The Locksmithing Institute of Transmodernage, Baltimore, MD, April 2007
In Lesson #8 of The Locksmithing Institute students were given the opportunity to let something go by setting a caged bird free. Special thanks to Sare Dierck for taking the photographs. Below is the full lesson plan:
The Locksmithing Institute of Transmodernage
Lesson #8: Fleeing, Flying, and Dying
In Lesson #8 students of The Locksmithing Institute of Transmodernage will be given the opportunity to let something go. If students choose to participate they will set a caged bird free.
For most people the idea of freedom is found in our ability to move about the world and experience it with our senses. Through this experience we develop our notion of self. We are told from our earliest age that this ability to move about and experience the world is what freedom is. Our teachers, law enforcement officers, and parents each tell us, “You better be good or you will be put in jail, and then you won’t be free.” Jail then becomes the place that inhibits our movement through the world. This threat is meant to keep us passive. However freedom is something far deeper than this threat. It is our natural, balanced condition. It is not something that can be given or taken away. In fact the idea of “being free” is something that has been created to exert control over people. It is the quantification of an unalienable right. Once quantified it becomes a commodity, and then can be sold to the highest bidder. The power that this notion has exerted over people has been merciless since the dawn of consciousness.
The faculty and staff of The Locksmithing Institute would like the students to consider this idea before they release each bird. Freedom is a human plague. What consequences does it have on the world of the animals and what will become of birds after they fly away? Students will be reminded prior to releasing the bird that this action is not about setting the bird free but is about the student learning let something go. Our actions are not without consequences and are students responsible for what happens to bird after it has been set “free”?
The standard definition that is associated with the word “fleeing” is “to run away from danger” (OED). However, deeply embedded within this word there are two other very significant meanings as well: flying and dying.
Flee:
-To run away from or as from danger; to take flight; to try to escape or seek safety
by flight. 825 AD.
-To depart this life. 1300 AD
Fly:
-To move through the air with wings. Also with adverbs, as about, away, forth, off,
out, etc. 1000 AD
-To move or travel swiftly, pass rapidly, rush along. 1300 AD
Die:
-To lose life, cease to live, suffer death; to expire. 1135 AD.
-Of actions, institutions, states, or qualities: To come to an end, pass out of existence;
to go out, as a candle or fire; to pass out of memory, to be utterly forgotten. 1240
AD.
-To diminish gradually in force or activity and so come to an end; to fade away, cease
or disappear gradually. 1680 AD.
Class begins on April 1, 2007 and is free and open to any student that wants to participate. Today’s lunch will be popcorn and toast.
