Posy by Ray Knight: Ray is in his first year of teaching Language Arts at Bettendorf High School. You can follow him on twitter @RayPKnight
Before I entered high school, my mother recommended I read All I Really Need to Know I Learned in
Kindergarten. I never read it. But when considering what I really need to
know, I am glad I have seen Disney’s Pocahontas. Even while showing questionable judgment in
dressing this Native American heroin more like a Jersey Shore night club
aficionado, Disney Studios does produce nuggets of wisdom in the songs “Colors
of the Wind” and “Just around the River Bend,” nuggets that are personally and
professionally beneficial.
Former Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, took some flack
when he commented on the “unknown unknowns” facing American military engaging
terrorism. Perhaps if he was as good a
vocalist as Pocahontas, his message would have been received with less
friction.
In “Colors of the Wind,” Pocahontas councils John Smith, and
us, that “if you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you’ll learn things you
never knew you never knew.” The problem
with learning things we never knew that we don’t know is… we don’t know to
learn them. In my personal and
professional life, I will learn things this week I wish I would have known last
week. If only I knew those things I
don’t already know, then I could spend some time coming to know what I don’t
yet know. Luckily, Pocahontas has advice
on how to identify what we don’t already know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkV-of_eN2w (“Colors of the Wind”)
Pocahontas yearns to look, and I recommend we all take a
look “just around the river bend,” even if we “don’t know what for” or for what
knowing we might be missing. As I strive
to “look once more,” I am compelled to travel: to Italy, Mexico, Westeros,
ancient Greece, and the Marvel Universe. I am compelled to do triathlon trainin and have actual conversations,
etc. Conversations are certainly my
favorite; discovering new knowing face to face is about the most amazing discovery
I've experienced.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DE5a80I8EU (“Just Around the River Bend”)
While I still don’t know everything I don’t yet know, I do know
enough to keep looking, searching.
Perhaps I should watch Pocahontas
‘once more’ to see “what’s waiting there for me.”
Anybody have a copy I can borrow?
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