University of Wisconsin, Parkside (UWP)
California State University, Dominguez Hills(CSUDH)
Created: April 12, 2011
Latest update: July 9, 2011
E-Mail to Jeanne in L.A.
E-Mail to Susan at UWP.

But how did I help?

You played with me
until we figured it out.
Thank you.

Remember the old song?

"Look down my rain barrel,
"Slide down my cellar door,
"And we'll be jolly friends forever more."

It takes a village. It takes listening to the other, and wondering as you speak, what the other might say. It takes the Other.

Discussion Questions and jeanne's Plausible Answers
What's Your Answer?

1. What if there is no one there? What is the sound of one hand clapping?

   jeanne's thoughts: This question follows my suggestion that this work comes from Susan being willing to play with me. For many a year, most of which we couldn't really be together. So we were like the children in the song. But the relationship grew and grew and one day we knew, what all this had been about. As Serge Kahili King says in the last sentence of his article,

   "The thing to remember, in this context, is that you are trying to change how you think or feel about the country, not trying to change the country. It's a subtle but important difference, and it applies to people as well as countries. . . .

   "If this idea catches on we can introduce a Huna koan (the actual Hawaiian phrase is "nane huna," a hidden riddle or conundrum): 'What is the sound of one person loving?' "

   Now, what do you think about the needing someone to play with you to complete the sound of clapping?

2. What if you couldn't come to play? We are lucky in the day of the Internet. Virtual play!
3. What has the fast track done to our time to listen in good faith to one another? Ah, yes. That is the question.

   References

   • One Hand Clapping by Serge Kahili King.
   • Koan
     

     "consists of a story, dialogue, question, or statement, the meaning of which cannot be understood by rational thinking but may be accessible through intuition. One widely known ko-an is "Two hands clap and there is a sound; what is the sound of one hand?" (oral tradition attributed to Hakuin Ekaku, 1686–1769, considered a reviver of the ko-an tradition in Japan)."

     Will finish tomorrow. Inshallah, Bokra, Malesh. jeanne