Personal Blogs

All my posts: https://learn1.open.ac.uk/mod/oublog/view.php?u=zw219551

or search for 'martin cadwell -caldwell' Take note of the position of the minus sign to eliminate caldwell returns or search for 'martin cadwell blog' in your browser.

I am not on YouTube or social media

 A new years resolution

[ 8 minute read ]

Well that went well!

Inattentive and could do better

Many students have to cite and reference sources in their essays. Years later, they might find themselves working in ALDI or LIDL at the checkout in what may be a banal and mundane role. I have met a few and they consistently say that learning how to cite and reference sources was one of the worst things they ever had to do at undergraduate level and they are glad they never have to do it ever again. I can't help thinking that they probably do cite others in their everyday lives, most likely without them even knowing they are doing it, and if the referenced person is party to the nod directed towards them, as long as it is positive, they will likely think that the person is a kind and respectful person for noticing them and attributing knowledge to them. I think that no-one in the room will recognise that the respect is an honed attitude. A bit of a nature versus nurture aspect, really.

I have spent years collecting books both real and from the internet; we used to be able to download a bunch for free. I haven't tried that for a couple of years. Many of the e-books are on one of my laptops or shunted off onto a dongle or flashdrive, but some are in the Desktop folder or in a folder called 'Read Now'. For years, I would copy from real books from the library into new files and store them on my computers and drives, slowly absorbing information, waiting to match it or compare it with more information on different topics to get a greater understanding of stuff; peering behind the curtain to watch the puppeteer because I have seen the show, if you like. This form of incredibly slow learning is quite evident in my posts. 'Stuff' has been percolating on a warm stove and distilling, so I can be more than direct, even astringent in my approaches. Wish I didn't do that! Because I know this, I snatch facets of humanity from the air whenever I recognise any; effectively the ones that 'fit' me, and I write down what I think, or have read, in paragraphs of perhaps only 150 to 250 words. I have done this without including references to the sources. Oh dear! Because I write what I think, and make direct copies from books, I no longer know who wrote what.

If I was in a film, I would become part of the library, but not because I know much, more because I would be exploring. I would be the voice in your head that says, 'Have you considered looking for a cat in a box?' or 'Job interviews are enhanced by understanding Models of Brand Evaluation in Marketing.' There might otherwise be a scene where someone rounds a corner in a library and finds an unkempt man with books all around him on the floor, some with the same titles and opened on different pages. Occasionally, in the scene, a beam of sunlight would highlight the dust in the air and the slam of a book closing would stun the air before the particles jump.

I asked a librarian if she had a book about Pavlov's dog and Schrodinger's cat. She said it rang a bell but wasn't sure if it was there or not.

The cure lies in our own hands

'[...] Again, even when we live benevolent, admired lives according to the standards of our times, we can fear that had things been tougher we would have joined the fallen. If we are good, it may be because we were never tempted enough, or frightened enough, or put in desperate enough need. We can also fear the restless evil in the human heart. We know that neither success nor suffering ennobles people. In such a mood, we can be overwhelmed just by the relentless human capacity for making life horrible for others. The right reaction is not to succumb to the mood, but to reflect that the cure lies in our own hands.'

The above is a direct quote from a little book called 'Ethics: A Very Short Introduction' by Simon Blackburn, Oxford University Press, 2001.

I haven't read all of it. Up until today, I was the sort of person, who impressed by someone's personal library of real books, would crassly ask, 'Have you read all of these?' I realise now why the person I was addressing would look at me as though I was a buffoon for a while, then say, 'Most of them.' The pause before they answered was not shock at my stupid question, it was them assessing what was the best way to teach me about why having books to read is as important as having read books. Why would I assume that someone has intellectually died when I have known this pretty much my whole life? 

I think the first most influential book I have read was a book on psychology. 'Psychology: The Science of Mental Life by George A. Miller' (Pelican, 1979). The front cover was a hand holding a ball of glass (crystal ball) by the wonderful M.C. Escher. My sister bought it for my 13th birthday as a present. I think I can trace a lot back to that day! I think a lot of the 'cure' was in that book. Thank you sister, thank you!

I think the second most influential book I have read was a book called 'Use Your Head' by Tony Buzan. (Book Club Associates, London, 1984). Originally published in 1974 by Guild Publishing, London.

'Use Your Head', which I bought when I was 17, taught me how to learn as I like to learn. The most prominent message I got from it was that when reading a text book, do not start from page one at the beginning and read through until you reach the end of the book. Instead, flick through it and read the bits that immediately interest you. Build up 'keywords' on which to hang other bits of information. Eventually, the bits that you would never have comprehended are as meaningful and exciting as the bits that first interested you. 

Back to 'Ethics: A Very Short Introduction'. On page 81 is an image of a painting 'Liberty Leading the People' by Eugène Delacroix; one of my favourite artists.

On page 80:

Freedom from the bad

'Another approach to what matters in living well is to consider what has to be avoided. It is much easier, to begin with, to agree on this list. We don't want to suffer domination by others, or powerlessness, lack of opportunity, lack of capability, ignorance. We don't want to suffer pain, disease, misery, failure, disdain, pity, dependency, disrespect, depression, and melancholy. Hell was always easier to draw than heaven.'

It mentions that the list is of most use in political philosophy, which is a great subject in itself, but I have often tried to find where obstacles lie in my life and then gone on to attempt to remove or overcome those obstacles, so the list works well for me, on a personal level. I read it three times slowly.

Before I married my wife, I noticed that there were no books to read in her own home; no small personal library. I set one up in our marital home. Books that she might read, and books we could read together, like the book on Shiatsu massage. Without knowing what our children, once they were born, might like to read, I set about buying books for beginners on everything that I knew a little about; gardening, cars, herbs, the climate, Egypt, lots of art and creativity books, history, travel (especially Germany) and as they grew up, aircraft, boats, fish, dogs, wild animals, people, psychology, lots more art and craft, jewellery, fashion, war, self-help, biology, physics, maths and languages, and many, many more. It was never my hope that any of them would be fully read. A paragraph from just one of the books might have been the 1% that made a puzzle complete for them, or started a new interest. 

As we move away from the events of the past, measured as being contained within a single year, and reach the end of the festivities of Saturnalia, now turned into Christmas by Pope Julius I in the 4th Century, from it being celebrated, in Europe, anywhere between early January to late September; we might look to our futures and make a resolution to change something. 

The most influential non animate learning aid in my life is definitely the Collins Pocket Thesaurus I bought when I was sixteen.

What would I change? What would I improve or remove? I am jaded, tired and morose. I have lost the fizz, the effervescence of life. I am going to buy something sharper to puncture the balls that come into my back garden from next door, and a mirror to perfect my scowl. If you've got it, flaunt it!

Get the 'Martin' look!