Intro to Section 1 Wombdrum to Earthdance
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If we treat each newborn as someone whose every neuron has already been tuned to timing and timed to tuning, someone who wants to be in time and in tune with other people and with other creatures, then we will lullabye and handle and rock the cradle, sing ditties and dandle, until each child is dancing before they walk and singing before they talk. The wombworld each child enters needs to be redesigned for primary communication with many kinds of drumming (hands moving in time), singing (sounding in time) and dancing (bodies moving in time) available on demand. No family can afford the daily and nightly losses of timing-training and tuning-training that a television set represents. Instead of turning on the TV or computer or radio or stereo or pushing any button to feel comfortable or sociable we need to 'amp the imp' (amplify the 'Intrinsic Motive Pulse')(Trevarthen) in each other, turn each other on to the joys of timing, tuning, primary communication, lift-up-over-sounding (Keil and Feld) - as we do the earthdance differently in each watershed.
The alternative to "grooving with each other" and "grooving on and in reality" is what we can see and hear for hours each day 'with' the media, meditating 'on' or 'in' front of a TV set. Newborns, toddlers, children are born to groove, but we are the responsible adults to make it happen. We are in a position to facilitate the groove and help each child make the connection between their 'intrinisic motive pulse' and the 'common glad impulse.' We can advocate for children grooving, nurture them, explore with them their capacity for grooving. Or, doing nothing, we can look on as the media mediates its main message of passive spectatorship and constant consumption.
Printable Version (PDF)
If we treat each newborn as someone whose every neuron has already been tuned to timing and timed to tuning, someone who wants to be in time and in tune with other people and with other creatures, then we will lullabye and handle and rock the cradle, sing ditties and dandle, until each child is dancing before they walk and singing before they talk. The wombworld each child enters needs to be redesigned for primary communication with many kinds of drumming (hands moving in time), singing (sounding in time) and dancing (bodies moving in time) available on demand. No family can afford the daily and nightly losses of timing-training and tuning-training that a television set represents. Instead of turning on the TV or computer or radio or stereo or pushing any button to feel comfortable or sociable we need to 'amp the imp' (amplify the 'Intrinsic Motive Pulse')(Trevarthen) in each other, turn each other on to the joys of timing, tuning, primary communication, lift-up-over-sounding (Keil and Feld) - as we do the earthdance differently in each watershed.
The alternative to "grooving with each other" and "grooving on and in reality" is what we can see and hear for hours each day 'with' the media, meditating 'on' or 'in' front of a TV set. Newborns, toddlers, children are born to groove, but we are the responsible adults to make it happen. We are in a position to facilitate the groove and help each child make the connection between their 'intrinisic motive pulse' and the 'common glad impulse.' We can advocate for children grooving, nurture them, explore with them their capacity for grooving. Or, doing nothing, we can look on as the media mediates its main message of passive spectatorship and constant consumption.
Last modified: Friday, July 28, 2006, 10:45 PM
Born to Groove