YES, originally uploaded by jeremyhead.
It is said that when John Lennon visited Yoko Ono’s art exhibit, he climbed a ladder to see a single word on a paper attached to the ceiling. That word was…Yes. He was so impressed with an artist who would have such positive thoughts that he decided to meet Yoko, and then, well the rest is history. All words have magical powers. The power to inspire, the power to intimidate, the power to woo or soothe…And words take on different powers depending on how they are spoken or how they appear in print. And most importantly, it is the knowledge of words that gives us such power over circumstances and surroundings. Empower yourself! Learn a new word today!
I am a Business/Computer teacher in Ontario. Literacy is of interest to me in that it is a necessary component of student success. Equally important is that my own son was touched by the power and magic of learning to read. It opened the door to a whole world that would have remained silent to him and allowed him to share his sometimes chaotic, sometimes frightening thoughts.
Catherine Gagnon – Orleans, ON
2 replies on “the power of a simple word”
Brian here – marvelous! I didn’t know that story about John and Yoko, but it did remind me of the closing of the Beatles’ movie Yellow Submarine, in which the powers of ‘no’ (for the Blue Meanies, and ‘YES’ are very clear. Hopefully this link will take you there…
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1444637107417806305#81m15s
Thanks Brian, I had not seen that. I miss John Lennon… I remember being about 10 yrs old when my father told us the Beatles would be on TV worldwide via satellite, when they debuted All you need is Love. I couldn’t begin to fathom how people in different time zones, on different continents could be watching this all at once. That was so amazing! Talk about technology meeting culture! These gentlemen were certainly “avant guarde”.
I’ve been reading Ong’s book and I will be very interested to pursue the discussion on the psychodynamics of orality. I think that Rap music is evidence of an oral culture. If that is correct, could it be that lack of literacy leads to orality? We’ll have to discuss that later.
For now, I wanted to add that I am particularly interested in pursuing research on graphic novels as “the” literature of the 21st century. I think ETEC540 will be rich in opportunities for research and discussion.