,

So it can spread across the world,

Like a flag of endless love unfurled.

And who or what is at the source-

Well it’s you and me and God, of course.

That love has a thousand names,

It’s why we like to play this game.

Note: Be creative. You can invent different kinds of weaves that you can make during the game. Instead of just putting the strands down after the poems are read, the strands can be intertwined or looped under and over each other. In this way, at the end you can create a woven web. However, remember to be gen tle with the strands of yarn – they are fragile! You will also have to think this out and plan it in advance with much smaller pieces of yarn or string to make sure it will work when you are doing the actual game.

Lesson #2 - Dr. Untangle

Gather in a group of six to ten people. One or two people will not join the group, but will stand outside the group and wait. They are the ‘doctors’. We will stand in a circle, and then everybody will walk towards the middle of the circle, until the group is kind of bunched up but not squished. Each person should take hold of the hand of another person, using one hand. Using the other hand, they should take hold of the hand of a second person. Each person should now be holding hands with two other people. You are now like a tangled knot. (If you are not tangled enough, the teacher might move you around to get you tangled some more!)

Now, your job is to get everyone untangled and make a circle without breaking the chain – that means without letting your hands go from any of your partners. Dr. Untangle will help you, so listen to his/her instructions. You will have to cooperate to be able to move your bodies in the ways you need to get untangled and to make a circle. Be patient, otherwise your chain will break! Once you have the circle, it’s all right if some people are looking in one direction and some are looking in the other direction. If it’s too hard to end up in a circle, you can at least try to end up in a straight line. If anyone gets frustrated along the way, Dr. Untangle can administer ‘knot-aid’ by gently breaking a pair of hands and reconnecting them at a better place, to make the task a little easier.

We are still all connected! Now let’s take a break and discuss the meaning of this lesson. The purpose of this lesson is to show that because we are all con nected, we must work together to solve our problems. In real life our hands are not chained together, but nevertheless we are all part of one human family. Our human family has to work together to solve the world’s problems, just as we did today in getting ourselves untangled.

Lesson #3 – The planet earth

Look at a picture of the earth taken by the space shuttle or another picture of planet earth taken from space for a minute or two. What colors do you see? Look closely, there may be more colors than you think!

a) What kinds of feelings do you get when you see the earth? We will work as a team and make a list of the kinds of feelings we get when we look at or think about the earth.

b) If you had to choose an adjective to describe the earth, what adjective would you choose? Now let’s make a list of all the adjectives we can think of, that we could use to describe the earth.

c) Have you ever heard the expression ‘the earth is our mother’? In what ways is the earth our mother? Think of what our own biological mother gives us and then compare it to what Mother Earth gives us. (Our biological mother is the mother who gave us birth.) We can do this by making a chart: On the left column of our chart we will write all of the things we get from our own biological mother. In the right column we will write all the things we get from Mother Earth. Now look at the chart and compare the things in the left column with the ones in the right col umn. Do you see some similar things? Do you see any differences?

d) We have a relationship - a deep connection - with both our own mother and with Mother Earth. Without our biological mother none of us would be here. Without Mother Earth, we would not be able to live. Using all of the words we have discovered, write a poem, story, or essay about your relationship with your own mother or with Mother Earth – or you can write about your relationship with both of them and about how those relationships are similar. If you wish, you can illustrate your writing with small pictures, make a border around your writing with earth symbols, or make one single drawing to go with your writing. Share your writing and your artwork with the class or display your classwork on the bulletin board.

Lesson #4 – What we are made of

Did you know that every star and every planet including our earth is made of the same stuff as you and me? Our physical bodies and every other thing in the uni verse are all made of the same elements – such as hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and many others. That’s one reason why, if the soil, the air, or the water is sick because of pollution, then we might get sick too. Minerals from the soil enter into us when we eat our food. If there is pollution or bad chemicals in the soil, then this pollution will come into us from the plants or animals we eat. In the same way, air and water are flowing through us all the time. If the air or the water is dirty then our bodies will get dirty on the inside also. This is proof of how con nected we are to the earth and to everything on the earth. As Chief Seattle once said, “Whatever we do to the earth we do to ourselves.” Choose from one of the following activities:

a) Make a poem, story, picture, or cartoon that shows in a creative way how everything – water, soil, air, fire, rocks, mountains, animals, plants, human bod ies, planets, and stars are all made of the same elements. If you prefer, you can create a skit, a musical piece, or a creative movement piece to illustrate the same lesson.

b) Make a poem, story, picture, or cartoon about how you imagine the universe was created.

c) In small teams of two or three people, create a dramatic skit that shows how people are affected by pollution in the air, water, or land. You can also show how healthy we can be if our air, water, and land are free from pollution. Your skit can use music or creative movements if you wish.

Lesson #5 – How we get our morning milk

Here is a story about how we are all connected. Everything we touch or see has invisible threads connecting it not only to us but to many other people in ways we are not even aware of. For example, the milk we drank this morning came out of a carton or a jug that we got at the grocery store. But the story of the milk and of all the people who played a part in helping the milk get to our table began long before the milk got to the store. Somewhere a person had to build fences and prepare grazing pastures for the cows to eat. Somebody had to watch the cows and make sure they were safe and had enough to eat. A different person was responsible for milking the cows and for gathering all the milk in large con tainers. Then somebody had to drive the large containers of milk to a milk pro cessing plant where the milk was pasteurized to make it safe to drink and where it was put into cartons. Many different people work at the processing plant to make the milk safe and to prepare it to go into the cartons. After that, another driver had to take all the cartons to the grocery store to be delivered. At the store, a worker had to take the cartons off the delivery truck and put them into the store refrigerator. Finally, another worker at the store took the cartons out of the refrig erator and put them into the display case where you found the carton you bought to take home.

So you see, even in the case of something as simple as milk, many people had a role to play in the carton of milk getting to our kitchen table. All of these people had to do their jobs properly and carefully in order for us to be able to drink a glass of milk. We are connected to all of these people as if we had invisi ble threads because we all have something to do with the same milk!

a) Create a picture, poem, story, cartoon, song or a dramatic skit about the story in Lesson Five.

b) Write your own story of connectedness using the story in lesson five as your model

Lesson #6 – Essential communication skills

Since communication is the key to building positive relationships, it is important to learn the mechanics of communication. Building positive relation ships depends upon some basic communication skills. Here are some communi cation guidelines that will help you to be a better communicator.

a) When someone is speaking to you, it is polite to look at the person instead of looking in some other direction. This shows the person that you are paying atten tion and that you want to hear what they have to say. If you do not look at them, the person might think you don’t really care to hear what they have to say and their feelings might be hurt.

b) If you nod your head when someone is explaining something or if you say, “Yes I understand,” this is very helpful to the person who is explaining. Other wise the person might not know whether you understand or not.

c) If you are the person doing the talking, it is important once again to look at the person you are talking to. If you don’t, the person you want to communicate with might not be sure you are talking to them.

d) If you are near someone, try to find a good voice level or tone to use that is not too loud or too soft. A voice too loud might make the other person feel uncom fortable. A voice too soft might make them strain to hear you or to hear incor rectly. In both cases – too loud or too soft – the person cannot hear you very comfortably or well. So try to find a medium voice tone that will be not too loud or too soft. If you are not sure, you can always ask the person.

e) Your body language is what you do with your body when you are communicat ing. If your body is very stiff and rigid then the other person might think you are afraid of them. If your body is lazy and falling all over the place, the other per son might think you are being silly and that you don’t take them seriously. If your body is fidgeting the other person might think you are nervous or the other person might be distracted or uncomfortable. When having a conversation with someone, it is best to sit fairly still in a way that is comfortable for you to listen effectively.

f) Saying ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ are not only good things to say every day to be polite. They are especially helpful when you are trying to communicate with someone. For example, when you say, “Could you please repeat that because I didn’t understand,” the word please is very inviting to the other person and encourages them to want to help. And if you say, “Thank you very much for sharing with me,” it makes the other person feel that you appreciate the conversa tion and that the conversation was worthwhile.

Discussion Questions:

Below are some passages from Helen Keller’s autobiography, followed by some questions for reflection and discussion.

a) “Everything Miss Sullivan taught me she illustrated by a beautiful story or a poem. Whenever anything delighted or interested me she talked it over with me just as if she were a little girl herself... I cannot explain the peculiar sympathy Miss Sullivan had with my pleasures and desires. Perhaps it was the result of long association with the blind. Added to this she had a wonderful faculty for descrip tion. She went quickly over uninteresting details, and never nagged me with ques tions to see if I remembered the day-before-yesterday's lesson. She introduced dry technicalities of science little by little, making every subject so real that I could not help remembering what she taught.”

What things does this passage tell you about what kind of teacher Anne Sullivan 99 was and about the relationship between Anne and Helen?

b) "Love is something like the clouds that were in the sky before the sun came out," Anne replied. Then in simpler words than these, which at that time I could not have understood, Anne explained: “You cannot touch the clouds, you know; but you feel the rain and know how glad the flowers and the thirsty earth are to have it after a hot day. You cannot touch love either; but you feel the sweetness that it pours into everything. Without love you would not be happy or want to play." The beautiful truth burst upon my mind--I felt that there were invisible lines stretched between my spirit and the spirits of others.

Love was a very difficult word for Helen to understand because she could not touch it. The passage above shows how Anne Sullivan finally was able to get Helen to understand what the word love meant and how Helen felt when she finally understood. How would you describe love?

c) “I recall many incidents of the summer of 1887 that followed my soul's sudden awakening. I did nothing but explore with my hands and learn the name of every object that I touched; and the more I handled things and learned their names and uses, the more joyous and confident grew my sense of kinship with the rest of the world.”

When you learn the names of things how does this make you feel more connected with world?

d) What many children think of with dread, as a painful plodding through gram mar, hard sums and harder definitions, is today one of my most precious memo ries.”

Why do you think Helen felt this much enthusiasm and joy about learning grammar and math and definitions? Imagine for a moment that these things are great gifts to us and that it is a privilege to be able to learn reading, writing, math, and other subjects. These are things that animals cannot do. Why not? These are things that we can do much more easily in our country than in other parts of the world. Why is this?

e) “On entering the door I remembered the doll I had broken. I felt my way to the hearth and picked up the pieces. I tried vainly to put them together. Then my eyes filled with tears; for I realized what I had done, and for the first time I felt repen tance and sorrow.”

To feel repentance or sorrow is a very human thing to feel. Can you remember the first time you felt something like this? What happened that caused you to feel this way?

f) “A day or two afterward I was stringing beads of different sizes in symmetrical groups--two large beads, three small ones, and soon I had made many mistakes, and Miss Sullivan had pointed them out again and again with gentle patience. Finally I noticed a very obvious error in the sequence and for an instant I concen trated my attention on the lesson and tried to think how I should have arranged the beads. Miss Sullivan touched my forehead and spelled with decided emphasis, ‘Think’. In a flash I knew that the word was the name of the process that was going on in my head. This was my first conscious perception of an abstract idea.”

What is an abstract idea and how is it different from the name of some ordinary thing or the word for some physical object that you can see, hear, touch, smell, or taste?

g) “When the time of daisies and buttercups came, Miss Sullivan took me by the hand across the fields, where men were preparing the earth for the seed, to the banks of the Tennessee River, and there, sitting on the warm grass, I had my first lessons in the beneficence of nature. I learned how the sun and the rain make to grow out of the ground every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food, how birds build their nests and live and thrive from land to land, how the squirrel, the deer, the lion and every other creature finds food and shelter. As my knowl edge of things grew I felt more and more the delight of the world I was in. Long before I learned to do a sum in arithmetic or describe the shape of the earth, Miss Sullivan had taught me to find beauty in the fragrant woods, in every blade of grass, and in the curves and dimples of my baby sister's hand. She linked my ear liest thoughts with nature, and made me feel that ‘birds and flowers and I were happy peers.’

In this passage Helen is talking about discovering her friendship with nature. What does she mean when she says that Anne Sullivan made me feel that the “birds and flowers and I were happy peers”?

h) “But my teacher had been with me several weeks before I understood that everything has a name....Some one was drawing water and my teacher placed my hand under the spout. As the cool stream gushed over one hand she spelled into the other the word water, first slowly, then rapidly. I stood still, my whole atten tion fixed upon the motions of her fingers. Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten--a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that ‘w-a-t-e-r’ meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free! There were barriers still, it is true, but barriers that could in time be swept away.”

Language is quite a miracle when you think about it. Imagine and describe what the world would be like or how the world would be different without any spoken language.

Supplemental Activities:

• Read more of the autobiography of Helen Keller. Pick out a passage that strikes you or interests you to share with your class.

• Make a list of all of the most important people in your life. Next to each person write why that person is important to you. What is it that you have gotten or gained from that person?

• Make a colorful drawing that illustrates the web of life game from Lesson #1 above. This project can be done as individual drawings or in teams that work on larger group drawings. The drawing should show the different colored strands of the web and something special at the middle, such as a colorful ball, a globe, or a beautiful heart, where all the strands come together. An extra challenge would be to include all the poems about the different colors in your drawing. The poems can be written directly onto your drawing, or the poems can be written on sepa rate paper and then cut and pasted onto the drawing.