"This BOOK tells a story about ourselves and the world, and about HOW we got to be where we are now. While much of it is about the structure of the human brain – the place where mind meets matter – ultimately it is an attempt to understand the structure of the world that the brain has in part created."
— McGilchrist, The Master and His Emissary, The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World
Read ... to Lead ... to Live ... to Learn ... RTL
After the turn of the 21st century, a small group began to gather at a small school to discuss BIG ideas. Over years this spawned the idea that humanity interfaces with the universe in a cycle with 3 phases:
Economy — apprehending mankind's thoughts and actions ... LEAD-ing
Ecology — comprehending nature's limits & consequences ... LIVE-ing
Education — reconciling Economy to Ecology ... LEARN-ing
They called this cycle the 3E's of sustainable living.
It's all in your head ... from Right To Left ... RTL
It was only later that group members became familiar with Iain McGlichrist's decades of groundbreaking work in neuropsychology discovering and proposing a new understanding of HOW the right and left hemispheres of the brain ATTEND differently in comprehending and apprehending the universe thereby presenting humans with two contrasting but complementing realities that need to be continuously merged hierarchically in a cycle of RIGHT > LEFT > RIGHT > LEFT > ... which resembles walking ... and the 3E cycle.
The RTL Series ... as easy as 1,2,3
HOWever your brain thinks about the universe and WHATever words you use to describe the phases you encounter, we are confident these three movements will be found if you understand and look for them, because they are universal and presuppose one another ... one without the others is meaning-less. And we are also confident that BOOKS will play a critical role in your successful navigation.
The RTL Series provides you with opportunities to become more familiar with these phases by cycling through them with reliable guides and trustworthy companions in both regular and periodic Book Studies, Guest Speakers and Topical Events. Here is a sketch of what to expect in tone.
We hope you will join us !!
1. Read To Lead — "The readiness is all." — Hamlet V.ii
Reading teaches us about the dynamic relationships we have with the things around us ... whether they are expressed in words, faces, crowds, landscapes, situations or books. Leaders must be able to read ... in multiple dimensions ... with speed and skill ... in order to relate, share, and transact as they plan. They naturally inspire others to follow ... because leaders always seem to be read-y for whatever comes next. [Students participating in Read-To-Lead can earn school tuition when sponsor funds are available.]
2. Read To Live — "All great literature is one of two stories; a man goes on a journey or a stranger comes to town.” ― Tolstoy
Reading is a journey for those, like Dante, who find themselves lost or exiled from every familiar destination. By engaging the journey, they face the irreducible complexity about themselves, others, the creation and the Creator which they can only attempt to articulate ... knowing that even their best will never capture the undulating timbre or the glittering spectacle of reality. But undaunted they press on into new and sometimes fearful places ... with a steady guide ... just as Virgil led Dante safely thru hell and earth to the very edge of heaven.
3. Read To Learn — "The spirit of Western civilization is the spirit of inquiry. Its dominant element is the Logos. Nothing is to remain undiscussed." — Hutchins, The Great Conversation in the Great Books
"The West needs to recapture and reemphasize and bring to bear upon its present problems the wisdom that lies in the works of its greatest thinkers. Progress, and progress in education in particular, depends on the incorporation of the ideas and images included in this set in the daily lives of all of us. The disappearance of great books from education and from the reading of adults constitutes a calamity. The reduction of the citizen to an object of propaganda, private and public, is one of the greatest dangers to democracy." — ibid
Hear from Wichita Collegiate and Northfield School Latin teacher Jim Graf in his own words about how important reading was to him.
Dear Friends, Read to Lead.
