Thinking Citizen Blog — The Orion Trilogy — A Practical Guide To a Full Life
Thinking Citizen Blog — Friday is Education and Education Policy Day
Today’s Topic: The Orion Trilogy — A Practical Guide to a Full Life
Form matters. Process matters. Today, a little revolution in both my conception of the form my “book” will take and the process by which it will be utilized over dinner in every home on the planet earth on every night of the week.
Put differently, this morning’s post is a wild-and-crazy exercise in adapting the 15th — 19th century “chapbook” to the 21st century and beyond.
THE HISTORICAL CHAPBOOK — from fairy tales, nursery rhymes, recipes, poetry to political and religious tracts
1. Chapbooks were a cheap form of “street literature” consisting of one sheet of paper folded into 8,12, 16, or 24 pages.
2. “ Printers provided chapbooks on credit to chapmen, who sold them both from door to door and at markets and fairs, then paying for the stock they sold.”
3. “The tradition of chapbooks emerged during the 16th century as printed books were becoming affordable, with the medium ultimately reaching its height of popularity during the 17th and 18th centuries.”
NB: “Different ephemera and popular or folk literature were published as chapbooks, such as almanacs, children’s literature, folklore, nursery rhytmes, pamphlets, poetry, and political and religious tracts. The term chapbook remains in use by publishers to refer to shot, inexpensive booklets.”
THE THREE VOLUME ORION CHAPBOOK (2024) — Volume 1 (Life Algorithms), Volume 2 (the Seven Joys), Volume 3 (the Seven Issues of Thinking Citizenship)
1. Imagine an arts-and-crafts project for a fifth grader consisting of a folded piece of cardboard with seven panels, each panel representing one of the seven stars of the hourglass formation at the heart of the Orion constellation.
2. By analogy, each seven-folded piece of cardboard is an “Orion.”
3. Imagine three of these Orions — one representing the Seven Life Algorithms (eg. Virtues), for me those would be: Gratitude #1, Courage #2, Common Sense #3, Hard Work #4, Excellence #5, Curiosity #6, and Joy (aka “fun”) #7. Call this Orion I.
NB: The second Orion in the Trilogy is the Orion of the Seven Joys: Music #1, Art #2, Sports #3, Miscellaneous #4 (Humor, Food, Travel), Math #5, Literature #6, and Science, Technology, Engineering #7.
The third Orion is the Orion of the Seven Civic Issues of Thinking Citizenship: #1 Foreign policy, #2 Economics, #3 Climate Change, #4 Health, #5 Education, #6 Justice, #7 Political Process.
EVERY NIGHT OF THE WEEK A DIFFERENT CENTER PIECE AT THE DINING ROOM TABLE OF EVERY FAMILY ON THE PLANET — A TWO SIDED, SEVEN PANELED “CHAPBOOK” OPENED UP — ON ONE SIDE THE ORION OF THE JOY OF THE DAY, ON THE OTHER SIDE THE ORION OF THE CIVIC ISSUE OF THE DAY
1. Let’s build a much, much better world together. Think of our life tasks as building Orions for the next generation. Little memory palaces that are the distilled essence of the wisdom of all past generations.
2. Think of Orion as a City on a Hill dreamed of by the Pilgrims who ventured across the wine, dark sea, mostly to die on the way.
3. Or as one of those computer simulations games like the video game Civilization or the board game Settlers of Catan.
NB: Can we learn to think more sharply, more deeply together over a delicious meal? Why not?
Remember — Continuity is key to depth of thought. Collaboration is key to clarity of thought. The wider the circle of collaboration the better.
FOOTNOTE — the Goldman Sachs and McKinsey Pitchbook Analogy; the Tolkien and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Analogy (thank you John Haaga for the latter)
1. The presentations of Goldman Sachs investment bankers and McKinsey consultants are classically limited to 10 pages in deference to the importance of their clients — CEOs of major corporations who are notoriously impatient. Get to the point or get the hell out of my office!
2. Each page has one graphic, the critical numbers, and as few words as possible — usually no more than three five word bullets.
3. Better put the most important point first because otherwise a fusillade of questions and challenges may cause it to get lost in the scuffle.
NB: The Hitchhiker trilogy expanded to five volumes. Will the Orion Trilogy suffer a similar fate? Works of Art with Multiple Panels: the Stations of the Cross (14), Giotto’s Scrovegni Chapel, Sistine Chapel.
Are you in the mood to make an Orion of the activity that brings you the most joy in life? How about of the civic issue most dear to your heart? Please share.
Chapbooks: Definition and Origins
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IP5ATbqCWPv0WKC4dCDgAiidbFVOaqR_
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to education or education policy. Or the coolest thought however half-baked you had.
Or the coolest, most important thing you learned in your life related to education or education policy that the rest of us may have missed.
Or just some random education-related fact that blew you away.
This is your chance to make some one’s day. Or to cement in your own mind something that you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something that is dear to your heart.
