The Right Perspective: Lore’s Morning Meeting – D31

For the first or second time since we began de MPC, we were all on time (except Ingrid in both occasions). It was great to start the day like this. Today was Lorena’s first direction of a morning meeting. After some announcements, she showed us a video called "Having the Right Perspective", by Joel Osteen, a Christian preacher and a great speaker. I have to admit that at first I thought it would be a video of Christian values and finding God, and I don’t like those kinds of messages. I was wrong. The video talks about having a level of gratitude for what we have, and not complain of what’s possible wrong with our life. It is about finding, in everything, the positive aspect. It also relates with the previous video we watched called, “Celebrating what’s right in the world”. It’s not that having a positive attitude will fix everything or that we have to ignore our problems and wrong things we have, it’s about having a better perspective to confront the problems we may have.

We had individual work until 11 a.m. Then we were supposed to have a dialogue on “The Trivium”, but since almost everyone had not read more than 50 pages, Bert talked to us about commitment and “giving a shit” for the MPC. After this pep talk, we did start the dialogue, which was based on, “what is the metaquestion of chapter 1?” We inquire in many of the chapter’s topics, and at first concluded that the metaquestion was, “what are the liberal arts and what is its purpose”. Later, we talked about other related subjects such as the trivium as the only way of finding the truth, since the trivium stands for all aspects of communication. We didn’t got to answer the metaquestion, but it was a very interesting dialogue.

The eyes are the windows to the soul – D14

By Lorena’s petition, we made a very “out of the comfort zone” exercise. It consisted of making two lines, pair up with someone of the other line, and make eye contact for two minutes with each person. It is very interesting how we are used to not have deep eye contact. When doing the exercise we felt very awkward and uncomfortable at first, but after some laughs we began to concentrate on it and some even created a deep connection. I didn’t have a deep connection with anyone, but it was cool to experience it. I do think it would be better with more time with each person. Although I didn’t make such connection, there were some that did, for example Bert and Carmen, and Pablito and Isa with Kata. A very funny comment was something Carmen said about perceiving that Alejo had a little Alejo inside, like an inner child. Also with Carmen and Bert, she started thinking of Bert’s childhood, which became psychic because Bert was thinking of Carmen thinking of his childhood. Serendipity! Pablito and Isa cried on their turn with Kata, but they didn’t know why, they just felt it. So, these are the things I was referring to. I mean, how much can the eyes of someone tell you about their life, their feelings, their thoughts. Its impressive how a simple exercise of looking to the eyes of someone, can lead to an intimate connection of both parts. Can a “simple” look give you more information and bonding than the talked word, a story, or actions per se? Can “the eyes be the windows to the soul”? Can you see life through the eyes?