Six years ago, we enjoyed a
white Christmas in east Tennessee. There wasn’t a chance of that this year as the
high reached 70 degrees. However, it was a fantastic day for running…and
reflecting!
We returned from church and my
wife slid a lasagna into the oven. I slipped out for an easy paced run and it
was like a scene from a Christmas movie. Children were playing with their new
presents and shouted “Merry Christmas” as I ran by them. I passed houses with driveways
filled with cars and families greeting each other with arms full of gifts. Then
I ran down our wonderful greenway path only to pass more people running, walking,
and cycling. Some were solo like me, while others were clearly grouped with
family and friends. There were smiles and plenty of “Merry Christmas” salutes
to go around.
As I absorbed these scenes
and reflected on Christmas, some interesting connections were made in my mind.
Our pastor gave a fantastic sermon on “Jesus of Christmas past, present, future”
that made a fascinating connection to “A Christmas Carol” and Scrooge’s journey
with the Christmas spirits of past, present, future. I won’t go deeper into
that here, but suffice it to say that the message was powerful and led me to
thinking about my past, present, future Christmases.
Further, thinking about past,
present, and future led to me thinking about Schön’s ideas of reflection-on-action
(past) and reflection-in-action (present). But what about the future? Schön
didn’t address reflection concerning future application, but I am thinking it
is the logical next step. In learning, we are constantly comparing new
information to prior knowledge (constructivism). We will often think about how
this new knowledge will help us moving forward in future applications. So why
not “reflection-to-action”? …on, in, to…I like it…think about it…
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