Learning from the Land
To introduce the topic, ask the learners to listen carefully to the parable below as they will then have to find both a title and an ending for it:
A man was digging his land, and as it was in Israel, it was very stony. He cleared the stones from his land onto the public road, creating a huge pile. A rabbi passed that way and said to him, ‘You’re a fool, because you’re taking stones from a place you don’t own and putting them in a place you do own’. The man couldn’t make any sense of what he was saying, and dismissed it. Sometime later, he fell on hard times and lost his land. One day he was walking along the road and fell over some stones. Suddenly, he realised that they were the stones he had dug out. Then he understood: It is the public places that we own. And if we do not care for them, ______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Suggested title: Whose land are you digging up?
Suggested ending: … we are not only damaging ourselves but also our children and our children’s children.
To follow the Jewish parable above, a Mulla Nasrudin tale has been chosen. It is thought that the the character is based on a real man who lived in the 1300s. However, many countries lay claim to having been the home of Mulla Nasrudin and it remains uncertain where the man lived and the stories started. Since there are thousands of different Nasrudin stories, one can be found to fit almost any occasion. As a post-listening activity with this tale, you can invite the learners to work out what the moral is, and they can do this in small groups:
Choice of Choices
A famous spiritual teacher decided he wanted to do something that would help his followers to experience, in their own being, the meaning of salvation and damnation. So when he stood in front of his congregation, this is what he said:
“Those of you who want to go to Hell, please stand up….!”
Nobody stood up.
“Now, those who want to go to Heaven please stand up,” he continued.
On hearing this, of course everybody stood up, except for Mulla Nasrudin that is.
The spiritual teacher looked at Mulla Nasrudin angrily and said: “Don’t you think, brother, that it is high time for you to decide, like everyone else here has done, whether you want to go to heaven or you want to go to hell…?"
“Oh yes, I have decided where I want to go,” replied Mulla Nasrudin, sincerely and with conviction, “I want to _____________________________________________________________________________________________________.”
The moral of the story: You must make your own choices in life - don't let choices choose for you. Most of the time we think that choices are binary in nature - that there are only two options - yes or no - because the situation is presented to us that way, and we tend to restrict our choice between the two options we see, when actually there may be many other options available to us.
You can then ask your learners what they think they would miss most if they had to quit this life, and to tell the person sitting next to them about it.
The third and final parable is a Buddhist tale, and this time you can ask the learners to place the different parts in the correct order:
The Story of the Hoe
1 ___ 2 ___ 3 ___ 4 ___ 5 ___ 6 ___ 7 ___ 8 ___ 9 ___
ANSWERS: 1-a / 2-f / 3-b / 4-d / 5-e / 6-i /7-c / 8-g / 9-h
And now for some quotes from famous people about the land. Invite the learners to each pick three questions that interest them to ask the person they are sitting next to, and then to report back what they find out to the rest of the class:
I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land! I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. Suppose there is a Promised Land, what would you expect to find there?
A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt. What are you doing on a personal level to protect the environment for the generations yet to come?
I always seem to get inspiration and renewed vitality by contact with this great novel land of yours which sticks up out of the Atlantic. ~ Winston Churchill. How has the USA and its culture influenced you?
I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves. ~ John Wayne. A lot of people would strongly disagree with this point of view. What do you think?
O lands! O all so dear to me -- what you are, I become part of that, whatever it is. ~ Walt Whitman (1819-1892) American poet. To what extent do you feel connected to the land?
The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land. ~ Gilbert K. Chesterton. To what extent can you be objective about your country?
When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said "Let us pray." We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land. ~ Desmond Tutu. Did the missionaries only exploit the native peoples of Africa or did they achieve anything positive – what do you think?
Death most resembles a prophet who is without honour in his own land or a poet who is a stranger among his people. ~ Khalil Gibran. What does death resemble for you?
He's a real Nowhere Man, / Sitting in his Nowhere Land, / Making all his nowhere plans for nobody. / Doesn't have a point of view, / Knows not where he's going to, / Isn't he a bit like you and me? ~ John Lennon. Would you describe yourself as a Nowhere Man or Nowhere Woman? If not, why not?
April is the cruellest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain. ~ T.S. Eliot. What do you consider the cruellest month to be, and why?
Poetry is the journal of a sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air ~ Carl Sandburg (American Historian, Poet and Novelist, 1878-1967). What would your definition of poetry be?
To put it rather bluntly, I am not the type who wants to go back to the land; I am the type who wants to go back to the hotel. ~ Fran Lebowitz. Which type of person are you?
You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land, there is no other life but this. ~ Henry David Thoreau (American Essayist, Poet and Philosopher, 1817-1862). To what extent do you manage to live in the present?
The whole world is my native land. ~ Seneca (Roman philosopher, mid-1st century AD). What about you – are you a citizen of the world or more of a nationalist?
Naught is possessed, neither gold, nor land nor love, nor life, nor peace, nor even sorrow nor death, nor yet salvation. Say of nothing: It is mine. Say only: It is with me. ~ D.H. Lawrence (British Poet, Novelist and Essayist, 1885-1930). There are many people who do believe they can buy and possess land though. How do you feel about this?
Each blade of grass has its spot on earth whence it draws its life, its strength; and so is man rooted to the land from which he draws his faith together with his life. ~ Joseph Conrad (1857-1924) British novelist. Where do your roots lie and to what extent have they influenced you?
My land is bare of chattering folk; / the clouds are low along the ridges, / and sweet's the air with curly smoke / from all my burning bridges. ~ Dorothy Parker (American short-story Writer and Poet, 1893-1967). Is your land “bare of chattering folk”? In other words, are you a solitary kind of creature or more of a social animal?
No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit. ~ Helen Keller. Optimist or pessimist – how would you describe yourself?
If I were dropped out of a plane into the ocean and told the nearest land was a thousand miles away, I'd still swim. And I'd despise the one who gave up. ~ Abraham Maslow. To what extent would you describe yourself as a fighter?