tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24379876861747274592024-03-12T00:50:28.156-04:00PSYCHOSCAPESAll photographs and images are by the author unless specifically identified otherwise.
Note: clicking on them will make them bigger.psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.comBlogger738125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-14340892777765673522024-03-10T14:14:00.006-04:002024-03-11T12:52:37.241-04:00Invasive Forces Plundering NH<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><tbody><tr><td style="padding: 0px 9px 9px; width: 564px;" valign="top"><p style="font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjw17AiX8iLHYSJsfGBhDNQs8zEMPkSNaG70wj7H2K_6xCqZyObLor2vlKn6mEJb61dMXqMA1t49p-saN_PhX2_JRGv7UGB2ctUYaFIbUx_-4VVxIW1aKGrkS2Oro-2AzeBgesFUECrH_lab3P20M8htw-yRipKUcilxy4VnF4r33P-6mDwkIfORmPdBJ4" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="130" data-original-width="640" height="79" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjw17AiX8iLHYSJsfGBhDNQs8zEMPkSNaG70wj7H2K_6xCqZyObLor2vlKn6mEJb61dMXqMA1t49p-saN_PhX2_JRGv7UGB2ctUYaFIbUx_-4VVxIW1aKGrkS2Oro-2AzeBgesFUECrH_lab3P20M8htw-yRipKUcilxy4VnF4r33P-6mDwkIfORmPdBJ4=w400-h79" width="400" /></a></div><br /></sup><span style="caret-color: rgb(24, 24, 24); color: #181818; font-kerning: none;"><i>Governor Chris Sununu, VP Charles Koch Institute William Ruger, and Free-State Project Founder Jason Sorens at the Cato Institute celebration of NH as their choice for "freest state."</i></span><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr><tr><td style="padding: 0px 9px; width: 564px;" valign="top"></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Traditionally, NH folks have been known to be self-reliant – maybe to the extent of appearing standoffish – because of our ‘live and let live’ philosophy. Yet, while flinty and frugal, we believe in community: coming together to raise barns, build schools, and practice home rule through direct democracy in our town meetings. That is until three Republican governors have come along to disrupt our Yankee ecosystem just as invasive species are decimating our forests.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">First came Mel Thompson, a law book publisher who became our 73rd governor, aided and abided by William Loeb, the fiery, right-wing editor of the Manchester Union. Both of these carpetbaggers were cosmic bad luck, warping our destiny to this day. They were the ones who brainwashed us with the motto, ’No Broad-based Taxes, which is still reverberating in our heads like a stuck record, continuing to wreak havoc on our poorer schools.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It was Meldrim, you may remember, who lobbied to arm the NH National Guard with nuclear weapons, coincidentally or not, at the same time the Clamshell Alliance was holding mass protests against the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant. It was also Mel who led the push to construct a huge oil refinery in Durham – it would have been the biggest in the world at that time – defiling, in the process, the Great Bay Estuary, that precious jewel on our already minuscule 19 miles of ocean coastline.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Then we have Governor John Sununu, Chris’s Daddy. As chief of staff to President George H. Bush, he thwarted the US from joining the international conference to address climate change. In addition, he single-handedly pushed through the completion of Seabrook, that colossal white elephant first championed by Mel. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The reactor ended up costing seven times the original estimate, causing the utility owner, Public Service, to go bankrupt. Of course, we, the NH taxpayers, had to bail them out. We are still on the hook to shell out the fortune it will cost to decommission Seabrook, which is supposed to happen soon, hopefully before it blows a radioactive gasket.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Now, let’s move on to John Sununo’s son, Chris, who has served as our popular governor for four terms now. His affable-appearing personality hides a dark agenda.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Governor Sununu has ties to Koch Industries, The Free State Movement, and the Libertarian Party. The Koch brothers (Charles is now deceased) own Koch Industries, the largest privately owned company in the country. The Kochs were instrumental in creating the Libertarian Party in 1989, using it to increase their business profits by maximizing individual liberty, no matter the social or environmental cost. <span style="font-kerning: none;">They and their colleagues have spent hundreds of millions to weaken democracy nationwide.<a href="https://mailchi.mp/granitestatematters/march2024?e=00177fab1c"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span></a> </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">At the state level, Sununu has installed Frank Edelblut, libertarian-leaning with a divinity degree, as our commissioner of education. Together, they are laying the groundwork to eliminate public education by promoting private charter schools and giving folks vouchers to defray the cost of private schools, which will be paid for by—you guessed it—our hard-earned tax dollars. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Governor Sununo also has ties to Jason Sorens, founder of the Free State Movement, who has recently moved to NH to become a professor at St Anselm’s College – conveniently appointed to the post after the Kochs donated $1 million to the college in 2018.<a href="https://mailchi.mp/granitestatematters/march2024?e=00177fab1c"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span></a> </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Another strand of this dark web is Koch’s Young Americans for Liberty (YAL), an anti-public education PAC based in Texas that has made significant inroads into our state, listing </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-kerning: none;">nearly 100 NH GOP state house representatives as members of its coalition.<a href="https://indepthnh.org/2024/02/19/op-ed-dark-money-texas-pac-has-foothold-on-half-the-gops-nh-state-reps/"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3</sup></span></a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-kerning: none;">These extremist groups are planning a coup that would spell disaster for NH. As Leonard Witt explains in InDepthNH, “A</span><span style="font-kerning: none;">lmost half of the GOP members of our state legislature have become YAL-inspired ideologues, not guardians of our children’s future and certainly not champions of fiscal responsibility.” Public schools are just the beginning, a wedge issue followed by plans to end Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.”<a href="https://indepthnh.org/2024/02/19/op-ed-dark-money-texas-pac-has-foothold-on-half-the-gops-nh-state-reps/"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4</sup></span></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">If we do not confront these dark forces now, our traditional way of life will be dismantled in the same way invasive species like the emerald ash borer and Asian longhorned beetle are demolishing our forests today.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">xxx</span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="anImage_56.tiff" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/20ff0f5b-d2e9-4a15-8c4f-5765da1ade5a" /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup><a href="https://mailchi.mp/granitestatematters/march2024?e=00177fab1c"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://mailchi.mp/granitestatematters/march2024?e=00177fab1c</span></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup><a href="https://mailchi.mp/granitestatematters/march2024?e=00177fab1c"><span style="font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">Ibid.</span></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3 </sup><a href="https://indepthnh.org/2024/02/19/op-ed-dark-money-texas-pac-has-foothold-on-half-the-gops-nh-state-reps/"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://indepthnh.org/2024/02/19/op-ed-dark-money-texas-pac-has-foothold-on-half-the-gops-nh-state-reps/</span></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4 </sup><a href="https://indepthnh.org/2024/02/19/op-ed-dark-money-texas-pac-has-foothold-on-half-the-gops-nh-state-reps/"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">Ibid.</span></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"></span></p>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-32415549054756667322024-03-04T14:06:00.002-05:002024-03-04T14:09:56.626-05:00 A Modest Proposal to Save the World<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9m_jsLVH1wDKySSggaz0MOjciQHm_hQ2NVIP7EeJ71lOe-BaV0RHN859CH9jJrvyPCvMedsjD7OaPoKByhNpGITu1E8aR2B1077r3tmZ0ngMTc0NuI2CM_x_b2OR9h1F0atFL8zzlWoiQUf-YycNcNxvNnV663MMSkdIudbxaa1g1ngHnn-7w5KyHlPA/s1454/Comb%20PS.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="996" data-original-width="1454" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9m_jsLVH1wDKySSggaz0MOjciQHm_hQ2NVIP7EeJ71lOe-BaV0RHN859CH9jJrvyPCvMedsjD7OaPoKByhNpGITu1E8aR2B1077r3tmZ0ngMTc0NuI2CM_x_b2OR9h1F0atFL8zzlWoiQUf-YycNcNxvNnV663MMSkdIudbxaa1g1ngHnn-7w5KyHlPA/w400-h272/Comb%20PS.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11pt;">The art that united early Patagonians<sup></sup></span></i><sup style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 9pt;">1</span></sup></td></tr></tbody></table><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">With our mild weather so far this year, NH has avoided calamitous climate change. Texas hasn’t been so lucky with its still-raging, million-acre </span><span style="background: repeat white; color: #363636; font-family: Palatino;">Smokehouse Creek Fire. Neither is the rest of the world.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">We are turning parts of our planet into uninhabitable deserts as rising waters from melting glaciers threaten coastal cities and freak storms erupt everywhere.<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/14/is-the-world-capable-of-stopping-a-climate-apocalypse"><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica;"></span></sup></a> In the words of UN chief Antonio Guterres, we have ‘opened the gates of hell.’<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/14/is-the-world-capable-of-stopping-a-climate-apocalypse"><sup><span color="windowtext" face=""Segoe UI Symbol", sans-serif" style="text-decoration: none;"></span></sup><sup><span color="windowtext" style="text-decoration: none;">1</span></sup></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Our polarized, growth-at-any-cost society has hit a potentially fatal roadblock that could be the beginning of the end. All because we think we know everything. If we don’t make drastic changes, we, along with most of our fellow sentient beings, will soon be pushing up daisies.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">This need not have happened if we had taken a different path, one suggested in a recent article about early Patagonians in Argentina.</span><u><sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/14/science/oldest-cave-art-patagonia.html"><span color="windowtext" face=""Segoe UI Symbol", sans-serif"></span><span color="windowtext" style="font-family: Palatino;">2</span></a></span></sup></u><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> Around 8000 years ago, they were challenged by extreme climate change lasting 3000 years that would have </span><span style="font-family: Palatino;">spelled doom to our fickle, tech-consumed culture.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">The secret of their survival is revealed in their cave art, which, over this enormous span of </span><span style="font-family: Palatino;">time, stayed true to a single motif, dedicated not to gods, great deeds, or military victories. Instead, their symbol simply consisted of wavy lines, looking much like an out-of-focus comb.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Anthropologists say this motif “represented a resilient response to ecological stress,”</span><u><sup><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> 2a</span></sup></u><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> acting to preserve cultural knowledge and maintain collective memories, critical to survival during thousands of years of extreme drought.</span><u><sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></sup></u><u><sup><span face=""Segoe UI Symbol", sans-serif"> </span></sup></u><u><sup><span style="font-family: Palatino;">3</span></sup></u><u><sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></sup></u> <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">While scientists understand the function of this symbol, they have no clue what it signifies. </span><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Solving this mystery would be a priceless achievement because it would likely equally apply to us today. If so, it might forestall our pending nose dive into oblivion.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">I came across a theory that </span><span style="font-family: Palatino;">sheds light on this mystery in the work of Alan Watts, the writer and speaker who was instrumental in introducing Eastern philosophy to Western audiences – and a guru to the Sixties generation. Steeped in Eastern thought, he viewed the Tao as the source of all existence: Agency unseen but not transcendent, all-powerful yet humble, the root of all things.</span><u><sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching#:~:text=The%20Tao%20Te%20Ching%20intends,paradoxes%20to%20sharpen%20the%20point."><span color="windowtext" face=""Segoe UI Symbol", sans-serif" style="text-decoration: none;"></span><span color="windowtext" style="font-family: Palatino; text-decoration: none;">4</span></a></span></sup></u><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Watts’s </span><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Taoist perspective can appear elusive or paradoxical: a good example is its slippery definition of ‘non-acting,’ which can mean not acting, not forcing, acting spontaneously, or flowing with the moment.</span><sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></sup><sup><span face=""Segoe UI Symbol", sans-serif"></span></sup><sup><span style="font-family: Palatino;">5</span></sup><span style="font-family: Palatino;"></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Two elements of Watt’s philosophy stand out: humans, rather than being the dominant species, are but a</span><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> tiny thread, which, when woven together with all other sentient life on earth, form an interdependent whole. And second, life is change or, in Watt’s words – wriggly.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">In that regard, early Patagonians and Watts have much in common.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"> <span style="font-family: Palatino;">The Patagonian’s common motif was wavy lines, while, for Watts, it was wiggly lines: “Everything wiggles: the outlines of the hills, the shapes of the trees, the way the wind brushes the grass, the clouds, tracts of streams. It all wiggles.</span><sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></sup><sup><span face=""Segoe UI Symbol", sans-serif"></span></sup><sup><span style="font-family: Palatino;">6</span></sup><span style="font-family: Palatino;"></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Meanwhile, Westerners, as Watts points out, live by straight lines: “You know, wherever human beings have been around and done their thing, you find rectangles. We live in boxes.</span><u><sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></sup></u><span style="font-family: Palatino;">”<a href="https://www.organism.earth/library/document/essential-lectures-12"><u><sup><span color="windowtext" face=""Segoe UI Symbol", sans-serif" style="text-decoration: none;"></span></sup></u><u><sup><span color="windowtext" style="text-decoration: none;">7</span></sup></u></a></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Because we think in straight lines, it follows, according to Watts, that we spend our lives trying to control things by trying to straighten out the wriggly lines. Of course, that’s a fool’s errand because our very essence is wriggly. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Just before Watts died, James Lovelock’s Gaia Hypothesis came out, </span><span style="font-family: Palatino;">lending credence to Watts’s theory by proposing that the whole earth was not only wriggly but a single living organism.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 19.05pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Watts expressed it this way: “Just as there is an interdependence of flowers and bees: where there are no flowers there are no bees, and where there are no bees there are no flowers. They’re really one organism… I am, as it were, one of the cells in this tremendous brain.”</span><sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"></span></sup><sup><span face=""Segoe UI Symbol", sans-serif"></span></sup><sup><span style="font-family: Palatino;">8</span></sup><span style="font-family: Palatino;"></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 19.05pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span><span style="font-family: Palatino;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 19.05pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Watts’s conclusion is</span> “<span style="font-family: Palatino;">that our failure to feel at home in this astonishing brain in which we live is</span><span style="font-family: Palatino;">” due to our inflated view of ourselves, coupled with our mistaken attempts to improve our lot through technology. As a consequence, “we seem to be destroying the planet by our very efforts to control it and to improve it.”</span><sup><span face=""Segoe UI Symbol", sans-serif"></span></sup><sup><span style="font-family: Palatino;">9</span></sup><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 19.05pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 19.05pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">So, there it is in a nutshell: The ancient Patagonians believed they were essential components in a magical, wriggly world that gave their lives meaning, so much so that they painted that symbol on their cave walls as their anthem. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 19.05pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 19.05pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Our only hope for long-term survival is to adopt their way of being, replacing our nationalistic symbols </span><span style="font-family: Palatino;">– like taunts hanging from pretend fortresses by immature boys – with banners of wavy lines, peaceful and enduring like waves of amber grain.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 19.05pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino;">xxx</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 16pt;"><img border="0" height="12" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/23668546-f446-4592-ab77-296b07ef36e7" v:shapes="Picture_x0020_12" width="150" /></span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">1 </span></sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">My Photoshop illustration</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">2 <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/14/is-the-world-capable-of-stopping-a-climate-apocalypse"><span style="color: black;">https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/14/is-the-world-capable-of-stopping-a-climate-apocalypse</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></sup></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span></sup><u><sup><span lang="PT-BR" style="font-family: Palatino;">2a</span></sup></u><span lang="PT-BR" style="font-family: Helvetica;"> </span><span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adk4415"><span color="windowtext" lang="PT-BR" style="text-decoration: none;">https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adk4415</span></a></span><span lang="PT-BR"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">3 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/14/science/oldest-cave-art-patagonia.html"><span style="color: black;">https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/14/science/oldest-cave-art-patagonia.html</span></a></span></sup><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">4 <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-ancient-cave-art-passed-survival-information-across-130-human-generations-in-patagonia-study-suggests-180983802/"><span style="color: black;">https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-ancient-cave-art-passed-survival-information-across-130-human-generations-in-patagonia-study-suggests-180983802/</span></a></span></sup><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">5 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching#:~:text=The%20Tao%20Te%20Ching%20intends,paradoxes%20to%20sharpen%20the%20point."><span style="color: black;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching#:~:text=The%20Tao%20Te%20Ching%20intends,paradoxes%20to%20sharpen%20the%20point.</span></a></span></sup><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">6 </span></sup><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Ibid.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">7 </span></sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">Watts, Alan. Tao of Philosophy (Alan Watts Love Of Wisdom). Tuttle Publishing. Kindle Edition. Loc. 1112</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">8 <a href="https://www.organism.earth/library/document/essential-lectures-12"><span style="color: black;">https://www.organism.earth/library/document/essential-lectures-12</span></a></span></sup><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">9 </span></sup><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Ibid.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><sup><span style="font-family: Helvetica;">10 </span></sup><span style="font-family: Palatino;">Ibid.</span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 17pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-63354132819136871622024-02-17T14:51:00.003-05:002024-02-20T13:31:16.244-05:00Are We Humans or Machines?<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5ziW4SjTVU6PE7SY7xh-0ID9sPXoCW30bpzwBXNEWiWrp1Wqe5S7f0Jp5P8R7Zzoh9NC4fm9VrxV4VY6JTnxAh7JORjaC82YXC0fBzTzIUYEgZJd3nxl6bpNT74yXFIx6M5SyBfHzd1rOizV4lpb1yjsqHMTE5135z-x0fsWvF3KkOxhcXcGTdMqJn5U/s5164/Sue's%20horse.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4024" data-original-width="5164" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5ziW4SjTVU6PE7SY7xh-0ID9sPXoCW30bpzwBXNEWiWrp1Wqe5S7f0Jp5P8R7Zzoh9NC4fm9VrxV4VY6JTnxAh7JORjaC82YXC0fBzTzIUYEgZJd3nxl6bpNT74yXFIx6M5SyBfHzd1rOizV4lpb1yjsqHMTE5135z-x0fsWvF3KkOxhcXcGTdMqJn5U/w400-h311/Sue's%20horse.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My neighbor's beloved horse</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We fool ourselves by believing if only we had more facts and better technology, we could solve any problem, even climate change and, perhaps, even death itself. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But that’s not how the world works, according to psychoanalyst and philosopher Jonathan Lear. He says it’s pure fantasy to believe that every want can be gratified, although it <i>is</i> a phase that babies go through. That’s because, for the baby, it’s all or nothing: “Either you want to be omnipotent, or you want someone else to be omnipotent for you, or you want to kill everyone else.”<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/11/09/imagining-end-mourning-ethics-lear-review/"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span></a> <i>(Doesn’t that sound like someone currently running to be president? But that’s a story for another time.)</i></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Lear’s psychoanalytic insight – so essential for us today – is that healthy development requires outgrowing the notion that humans have god-like powers. “Approaching the world with the expectation that every problem must be solved, soon and completely, comes from a failure to reckon with our own and the world’s limits.” </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">But, even though we may be frail and flawed, we can’t curl up in a ball when an overwhelming crisis arises. We have no choice but to stand tall and do what we can: “Take care of the people close to us. Work politically to improve things. Appreciate beauty and nobility in others. Be an exemplar for others. Make meaning. Creatively and repeatedly engage with the past. Have hope. Resist despair.”<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Conducting ourselves in such a stand-up manner – beyond the actions themselves – has existential importance because it is precisely these relational qualities that make us uniquely human and give meaning to our lives. Unfortunately, for some time now, rather than celebrating our humanness with gratitude, we have been seduced into worshipping the false god of technology.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Yes, technology has augmented our limited capabilities, but in doing so, it has hoodwinked us into believing humans can do anything, replacing our caring human values with machine algorithms prioritizing efficiency and profit. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Rather than paying attention to others through kindness and empathy, we are being forced into an ‘iron yoke of efficiency and meritocracy” by technocrats like Elon Musk, Bill Ackman, and Mark Zuckerberg.<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/10/bill-ackman-end-dei-industry/"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3</sup></span></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">We are rapidly being transformed into automatons who meekly report to our online masters, obeying online prompts to wait for hours to speak to the next customer representative, who, at the end of the call, tells us they can’t help us. Personally, I look to the past for wisdom and guidance from mentors like that living exemplar of the past himself, Wendell Berry. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Berry has long warned us of the dangers that lie ahead: “It is easy for me to imagine that the next great division of the world will be between people who wish to live as creatures and people who wish to live as machines.”<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4</sup></span></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Berry disputes the notion that the definition of an intelligent person is “the Quiz Kid—a human shape barely discernible in a fluff of facts.” Instead, he proposes a solution remarkably similar to that of Jonathan Lear:</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">“To think better, to think like the best humans, we are probably going to have to learn again to judge a person’s intelligence, not by the ability to recite facts, but by the good order or harmoniousness of his or her surroundings. We must suspect that any statistical justification of ugliness and violence is a revelation of stupidity.”<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>5</sup></span></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">In the end, Lear and Berry both contend that no matter what happens – or how catastrophic – we will be judged in the end, not on whether we won or lost, but by how we lived our lives.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Or, in Berry’s words, quoting an earlier student of agriculture, “The intelligent man, however unlearned, may be known by his surroundings, and by the care of his horse, if he is fortunate enough to own one.”<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>6</sup></span></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: medium;">xxx</span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="anImage_2.tiff" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/b571d9da-56c9-43cf-971d-2bc8038e9516" /></p><p style="color: #0000e9; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/11/09/imagining-end-mourning-ethics-lear-review/"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/11/09/imagining-end-mourning-ethics-lear-review/</span></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup></span>Ibid</p><p style="color: #0000e9; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3 </sup><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/10/bill-ackman-end-dei-industry/"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/10/bill-ackman-end-dei-industry/</span></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4 </sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Berry, Wendell. Standing by Words (p. 84). Catapult. Kindle Edition.</span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>5 </sup></span>Ibid. Page 84</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>6 </sup></span>Ibid. Page 84</p>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-18328617799280889282024-02-04T20:00:00.003-05:002024-02-08T14:51:44.213-05:00SILENCE ISN’T NOTHING<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoFY49KbrHiKRBpW950HzReGH491xS7A0wxnDvvwAnzdOCBCsIKnijL2BrWMPNgX_nZxUa65VF-Tp8hNBm2WPDjOCDSQzycafrxqLRh1d44LSabCekkpgp2wBNNPFp6eLScYVVyfsqnDnd9ahQj9JL2wZMgYqbPx8UUXzhGgfA6ZSMXzR-WlGRx0MolMI/s3442/silence%20of%20the%20pickeral%20weed.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3442" data-original-width="2624" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoFY49KbrHiKRBpW950HzReGH491xS7A0wxnDvvwAnzdOCBCsIKnijL2BrWMPNgX_nZxUa65VF-Tp8hNBm2WPDjOCDSQzycafrxqLRh1d44LSabCekkpgp2wBNNPFp6eLScYVVyfsqnDnd9ahQj9JL2wZMgYqbPx8UUXzhGgfA6ZSMXzR-WlGRx0MolMI/w304-h400/silence%20of%20the%20pickeral%20weed.jpg" width="304" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Pickeral Weed in Jenness Pond (2020)</b><br /><i>CC Jean Stimmell</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As a teenager, I avoided silence at all costs. Even in nature, I had a crackling transistor radio glued to my ear, tuned to the beat of rock and roll. Now, with the wisdom that comes with age, silence is my best friend.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Most of us don't give silence its due, regarding it merely as the absence of noise, somewhere to escape today's 24/7 drumbeat of raucous political combat and exploding doomsday catastrophes from around the world.<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> I recently read a Substack<a href="https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/the-thing-that-is-silence"><span style="background-color: white; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span></a> essay by L. M. Sacasas that finally gives silence the credit it deserves: It explains why silence, rather than the lack of something, is an active force that shapes us at every moment. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">He writes: "I came to describe the experience as the feeling of silence carving away at my interiority like a sculptor chipping away at stone, as if silence were stripping me of all that was not <span style="color: #313131; font-kerning: none;"> essential.”<a href="https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/the-thing-that-is-silence"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span></a></span></p><p style="color: #313131; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">If this sounds mystical or even religious, you would be right. Sacasas is following up on the work of the religious thinker, Max Picard.</span><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3</sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> This commonality shouldn’t be surprising to us because, it goes without saying, silence is central to every spiritual tradition.</span></p><p style="color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">In Buddhism, the religious tradition I am most familiar with, the goal is to silence both the noise of the exterior world and the chattering monkeys of our ruminating minds. The Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh tells us we can switch gears quickly:</span></p><p style="color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #313131; font-kerning: none;">“</span>In just two or three seconds of breathing mindfully, we can awaken to the fact that we’re alive, we’re breathing in. We are here. We exist. The noise within just disappears and there is a profound spaciousness—it’s very powerful, very eloquent..”<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4</sup></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Regular meditation is the preferred Buddhist method to reduce toxic noise. Escaping into nature alone is insufficient because, as Picard writes, people “will carry the noise of the great towns and the noise of their own souls out into the country with them.”<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>5</sup></span> </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Picard wrote his book during simpler times and spent considerable time railing against that new-fangled device called the radio because it “pushed silence to the margins of our experience by filling our spaces with a practically infinite supply of noise.”</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Regrettably, in the years since Picard ranted against the radio, our noise problem has worsened exponentially with the advent of TV, portable devices, the internet, and smartphones. Not only has it driven silence from our world, but crippled language itself. Words originally meant something: they were connected organically to what is really real: our bodies, nature, and sense of place.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>6</sup></span> They were direct links back to silence.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Unfortunately, since technology's take-over, as Picard explains, we are no longer governed by words intimately connected to the realm of silence but to formulas and algorithms. <span style="background-color: #fffc80; color: #313131; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">“</span>Words that merely come from other words are hard and aggressive,” he counsels. "Such words are also lonely, and a great part of the melancholy in the world today is due to the fact that man has made words lonely by separating them from silence."<a href="https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/the-thing-that-is-silence"><span style="background-color: white; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>7</sup></span></a></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The more I explore the subject, the more I am convinced: Far from being nothing, silence is everything. Complexity Theory has even advanced the mind-boggling theory that silence is nothing less than what we call consciousness – but it is not ours alone. Rather than springing from our puny two-pound brains, it emanates from a source infinitely greater.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">According to Neil Theise's "Notes on Complexity," our brains aren't fleshy computers that create consciousness but, instead, act like transducers that connect us to a single, all-encompassing consciousness in the same way my tiny transistor radio could link up to a rock and roll radio station when I was a teenager.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>8</sup></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That's pretty heavy stuff: Our consciousness lives not in our skulls but hides in a profound silence that permeates the universe.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">xxx</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="anImage_143.tiff" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/b139a921-2d8b-43d2-80d7-5d043cc54d8d" /></p><p style="color: #313131; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup><a href="https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/the-thing-that-is-silence"><span style="background-color: white; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/the-thing-that-is-silence</span></a></span></p><p style="color: #313131; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup><a href="https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/the-thing-that-is-silence"><span style="background-color: white; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">Ibid.</span></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3 </sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Picard, Max. The World of Silence. Originally published in Switzerland, 1948..Reprint edition copyright 2002, Eight Day Press</span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4 </sup></span>Hanh, Thich Nhat. Silence (p. 5).HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>5 </sup></span>Picard, page 132.</p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>6 </sup></span>The Resurgence of the Real: Body, Nature and Place in a Hypermodern World by <a href="https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/charlene-spretnak/221180/">Charlene Spretnak</a></p><p style="color: #313131; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>7 </sup><a href="https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/the-thing-that-is-silence"><span style="background-color: white; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/the-thing-that-is-silence</span></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>8 </sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Theise, Neil. Notes on Complexity (p. 153). Spiegel & Grau. Kindle Edition.</span></p><p style="color: #313131; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"></span></p><p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"></p>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-55393479367055553162024-02-02T14:07:00.003-05:002024-02-02T14:07:54.339-05:00Living in the Age or Romantasy and MAGA<p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixHjmbx23urdK-U0CdX2O5Ft0WSRKLohihpDWqxyYkX18oX1NMaOSv70cZnnkrTviGY-baI8lvCr1_rAhYImDAKe46SUWtDZV6m3HfGk458KIZBtefsTkOVk_yUPjgKF2BkeUmPgVLG5keWWeIgXIbHONuvIEgYcCoHZ97fLQt6UjXG1QPezbmvqFO4D8/s640/Eras_Tour_-_Inglewood,_California_-_Red_act_4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="414" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixHjmbx23urdK-U0CdX2O5Ft0WSRKLohihpDWqxyYkX18oX1NMaOSv70cZnnkrTviGY-baI8lvCr1_rAhYImDAKe46SUWtDZV6m3HfGk458KIZBtefsTkOVk_yUPjgKF2BkeUmPgVLG5keWWeIgXIbHONuvIEgYcCoHZ97fLQt6UjXG1QPezbmvqFO4D8/w413-h640/Eras_Tour_-_Inglewood,_California_-_Red_act_4.jpeg" width="413" /></a><br /></b></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Taylor Swift</b><br />Eras_Tour: Red Act, Inglewood,California. 2023</td></tr></tbody></table></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Listening to PBS like the old fogey I am, I discovered that among the hip, a new fiction genre is sweeping the country: It's called romantic Fantasy, commonly called Romantasy.</p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Romantasy is a sub-genre of Fantasy that pairs this theme with a solid romantic subplot. Reviewers call it pure escapism with a 'refreshing lack of shame' while featuring all the hallmarks of romantic Fantasy – brutal action, high-stakes drama, and plenty of sex.<a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-27/why-romance-and-romantasy-novels-are-so-popular-on-tiktok/103198518#"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span></a></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Craving pure escapism makes perfect sense right now since the whole world appears to be going straight to hell in a wheelbarrow as a consequence of mushrooming wars, climate apocalypse, cultural breakdown, and mind-numbing barbarity.</p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Then I had an epiphany – at least as much of an epiphany as one can get at 78 – the same escapism is alive and well in politics and goes under the handle of ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA).</p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">MAGA also is built on pure escapism, this time being promoted for self-advancement by the greatest carnival barker of modern times: Donald J. Trump. He preforms his shtick in massive rallies like the medicine shows of old, promising to cure the gullible of whatever ails them – all they have to do is worship him and give him money – and keep giving it.</p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Old-school Republicans would have giddily endorsed the current romance between wholesome, All-American celebrities like Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift: A manly football star and a pretty singing sensation, who, as Politico notes, writes love songs with a straightforward, boy-meets-girl, happily-ever-after kind of narrative.’<a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/02/01/the-twisted-logic-of-the-taylor-swift-backlash-it-seems-like-political-suicide-00138924"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span></a></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But this isn’t your father’s Republican Party.! It is now the party of Trump, and Donald hates Taylor. Why? Because she is more popular than he is. </p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">According to Rolling Stone magazine, Trump insists he has more committed fans and is 'more popular' than Swift. He has been miffed ever since he was snubbed as Time magazine's 2023 Person of the Year — an honor that went to none other than Swift.<a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/donald-trump-more-popular-taylor-swift-maga-biden-1234956829/"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3</sup></span></a></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Again, romantic Fantasy and Trump have much in common: both are self-serving, have no shame, and love high-stakes drama, involving, until he got too old, plenty of sex with many partners. MAGA supporters also dislike Swift, seeing her as the antithesis of what they love about football: its machismo, regimentation, nationalism, and violence. </p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Luckily, a contest between Trump's support base and Swift's diehard fans would be a joke.</p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As a matter of fact, Jimmy Kimmel thinks this is the final straw that will bring down The Donald when nothing else could: "It won't be Jan. 6, it won't be the election fraud or the sexual assault or dancing with Jeffrey Epstein, or even fathering Don Jr. What's finally going to bring down Donald Trump will be an army of pissed-off Swifties.”<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/arts/television/late-night-taylor-swift-donald-trump.html"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4</sup></span></a></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There is no doubt about it: In times of Romantasy, life is stranger than fiction.</p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">xxx</p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="anImage_20.tiff" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/2f191d09-7116-4517-914b-5fa983cd6fd4" /></p>
<p style="color: #3c4044; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-27/why-romance-and-romantasy-novels-are-so-popular-on-tiktok/103198518#"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-27/why-romance-and-romantasy-novels-are-so-popular-on-tiktok/103198518#</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/02/01/the-twisted-logic-of-the-taylor-swift-backlash-it-seems-like-political-suicide-00138924"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/02/01/the-twisted-logic-of-the-taylor-swift-backlash-it-seems-like-political-suicide-00138924</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3 </sup><a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/donald-trump-more-popular-taylor-swift-maga-biden-1234956829/"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/donald-trump-more-popular-taylor-swift-maga-biden-1234956829/</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4 </sup><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/arts/television/late-night-taylor-swift-donald-trump.html"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/01/arts/television/late-night-taylor-swift-donald-trump.html</span></a></span></p>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-22109146342752139692024-01-16T20:28:00.010-05:002024-01-17T14:07:50.984-05:00Enchantment<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA48qyqp6EMNiwQXdUOMYSYtOgE5M_xgi-xbVqjl6t_reGHGE4BnoXPJjheAUVvQpuYeht4sEOdAZh3yJeNts-pXSdkyWdcrXKa6PjLeSCAybwY0sxIjXUbhUiA1U2kR-ETg2XTZHiFmrhg8cXNq7UOBqy_usglDuDJU8bU1FLr86UtpiPHJnI8O49uas/s5019/Stormy%20sky%20at%20ft%20Foster%20LO%20Res.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3900" data-original-width="5019" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA48qyqp6EMNiwQXdUOMYSYtOgE5M_xgi-xbVqjl6t_reGHGE4BnoXPJjheAUVvQpuYeht4sEOdAZh3yJeNts-pXSdkyWdcrXKa6PjLeSCAybwY0sxIjXUbhUiA1U2kR-ETg2XTZHiFmrhg8cXNq7UOBqy_usglDuDJU8bU1FLr86UtpiPHJnI8O49uas/w400-h311/Stormy%20sky%20at%20ft%20Foster%20LO%20Res.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.088px;">Stormy Skies over Ft Foster</b><br style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.088px;" /><i style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 10.088px;">CC Jean Stimmell: 2013</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When I was young, I wasn’t religious. After I got back from Vietnam, God was dead. Enchantment was a foreign concept to me. A rare exception was when I found myself caught amid a raging storm. At that moment, I became awe-struck, shrunk to an insignificant speck in the eye of a force immeasurably larger than I was. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Mircea Eliade called this transformation hierophany, which happens when the mundane transforms into the sacred. He pointed out that in indigenous cultures, hierophanies are everywhere, not just in big storms but in every aspect of nature, even a solitary flower blooming or a single bee buzzing.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The notion of becoming one with nature was too touchy-feely for me growing up in the 1950s, as it was for most folks. As a result, hierophanies became practically extinct, reduced to the ‘same flat reality”<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span> by Western logic, reason, and science.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Now Katherine May has come along with her best-selling book, “Enchantment,” to help us rediscover the miracles of everyday existence. You could say she is attempting to bring hierophany back into our lives.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“ Imagine moving through a place where each landmark unpacks its own mythology, grand stories unfolding around you as you go about your daily business, transcendence happening in real time. Even in the day-to-day, you could not avoid reflecting on the big moral and ethical questions of life, because they would be present, unavoidable. Over a lifetime, you would approach these ideas in a million different ways. Our most familiar places would become maps of myth and wisdom.”<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As I’ve grown older, I’ve incrementally become more spiritual under the influence of mentors like Carl Jung. I became immersed in Buddhism in my forties, establishing a regular meditation practice for many years. However, as Katherine May confessed, my life still felt flat. The gist of her book is about how she came to realize that her everyday life, rather than being mundane and boring, was throbbing with sacredness.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Looking back on my life as she did, it became apparent that I had become oblivious to the nuts and bolts reality of everyday life. In fact, I had taken my daily life experiences so much for granted that I no longer saw them at all. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Reading her book has been another step in my spiritual odyssey, unlocking an enchanted world I could always sense but never get my hands around. Standard resumes, family trees, and social media bios never helped. Now I see my true identity is directly related to my sense of place, a one-of-a-kind creation that continues to coalesce from living 78 years at the intersection of Northwood and Pittsfield.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Intimations of this revelation have been blowing in the wind for some time, driven partly by the natural urge to reminisce in my old age. I’m noticing now that whenever I drive around in my neck of the woods, stories continually float up in my mind about what once happened at each point in my journey: the place I first kissed a girlfriend with bad breath, drank hard cider with an old farmer named Alf, or was bedazzled by drooping, jewel-encrusted birch trees after an ice storm.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Katherine May would say that by acknowledging the importance of my stories, I am validating my sense of place, making it sacred. In a fundamental sense, I’m dreaming my life into existence as I drive along, an experience that sounds nutty to us in NH but is how Aboriginal Bush people in Australia have always lived– as do indigenous people around the world.<a href="https://www.aboriginal-art-australia.com/aboriginal-art-library/understanding-aboriginal-dreaming-and-the-dreamtime/#:~:text=Dreamtime%20or%20Dreaming%20for%20Australian,all%20people%20and%20all%20things."><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3</sup></span></a></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Native people, from the beginning, have been able to survive and triumph by having deep knowledge of their environment and the ability to stay in cadence with its ever-fluctuating rhythms. The Aboriginals in Australia call this mode of living ‘Dreamtime’ because –to them – they are continually dreaming their lives into existence. Consequently, because they always live in the present, the past and the future don’t exist.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That sounds strange to our modern ears, but science and quantum physics have now confirmed, beyond a doubt, that is how the universe works. Indigenous people live that truth, understanding that knowledge isn’t a thing but a continuing unveiling as reality is created anew in each moment.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Looked at in this way, our lives are enchanted just as Katherine May suggests – if we could only get out of our heads and become one with the moment.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">xxx</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="anImage_101.tiff" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/ed59b7b5-82f5-4fb1-8c1c-7ba591f0be4e" /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup></span>May, Katherine. Enchantment (p. 31). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup></span>Ibid</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3 </sup><a href="https://www.aboriginal-art-australia.com/aboriginal-art-library/understanding-aboriginal-dreaming-and-the-dreamtime/#:~:text=Dreamtime%20or%20Dreaming%20for%20Australian,all%20people%20and%20all%20things."><span style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.aboriginal-art-australia.com/aboriginal-art-library/understanding-aboriginal-dreaming-and-the-dreamtime/#:~:text=Dreamtime%20or%20Dreaming%20for%20Australian,all%20people%20and%20all%20things.</span></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"></span></p>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-29754223753165187842024-01-03T09:26:00.003-05:002024-01-03T09:43:12.885-05:00Guns: From an Agrarian Tool to a Clint Eastwood Western<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAaa0OUKLRlhoH1TcBLdsjmmXyZ8ixJnn28SpDvBXXGGyXPoJF9fXqfakqy0367NUgqxOrjEoFEHlXz-sO0vW0VovAudpXGG_7WHkzp6bGQYkpZCH_F9jFrP-zLTQVmxgHhTZFbCMRqVkC460jRsjcTWVZEuU-UqU2y1rnMtXdN5m4Wuz5xHrWwOmaDi0/s584/Dd%20duck%20hnting%20%232jpg.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="408" data-original-width="584" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAaa0OUKLRlhoH1TcBLdsjmmXyZ8ixJnn28SpDvBXXGGyXPoJF9fXqfakqy0367NUgqxOrjEoFEHlXz-sO0vW0VovAudpXGG_7WHkzp6bGQYkpZCH_F9jFrP-zLTQVmxgHhTZFbCMRqVkC460jRsjcTWVZEuU-UqU2y1rnMtXdN5m4Wuz5xHrWwOmaDi0/w320-h222/Dd%20duck%20hnting%20%232jpg.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My father duck hunting with his prize dog Inky</td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Here's a little-known historical fact: Northwood had turkey shoots in the hardscrabble 1950s before the flat-landers flocked here, when farming was dying, houses could be bought for back taxes, and land could be had for one hundred dollars an acre. Here's what I remember through the fog of time:</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Because my father was an avid hunter with superb aim, he was drawn like a bear to honey to these local get-togethers. Boys competed against each other for prizes, firing .22 caliber rifles at paper targets. Meanwhile, the men took turns shooting at clay pigeons (round disks flung at high speed from a mechanical launcher).</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">At the end of each round, the hunter who downed the most birds won a prize – but it wasn't a turkey but a scruffy, live chicken past its prime. My father was so successful we usually took home a bunch of chickens, so many we had to clean out the old chicken coop to give them a temporary home until, one at a time, we chopped off their heads for dinner. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Back in the day, before the modern era of mass shootings, there was no movement to regulate guns. High-capacity, rapid-fire assault rifles were not yet available for civilians, and machine guns were outlawed. Everything was low-key and benign. My father was a lifelong member of the NRA, which, at the time, was not political but dedicated to target practice and safe hunting.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Things weren't so polarized then.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There was still tension between city slickers and rural folks, but it was mostly amicable banter – in the spirit of who's better, the Red Sox or the Yankees. Americans were mostly on the same page, getting similar news each night from one of the only three available network channels.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To my memory, our nation started becoming more polarized after President Ronald Reagan was elected; that's when both parties started looking for wedge issues to exploit. As crime rose and mass shootings increased, Democrats pushed for gun restrictions. Republicans, on the other hand, appealing to rural voters, claimed that guns were not the problem but the solution.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But, more than that, Republicans tried to scare us – and still are – warning us not to count on protection by community solidarity and the better angels of our humanity. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">They reflect the pessimistic outlook of Thomas Hobbes, the English philosopher, who wrote that society is 'a condition of war of everyone against everyone.'<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/10122.Thomas_Hobbes"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span></a> The Republican refrain is that danger lurks everywhere, and the only way you can defend yourself is to be armed at all times – not with any gun but an assault rifle.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">From the beginning, NH gun laws had traditionally been among the weakest in the nation,<a href="https://everytownresearch.org/rankings/state/new-hampshire/#:~:text=The%20Granite%20State%27s%20weak%20laws,is%20protected%20by%20its%20neighbors."><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span></a> not because of ideology but because we were a rural state with a low crime rate. Nevertheless, what few gun regulations we had soon came under assault by increasingly conservative Republicans in cahoots with libertarians and Free Stater imports. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In 2011, we passed a 'stand your ground' law<a href="https://giffords.org/lawcenter/state-laws/stand-your-ground-in-new-hampshire/"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3</sup></span></a> like the one instituted in Florida that killed Trayvon Martin. Before that, an individual could only shoot a person who was actually invading their home, but now the shooter can shoot a person wherever they are if they feel their life is in danger – even if the shooter has the option of safely retreating.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Then, in 2017, NH repealed one of the few gun safety laws still on the books, voting to allow folks to carry hidden, loaded guns wherever they went without a permit. Since then, various gun safety bills have passed the legislature but have subsequently been shot down by Governor Sununu.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And it continues on to the present: this year, house Republicans defeated multiple Democratic gun bills,<a href="https://www.wmur.com/article/nh-gun-bills-defeated-red-flag-law-background-checks-323/43265601#"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4</sup></span></a> including legislation placing additional restrictions on school zones, a red flag bill, and a bill to expand background checks.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What can I say? </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We have transformed from a state that considered guns to be an everyday tool like a chain saw and families attended chicken shoots as a family affair to a shoot-'em-up script from a Clint Eastwood movie.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The trouble is, now the blood is real.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"> </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">xxx</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="anImage_32.tiff" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/5b655cf2-254f-4cbd-b257-ebc46fe3e215" /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/10122.Thomas_Hobbes"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/10122.Thomas_Hobbes</span></a></span></p><p style="color: #00124d; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup><a href="https://everytownresearch.org/rankings/state/new-hampshire/#:~:text=The%20Granite%20State%27s%20weak%20laws,is%20protected%20by%20its%20neighbors."><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://everytownresearch.org/rankings/state/new-hampshire/#:~:text=The%20Granite%20State%27s%20weak%20laws,is%20protected%20by%20its%20neighbors.</span></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3 </sup><a href="https://giffords.org/lawcenter/state-laws/stand-your-ground-in-new-hampshire/"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://giffords.org/lawcenter/state-laws/stand-your-ground-in-new-hampshire/</span></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4 </sup><a href="https://www.wmur.com/article/nh-gun-bills-defeated-red-flag-law-background-checks-323/43265601#"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.wmur.com/article/nh-gun-bills-defeated-red-flag-law-background-checks-323/43265601#</span></a></span></p><p>
<br /> </p>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-40135437191018925112023-12-26T08:48:00.001-05:002023-12-28T09:27:09.578-05:00Waking Up in the Dark Forest<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeg6Vg9SC-asRy0OXh3dXmIRB1fmCKmEy2RpgOBNq3H875b4xETav3Zo2sIZ2Ok2fPTDazqDeO1ES8nW0AIx2STI5wv6jhQ_GEou1Uij_pPeXdeOlGBRJJ4g23YifmVSiIKhItrzOPjHxTcoVaeFy3D9JsEHa5vgQaNbZ7NILL0gjEpIpDF5cXeGFnCao/s4080/dark%20forest%20low%20res.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="4080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeg6Vg9SC-asRy0OXh3dXmIRB1fmCKmEy2RpgOBNq3H875b4xETav3Zo2sIZ2Ok2fPTDazqDeO1ES8nW0AIx2STI5wv6jhQ_GEou1Uij_pPeXdeOlGBRJJ4g23YifmVSiIKhItrzOPjHxTcoVaeFy3D9JsEHa5vgQaNbZ7NILL0gjEpIpDF5cXeGFnCao/w400-h320/dark%20forest%20low%20res.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>The woods across the road from my home</b><br /><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">CC Jean Stimmell: 2014</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How the world changes. I have an anxiety disorder. In the psychological stone age that existed sixty years ago, I repressed that knowledge so thoroughly I didn't even know I had it. That was the age of John Wayne,' when anxiety was –to use the lingo – found only in 'pussies,' not in 'real men.' </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The healthy choice at the time would have been to accept I had anxiety and learn positive coping mechanisms to diminish it. Because that option was unknown to me – and unacceptable if I had known – I went in the opposite direction, covering up my symptoms with bravado, risk-taking, and alcohol.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Anxiety was the antithesis of traditional masculinity, which portrayed men as strong, silent, and emotionless – except for rage and anger. Even sweating was prohibited. I remember an incident in boot camp when I was called out by my drill instructor for being a wimp because my hands were sweating.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Now, fast-forward to the present, and the pendulum has swung 180 degrees in the other direction to a point where anxiety is now hip, particularly for the young: kids share their symptoms openly in group chats, rattling off their diagnoses "with a casualness once reserved for high-schoo<span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">l</span> gossip.<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/12/therapy-language-anxiety-mental-health/676325/"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span></a></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Acknowledging that one has an anxiety disorder and seeking help for it is, of course, significant progress, but today, things may have gone overboard. Darby Saxbe, a clinical psychologist, sees evidence that anxiety has swung from being stigmatized to being a status symbol: "I worry that for some people, it's become an identity marker that makes people feel special and unique.”<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But that notion that anxiety is immutable, forever able to determine who a person is, is a harmful myth. On the contrary, because anxiety is modifiable and malleable, it is highly treatable – the opposite of a fixed identity. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As a former psychotherapist, I am pro-therapy. But I am on the same page with Saxbe when she writes “we may have overcorrected from an era when mental health was shameful to talk about to an era when some vulnerable people surround themselves with conversations and media about anxiety and depression, which makes them more vigilant about symptoms and problems, which makes them more likely to problematize normal daily stress.” </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That’s never going to work.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It’s universally acknowledged that rumination and social avoidance only make anxiety worse. Saxbe has a radical solution which she calls <span style="font-kerning: none;">the principle of opposite action: </span>“I would tell people to do what’s uncomfortable, to run toward danger,” Trust yourself: “You are not your anxiety. You’re so much more.”</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 26px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Strangely, her solution sounds like my old macho stance, which, I have to say, had some good points: Forcing myself out into the world to confront what scared me was successful in many objective ways.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But the way I did it came at a high cost, numbing my feelings, empathy, and ability to relate to others. It took many years to have the courage to run toward danger, not on some macho dare but to express how I really felt and to stand up more often for what is right – in a world that has increasingly run amuck.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That's the secret to real success! To run straight into danger, not in a macho manner like John Wayne, but in the even scarier system suggested by Socrates: “Know thyself.”</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">xxx</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="anImage_2.tiff" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/eff3de72-8f8a-4693-b20a-0939447179bb" /></p><p style="color: #0000e9; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/12/therapy-language-anxiety-mental-health/676325/"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/12/therapy-language-anxiety-mental-health/676325/</span></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup></span>Ibid.</p>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-53270327736871828152023-12-06T18:23:00.002-05:002023-12-07T09:36:06.206-05:00Who is Donald Trump?<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUdLNywK9qtKOCqIVgrSZDHilU0UwEKNAN1EiTqCz0zYZp8ILRSbndfOW3Cb-57956WMOofEn_opJp7CAup2dvRyNJJBXp8_ftNssbh6RKwl7FiLw4WtCM2lQiKYBIBwn04eqyzkQ4fwMOL-B_17xxqcUzMLANOtUMZaGSofHLWtdH7PDPm4ZCRDZyaCQ/s4474/walking%20into%20the%20unknown-%202017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4474" data-original-width="3712" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUdLNywK9qtKOCqIVgrSZDHilU0UwEKNAN1EiTqCz0zYZp8ILRSbndfOW3Cb-57956WMOofEn_opJp7CAup2dvRyNJJBXp8_ftNssbh6RKwl7FiLw4WtCM2lQiKYBIBwn04eqyzkQ4fwMOL-B_17xxqcUzMLANOtUMZaGSofHLWtdH7PDPm4ZCRDZyaCQ/w330-h400/walking%20into%20the%20unknown-%202017.jpg" width="330" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>"Walking into the Unknown"</b><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">CC Jean Stimmell: 2017</span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I valued the time I spent as a graduate student in sociology for what I learned about society. While attending, I earned money building stone headers for a construction company. In fact, I enjoyed my time outside doing stonework in the fresh air so much that I quit my studies at UNH. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But, even to this day, I am awed by the achievements of sociologists, like the one who, during the 1940s, uncovered the dynamics behind authoritarian leaders. He would tell us, if he were alive today, that the Trump phenomenon resulted from primal psychological urges brought to the surface by the conditions of modern society. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I will try to transcribe his findings from his ponderous, dense academic style into contemporary language as follows:</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">While we may think we have made progress, moving from the Middle Ages to the Age of Reason, we remain mired in myth. And during this transition, the average person has not gained ground but lost. That’s because of the nature of modern, mass society, which keeps track of the collective through statistics and remote technology while ignoring the individual’s worth as a unique person. Instead, they become lost in a faceless crowd. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the Age of Reason, by definition, a strong incentive exists to become educated, which has inevitably led to the rise of a meritocracy in which the highly educated have prospered at the expense of the working class. All these conditions have resulted in an increasing resentment among a significant minority of the voters. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">These feelings of discontent and disrespect have paved the way for Trump, a charismatic master at stirring up resentment in the masses. He acknowledges the pain of those who feel spurned, shifting the blame to the deep state and educated elite. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Who was the person who initially made such claims? It was Theodor Adorno, one of the foremost philosophers and sociologists of the 20th century. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">According to the Encyclopedia of Philosophy, he contended that complex modern capitalist societies were morally wrong to “the extent to which, despite their professed individualist ideology, these societies actually frustrated and thwarted individuals’ exercise of autonomy....” And he lamented that we had become “a mass, consumer society, within which individuals were categorized, subsumed, and governed by highly restrictive social, economic, and political structures that had little interest in specific individuals.<a href="https://iep.utm.edu/adorno/#:~:text=Adorno%20coined%20the%20tern%20%27identity,uniqueness%20is%20allowed%20to%20exist.https://iep.utm.edu/adorno/"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span></a> </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">He correctly predicted that such conditions would attract ‘charismatic’ authoritarian leaders to seize control. In fact, Adorno’s book, “Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda,” sounds so contemporary it sounds like it was written about Trump.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Knowledge of Adorno’s work is essential to prevent another Trump presidency. First and foremost, we must understand that attempting to defeat him through facts and logic will fail because his platform is not based on reason or facts. His power radiates from the same kind of charismatic authority in which Hitler excelled, lulling his followers to bask in his narcissistic glory as he promises vengeance on all those whom he says are their enemies.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This dynamic, according to Adorno, is irrational, bubbling up from the human subconscious whenever “economic anxiety and failure are pervasive” and “affirmative ideals, norms, and identities fail.“ What can no longer be positively affirmed is achieved negatively by fostering social hatred.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Whoever has been targeted as the out-group becomes the negative source fueling self-affirmation. Whatever out-group becomes identified “as stranger, alien, threat, and danger, that difference can be sustained through hatred–” whether that group is minority, black, Jewish, migrant, LGBTQ, – or the whole Democratic party.<a href="https://publicseminar.org/2017/10/adornos-uncanny-analysis-of-trumps-authoritarian-personality/"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span></a></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">What can we do to resist this rising tide? </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Our best hope would be to nominate an exciting, non-authoritarian candidate who can generate hope like FDR did during the Great Depression, the last time right-wing authoritarian leaders were on the rise around the world. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The question is, can Joe Biden step up and become that candidate?</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">xxx</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="anImage_41.tiff" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/4122e046-4d71-4044-93d0-e4acef2f63a4" /></p><p style="color: #0000e9; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup><a href="https://iep.utm.edu/adorno/#:~:text=Adorno%20coined%20the%20tern%20%27identity,uniqueness%20is%20allowed%20to%20exist.https://iep.utm.edu/adorno/"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://iep.utm.edu/adorno/#:~:text=Adorno%20coined%20the%20tern%20%27identity,uniqueness%20is%20allowed%20to%20exist.https://iep.utm.edu/adorno/</span></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup><a href="https://publicseminar.org/2017/10/adornos-uncanny-analysis-of-trumps-authoritarian-personality/"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://publicseminar.org/2017/10/adornos-uncanny-analysis-of-trumps-authoritarian-personality/</span></a></span></p><p></p>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-20138029789723265962023-11-30T09:52:00.002-05:002023-11-30T17:14:23.358-05:00Restoring Craftsmanship to Save the World<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD6wdfaTJ-TX5bR3xH0_jau2z52PVwOZ9rikuexl9LsCSTGLeOWiq2Xhh8P1GeUaHNon2TzkvFj6Q2Oja5v1_C9WnpUKnswgJMMyUaFe6iBaUUdKF29vDmXZXxTP24JCSm4JGK8_CoeKVdj7FEnax6W3GQIArllABydUyA-1uv6Ywtl0YOXtTxHsAJelw/s4349/a%20culvet%20under%20a%20railroad%20track%20hidden%20in%20a%20swamp.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2881" data-original-width="4349" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjD6wdfaTJ-TX5bR3xH0_jau2z52PVwOZ9rikuexl9LsCSTGLeOWiq2Xhh8P1GeUaHNon2TzkvFj6Q2Oja5v1_C9WnpUKnswgJMMyUaFe6iBaUUdKF29vDmXZXxTP24JCSm4JGK8_CoeKVdj7FEnax6W3GQIArllABydUyA-1uv6Ywtl0YOXtTxHsAJelw/w400-h264/a%20culvet%20under%20a%20railroad%20track%20hidden%20in%20a%20swamp.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Notice the craftsmanship in this old granite arch, even though it is</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span></div><div style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 13px;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">under</span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> a rail line </span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">traversing a swamp where few will ever see it</span></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">I have fond memories of 'old skinny,' a super-flexible carving knife my father cherished that had been passed down from his father. We all marveled at how this carver could effortlessly cut meat from a bone while bending like a pretzel. </span></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Another of my prized possessions is my father's Farmall Cub tractor, which he purchased after returning home from WWII, coincidentally the same year I was born. As a small boy, I named it "Tommy" after a tractor in a well-known children's book. Tommy is still running strong today at age 78, mowing my fields each year.</span></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Quality purchases pay dividends for generations. The founder of Patagonia, the high-end clothing manufacturer, recently pointed out in the NYT that building quality is not only cost-efficient but critical to our survival:</span></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>“If we can embrace quality as the key to living more responsibly, choosing the carbon steel knife that lasts decades over the ones that have to be replaced each year, we may just get to keep the one thing we can’t toss out: Earth.</i><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/23/opinion/patagonia-environnment-fast-fashion.html"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span></a><i>”</i></span></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Building shoddy merchandise designed to be replaced has a name: planned obsolescence. “<i>In a world where it’s often cheaper to replace goods than to </i><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/12/opinion/big-tech-right-to-repair.html"><span style="color: #0000e9; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><i>repair</i></span></a><i> them, we have gone from a society of caretaker owners to one </i><a href="https://www.popsci.com/environment/overconsumption-sustainability-climate/"><span style="color: #0000e9; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><i>of </i></span></a></span><span style="color: #0000e9; font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><i>consumers</i></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>.</i><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/23/opinion/patagonia-environnment-fast-fashion.html"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span></a><i>”</i></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Building junk is anathema to good workmanship. To see what we have lost, look no further than the timeless beauty and exquisite detail in our historic buildings crafted from local wood and stone by our Yankee forebears. </span></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Another example is our famous Concord Coaches built by local artisans. They took immense pride in what they accomplished, something lacking in modern car assemblers, performing monotonous tasks on a none-stop assembly line. </span></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Casting aside craftsmanship in favor of expediency and quick profits has accelerated our descent into planned obsolescence by giving manual labor a bad reputation compared to white-collar work.</span></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">It is a “symptom of a larger problem,” according to Mathew Crawford in his book “Shop Class as Soulcraft: “We have, as a people, lost our fundamental manual competence. We can no longer fix our own stuff, and we are increasingly steering our kids “toward the most ghostly kinds of work.”<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/books/29book.html"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3</sup></span></a> </span></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">We now have another problem: the high degree of attention necessary for quality workmanship is being siphoned away by nonstop social media and smartphone interference. Studies have shown that the mere presence of a smartphone can reduce our cognitive ability by taking attention away from other tasks—even if the phone is turned off.<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/home-internet-landline-amazon-smartphone/676070/?utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20231127&utm_term=The+Atlantic+Daily"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4</sup></span></a></span></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Despite the steamrolling pressure of big business and high-tech, we, the people, are now fighting back, just as we did against the excesses of the Industrial Revolution. </span></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">England recently advised schools to impose a complete cellphone ban, something also starting to happen in this country. A new trend has begun, led by GenZ teenagers, where folks are trading in their smartphones for old-fashioned flip phones. And vacationers are flocking to vacation rentals that offer "off-the-grid" properties without internet service.<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/home-internet-landline-amazon-smartphone/676070/?utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20231127&utm_term=The+Atlantic+Daily"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>5</sup></span></a></span></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Rebecca Solnit alerted us about this coming revolution almost 15 years ago. She wrote then that we don’t have a single plan; instead we have:</span></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">"We have thousands of them being carried out quite spectacularly over the past few decades, for gardens and childcare co-ops and bicycle lanes and farmers' markets and countless ways of doing things differently and better. The underlying vision is neither state socialist nor corporate capitalist, but something human, local and accountable–as in direct democracy. The revolution exists in little bits everywhere...and is succeeding in bits and pieces.”<a href="http://jeanstimmell.blogspot.com/2009/04/do-we-have-plan-for-revolution.html"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>6</sup></span></a></span></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">In his recent book, "Why We Make Things and Why it Matters, " Peter Corn writes about this rapidly spreading revolution." A reviewer of his book waxed poetically about what's happening: "almost everyone I know…would rather be making or baking, sewing or shaping, farming, tending, growing or hoeing" then being tied to a desk, computer, and smartphone.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>7</sup></span></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">When we look around, our renewed passion for food and cooking is evident, but “Ceramics and carpentry, embroidery, knitting and dress-making are all also making a comeback. Home-made or hand-made is what we all aspire to buy and eat and own and admire.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>8</sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">”</span></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Let’s pray this revolution reaches a crucial mass and vanquishes the alleged virtues of our throw-a-way, high-tech society before we exhaust our planet’s capacity to support us.</span></p>
<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">xxx</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="anImage_2.tiff" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/9a64c758-233d-4e6a-95c5-d1a0e7a3680a" /></p>
<p style="color: #0000e9; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/23/opinion/patagonia-environnment-fast-fashion.html"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">ttps://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/23/opinion/patagonia-environnment-fast-fashion.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="color: #0000e9; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/23/opinion/patagonia-environnment-fast-fashion.html"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">ttps://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/23/opinion/patagonia-environnment-fast-fashion.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="color: #0000e9; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3 </sup><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/books/29book.html"><span style="font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/29/books/29book.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4 </sup><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/home-internet-landline-amazon-smartphone/676070/?utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20231127&utm_term=The+Atlantic+Daily"><span style="background-color: white; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/home-internet-landline-amazon-smartphone/676070/?utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20231127&utm_term=The+Atlantic+Daily</span></a></span></p>
<p style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>5 </sup><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/home-internet-landline-amazon-smartphone/676070/?utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20231127&utm_term=The+Atlantic+Daily"><span style="background-color: white; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">Ibid.</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>6 </sup><a href="http://jeanstimmell.blogspot.com/2009/04/do-we-have-plan-for-revolution.html"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">http://jeanstimmell.blogspot.com/2009/04/do-we-have-plan-for-revolution.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="color: #540097; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>7 </sup></span><span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Book Review: The Hand-made Tale in The London Times</span></p>
<p style="color: #540097; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>8 </sup></span><span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Ibid.</span></p></div>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-80731675214855492332023-11-20T09:33:00.006-05:002023-11-21T09:00:04.074-05:00Are Stones and Stories Alive?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgozGvV28SgrX0Q15MZCb6lpGqRbL48fPHNc7IWj4zbhq1Fa10VO9CLwlYx-QhHvimBROAKECJX-FiDcIdXqYwUgPHB7J7jigjuwBbT2_YDHKeSC9g4uRwTYUuk7HRKi0YggBlIC8FVG6Dz-l7cXZTCCPEWWaut1_SDSsNZVYFQErcgFhnnoy2T9JL9dJg/s1664/ledge%20photo%20for%20%20monitor%20ver3sion%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1286" data-original-width="1664" height="309" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgozGvV28SgrX0Q15MZCb6lpGqRbL48fPHNc7IWj4zbhq1Fa10VO9CLwlYx-QhHvimBROAKECJX-FiDcIdXqYwUgPHB7J7jigjuwBbT2_YDHKeSC9g4uRwTYUuk7HRKi0YggBlIC8FVG6Dz-l7cXZTCCPEWWaut1_SDSsNZVYFQErcgFhnnoy2T9JL9dJg/w400-h309/ledge%20photo%20for%20%20monitor%20ver3sion%202.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">I was a hardscape stonemason for twenty years, building walkways, terraces, and dry-laid stonewalls. My favorite task was building natural-looking ledges to integrate a new home perched awkwardly on a bulldozed dirt mound, back down into the natural rhythms of nature. I would first conceive what I wanted to build, gather likely-looking stones with my backhoe, and load them in my dump truck. Inevitably, however, the stones rebelled on the trip back to the job site, shapeshifting into forms that stymied my original plan of action. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">I had to start all over again. What is it with those rocks? I agree with Mark Peter Keane, who worked with stone masters in Kyoto, Japan, for two decades. He always claimed that rocks had a mind of their own. We also understand that setting the first stone is the most important because it determines the path of all who follow.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">That's where the rubber meets the road. </span></p><p style="color: #f80027; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">After the first stone is set, Keane explains,“From here on, the placement of the other stones will follow the precedent of the first one. The ancient nobles wrote … ‘follow the request of the stone.’ … because for them the stone was animate. It had desires, natural dispositions, requests, the fulfillment of which was essential.</span><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Indeed, I discovered by trial and error, I had no choice but to honor Keane’s ancient mentors. If I tried to think through which piece of ledge should go next, it would stand out like a sore thumb. If I tried to measure which rock should go in the next in a wall, it would refuse to fit. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Inevitably, whenever I tried to think myself through the day, things went haywire. Conversely, when I wasn't thinking, I often had magical days when rocks fit perfectly and looked fabulous. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">We've all experienced it: being wholly absorbed in the activity at hand, being so involved that we lose our sense of time or even our sense of self. This state of being is what folks describe when they say they're in the zone or groove.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #262626; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">In his ground-breaking work on creativity, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span><span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> called this state of being "flow," describing it as being totally focused, "completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz."</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">We’ve all felt it: "Talking to a friend, reading to a child, playing with a pet, or mowing the lawn can each produce flow, provided you find the challenge in what you are doing and then focus on doing it as best you can."<a href="http://jeanstimmell.blogspot.com/2021/11/achieving-flow.html"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3</sup></span></a> </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">It's not a conscious process; it's more akin to Eastern spiritual practices, where the core idea is not to force or grasp our way through life but to live spontaneously in harmony with the natural order of the cosmos. </span></p><p style="color: #262626; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Finding flow is my secret sauce, not just in stonework but in writing. In both pursuits, setting the first piece determines what will follow. Words like rocks don’t dutifully report for duty just because they have been asked; instead, they volunteer when summoned by their comrades who came before.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">In closing, I want to poise a larger question, so far left unsaid: Where does our ability to think come from? For most of our existence on earth, humans have believed our thoughts originate from a greater reality outside of ourselves, not from our tiny, three-pound brain.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Maybe it's time to revisit this question because some facts speak for themselves: while cultures rise and fall, stones and stories persist.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">xxx</span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="anImage_56.tiff" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/1901f8e5-a117-479c-aaa3-680b3122aa5e" /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Keane, Marc; Keane, Marc Peter. The Art of Setting Stones (p. 105). Stone Bridge Press.</span></p><p style="color: #131314; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup></span><span style="background-color: white; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 5.8px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup></span><span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly (1990). <i>Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience</i>. New York: Harper and Row</span></p><p style="color: #131527; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3 </sup><a href="http://jeanstimmell.blogspot.com/2021/11/achieving-flow.html"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">http://jeanstimmell.blogspot.com/2021/11/achieving-flow.html</span></a></span></p></div>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-71473095856521185222023-11-15T16:43:00.006-05:002023-11-16T08:44:34.988-05:00What's in a Picture<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBuFbaw7iZ42V9gOnVDrS3yOokJlbG-r4eNK-1T8PpYPzKMQGXqKGNZktrloDiz3wV5H9VZTBImcIuqu-gZ9kW9yH0jUmJWRrNuitHQo1tm1JfDW77TIDirndlUqpkF9j__pYBFV-LFtW39IXYeq9YOCcCwKlDNnnjiXvJkaNmAhc0XTvUg_JSwsPsMSI/s7252/2%20ships%20IN%20Vienam.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4728" data-original-width="7252" height="261" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBuFbaw7iZ42V9gOnVDrS3yOokJlbG-r4eNK-1T8PpYPzKMQGXqKGNZktrloDiz3wV5H9VZTBImcIuqu-gZ9kW9yH0jUmJWRrNuitHQo1tm1JfDW77TIDirndlUqpkF9j__pYBFV-LFtW39IXYeq9YOCcCwKlDNnnjiXvJkaNmAhc0XTvUg_JSwsPsMSI/w400-h261/2%20ships%20IN%20Vienam.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Taking pictures has been part of my life since I was a teenager. I have included a photo, deteriorated by age, that I took in Vietnam when I was nineteen. The scene looks so peaceful and pastoral it is difficult to believe a war is raging nearby. One might wonder why I reached for my camera at that moment. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">James Agee, novelist and poet, believed that the camera was 'the central instrument' of his age.' He believed photography could transmit, as no other art could, "the peculiar kinds of poetic vitality which blaze in every real thing.”</span><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> Dorothea Lange, the renowned documentary photographer, often said, "The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera,”<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/23/opinion/social-media-photography-selfies.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span></a> </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">These two leading lights would have understood why I took that picture. Unfortunately, their high expectations for the camera have become marginalized and diluted over time.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">In her classic treatise, "On Photography," Susan Sontag<a href="https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/features/getting-started-with-photo-theory-szarkowski-sontag-and-barthes?utm_medium=Email%201746166&utm_campaign=Content&utm_source=WeeklyContent%20190831&utm_content=Retail&utm_term=getting-started-with-photo-theory-szarkowski-sontag-and-barthes&encEmail=A148800D0131E795752DC9C9524FDA716F9F5AD2965B046510B307A357ABD227"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3</sup></span></a> complained that taking photos could be too much of a good thing – and for the wrong reasons. "It would not be wrong to speak of people having a compulsion to photograph: to turn experience itself into a way of seeing." Indeed, high-tech devices like the iPhone have undoubtedly led to overkill. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Margaret Renkl, the superb essayist, is spot on in railing against such excess: “The ordinary world would take our breath away if only we paused our podcasts, took our earbuds out and listened to the wind in the pines.”<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/23/opinion/social-media-photography-selfies.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4</sup></span></a> She advises us to stop substituting the physical act of taking a photo for the thrill of experiencing the grandeur of our surroundings. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">I admit to taking a horde of thoughtless pictures when I started out, despite the long hours it took to develop my work in the darkroom. Against all conventional logic, now that technology has made shooting countless images effortless, I take far fewer. No longer am I attempting to capture the moment but looking, instead, for the essence.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">However, even when I was young, I could occasionally rise to the occasion. I took this photo shortly after dawn, about to embark on my first river mission in Vietnam. Soon, we would be at battle stations, and I would be manning a 50-caliber machine gun.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Capturing a pretty sunrise was the furthest thing from my mind when I snapped this photo. Instead, I was attempting to steady my nerves. By looking through the viewfinder, I was connecting to a deeper reality that encompassed Mother Nature and the soothing rhythms of everyday life in the form of the two ships, one small and one large, tied together, going about their mundane, peacetime duties. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Merely snapping the shutter doesn't enlighten us about what we see: we must attend deeply to what we view. It's similar to how we only get to know someone by deep listening, not self-centered talk.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"> My conclusion is that despite our many high-tech gadgets, we can only perceive what's real through our physical eyes and human heart. Luckily for us, our human senses are magical! </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">As the great visionary William Blake has written, if we look deeply enough, everything will become visible: We will then be able to see "a World in a Grain of Sand and a Heaven in a Wild Flower" And" 'hold Infinity in the palm of your hand."</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">xxx</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="anImage_14.tiff" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/ea94a113-63a1-4473-a755-d7bafea74adf" /></p><p style="color: #0000e9; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup></span><span style="color: #292929; font-kerning: none;">(<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/18/opinion/photography-black-southern-history.html"><span style="color: #0000e9; font-kerning: none;">https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/18/opinion/photography-black-southern-history.html</span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-kerning: none;">)</span></p><p style="color: #0000e9; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/23/opinion/social-media-photography-selfies.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/23/opinion/social-media-photography-selfies.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article</span></a></span></p><p style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3 </sup><a href="https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/features/getting-started-with-photo-theory-szarkowski-sontag-and-barthes?utm_medium=Email%201746166&utm_campaign=Content&utm_source=WeeklyContent%20190831&utm_content=Retail&utm_term=getting-started-with-photo-theory-szarkowski-sontag-and-barthes&encEmail=A148800D0131E795752DC9C9524FDA716F9F5AD2965B046510B307A357ABD227"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/features/getting-started-with-photo-theory-szarkowski-sontag-and-barthes?utm_medium=Email%201746166&utm_campaign=Content&utm_source=WeeklyContent%20190831&utm_content=Retail&utm_term=getting-started-with-photo-theory-szarkowski-sontag-and-barthes&encEmail=A148800D0131E795752DC9C9524FDA716F9F5AD2965B046510B307A357ABD227</span></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4 </sup><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/23/opinion/social-media-photography-selfies.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/23/opinion/social-media-photography-selfies.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article</span></a></span></p></div>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-38762775216065189622023-11-09T10:09:00.001-05:002023-11-09T13:07:15.288-05:00Sorrow, grief, and trouble sit like vultures on my psychic fence1<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUPOpkvvGKwIvDQhrjrZFkqxwmNcu-muO6mp3Zg1HEdAw_he84tK86JM_KJU1F9jZeG6o6CpNrng7M7DlNx1WqGnOgQdukAXCHPpAphSDMNzdmttpywlIMl5LnZEY35i_7E_EZ_V_kfGx5hFbP8cQPFuknxMrV78nxpALmf6tjLlhFF2Tb2ao-Bm86g7A/s2000/vultures%20on%20a%20fence.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1196" data-original-width="2000" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUPOpkvvGKwIvDQhrjrZFkqxwmNcu-muO6mp3Zg1HEdAw_he84tK86JM_KJU1F9jZeG6o6CpNrng7M7DlNx1WqGnOgQdukAXCHPpAphSDMNzdmttpywlIMl5LnZEY35i_7E_EZ_V_kfGx5hFbP8cQPFuknxMrV78nxpALmf6tjLlhFF2Tb2ao-Bm86g7A/w400-h238/vultures%20on%20a%20fence.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Sorrow, grief, and trouble sit like vultures on my psychic fence</span><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 9px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">A few years ago, I photographed five vultures attempting to warm up on a cold winter morning by spreading their wings toward the sun. I am using it to illustrate this rant.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">The title reflects how I feel. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">I can't get images of maimed and bloody bodies out of my mind, first in Ukraine and now doubling down in Israel and Palestine. They are broadcast nonstop on the news and haunt my dreams.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Especially disturbing are the corpses of dead babies. As I write this, just in Gaza, 4104 children have been killed so far in this war, according to the United Nations.<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/7/is-israels-gaza-war-the-deadliest-conflict-for-children-in-modern-times#:~:text=Israel%27s%20attacks%20have%20killed%204%2C104,Humanitarian%20Affairs%20(OCHA)%20reports."><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Seeing their bloody, lifeless bodies was the final straw that broke me, stacked, as they are, on top of a cacophony of other pre-existing existential threats and mind-numbing dysfunctions that we already face. Let me name a few:</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"> Congress is fiddling as the world burns while </span><span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene blathers about conspiracies like Israel using “state-of-the-art Jewish space lasers” to shoot down Santa Claus.</span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> Closer to home, our neighbors in Lewiston Maine are burying their dead struck down by a deranged mass shooter.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Not that NH has been a guiding light.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"> Our "Live Free or Die" state is proud to reject all restrictions on assault weapons and reject any red flag laws that might prevent crazy people from getting them. Having no mercy is the NH way: We tax working people at a rate three times that of the rich, rejecting any broad-based taxes indexed to a person's ability to pay. And to complete the trifecta, we have a governor who privileges fossil fuel over the dangers of climate change.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Meanwhile, on the national scene, our leading Republican candidate for president is a crook while the democratic one shuffles around, muttering like an old man. Many Republicans want to move on from Trump but don't dare because they think he is the only one who can win. Sadly, Democrats are doing the same, knowing Biden is not the best candidate but, like the Republicans, supporting him nevertheless.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(13, 13, 20); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0d0d14; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Looking around at the climate disasters, escalating war, and growing inequality around the world, it's natural for folks to wonder why God puts up with all this suffering. Jim Palmer, the founder of the Center for Non-Religious Spirituality,</span><span style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3</sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> says we have it backwards: What we should be asking is, why do <i>we</i> put up with it?</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">That’s an excellent point.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">If we are ever going to act, now is the time to pull our heads out of the sand, stand up, and demand change. After all, in so many areas, we, the people, are ahead of the politicians. And what we want most in our hearts is for our children to prosper.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(248, 0, 39); font-kerning: none;">Ayman Odeh wrote recently in the NYT,<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/19/opinion/israel-netanyahu-palestinians.html"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4</sup></span></a> “</span><span style="font-kerning: none;">A nation is defined as a group of people with a common language, a common past and common dreams.” By this definition, paraphrasing Odeh, any parent will tell you babies are children of a single nation, not a Trump or a Biden one. </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #292929; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-kerning: none;">But Odeh</span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> is not speaking about particular babies. As</span><span style="color: black; font-kerning: none;"> a</span><span style="font-kerning: none;">n Arab Palestinian citizen of Israel and a member of Israel’s Knesset, he is talking about all babies. Due to his unique position, he is able to see a higher truth.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Babies, he says, "have a common language, a common past, common dreams. They speak the same, get angry and cry at the same things, laugh the same way… communicate effortlessly with other babies, no matter the language of the lullabies their parents sang them at night."</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">The entirety of this nation of infants – including those who are Jewish, Arab, Palestinian, Israeli, American, Ukrainian, and Russian— "want just one thing: to grow up to a good life. It's a simple dream. Our role as leaders is simple too: to make that possible." </span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">For the sake of our babies – all our babies – let us wake up before it is too late.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">xxx</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Times; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><br /><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="anImage_59.tiff" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/d9cf3be5-421c-47b4-9171-d43f4dd55dc3" /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">My apologies for amending a line from Winnie Gravitt's poem "ippokni Sia" She was a Native American poet of Choctaw descent, who was born in 1895. You can read it here: https://poets.org/poem/sippokni-sia?mc_cid=a53422d40c&mc_eid=d70b4eb6f5</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/7/is-israels-gaza-war-the-deadliest-conflict-for-children-in-modern-times#:~:text=Israel%27s%20attacks%20have%20killed%204%2C104,Humanitarian%20Affairs%20(OCHA)%20reports."><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/7/is-israels-gaza-war-the-deadliest-conflict-for-children-in-modern-times#:~:text=Israel%27s%20attacks%20have%20killed%204%2C104,Humanitarian%20Affairs%20(OCHA)%20reports.</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3 </sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">https://www.jimpalmerauthor.com</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0000e9; font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4 </sup><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/19/opinion/israel-netanyahu-palestinians.html"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/19/opinion/israel-netanyahu-palestinians.html</span></a></span></p></div><br /><p><br /></p>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-29950987038890218052023-10-30T11:00:00.008-04:002023-11-02T09:57:00.352-04:00Dying can be a dance, not a battle<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5L1nHoE7fwlMwS58PydCDRAHVlcAZVe75QUkaXS-8cMf0f4H0vq6aQWkwfRzLco6AZC_G7o05yMuCwlBuTvDttH1aKXAqIuFgwfeEr0AT00czZ3vGyKhOFqAFnY4iMpTm4ndU8Z_bLGwGtPbOoexYX7vk6hs2DHwLHy6cGhn5O04t4KzElLXYcH5FIu4/s2000/leaves-%20transitions.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="1852" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5L1nHoE7fwlMwS58PydCDRAHVlcAZVe75QUkaXS-8cMf0f4H0vq6aQWkwfRzLco6AZC_G7o05yMuCwlBuTvDttH1aKXAqIuFgwfeEr0AT00czZ3vGyKhOFqAFnY4iMpTm4ndU8Z_bLGwGtPbOoexYX7vk6hs2DHwLHy6cGhn5O04t4KzElLXYcH5FIu4/w370-h400/leaves-%20transitions.jpg" width="370" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;">CC Jean Stimmell</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Why do so many obituaries praise the dead for waging a heroic battle against their fate? Why does death have to be described as such a heavy-weight brawl when, in the big scheme of things, death is part of the circle of life? </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Like it or not, we’re all part of nature. Why can’t we view our death like a falling leaf in autumn, not as a desperate ending but as the promise of rebirth in the spring? Or, for religious-minded people, serenely entering into the Kingdom of heaven.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Kubler-Ross, a pioneer in near-death studies, wrote, “Watching a peaceful death of a human being reminds us of a falling star; one of a million lights in a vast sky that flares up for a brief moment only to disappear into the endless night forever.<span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’ve always had an interest in understanding death but don’t consider it to be a morbid subject. Quite the contrary: I believe you can only understand life if you first pick apart your attitudes toward death. I am now reading another book about it recently on the NYT Best Seller list: <i>The In-Between: Unforgettable Encounters During Life’s Final Moments</i> by <span style="font-kerning: none;">Hadley Vlahos. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Vlahos is a hospice nurse. I found her portrayal of eleven of her patients, while sometimes sad and tragic, to be comforting on the whole because their last hours were often mundane and peaceful without hand-wringing hysterics. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">But, beyond that, the author explored an intervening spiritual element! Death was not black and white as she had previously believed. “There was certainly an in-between…Patients from all different religious and non-religious backgrounds were having spiritual encounters that I couldn’t ignore.”</span><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Vlahos describes herself as spiritual but not a member of any religion. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">One of her observations stuck close to home for me. When her patients have these in-between experiences, she’ll ask what they are experiencing. They might say something like: “‘Oh, I’m going on a trip,’ … So the conclusion I’ve come to is whatever is next cannot be explained with the language and the knowledge that we have here on Earth.”</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">I had a similar experience with my mother when she was dying. While sitting with her, I saw her eyes moving and asked what she was looking at. She said she was transfixed by the flickering candles on the mantle, but the candles were merely standing there, motionless and unlit. She hesitantly confessed to me that she felt like a little girl waiting at a bridge for someone to come to take her hand and take her across.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Like Vlahos, I am spiritual but not a member of any organized religion.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">My mother was an Episcopalian and did a lifetime of terrific work through the church to help others. But she was a hard-headed Yankee who would never buy into any New Age woo-woo. While I could see her vision transported her, I had to prod her to tell me what she was experiencing because, as she sheepishly confided, it seemed like such a silly idea. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">A silly idea or not, she passed shortly after that. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">To me, my mother’s death experience, like that Vlahos writes about, points to the likelihood that the universe is way more profound than we can ever imagine. A reality that has always been self-evident for practitioners in the spiritual realm. Now, at last, it is becoming true for scientists.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Working with Complexity Theory– one of the three most important discoveries of the 20th century – along with Quantum Physics and Relativity – scientists have discovered that, as human beings, we have more in common with each other, living or dead than we ever could imagine.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Rather than priding ourselves on being the dominant force on Earth above all others, it would be more accurate to see ourselves as part of the “Earth itself, whose atoms have self-organized to form these transitory beings that think of themselves as self-sufficient and separate from each other, even though they only ever arose from and will inevitably return to the atomic substance of the planet?”</span><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: none; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3</sup></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">I know this is extremely difficult for us to understand – like trying to comprehend Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. But if these scientists are proven correct that consciousness resides in every atom in the universe, not solely in our separate brains, then, truly, we are all connected as one.</span></p><p style="color: #292929; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="color: #292929; font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">And, if that’s the case, talking about life after death should be a piece of cake.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">xxx</span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="anImage_8.tiff" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/f3a7f1d6-8899-4b76-988d-d30f9821fc0e" /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup></span>On Death and dying by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, M.D. The MacMillan Company, New York: 1969. Page 246-7.</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">R.N., Hadley Vlahos . The In-Between (pp. 36-37). Kindle Edition.</span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Page 53</span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-feature-settings: normal; font-kerning: auto; font-optical-sizing: auto; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variation-settings: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3 </sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">–Theise, Neil. Notes on Complexity (p. 73). Spiegel & Grau. Kindle Edition</span></p>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-84792583120084770522023-10-11T11:48:00.007-04:002023-10-12T09:36:37.802-04:00Mindful Forgetting<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmsj9-JVPOEdw_Z0eh6mKyhdSw4Tr7a8ay9jOdNpY8PvV01pct6aq7J-IQVcQ-iRwg4PBUW3rEfTeu6Mro-M2JlxzLh0rx4NKKkCytR_4d_VtpxwK1LgwOgTAkfa04HI7l21P6sIEKUgSIn5ITztCqY4eeKuKaRcuC374OA1G911vs-fFb8PYuiYJ1H1g/s2000/Mindful%20Forgetting.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="2000" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmsj9-JVPOEdw_Z0eh6mKyhdSw4Tr7a8ay9jOdNpY8PvV01pct6aq7J-IQVcQ-iRwg4PBUW3rEfTeu6Mro-M2JlxzLh0rx4NKKkCytR_4d_VtpxwK1LgwOgTAkfa04HI7l21P6sIEKUgSIn5ITztCqY4eeKuKaRcuC374OA1G911vs-fFb8PYuiYJ1H1g/w400-h400/Mindful%20Forgetting.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: right;">CC Jean Stimmell: 2015</td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The cricket’s persistent song of autumn used to haunt me, reminding me how brief life is, especially now I’m old. But it doesn’t have to if we follow David Henry Thoreau’s example and reframe “t<span style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">he cricket’s song: Turn it into an “earth song,” a reminder not of life’s brevity but of eternal return.”<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/23/opinion/henry-david-thoreau-time-crickets.html"><span style="color: black; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span></a></span></p>
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<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Reimagining things as Thoreau does is crucial to being truly alive: The secret to doing so is forgetting old stuff. That’s the topic of Lewis Hyde’s award-winning book, <i>A Primer for Forgetting</i>. While a Wall Street Journal reviewer claimed his book shocks the mind like leaping into a cold lake, to me, some passages threw me into free fall like I’d fallen off a cliff. </span></p>
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<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">The book was powerful without any guiding narrative, just an accumulation of what often feels like unrelated anecdotes. The glue that holds it together is Hyde’s celebration of forgetfulness. On a single page, Hyde summarizes Plato’s claim that an oral culture is best because knowing how to write</span><span style="color: black; font-kerning: none;"> “strips forgetfulness” from the minds of the people. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">“Relying on writing, they will cease to exercise imagination, calling things to mind no longer from the quick of present attention but from a past frozen in ink. What you have discovered is a recipe not for the mastery of living speech but for dead speech to master the living.”</span><span style="font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">The statement, “Dead speech to master the living,” seemed dead-on to me, reflecting to my jaded eye the true nature of today’s 24/7 media circus consisting mainly of political double-speak about how black is white and advertising brainwashing us to “shop until we drop.”At the same time, our world is imploding from income inequality, escalating wars, and climate doom.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Maybe Plato was right: Perhaps our most unheralded trait is the most important: our unequaled ability to dance spontaneously in the present moment. Unfortunately, during our Modern age, this essential human spark has been lacquered over with an impenetrable layer of media, written and otherwise. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">It’s like we have become encased in amber, like those fossils we visit in the museum.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">To regain our mojo, it is necessary to go back to the future: Forget (delete) the chirping virtual crickets projected upon us by our new high-tech masters and, instead, seek out actual crickets as Thoreau did, singing in the present an authentic “earth song.” </span></p>
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<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Today, going back to the future means revisiting science!</span></p>
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<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Old science could be viewed as part of the problem, doing its part to encase our living world into an impenetrable armor of abstract facts and blockish equations. Science today is different: it is flying high, pursuing theories dealing with relativity, quantum mechanics, and complexity – not static notions from the past but the infinite probabilities that exist in the present moment.<a href="https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/notes-complexity-scientific-theory-connection-consciousness-bookbite/42793/#:~:text=Complexity%20is%20the%20scientific%20theory%20of%20life.&text=While%20the%20two%20more%20famous,see%20in%20our%20everyday%20lives."><span style="color: black; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3</sup></span></a></span></p>
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<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Contemporary science rejects the notion that we are living beings moving about on this rock called Earth. Instead, we are “Earth itself, whose atoms have self-organized to form these transitory beings that think of themselves as self-sufficient and separate from each other, even though they only ever arose from and will inevitably return to the atomic substance of the planet?”</span><span style="color: black; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4</sup></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">As Neil Theise states in <i>Notes on Complexity</i>: “At the atomic scale, each one of us is both our own separate self and, in complementarity, also just walking, talking Earth.</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>5</sup></span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-kerning: none;">”</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">David Henry Thoreau would certainly agree.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Times; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">xxx</span></p>
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<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="anImage_17.tiff" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/f1eecef0-21ac-4417-b07f-ffa8dfa1eb2a" /></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0000e9; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/23/opinion/henry-david-thoreau-time-crickets.html"><span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/23/opinion/henry-david-thoreau-time-crickets.html</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Hyde, Lewis. A Primer for Forgetting (p. 285). Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Kindle Edition.</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3 </sup><a href="https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/notes-complexity-scientific-theory-connection-consciousness-bookbite/42793/#:~:text=Complexity%20is%20the%20scientific%20theory%20of%20life.&text=While%20the%20two%20more%20famous,see%20in%20our%20everyday%20lives."><span style="font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://nextbigideaclub.com/magazine/notes-complexity-scientific-theory-connection-consciousness-bookbite/42793/#:~:text=Complexity%20is%20the%20scientific%20theory%20of%20life.&text=While%20the%20two%20more%20famous,see%20in%20our%20everyday%20lives.</span></a></span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4 </sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">–Theise, Neil. Notes on Complexity (p. 73). Spiegel & Grau. Kindle Edition</span></p>
<p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>5 </sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">Ibid.</span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-38493214967976150392023-09-24T13:54:00.002-04:002023-09-28T13:58:13.959-04:00Being blind doesn’t mean you can’t see<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEnUaxWhTrp9zndTeLGkPGusnua3fNNBlcwEEpQv9p-7QskK8sNTa86O7PhMsj4BtAUSi9tqeOq9OtxavjoVC51yC2kUcv_1RkhR2Sw97p8eEDUQzhYh2HMjOZ6i_G70yMzVDivtxD25hUAFlBV7EZGZP2IvswO_1-APlHSHDOmXGg3FN5KsW6ZBPXyLU/s1500/butterfly-flower.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1069" data-original-width="1500" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEnUaxWhTrp9zndTeLGkPGusnua3fNNBlcwEEpQv9p-7QskK8sNTa86O7PhMsj4BtAUSi9tqeOq9OtxavjoVC51yC2kUcv_1RkhR2Sw97p8eEDUQzhYh2HMjOZ6i_G70yMzVDivtxD25hUAFlBV7EZGZP2IvswO_1-APlHSHDOmXGg3FN5KsW6ZBPXyLU/w400-h285/butterfly-flower.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Butterfly in my garden</span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center; text-indent: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I had an epiphany reading about how a blind man could still see – and, surprisingly, in a more profound way. Stephen Kuusisto enlightened me about this in his memoir, <i>Planet of the Blind,</i> as described by the poet Mark Doty.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“Kuusisto describes a moment in Grand Central Station when he and his guide dog have just gotten themselves lost in the great urban hive of transport. Steve sees a dark, suggestive blur of shapes and colors…His dog is new to the intricate passageways of the station, crowded with ranks of commuters… Steve could reasonably be terrified. Instead, he reports this as an occasion of pleasure, a perceptual adventure; both he and his companion animal are exhilarated, and having, as we say, the time of their lives.”<span style="font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">My revelation was that while blindness can indeed be an occasion for adventure, so can growing old! </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Like the suggestive blur on Steve’s retina in Grand Central Station, the accelerating cacophony of incoming images I encounter each day arouses me, even though they flash by too quickly for my old mind to read the fine print. If I don’t panic at this barrage of strangeness – if instead, I take a deep breath – then the sum of all this chaos can sometimes feel exciting and alluring, suggesting that something bigger than we can imagine is about to unfold.<span style="font-family: Times; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></p><p style="font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Samuel Beckett, perhaps the most famous playwright of the 20<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>th</sup></span> century, confessed to experiencing something similar about growing old during a 1987 Paris Review interview with Lawrence Shainberg:</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 18px;"><i></i><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">“It’s a paradox, but with old age, the more the possibilities diminish, the better chance you have. With diminished concentration, loss of memory, obscured intelligence—what you, I suspect, would call ‘brain damage’—the more chance there is for saying something closest to what one really is. Even though everything seems inexpressible, there remains the need to express. A child needs to make a sand castle even though it makes no sense to him. In old age, with only a few grains of sand, one has the greatest possibility.”<span style="font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span> </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Beckett was seventy-four years old at the time. I’m 78. Perhaps we are discovering that putting words on things can keep us from envisaging a greater truth. Or, as the artist Robert Irwin has summed it up: “Seeing is forgetting the name of the thing one sees.”<a href="https://tricycle.org/magazine/uselessness/"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3</sup></span></a> </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px; text-indent: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Why?</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Because when I name something, I separate it from what comes before and after. Doing so puts the multiplicity of ongoing life on pause, turning it into a frozen fact. I've witnessed the consequences: Putting words on my awe at encountering a fluttering, kaleidoscopic butterfly, removes her from the immediacy of the now, pinning her forever, static and faded, in the museum of my mind.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Young children, on the other hand, have an uncanny intuition about the true nature of the cycles of life because they have yet to be separated from the rhythms of the universe. My son, when he was about four, declared with utter conviction something that mystified me at the time: “When I get big, you will become small again.”</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Now I see the truth of his prediction.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">xxx</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="anImage_5.tiff" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/52b619f0-02ef-4696-99bd-faae74644879" /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Doty, Mark. The Art of Description: World into Word (Art of...) (p. 4). Graywolf Press. Kindle Edition.</i></span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><b>Exorcising Beckett Lawrence Shainberg</b></span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">THE PARIS REVIEW NO. 104 Fall 1987</span></p><p style="color: #0000e9; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.samuel-beckett.net/ShainExor1.html#:~:text=%22It%27s%20a%20paradox%2C%20but%20with,to%20what%20one%20really%20is">https://www.samuel-beckett.net/ShainExor1.html#:~:text=%22It%27s%20a%20paradox%2C%20but%20with,to%20what%20one%20really%20is</a></span><span style="color: black; font-kerning: none;">.</span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3 </sup><a href="https://tricycle.org/magazine/uselessness/"><span style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://tricycle.org/magazine/uselessness/</span></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span></p>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-68102214063489841182023-09-14T09:51:00.001-04:002023-09-14T09:52:25.505-04:00My Obsession with Hurricanes<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHHqtWIwUsEdfwk-acL8RhnbN9l0N4DVfdwM9Lak8tuuXWtmlhddwRo3TFNzZDFTCtRAPeJvJSytFHb2N351NMTuB7Tx3j2394tPDOuc2Boc5jqxR9cx1UjcEPX4jbwvdtLEmJ2rjSQHJ13fpNHw9HKUxbqVVOio3PAacDOW47xyltL3WsDKWWpgMB4ug/s1500/Hurricane%20sky.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><i><img border="0" data-original-height="1166" data-original-width="1500" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHHqtWIwUsEdfwk-acL8RhnbN9l0N4DVfdwM9Lak8tuuXWtmlhddwRo3TFNzZDFTCtRAPeJvJSytFHb2N351NMTuB7Tx3j2394tPDOuc2Boc5jqxR9cx1UjcEPX4jbwvdtLEmJ2rjSQHJ13fpNHw9HKUxbqVVOio3PAacDOW47xyltL3WsDKWWpgMB4ug/w400-h311/Hurricane%20sky.jpg" width="400" /></i></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sky off Fort Foster<br /><i>CC Jean Stimmell: 2013</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 12px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As I write this, Lee, a major hurricane, is slowly churning northward off the eastern seaboard. While it’s too early to tell where it will make landfall, it now looks like it will at least brush New England. I am following the storm closely, coming as I do from a hurricane-obsessed family. </p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Our weather addiction started with the hurricane of 1938 before computers existed to track storms. September 21st, 1938, started out like any other. No one knew that “one of the most destructive and powerful hurricanes in recorded history” was bearing down on us, according to The National Weather Service<a href="https://www.weather.gov/okx/1938HurricaneHome"><span style="color: black; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span></a>.</p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The storm has been called New England’s Katrina; it had sustained winds of 120 mph with a maximum recorded wind gust of 186 mph at Blue Hill Observatory, MA. The peak storm surge was 17 feet above normal high tide and a 50’ peak wave height at Gloucester, MA. Across the region, 700 were killed and 8,900 homes and businesses destroyed, resulting in damages exceeding 41 billion (in 2010 dollars).<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Over the region, the hurricane destroyed an estimated two billion trees. The damage was still evident decades later in the woods behind my grandfather’s house where an entire mature pine forest was ripped asunder with the trunks haphazardly coming to rest against each other as if a giant had been playing a game of pick-up sticks.”</p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">My father was mesmerized by this cataclysm materializing like black magic out of a blue-bird bright sky. It turned him into a weather nut. I remember growing up watching him, hunched over his crackly AM radio, monitoring the forecasts morning and night. He was not about to be caught with his pants down again.</p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">According to my father’s calculations, he determined we should expect a hurricane every 20 years. When I was nine, history seemed to be bearing him out. In 1954, “A tropical one-two punch that was almost unimaginable hit New Hampshire,” according to WMUR TV.<a href="https://www.wmur.com/amp/article/timeline-history-of-nh-hurricanes/5169483"><span style="color: black; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3</sup></span></a></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">That’s when Hurricane Carol, a fast-moving hurricane following almost the same track as the Hurricane of 1938, ripped into us. Again, it arrived unannounced, as far as my mother, brother, and I were concerned. My father, away on a business trip, missed a chance to warn us – if, in fact, there was any official warning to give.</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">On that day, we had driven to Hampton to visit my grandmother on what we thought was just a run-of-the-mill, rainy day. But throughout the morning, the wind strengthened, getting serious by the time we started home.</p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">My mother was a white-knuckle driver under the best of circumstances. This time, it was warranted. The old metal bridge spanning Great Bay was swaying back and forth in the wind as we crossed. Driving back through Northwood, trees were toppling over along Route 4.</p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Then, just 12 days later, Hurricane Edna slammed into NH with sustained winds over 60 mph. The ground, already weakened by Carol, added to the damage, bringing down even more trees and power lines.</p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That’s when the hurricane bug was passed on to me. But now, much of my enthusiasm has fizzled.</p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Back then, we were innocent bystanders, standing in awe of the transcendent power of Mother Nature. Now, we are all co-conspirators who are responsible for adding to the destruction destined to rain down upon us through our short-sighted daily actions.</p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 19px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 15px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">xxx</p>
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<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="anImage_17.tiff" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/1d851281-0667-4fde-9004-505dfb840194" /></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup><a href="https://www.weather.gov/okx/1938HurricaneHome"><span style="font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.weather.gov/okx/1938HurricaneHome</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup></span>ibid.</p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3 </sup><a href="https://www.wmur.com/amp/article/timeline-history-of-nh-hurricanes/5169483"><span style="font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.wmur.com/amp/article/timeline-history-of-nh-hurricanes/5169483</span></a></span></p><br /> <p></p>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-27925649223597347812023-07-10T09:17:00.007-04:002023-07-12T08:41:31.121-04:00Secondary Passions Promote Beginner’s Mind<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk7PRjBjj6m4W2qjrUp789D0z4iHhfH7-a8I_HCJYXGY3oB0ZDFvDfZN6_WkrfJvrQtjmZ5R35lA_XAAuKCQjVmzGLRDUFTwXFe6wJvPfujUWkv77NAzantFisL-9azyK1Bs0GwRiuumjHi19-G6QhnWRA2dMjlrNs8eWfxPiaKnO_IehWUulpYdIJBcM/s1500/little%20girl%20LO%20RES.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="841" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk7PRjBjj6m4W2qjrUp789D0z4iHhfH7-a8I_HCJYXGY3oB0ZDFvDfZN6_WkrfJvrQtjmZ5R35lA_XAAuKCQjVmzGLRDUFTwXFe6wJvPfujUWkv77NAzantFisL-9azyK1Bs0GwRiuumjHi19-G6QhnWRA2dMjlrNs8eWfxPiaKnO_IehWUulpYdIJBcM/w224-h400/little%20girl%20LO%20RES.jpg" width="224" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(38, 38, 38); color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">A child is open to many possibilities <br />while the expert sees only a few*</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I thought I had retired as a psychotherapist, but I continued on by other means writing a column every week for the Concord Monitor. While I told myself I just liked to write, at a subconscious level, I was trying to bring together warring factions in our polarized community in the same manner I had labored in my practice to reconcile the feuding parts of a patient's personality.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To accomplish that goal, I tried to be even-handed, although I admit that sometimes, I lost my head and joined the fray. Recently, I decided to take a break after it finally dawned on me that I was still working, still chained to my desk, just substituting one job for another.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Now, having space and time in my life again, I have found myself returning to photography, another long-time passion of mine – and enjoying every minute of it. Right now, I'm in the process of trying to get juried into two upcoming exhibitions. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">At that point by chance – although Carl Jung would call it synchronicity – I came across an article in the Boston Globe with an absurdly long title describing precisely what I was feeling and doing: <i> “The counterintuitive rewards of not being very good at something: </i><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>Devoting ourselves to a secondary pursuit sparks flow in the work we consider our primary purpose.”</i><a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/06/29/opinion/adam-gopnik-ingres-violin-creative-flow/?et_rid=1947323415&s_campaign=todaysheadlines:newsletter"><span style="color: black; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i></i></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">This essay is by the prominent author Adam Gopnik who attributes his writing success to his secondary passion: his love of cooking – "the one that fuels all others." Of course, to liken myself to Adam Gopnik is like comparing a dog tick to a bald eagle. That's why I need to make clear I'm only comparing the role secondary passions play in our lives.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">My primary passion for a long stretch of my life was psychotherapy: It has been my greatest honor and privilege to be allowed into another person's secret inner world, to team together to find a way out of their constricted, self-constructed maze. At the same time, my secondary passions were equally essential to my success, boosting my creative thinking and preventing burnout, working, as I did, primarily with patients with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from war and sexual abuse. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Photography has always been my secondary passion, starting when I built a darkroom in my parent’s basement while a teenager. Writing, my other passion only appeared on my horizon when, as a returning Vietnam veteran, I was attempting to make sense of my feelings about the war and my country’s reaction to it.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">For me, it is always such a rush when I create a photograph that stirs my soul or, when writing, to sweet-talk my words into an artful embrace. Gopnik expresses the euphoria this way:</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">“This moment, not of self-possession but of rapturous self-loss, is one of the strongest cognitive opiates human beings produce. There are many opiates available to inject into our veins; this is one that we produce ourselves and self-inject into our brains."</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Gopnik compares this experience to <span style="font-kerning: none;">Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi ’s concept of “flow,“ a state, familiar to most of us, where we lose ourselves and find happiness in an all-absorbing activity.” Gopnik makes a key observation that this sensation is more likely to happen when pursuing our secondary passions, not our primary one.</span> Why is this?</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">For me, Shunryu Suzuki provides the answer: he was the Japanese priest who is credited with popularizing Buddhism in America. One can almost encapsulate his whole philosophy in his now, oft-repeated statement: "In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are<span style="font-kerning: none;"> few."</span><span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">What he is advocating is letting go of our preconceptions and, instead, cultivating an attitude of openness toward life. When you are a true beginner, your mind is empty and open. That's what my secondary passions do for me: Allowing me to become like a child again, seeing the world as full of possibilities.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">It’s a good exercise to pursue, especially in these times when so many experts are predicting only doom-and-gloom.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">xxx</span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="anImage_59.tiff" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/a2a6ab4c-2472-4fec-a6e9-0d002644c452" /></p><p style="color: #094fd1; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup><a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/06/29/opinion/adam-gopnik-ingres-violin-creative-flow/?et_rid=1947323415&s_campaign=todaysheadlines:newsletter"><span style="font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/06/29/opinion/adam-gopnik-ingres-violin-creative-flow/?et_rid=1947323415&s_campaign=todaysheadlines:newsletter</span></a></span></p><p style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup></span><span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">Shunryu Suzuki, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/231282"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice</span></a></span></p><p style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"></span></p>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-59276957813255753332023-06-22T10:21:00.004-04:002023-06-22T21:35:38.837-04:00 The Donald Show<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Kol10U558g6wRDfNn76FAblhTN3ugNX8LpjqotMaKnpoTDybzRXMplB2tBdnwDv1_tVmgsH7kFdE-BVZ1pCoKxNL3_5A7CMdZsnmy1Pc1OCO1tIByruuNbyHQ4tZjT_nAzEDAYl5EkV7G2qqY1aRE-PguxlINTmLyICcFv9pyL85w76sEXKxl8rC3e4/s821/Trum%5B.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="821" data-original-width="680" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-Kol10U558g6wRDfNn76FAblhTN3ugNX8LpjqotMaKnpoTDybzRXMplB2tBdnwDv1_tVmgsH7kFdE-BVZ1pCoKxNL3_5A7CMdZsnmy1Pc1OCO1tIByruuNbyHQ4tZjT_nAzEDAYl5EkV7G2qqY1aRE-PguxlINTmLyICcFv9pyL85w76sEXKxl8rC3e4/w331-h400/Trum%5B.jpeg" width="331" /></a><br /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; text-align: start;">The exact origin of the God Emperor Trump character is unclear. On June 16th, 2015, an image of Trump's face </span><a class="internal-link" href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sites/photoshop" style="border: 0px; color: #9f1c27; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">photoshopped</a><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; text-align: start;"> on to a </span><em style="border: 0px; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; vertical-align: baseline;">Warhammer 40,000</em><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; text-align: start;"> soldier was submitted to </span><a class="auto-link" href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sites/4chan" style="border: 0px; color: #9f1c27; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">4chan</a><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; text-align: start;">'s </span><a class="internal-link" href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/sites/pol" style="border: 0px; color: #9f1c27; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">/pol/</a><span class="footnote" id="fnr1" style="border: 0px; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; text-align: start; top: -0.6em; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="footnote-superscript" href="https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/god-emperor-trump#fn1" style="border: 0px; color: #9f1c27; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[1]</a></span><span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; text-align: start;"> board </span></span><span face="Helvetica, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; text-align: start;"><br /><a href="https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1696628-god-emperor-trump" style="font-size: 14.3px;">https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/1696628-god-emperor-trump</a></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><p style="background-color: white; color: #313131; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px; min-height: 17px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Palatino;"><br /></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #313131; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px; min-height: 17px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Palatino;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(34, 34, 34); color: #222222; font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The Donald Show</span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #313131; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px; min-height: 17px; text-align: left;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Palatino;">Remember “The Truman Show,” the hit movie starring Jim Carrey about “</span><span style="font-family: Palatino;">a man who grew up living an ordinary life that—unbeknownst to him—takes place on a large set populated by actors for a television show about him.”<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truman_Show"><span style="color: black; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span></a> </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Everybody knew the truth except Truman, who was tricked into thinking it was real. We now have the opposite situation with our current blockbuster, “The Donald Show:” The star knows it is fake, but he has duped the rest of us into believing it is real.</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Trump, the canny sideshow hustler, understands what the talking heads don’t: You dazzle your audience with a good story, not learned treatises or artful commentary.</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">As David Loy, a professor and Zen teacher, explains in his book, “The World is Made of Stories<span style="color: black; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span>,” we make sense of the world through stories: they “teach us what is real, what is valuable, and what is possible.” In a word, it is by stories we make sense of the world. </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Telling stories is the life blood of Donald Trump.</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Trump’s master story is that he is an outsider who doesn’t get the respect he deserves. It is a tale that can take you a long way. Just ask Rodney Dangerfield: it was the essence of his schtick.</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">It’s easy to be taken in by this particular story. Whether we admit it or not, we all feel like Rodney or Donald to one degree or another. Thump has built his whole political career on it, empowering not only himself but giving voice to millions across the country who feel victimized and under-appreciated. </p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">Donald has become their maestro, the master storyteller they tune into each night to discover the latest chapter in his saga – and theirs.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;"><span style="background-color: white;">While Rodney provoked laughter in his audience at our foibles, Donald ignites anger and fear: Anger at the faceless “deep state” which has brought them to their knees and fear of the “godless, communist democrats,” who are lying in ambush, ready to finish them off. </span></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px 0px 20px;">It is the classic plot of fairy tales and comic strips. The people cry out in their distress for a super hero, that one person who can save them by doing battle with their enemies. In westerns films, that is when Clint Eastwood rides into town.</p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In Donald’s fairytale world, the super hero is, of course, himself, something he has regally proclaimed since descending his golden escalator in 2016, vowing to solve all of America’s alleged problems. How? Because of who he is: “<span style="background-color: white; color: #313131;">I am your voice. I alone can fix it.” </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Of course, the idea that “one person could solve the myriad troubles we face today is absurd and deeply undemocratic, but one can understand the temptation to buy into that fantasy. It is a soothing fiction that someone will swoop in to save the day<a href="https://www.mischiefsoffaction.com/post/the-comedic-stylings-of-donald-j-trump"><span style="color: black; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3</sup></span></a>, says Alison Danes, a professor of political science.</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Danes talks about Donald’s fantasies while I talk about his fairytales. We are not alone.</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">A professor emeritus and fairy tale expert, Jack Zipes, agrees, “There is a fairy tale-like aspect to all his talk and presentation, because he wants to take charge of the narrative. Most fairy tales are stories about hope. Whether he does it consciously or not, Trump has found a way to narrate a story in which he is the star.”</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But nothing lasts forever.</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">All shows have to come to an end, and “The Donald Show” is no exception. America has become exhausted by his nonstop bluster and litany of endless grievances. I predict he will soon get his just deserts, precisely as Hans Christian Anderson predicted in his fairytale, “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”</p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">While Trump, running for president again, is strutting around in his “perfect,” new-look finery – which is actually the same as his old – some brave Republican will summon the courage to finally blurt out the truth: The emperor is wearing nothing at all.</p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white;">xxx</span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="anImage_44.tiff" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/81a5c5d3-3d92-40e2-9a38-4fcf6108b609" /></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truman_Show"><span style="font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truman_Show</span></a></span></p>
<p style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup></span><span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"><sup>2</sup>David Loy, “The World is Made of Stories, page 3.</span></p>
<p style="color: #313131; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3 </sup><a href="https://www.mischiefsoffaction.com/post/the-comedic-stylings-of-donald-j-trump"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.mischiefsoffaction.com/post/the-comedic-stylings-of-donald-j-trump</span></a></span></p></div><p style="color: #313131; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span></p><p style="color: #313131; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span></p><p style="color: #313131; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span></p>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-13743823711355985082023-06-15T11:34:00.000-04:002023-06-15T11:34:25.605-04:00Something Snapped<p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR3hMlEMuf3RqctAdE40gHB01ILMzBhVXhTNIVPAaorTY6UOvDGNq5KwuhiaeamKOYKy9enD47gvYJEIMKvi_ML-fnhbv1za43NapczwMA_-zbaQffBYNBN_7Xe94ITImxq381Gvw1A8RHRMkOEddn5Juz_UPKwo51YwPanQyqkao2ncKwJExvNi5k/s5568/ice%20snapping%20in%20Exeter%20River%20LO%20RES.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3712" data-original-width="5568" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR3hMlEMuf3RqctAdE40gHB01ILMzBhVXhTNIVPAaorTY6UOvDGNq5KwuhiaeamKOYKy9enD47gvYJEIMKvi_ML-fnhbv1za43NapczwMA_-zbaQffBYNBN_7Xe94ITImxq381Gvw1A8RHRMkOEddn5Juz_UPKwo51YwPanQyqkao2ncKwJExvNi5k/w400-h266/ice%20snapping%20in%20Exeter%20River%20LO%20RES.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">CC Jean Stimmell: Ice breaking up on Exeter River (2017)</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">I was struck by a recent essay by Timothy Denevi in the NYT about the writer Joan Didion.<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/08/opinion/joan-didion-mystery-rfk.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20230609&instance_id=94592&nl=todaysheadlines&regi_id=30753738&segment_id=135085&user_id=273ae8c1ede4fde7d59a2b0627accb92"><span style="font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span></a> On the surface, it seems strange that I should be so affected because Didion was a conservative supporter of Barry Goldwater and distrustful of the Kennedys. On the other hand, I am an unabashed child of the Sixties who, while growing up, was inspired by President Kennedy's inaugural address challenge: "Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.<a href="https://www.jfklibrary.org/sites/default/files/2018-06/Ask_not_what_your_country_can_do_for_you.pdf"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Something snapped in me when Robert Kennedy, JFK’s brother, was assassinated: I found myself sobbing uncontrollably as I watched the news unfold. His death was too much to bear: I see now it was the final straw, causing an irreparable rip in the fabric of America I had been taught to believe in.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Something snapped in Joan Didion, too, despite our differences. As RFK lay dying, his last words were, “Is everybody OK?”<a href="https://www.10tv.com/article/news/nation-world/man-who-heard-robert-kennedys-last-words-when-he-was-teen-dies-california/530-7ced5556-644c-483d-8408-761dcacdd7e6"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3</sup></span></a></span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Neither of us was – along with a lot of other people.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">It was the final blow in the sickening series of assaults on our image of what America stood for in the aftermath of the murders of MLK, Malcolm X, and President JFK, not to mention </span><span style="color: #292929; font-kerning: none;">America’s massacre of hundreds of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai and Charley Manson’s California killing spree.</span></p>
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<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-kerning: none;">It caused Joan Didion to have a mental breakdown, </span><span style="font-kerning: none;">“an attack of vertigo, nausea and a feeling that she was going to pass out,” for which she underwent an extensive psychiatric evaluation and was prescribed amitriptyline, an antidepressant."</span><span style="color: black; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4</sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> As for me, recently back from the rivers of Vietnam, it completely unmoored me from the reality of what my country represented, catapulting me on a crazy drunken ride through the frenzied times that lay ahead.</span></p>
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<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Didion was a master storyteller detailing how the unprecedented changes of the 1960s caused America to fragment, according to Michiko Kakutani of the NYT. She questioned whether our nation would survive, quoting lines from Yeat’s famous poem: “</span><span style="color: #484848; font-kerning: none;">Turning and turning in the widening gyre, The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the center cannot hold.”<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/24/opinion/joan-didion-books.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article"><span style="color: black; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>5</sup></span></a></span></p>
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<p style="color: #484848; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Of course, the center did hold – but at a high cost: The rabid polarization that divided us in the 1960s caused social fractures that didn't heal. Whereas previously, our nation was like a new puncture-proof tire guaranteed for 50,000 miles, we were now an out-of-balance retread, patched with distrust. </span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #484848; font-kerning: none;">“</span><span style="color: #292929; font-kerning: none;">It turns out that Didion was also remarkably prescient in writing about the fracturing of truth as people increasingly filtered reality through the prism of their own prejudices”</span><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>6</sup></span><span style="color: #484848; font-kerning: none;"> </span><span style="font-kerning: none;"> It was only a matter of time before these wounds reopened. And indeed, they have: once again, we are living through times of chaos and uncertainty, contending with epidemics, insurrection, racial hatred, and mass shootings in our schools.</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Yet this time around, I am too old to snap – only sag further. But with age sometimes comes wisdom, and in that spirit, I will suggest what has been lost: our sense of community – the linchpin that really made America great.</span></p>
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<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-kerning: none;">Again, I find common ground with Joan Didion: In an interview before she died, she acknowledged that folks “no longer count themselves as part of the community.” Too many Americans “</span><span style="font-kerning: none;">didn’t really care about any of it; the broader narrative of patriotism and pride was just an excuse for doing what they wanted — for their self-interest — a narrative they could apply and discard from one situation to the next as they saw fit.”<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/08/opinion/joan-didion-mystery-rfk.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20230609&instance_id=94592&nl=todaysheadlines&regi_id=30753738&segment_id=135085&user_id=273ae8c1ede4fde7d59a2b0627accb92"><span style="color: black; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>7</sup></span></a></span></p>
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<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">One thing that would help revive our sense of community is mandatory national service. </span></p>
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<p style="color: #292929; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Here's an example from my own life I've written about before. On one occasion, my ship had a major crew turnover: almost a quarter of the crew was new. On our return trip back to the rivers of Vietnam, "all hell broke loose in a crude kind of diversity training, representing as we did, a cross-section of the nation: East coast, highly educated, college dropouts and midwestern kids who hadn't finished high school; hip city slickers and country folks right off the farm; We had Native American, Hispanic, and black sailors, along with staunch segregationists from the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">south.”<a href="http://jeanstimmell.blogspot.com/2022/03/one-for-all-all-for-one.html"><span style="color: black; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>8</sup></span></a></span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">At first, fights and animosity reigned, but we were thrown together in a situation where we had no choice but to work together: As we got to know each other, we learned that underneath, we were more alike than different. It was no love fest, but we came to respect one another. Most importantly, we had an overarching dedication to a common purpose, prompting us to do our jobs like well-oiled machines. </span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Don’t mistake my example as an endorsement for war. The Peace Corps is a perfect example of mandatory national service. So is working in a hospital, cleaning up after a natural disaster, planting trees, or pulling the detritus of our consumer society out of our dying rivers.</span></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 16px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p>
<p style="background-color: white; color: #262626; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Joan Didion is right: Without a sense of community, things will continue to fall apart and, this time, maybe the center won’t hold.</span></p>
<p style="color: #262626; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 12.6px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;">xxx</span></p>
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<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="anImage_17.tiff" src="blob:https://draft.blogger.com/c499deb9-39bd-405a-995b-ca66b5b4f6a3" /></p>
<p style="color: #0000e9; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/08/opinion/joan-didion-mystery-rfk.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20230609&instance_id=94592&nl=todaysheadlines&regi_id=30753738&segment_id=135085&user_id=273ae8c1ede4fde7d59a2b0627accb92"><span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/08/opinion/joan-didion-mystery-rfk.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20230609&instance_id=94592&nl=todaysheadlines&regi_id=30753738&segment_id=135085&user_id=273ae8c1ede4fde7d59a2b0627accb92</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup><a href="https://www.jfklibrary.org/sites/default/files/2018-06/Ask_not_what_your_country_can_do_for_you.pdf"><span style="font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.jfklibrary.org/sites/default/files/2018-06/Ask_not_what_your_country_can_do_for_you.pdf</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3 </sup><a href="https://www.10tv.com/article/news/nation-world/man-who-heard-robert-kennedys-last-words-when-he-was-teen-dies-california/530-7ced5556-644c-483d-8408-761dcacdd7e6"><span style="font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.10tv.com/article/news/nation-world/man-who-heard-robert-kennedys-last-words-when-he-was-teen-dies-california/530-7ced5556-644c-483d-8408-761dcacdd7e6</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4 </sup></span>Ibid.</p>
<p style="color: #262626; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>5 </sup><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/24/opinion/joan-didion-books.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article"><span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/24/opinion/joan-didion-books.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>6 </sup></span>Ibid</p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>7 </sup><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/08/opinion/joan-didion-mystery-rfk.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20230609&instance_id=94592&nl=todaysheadlines&regi_id=30753738&segment_id=135085&user_id=273ae8c1ede4fde7d59a2b0627accb92"><span style="font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/08/opinion/joan-didion-mystery-rfk.html?campaign_id=2&emc=edit_th_20230609&instance_id=94592&nl=todaysheadlines&regi_id=30753738&segment_id=135085&user_id=273ae8c1ede4fde7d59a2b0627accb92</span></a></span></p>
<p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>8 </sup><a href="http://jeanstimmell.blogspot.com/2022/03/one-for-all-all-for-one.html"><span style="font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">http://jeanstimmell.blogspot.com/2022/03/one-for-all-all-for-one.html</span></a></span></p><br /><p></p>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-57026298315180227802023-05-25T10:50:00.005-04:002023-05-25T10:50:52.806-04:00Down the Rabbit Hole<p> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSVDQ6blg4qvqLsk_nVegxdUTdme87VQTVFmO01ijwoNSM1-YASV1P0RBZ1HOppLMcP4rA4quyWQtd_ywUKSylhj34LzT89v5Mk52Y3enK27JmqTZb4OHJKKZNXaH0j-RDcz8M0KfZ8_fbdaF_ZQapZn1PWFSk1BMVTV5sNRlSsNjrKmhum9ANelhr/s6048/down%20the%20rabbit%20hole.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4024" data-original-width="6048" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSVDQ6blg4qvqLsk_nVegxdUTdme87VQTVFmO01ijwoNSM1-YASV1P0RBZ1HOppLMcP4rA4quyWQtd_ywUKSylhj34LzT89v5Mk52Y3enK27JmqTZb4OHJKKZNXaH0j-RDcz8M0KfZ8_fbdaF_ZQapZn1PWFSk1BMVTV5sNRlSsNjrKmhum9ANelhr/w400-h266/down%20the%20rabbit%20hole.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Down the Rabbit Hole</td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I wrote in my last column about the power of advertising to seduce folks into buying things they don't need. I foggily remembered reading a great description of why that happens. To refresh my memory, I dug out what had once been my bible, "Your Money or your Life" by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, written in the 1990s.<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span> Regrettably, over the years, I've let slide much of their advice about the advantages of practicing voluntary simplicity and living below your means.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The beginning of the book gives a brief history of how we sell things in America. During most of our country's history, we primarily bought only items we needed, but that changed when advertising came into its own in the 1920s. At that point, modern manufacturing advances became providing the products Americans needed at lower and lower costs. Having their needs more easily satisfied, workers instinctively began asking for a shorter work week and more time for leisure. It didn't occur to them to work longer to get things they didn't need.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As a result, economic growth started going down.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The tycoons of big business were apoplectic because their profit margins were suffering. Into the breach to save the day came modern advertising, based on a brand-new premise: while real needs are limited, the sky is the limit for our wants. This notion was incorporated as a mantra in Herbert Hoover's 1929 economic report, celebrating the discovery that when we satisfy one want, it makes way for another. "The conclusion is that economically, we have a boundless field before us; that there are new wants which will make way endlessly for newer wants, as fast as they are satisfied."<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">And so it came to be. We became a nation of consumers chasing each new want concocted on Madison Avenue. They have shown no mercy, pushing ever more absurd products to shrill. A perfect example is the campaign to sell us new beverages.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">For tens of thousands of years, people had no qualms about drinking water for free from lakes and rivers and, more recently, right out of the tap. Unfortunately, by the time I was growing up in the 1950s, modern advertising had already made water obsolete. Coke and Pepsi were kings by the time I came around. But as we all know, that didn't last forever: The health craze came along and poisoned the soft drink well. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Drinking water once again came back in vogue to appease the new god of hydration – but only expensive bottled water was deemed appropriate, not free water out of the tap. And so it stood, or so I naively believed, until I recently read about advertising's latest triumph in the NYT. Over the past decade or so, water-flavoring offerings have exploded across our country and the world.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I missed the trend because I was drinking beer.</p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Times; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">This part of the ready-to-drink (RTD) beverage market has been skyrocketing, with sales increasing by 42 percent in the last three years. Globally, the RTD market is expected to approach $100 billion by the start of this year<a href="https://www.bonappetit.com/story/beverage-aisle-gone-too-far"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3</sup></span></a>. </p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">These water additive companies pitch their drinks — often made with artificial sweeteners and flavorings — as a means to help people hit their hydration goals. “It’s Mary Poppins logic: A spoonful of (sugar-free coconut syrup) makes the (tap water) go down.”<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/16/dining/watertok-tiktok-recipes.html?action=click&algo=geo-bandit-all-surfaces-variants-diversify-time-cutoff-30&alpha=0.05&block=trending_recirc&fellback=false&imp_id=638580452&impression_id=9998129b-f645-11ed-a843-55e77cff3a65&index=3&pgtype=Article&pool=published-assets-db-4-ls&region=footer&req_id=523806532&surface=eos-most-popular-story&variant=2_geo_engBandit"><span style="font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4</sup></span></a> Yet it’s strikingly</p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> effective as one true believer, a history teacher from South Texas, confessed: she said going back to drinking tap water would feel like “drinking my own saliva.”<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>5</sup></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the opinion of this old Yankee curmudgeon, this advertising blitz is not a Mary Poppins' story: It is a bad trip from Alice in Wonderland, where corporate capitalism in cahoots with modern advertising is cajoling us to dive down the rabbit hole of insanity.</p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">xxx</p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Times; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="anImage_47.tiff" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/1302b6b3-d111-4e82-9a53-09db51ba7c70" /></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup></span>“Your Money or Your Life” by Joe Dominguez & Vicki Robin. Viking Penguin: 1992.</p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup></span>Ibid. P. 16</p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3 </sup><a href="https://www.bonappetit.com/story/beverage-aisle-gone-too-far"><span style="font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.bonappetit.com/story/beverage-aisle-gone-too-far</span></a></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; color: #0000e9; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4 </sup><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/16/dining/watertok-tiktok-recipes.html?action=click&algo=geo-bandit-all-surfaces-variants-diversify-time-cutoff-30&alpha=0.05&block=trending_recirc&fellback=false&imp_id=638580452&impression_id=9998129b-f645-11ed-a843-55e77cff3a65&index=3&pgtype=Article&pool=published-assets-db-4-ls&region=footer&req_id=523806532&surface=eos-most-popular-story&variant=2_geo_engBandit"><span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/16/dining/watertok-tiktok-recipes.html?action=click&algo=geo-bandit-all-surfaces-variants-diversify-time-cutoff-30&alpha=0.05&block=trending_recirc&fellback=false&imp_id=638580452&impression_id=9998129b-f645-11ed-a843-55e77cff3a65&index=3&pgtype=Article&pool=published-assets-db-4-ls&region=footer&req_id=523806532&surface=eos-most-popular-story&variant=2_geo_engBandit</span></a></span></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>5 </sup></span>Ibid</p><p>
<br /></p>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-84649623709233996822023-05-18T08:51:00.002-04:002023-05-18T09:03:27.244-04:00We all like "time-saving" devices, but what are we saving time to do?<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg1TYR1-S3wTDRQmajogSgHAThUTJ6HWw20FnRBLv53BAx812Qn1ggZVZb8U5srHuMrvSviePUxsomSB4uoy1NGVkyUZNxxjddwQA1KLhewbShl4UdbdUptwP_axjupDKTUHWZX1LZa0aMJuqIH3N_kL4QZBotq3ywZP8mX4FzjCUuJUYny9T0vR0M/s5272/island.%20fishing%20Lo%20Resjpg.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3570" data-original-width="5272" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhg1TYR1-S3wTDRQmajogSgHAThUTJ6HWw20FnRBLv53BAx812Qn1ggZVZb8U5srHuMrvSviePUxsomSB4uoy1NGVkyUZNxxjddwQA1KLhewbShl4UdbdUptwP_axjupDKTUHWZX1LZa0aMJuqIH3N_kL4QZBotq3ywZP8mX4FzjCUuJUYny9T0vR0M/w400-h271/island.%20fishing%20Lo%20Resjpg.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Fishing on Jenness Pond</span><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>CC Jean Stimmell</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="color: #0d0d14; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">L. M. Sacasas is the author of an illuminating newsletter, <a href="https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/">The Convivial Society</a>, tracing the intersection of technology, society, and morality. He states a well-known truth that the best way to sell new products in America is to advertise them as "time-saving." He follows that up with an unanticipated question: "What precisely are we saving time to do?" </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Most people have no ready answer.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Thinking about it, I believe the answer has changed over time. In the olden days, folks might say they would take their "spare time" as a chance to relax and enjoy leisure time. That might mean things like sitting on the porch in your rocking chairs watching the sunset with your spouse – and perhaps reflecting on the bigger questions in life, values you didn't get a chance to think about in the bustle of daily living. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Nowadays, It's no longer enough for us to use our spare time to relax: now we must recreate (do recreation). We are told at every turn that we owe it to ourselves to make our leisure time more exciting and enjoyable – which, in America, requires spending money.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Casting my eye around any neighborhood confirms this observation: most yards are packed to overflowing with boats of all sizes, travel trailers, RVs, and commercial-sized lawn tractors, complete with all the accessories – with snowmobiles sitting forlornly off to the side from lack of snow.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">All these toys cost big money to buy and maintain, requiring the owner to work more hours, not less, just to make the payments. Where's the time-saving in that? And what happened about finding the time to ponder the big questions?</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">People weren't as hooked on buying things to save time when I was growing up. I remember seeing my cousin fishing with his grandfather George every year during summer vacation. They were a fixture on Jenness Pond, bait-fishing for bass in their ancient wooden boat with a three-horse Johnson outboard motor. No movement, just sitting there hour after hour, one with the lake like Zen Masters.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">George was intimate with the lake's topography, knowing the location of every submerged ledge, every underwater spring. He knew every inhabitant of the lake, their desires and proclivities, and how they interacted with each other in any possible weather condition. Locally, he was known as the bass guru.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Now fast forward to the frenzy on Jenness Pond today: 100 horse-power, streamlined bass boats flitting around the lake like predatory wasps guarding their nest. Catching bass was the natural result of George's profound knowledge of the lake and the foibles of the fish. To use the current lingo, George and my cousin were successful because of their deep "sense of place." They were wedded to Jenness Pond, while the modern intruders are married to their 30-thousand-dollar bass boats.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Sacasas is rightfully concerned that this quest for efficiency can rob us of our soul, reducing our lives to “quantifiable outcomes and measurable outputs.” What we lose in this Faustian bargain is the essence of who we are: the particular ways we pursue our goals – “</span>in the ways we are involved, invested, and engaged in the tasks that make up our days.”</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">As an alternative, Sacasas asks, what if we could view our tasks not through the lens of cold-eyed efficiency but “</span>as a means of keeping faith—with our neighbors, with our friends, with our family, perhaps even with ourselves?” And I would add, keeping faith with our little blue planet, the only home we have.”<a href="https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/waste-your-time-your-life-may-depend"><span style="font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span></a></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To my way of thinking, he has hit upon a root cause of the psychological and moral malaise our country suffers from today.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">xxx</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––</p><p style="color: #313131; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup><a href="https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/waste-your-time-your-life-may-depend"><span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><b>https://theconvivialsociety.substack.com/p/waste-your-time-your-life-may-depend</b></span></a></span></p><p>
<br /> </p>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-24813888150892339772023-05-11T08:23:00.000-04:002023-05-11T08:23:30.889-04:00Why We Need Hands: A Rant<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzb1_IFxfjdf8L-Tekbm9cqHV-PBr2BKWmrFyEqTip167d0aIpPRsAN5qGc4NDn1PBcsJ88hr7O2g7rVJ0_pUiC9raSZcVyqbe5s3YfeSknYCZm8v8FjAgZ0_5SnOELPAxLqiWE0QJEZJuP31jHkKxsVE78notkH9VzazwBatwzn0hcka4R5XyZrF2/s4521/cannon%20beach%20LO%20RES.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3552" data-original-width="4521" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzb1_IFxfjdf8L-Tekbm9cqHV-PBr2BKWmrFyEqTip167d0aIpPRsAN5qGc4NDn1PBcsJ88hr7O2g7rVJ0_pUiC9raSZcVyqbe5s3YfeSknYCZm8v8FjAgZ0_5SnOELPAxLqiWE0QJEZJuP31jHkKxsVE78notkH9VzazwBatwzn0hcka4R5XyZrF2/w400-h314/cannon%20beach%20LO%20RES.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>CC Jean Stimmell</i></span></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Making things with your hands gets a bad rap today. It's so blue-collar. You're a failure if you don't go to college to get a white-collar job so you can lounge behind a desk. That's so wrong, I could scream!</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">To me, working with your hands is not only an essential aspect of being human but also one of the most joyous and uplifting. While I admit that a part of me has always been drawn to the philosophical and the abstract, that's always been balanced by a passionate need to work with my hands. The best example from my life is, perhaps, when I dropped out of sociology graduate school to establish a career building stonewalls for twenty years.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In a similar tale, Matthew Crawford writes about changing careers from a philosopher to motorcycle mechanic in his book, "Shop Class to Soul Class." Like me, he needed a physical practice "to serve as an anchor to the world beyond one's own head”<span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Now, more than ever, we will all need a secure anchor to the physical to prevent being blown away by Artificial Intelligence (AI), a massive storm on our horizon. We will need our bodies if we expect to survive: They are the essence of what makes us human and our conduit to what's really real.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Biologically, we are living, breathing animals tethered to Mother Earth by sensitive, flesh-and-blood bodies. We also have exquisitely dextrous hands with opposable thumbs. But they can get us in trouble. Because of their tinkering, software engineers and their masters are concocting a brave, new world where we no longer need a physical form or worry about feeling pain – in other words, a world where we are like gods. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">However, if technicians successfully build this virtual world, we will find ourselves not free but captive, reduced to living in whatever world AI projects on our screen. We will forfeit all input, and AI will rule the day. Sadly, our new rulers can probably get away with enslaving us, as long as they continue to sedate us by streaming us irresistible series to watch.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There’s an existential danger here.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">By falling victim to AI, we will be stripped of what makes us uniquely human. That's according to Carrie Barron, M.D. in Psychology today.<a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/carrie-barron-md"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span></a> She has found that creating or tending things by hand enhances mental health and makes us happy. She calls it a primal human need. Spending too much time on technological devices "deprives us of processes that provide pleasure, meaning, and pride."</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">She adds,“Making things promotes psychological well-being. Process is important for <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/happiness">happiness</a> because when we make, repair or create things we feel vital and effective. It isn’t as much about reaching one’s potential as doing something interesting–less about ambition and more about living.”<a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/carrie-barron-md"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3</sup></span></a></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Mathew Crawford also sees the eroding of manual skills as part of a much bigger problem: "a fundamental change in how we relate to our physical stuff. As consumers, most of us no longer make things, but buy them instead; we no longer fix things, but replace them." </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As a result, we become passive, dependent, and more easily manipulated. Our physical surroundings no longer hold our attention, and we succumb to what Crawford calls "virtualism" – "a vision of the future in which we somehow take leave of material reality and glide about in a pure information economy."<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/may/08/working-hands-happiness-burkeman"><span style="font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4</sup></span></a> </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I admit it: We humans are real pieces of work: quarrelsome yet endearing social animals, seemingly just bumbling along. Still we must not allow AI to harness our ineptness for high tech aspirations that will undoubtedly be highjacked by nefarious actors.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">While we may appear incurable, perhaps we are part of an unfolding masterplan bigger than we can imagine. That’s according to the French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Cardin<a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/TEITFO"><span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>5</sup></span></a>. He says that while we may act like children now, we are not just any children: he envisions us maturing over time to fulfill a great role: to be the ones who reflect the consciousness of the universe.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"> </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Let’s not let AI sell us short.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">xxx</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="anImage_41.tiff" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/c3f0ec8d-2a0a-4626-b90a-31946d21995b" /></p><p style="color: #3c4044; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d5055; font-kerning: none;">Shop Class</span><span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none;"> as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work. Matthew B. Crawford. Penguin ~ 2010</span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/carrie-barron-md"><span style="font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/carrie-barron-md</span></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3 </sup><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/contributors/carrie-barron-md"><span style="font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.psychologytoday.co..m/us/contributors/carrie-barron-md</span></a></span></p><p style="color: #0f0f0f; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4 </sup><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/may/08/working-hands-happiness-burkeman"><span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2010/may/08/working-hands-happiness-burkeman</span></a></span></p><p style="color: #141414; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>5 </sup><a href="https://philpapers.org/rec/TEITFO"><span style="background-color: white; font-kerning: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://philpapers.org/rec/TEITFO</span></a></span></p><p>
<br /> </p>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-9146535572189916882023-05-03T11:01:00.005-04:002023-05-04T11:54:01.791-04:00Trauma and Trump<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbMmaZsR0nG3BrezSXyzNc-ium5Xa0fmA2SMxVbqDiwcE11HPeSMalsxyk7V01cnIwyVc-1sSlKQDFGG1eCUX72gtzJMm4g3roH-jpJv0mTi5iNtIrBT4iXvQUT8prz51Ouh5sehyuwttwczd9TDozqbnkovvEmsBWz9xLmN15Zp8CCOCTUXPftrO7/s1303/Vietnam%20wall%20w-l%20protest4or%20LO%20RES.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1303" data-original-width="1067" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbMmaZsR0nG3BrezSXyzNc-ium5Xa0fmA2SMxVbqDiwcE11HPeSMalsxyk7V01cnIwyVc-1sSlKQDFGG1eCUX72gtzJMm4g3roH-jpJv0mTi5iNtIrBT4iXvQUT8prz51Ouh5sehyuwttwczd9TDozqbnkovvEmsBWz9xLmN15Zp8CCOCTUXPftrO7/w328-h400/Vietnam%20wall%20w-l%20protest4or%20LO%20RES.jpg" width="328" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">At the Vietnam Memorial during the Woman's March on Washington DC: 3/9/86</span><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">CC Jean Stimmell<br /><br /></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I was taken aback when I heard she had written a new book. She had disappeared from sight over 30 years ago after a devastating injury. No, she wasn’t an old flame: I never met her, yet she has been a guiding light in my life. Her name is Judith Herman, M.D.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When I was on the rivers of Vietnam, she was launching a career that revolutionized how we understand psychological trauma, whether sexual or combat-related. As a result, a woman is no longer automatically judged to be a slut or a liar if she reports being raped; and a soldier is no longer considered a coward if traumatized by war. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">After returning from Vietnam, I, too, disappeared for close to 30 years, finishing college and becoming a stone mason. Yet trauma was never far from my mind after what I had seen in Vietnam and, to a greater extent, what my high school veteran friends told me about their tours of duty, much more extreme than mine. It’s not surprising I have so many old friends who are veterans. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Pittsfield is a rural, patriotic place that has always sent its young off the war. Out of my circle of acquaintances who served in Vietnam, two were killed, three seriously wounded, and two committed suicide, including a recon marine who had received a silver star for valor in combat. </p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In my forties, my body rebelled against the stress, strain, and sun damage from lifting rocks shirtless under the hot sun. I went back to graduate school to become a psychotherapist. But no small part of my effort was to help my friends and myself figure out what had happened to us. That's when I ran across Judy Herman's groundbreaking book "Trauma and Recovery."</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Herman's book was an indispensable resource, guiding me toward a career specializing in trauma. The first step in treatment, according to her, begins with a safe place and a trusted therapist to start piecing together a truthful story from shattered shards of traumatic memory; then, over the rest of treatment, assist survivors to "re-create the flow" of memory, transform the recollection, and mourn that traumatic loss."<a href="https://notevenpast.org/trauma-and-recovery-by-judith-herman-1992/"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span></a></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Herman’s new book, Truth and Repair, picks up where she left off thirty years ago, arguing that trauma is better understood as a social problem, not an individual one. As trauma pioneer Bessel van der Kolk has written, “<span style="font-kerning: none;">Herman brilliantly confronts us with another vital, but much ignored, aspect of recovery: social justice. Justice is an essential component for healing the godforsaken sense of humiliation and abandonment so central in traumatizing experiences.”</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Herman's research has produced some surprises: when survivors of sexual trauma were asked what true justice would mean to them, they overwhelmingly looked for acknowledgment and amends from bystanders – rather than from offenders alone.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Herman explains that "these survivors "knew that many people in their communities enabled the offender's behavior, either by complicity or by inaction, or worst of all, by blaming the victim. This betrayal often hurts even more than the offender's crimes. To make things right, survivors needed the larger community to acknowledge their suffering and to take responsibility for making amends.<a href="https://time.com/6262295/sexual-violence-survivors-justice/"><span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span></a> “</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I have to say, Herman's new book, appearing at this exact moment, seems like divine justice. That's because, right now, Donald Trump is defending himself against E. Jean Carroll's civil suit declaring he raped her. Meanwhile, seventeen other women await their day in court to tell a remarkably similar story of how they were assaulted by Trump.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Will Donald Trump finally be exposed as the serial sexual perpetrator he is? And, in a related matter, will he be held to account for disparaging combat veterans, many with PTSD? As just one example:</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In a previously unreported 1998 interview with Howard Stern, Trump compared sex to going to battle in Vietnam: He claimed that because he slept with so many women during the Vietnam era, he faced a higher risk of dying from an STD infection than a soldier did from combat. For that sacrifice, he joked, he should be the one getting a Congressional Medal of Honor.”<a href="https://money.cnn.com/2016/10/14/media/trump-stern-vietnam-stds/index.html"><span style="font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3</sup></span></a></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In her first book, Herman wondered if anything would change. "The study of psychological trauma has repeatedly lead into realms of the unthinkable and foundered on fundamental questions of belief.”<span style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4</sup></span> However, a new day is now dawning because of her seminal work.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I predict E. Jean Carroll’s suit against Trump will be a memorable turning point in history: the beginning of a true restorative justice movement where society validates and supports those who have been abused, slandered and discounted.</p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">xxx</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="anImage_38.tiff" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/e4e7d729-ad5c-46f0-899b-7aa1b82540a4" /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup><a href="https://notevenpast.org/trauma-and-recovery-by-judith-herman-1992/"><span style="font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://notevenpast.org/trauma-and-recovery-by-judith-herman-1992/</span></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup><a href="https://time.com/6262295/sexual-violence-survivors-justice/"><span style="font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://time.com/6262295/sexual-violence-survivors-justice/</span></a></span></p><p style="color: #1d1d1d; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3 </sup><a href="https://money.cnn.com/2016/10/14/media/trump-stern-vietnam-stds/index.html"><span style="font-kerning: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://money.cnn.com/2016/10/14/media/trump-stern-vietnam-stds/index.html</span></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>4 </sup></span>Trauma and Recovery by Judith Herman. Basic Books: 1992. Page 7.</p>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2437987686174727459.post-27620653633907939472023-04-25T11:53:00.005-04:002023-04-27T08:46:03.959-04:00Who’s to Blame for Our Homeless Problem?<p> </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4_julij-DQZenfIAWbP9lmMo6DgmS200bwqSGjgckXF4wehjQ5IQABlc6r7TQyUbOM2x5kEMiB53YGJIfyK8a1jdmzi667PCZL0xs4yHrv7gi35ZWmYYxz6C0J-Jmixh4unuLyTEKbAj6G3SHIvYbJk5mLVRW7TYdPwh9f31-vGYkhIuw-MJ8LDLj/s6048/Nicholas%20Nault.%20%22Homeless%22%20LO%20RES.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6048" data-original-width="4024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4_julij-DQZenfIAWbP9lmMo6DgmS200bwqSGjgckXF4wehjQ5IQABlc6r7TQyUbOM2x5kEMiB53YGJIfyK8a1jdmzi667PCZL0xs4yHrv7gi35ZWmYYxz6C0J-Jmixh4unuLyTEKbAj6G3SHIvYbJk5mLVRW7TYdPwh9f31-vGYkhIuw-MJ8LDLj/w266-h400/Nicholas%20Nault.%20%22Homeless%22%20LO%20RES.jpg" width="266" /></a><br /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Nicholas Nault, homeless by Fort Eddy Road</span><br /><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">CC Jean Stimmell</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><div style="font-family: Verdana;">
<p style="color: #27372e; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: #27372e; font-family: Arial; font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><b><i>L</i></b></span><span style="font-kerning: none;">eo Tolstoy wrote “What Then Must We Do?”<i> </i>back in 1887:<i> ‘I sit on a man’s back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means – except by getting off his back.’</i></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">He wrote this book of moral and political philosophy at a time when he had stopped writing novels and was devoting himself to trying to alert people to the insanity of modern life, including its violence and social injustice. </span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">I share his angst now when things in America appear as crazy as when Tolstoy wrote. I become incensed whenever I shop on Fort Eddy Road and see the homeless panhandling. It bothers me when I give them a few bucks and bothers me more when I don’t. My anger is fueled by guilt and shame that our state has come to this, forcing people to beg in the street because of circumstances beyond their control, whether from mental illness, disability, or the price of housing is beyond what they can afford.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">I admire Tolstoy for “his willingness to think outside the box, to offer a radical assessment of social reality that most people most of the time simply accept as a given.” And I applaud Matthew Desmond’s new book, <i>Poverty By America</i>,<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/21/podcasts/ezra-klein-podcast-transcript-matthew-desmond.html"><span style="color: black; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1</sup></span></a> which wrestles with the same problem that Tolstoy did: why is there so much poverty around me?</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Homelessness in NH is “Exponentially worse today than it was three or four years ago,” according to Craig Henderson with Southwestern Community Services. He says rising costs are contributing to the crisis. “Whether it was rent oil, fuel, food. So, people who were living at the cusp of homelessness now simply can’t live.”</span><span style="font-kerning: none; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2</sup></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">In addition, we have an alarming housing shortage; this lack of supply is pushing the cost of renting out of sight. A new report by NH Housing discovered that the deficit is much worse than previously indicated. In the next two decades, we will need 90,000 additional units just to catch up.<a href="https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2023/04/25/90000-units-in-two-decades-new-report-puts-a-big-number-on-states-housing-crisis/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=4dccc99e-46fe-49a9-bc87-7ef9f030546a"><span style="color: black; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3</sup></span></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">It will take a shift in public consciousness to make the necessary changes, starting with a radical change in our zoning laws, forcing towns and cities to mandate more affordable housing, including more multiple-family dwellings. But that only scratches the surface!</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Our whole attitude needs to change. As a nation, we stand in a class by ourselves, permitting poverty to blossom like runaway algae, unlike any other industrialized nation. As a fabulously wealthy country, we could virtually eliminate poverty if we wanted to – but we don’t.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Poverty persists, according to Desmond, because too many of us, with varying degrees of self-awareness, benefit from its perpetuation. He points out we are just as generous with our assistance as those European welfare states: the only difference is we don’t give it to folks experiencing poverty: Instead, “The biggest beneficiaries of federal aid are affluent families.”</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Desmond says, “Poverty infringes on American prosperity, making it a barricaded, stingy, frightened kind of affluence.” How can we not experience “emotional violence” from “knowing that our abundance causes others’ misery?”</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 18px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;"></span><br /></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">Rather than guiltily slinking by the homeless on Fort Eddy Road, let’s stand up for them: no one should be doomed just because they’re poor.</span></p><p style="font-family: Palatino; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">xxx</span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><img alt="anImage_203.tiff" src="blob:https://www.blogger.com/7794cef8-1fc5-4914-80e0-e8f54a20d03e" /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>1 </sup><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/21/podcasts/ezra-klein-podcast-transcript-matthew-desmond.html"><span style="font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/21/podcasts/ezra-klein-podcast-transcript-matthew-desmond.html</span></a></span></p><p style="color: #191c1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>2 </sup></span><span style="font-kerning: none;"><i>“NH homeless crisis persists as emergency hotel program ends”</i></span></p><p style="color: #191c1f; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-kerning: none;">April 6, 2023: Vermont Station: WCAX</span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><sup>3 </sup><a href="https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2023/04/25/90000-units-in-two-decades-new-report-puts-a-big-number-on-states-housing-crisis/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=4dccc99e-46fe-49a9-bc87-7ef9f030546a"><span style="font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2023/04/25/90000-units-in-two-decades-new-report-puts-a-big-number-on-states-housing-crisis/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=4dccc99e-46fe-49a9-bc87-7ef9f030546a</span></a></span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 7px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"></span></p></div>psychos capeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02263194606464893181noreply@blogger.com3