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One Wheel, Three (or more) Objects, *LOTS* of Hearts
August 25, 2008 | Posted by Carlos - 2:05pm | 2 Comments
If you click on my profile, you'll notice "juggling" among the more usual interests of someone who would contribute to a COIN blog (Like...shoes. Um, moving on....). Carlos has a respectable 5-ball juggle and knows a bunch of tricks. I maintained what little sanity through grad school that way (recognizing the diminishing returns, if I had got to 7, I'd probably never have finished the dissertation).
The juggling community is small, most folks only 2-3 degrees of separation apart. On one of the forums, there had been a thread on advice for teaching kids to juggle without use of language. The reason? The questioner was heading to Afghanistan to work with the Afghan Mobile Mini Circus. Obviously, I think this is a wonderful program, and I bring it to your attention on the wonders of laughter even in the toughest of societies. I also bring bring it up to ask those who've been there if they've seen the AMMC and their work, and if they have any impressions of what they're doing.
Some cool pictures can be found here. And a profile of Zach Warren, one of the AMMC's juggling teachers and performers, as well as Harvard Divinity Student, can be found here. Zach raises money for the AMMC not only by unicycling, but also by marathon "joggling," where one runs an entire marathon while juggling three (sometimes more) objects. (In 2006, Zach broke the world record, with a sub three-hour run most folks would be proud of *without* juggling, and bested his joggling rival in the race. Zach's rival, Michael Kapral, took the record back, as Zach noted on his website. Zach also holds the current record for fastest mile riding a unicycle (3min 26 sec, 17.45 miles an hour).
I've become increasingly interested in the role of reconciliation in postconflict environments, and it strikes me that these kinds of programs could have an even deeper impact than many would suggest. Too frequently, we talk about "hearts and minds" as if the words and objects run together. Well, that's crap. How often have we done things where the mind knows better, but the heart is what we follow. (Um. Or other parts. Let's move on). "Hearts and minds" is wonderful in combination, but Hearts OR Minds might not be bad places to start. Especially with the youth.
The juggling community is small, most folks only 2-3 degrees of separation apart. On one of the forums, there had been a thread on advice for teaching kids to juggle without use of language. The reason? The questioner was heading to Afghanistan to work with the Afghan Mobile Mini Circus. Obviously, I think this is a wonderful program, and I bring it to your attention on the wonders of laughter even in the toughest of societies. I also bring bring it up to ask those who've been there if they've seen the AMMC and their work, and if they have any impressions of what they're doing.
Some cool pictures can be found here. And a profile of Zach Warren, one of the AMMC's juggling teachers and performers, as well as Harvard Divinity Student, can be found here. Zach raises money for the AMMC not only by unicycling, but also by marathon "joggling," where one runs an entire marathon while juggling three (sometimes more) objects. (In 2006, Zach broke the world record, with a sub three-hour run most folks would be proud of *without* juggling, and bested his joggling rival in the race. Zach's rival, Michael Kapral, took the record back, as Zach noted on his website. Zach also holds the current record for fastest mile riding a unicycle (3min 26 sec, 17.45 miles an hour).
I've become increasingly interested in the role of reconciliation in postconflict environments, and it strikes me that these kinds of programs could have an even deeper impact than many would suggest. Too frequently, we talk about "hearts and minds" as if the words and objects run together. Well, that's crap. How often have we done things where the mind knows better, but the heart is what we follow. (Um. Or other parts. Let's move on). "Hearts and minds" is wonderful in combination, but Hearts OR Minds might not be bad places to start. Especially with the youth.
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