Metaphor for Community December 20, 2006
Posted by mobius in Ad Hoc Musings.trackback
We may visualize communities with a metaphor. Stone (2002) illustrates the connection between metaphor and action: “Metaphors are important devices for strategic representation. On the surface, they simply draw a comparison between one thing and another, but in a more subtle way they usually imply a whole narrative story and a prescription for action” (p. 148).
A metaphor for communities begins with individuals and dialogue. A key element of dialogue is the ability to hold opinions and assumptions in suspension long enough to enter into a respectful appreciation for the other (Bohm, 1994). Picture a rubber band with a square card strung through the middle. Stretching the rubber band to the right distance allows the card to be suspended. Dialogue may now be constructed without being hampered by polarized opinions. Add to this model a cross-section of respect for each other in the dialogue. Noddings (2003) summarized several authors’ thinking along these lines, recalling “Sarte’s use of for-itself and in-itself, Heidegger’s being-in-the-world, and Buber’s I-Thou and I-It” (p. 4). Solidify this model by constructing a Tinkertoy with four crossbeams positioned out of the sides of the center disk. Now you have an intersection of suspended opinions with a heightened caring for the other.
However, dialogue is not static, as time becomes a variable factor. Neither is time linear, thus creating a fractal characteristic to true dialogue more akin to a mobius strip. So let us now take our Tinkertoy model and set it into motion connected by an infinity of dialogues connected with each other along a mobius strip. One important characteristic of a mobius strip is that there is no inside or outside; another is that if you cut it in two down the middle of the strip, it elongates, but does not separate. Cut it in thirds and it duplicates itself into a chain, yet remains unbroken.
It is by shaping our dialogues into continuous, flowing reinventions that we provide citizens with the tools for achieving a humanistic construction. Perhaps if we are successful at instilling these same values based on the simplistic model above, we will begin to live in a world that is different from the linear, polarized world we seem destined to live in today.
Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!)
Comments»
no comments yet - be the first?