I love the way you illumine an aspect of what is occurring universally and how helpful with the personal reflection. Really appreciate your example-so very clarifying to what you are getting at. Not everyone can walk that terrain and call out what is leaving and what remains!
I can't seem to get away from the theme; this interaction between the two. Just endlessly interesting to me. (Though I find it challenging to express.)
The recognition of growth within yourself is vastly important and often forgotten as a point of celebration. I’m sure you’ve noticed that the universe will bring you the same lesson over and over until you learn it. One can’t avoid discomfort or suffering when being taught those lessons, but we can avoid being taught the same lesson time and time again. Having moments of reflection that celebrate your growth is a way to signify you’re ready for the next lesson, a way to dance with the universe and nod to its challenges. Thank you for another thoughtful journey, Kathleen.
I want to highlight and copy your entire comment, Tonika. I'll pick one line:
"Having moments of reflection that celebrate your growth is a way to signify you’re ready for the next lesson, a way to dance with the universe and nod to its challenges."
What a clear reading on terrain you obviously know well.
Celebrate growth - yes! - let's do more of that. (Usually it's pretty hard-won.)
"I ignored the signs of Linda’s effect on the group, attempting to apply ideas I picked up from a distorted ‘spiritual’ premise that elevated acceptance but didn’t include discernment. (Symptom of the New Age virus.)"
That quote really stood out for me. I have seen this phenomena play out all around me - in the larger context of the country - the ideas of what "should be because our ideology says so" but lack any kind of discernment of what is actually happening. But I also see it in a spiritual community I've been involved with. People who understand (or say they do) that an old world is dying and a new world is forming. However, a large subset of these people cling to their old social and political alliances and were susceptible to the massive propaganda campaign. This lack of discernment is really shocking to me for people who have supposedly worked many decades on their personal growth.
Obviously, we need some frame of reference to live in a physical world. So I can understand clinging to an ideology as a path forward as the world unravels all around us. But all kinds of agendas will rush to fill the vacuum of a dying world so having discernment is vital. But those ideologies will ultimately fail as they are part of an old world. It will be tempting to grab onto new ideologies as a way to understand and navigate what is happening and to assuage the anxiety of an unknown future. This is where I think using discernment will be so important.
"But I also see it in a spiritual community I've been involved with. People who understand (or say they do) that an old world is dying and a new world is forming. However, a large subset of these people cling to their old social and political alliances and were susceptible to the massive propaganda campaign."
Exactly - same for me. It's frustrating when you can see it and others can't. Very hard to tell someone they are being manipulated and what's good in them is being hijacked. Sigh.
I understand too, Patricia. I feel for those who don't, because the learning curve is only getting steeper!
I noticed that you said in one of the comments here that you'd found it hard to express. I really get that. As I have grappled for understanding of the all the division, and I increasingly find myself marvelling at the capacity of human beings, all of us, to see what we want to see. It's not even what we want to see really, it's what is somehow consonant with patterns and fears and aspriations and... knots... inside us. I share your sense that it is an exciting time (as per our previous exchanges) - massive change happening at a level which cannot be other than turbulent. But there are so many great people out there doing such great work - we just have to take the hits and keep on going to the other side. I also find myself relating some of what you have said to the schism that is going on between 'pro' and 'anti' Enlightenment camps. I think the 'anti' camp are wrong about much - dangerously so - but tjhey are right that the modern propensity to theorise, to be led by 'ideas', instead of by experience, by what life is showing us, leads us into much trouble. I think you have described with courage and honesty a widespread dynamic that is one of the central causes, operating in so many people, amplifed by technology, ideology etc etc, that is setting the world on fire. But also creating a lot of great firefighters! Ha! Not at all sure how well I have expressed myself!
" It's not even what we want to see really, it's what is somehow consonant with patterns and fears and aspriations and... knots... inside us."
Nicely put.
And this: "... propensity to theorise, to be led by 'ideas', instead of by experience, by what life is showing us, leads us into much trouble." So, so true.
You expressed it quite well, and thank you for that insightful comment. The overall comments thus far are very encouraging to me. Appreciate you, Michael.
We have received conflicting instructions from our teachings and society at large; tolerate/accept this, or that, do not tolerate/accept this or that. Now we see the patterns that emerge from our tolerance and acceptance of these values, which can work to create monsters/destruction in the worst cases. I can relate to the disruptive person in your group, the constant critic, who arrives with a bang but without good intention for the whole. I think it is, like an ever wimpering 2 year old, a desire to be noticed and cared for, perhaps a gaping hole left by a lack of parenting or trauma. That constant criticalness eventually turns on its source. We all need to 'feed the good' and not the negative, but first we have to discover what is good/helpful and what is negative/deleterious.
"Now we see the patterns that emerge from our tolerance and acceptance of these values, which can work to create monsters/destruction in the worst cases." They have been fully weaponized, imo, for our destruction. Tolerance and generosity = open borders. No background check, no official process, just come on in. When inevitable problems arise it will be the result of our going along and allowing those qualities (tolerance and generosity) to have been used against us.
Beautifully put, Kathleen. There's nothing so destructive as a false identity--for society, for our relationships, for ourselves. This process of shedding the pupal exoskeleton of what is false, though uncomfortable and even painful, is necessary to emerge into our adulthood ("authentic self", as you put it). If we are stuck as a species, it is because of those who resist or outright refuse this transformation.
Thanks James. I so agree this is all necessary and the quicker we grok that and let go of what's leaving, the sooner we can get a handle on what we want to create.
This was amazing. And, so are the comments. The commenters are obviously astute and, as I see it, shedding perceptions and retooling to fit into this very different spinning globe. I always appreciate your beautifully worded reality salad. Is that a thing? If it wasn't, it is now.♥
Thanks SadkieJay! I feel the same the comments - astute and insightful and I always learn from them. Including the 'reality salad' one which is a perfect description for what we got going on out! ❤️ Hope you well and enjoying life!
Woo Hoo! The fun really begins when we start shedding our false identities! Thank you, Kathleen, for so eloquently articulating the link between the inner world and the outer world that I've also noticed in my spiritual counseling practice: Souls are flinging off the encumbrances of the past more quickly than ever before. When they start to act on the red flags they notice and set effective boundaries like, "Sorry, I don't think you'd be a good fit for our group," they start to conserve their precious energy and live with more grace and ease. Thanks for sharing that sad but illuminating story about the dissolution of your group--it's a very helpful reminder about the importance of discernment.
I adore this post. Are you sick of hearing me say that? I'm feeling quite redundant ;-)
I was thinking the same this morning. That we're ready to shed our skins. It is the end-times we're living through. Not yet the end of time, while we still have a use for it, but the end of illusions. The PTB are doing a final push and it's laying everything bare.
Even my ex's BiL has, at some level, chosen to give his life so his daughter can live in a different world. That sounds harsh but the alternative is that his death is random and has no meaning. I don't believe that. The lives being taken in Palestine are, on a spiritual level, being given as the last sacrifice to end the madness. And that's already been accomplished although we don't see it yet.
I've looked at the same group dynamics and come to the same conclusion. It's necessary to exclude to protect what you have. People who write about cooperative living talk about that too. A friend who teaches women to be fearlessly alone in the wilderness came up against it with 'men who identify as women.' It changed the whole dynamic and ended up being all about them.
I've seen it ruin group after group. I would also say it's ruining my community. A neighbor and I were talking about how none of the next generation can afford to live here, and she said, "I think everyone who wants to live here should be able to." Really? That's the thinking that puts families last, when they ARE the community.
It's the biggest psyops of all, turning our love against us. It's how every psyops works. We want to give, include, make sure everyone has what we want for ourselves. It fools us into giving up responsibility for creating what we want, and instead feeling responsible for others and taking away their responsibility for themselves.
"Are you sick of hearing me say that?" Umm... NO! I shamelessly love it. :-)
Perfect example with your neighbor, who I'm sure is a good person and wants to be inclusive - even if means destroying her life. We're in deeply inverted, crazy times.
"The lives being taken in Palestine are, on a spiritual level, being given as the last sacrifice to end the madness. And that's already been accomplished although we don't see it yet."
I have thought the same. And agree the sacrifice - is meaningful - and recognizing that is sanity-inducing.
Yes! Biggest psyops of all is turning our love against us. How devilishly brilliant is that?
Awesome and insightful as usual, comments - best to you, Tereza.
PS - I don't know what's going on with your ex and daughter? Did he die recently?
(Feel free to ignore the question if you'd prefer.)
No, my ex's brother-in-law has had pancreatic cancer, the turbo variety, for a year and a half. He went to check out a persistent pain in his lower back and they told him he had six months to live. Just before that, he'd visited for the first time since the divorce (six years then) and we'd had a good talk about the vaccines. He was still for them but he actually listened, which wasn't like him. With his diagnosis, I did everything I could to get him not to do chemo and do an alternative. But it's hard to take that risk when everyone tells you the opposite and the stakes are so high. He's still hanging in there. It feels very unreal. But I tell myself that these things need to happen to bring about the next phase and, at some level, each one chooses the role they'll play. And in the end, all those roles are figments of the same dream and we're all immortal as one being, dreaming we're many.
Gotcha. (I know someone diagnose 11 months ago with the same, also on chemo)
I feel that 'unreal' quality all the time. Your figments of the same dream, I think of it as various shards of the same kaleidoscope always shifting. Somewhere and somehow it all has to be okay, matter how awful it looks.
Protect your heart, not just physically from that gene "therapy" but also emotionally. So hard, Kelliann. I know that dilemma. Sometimes I find that backing off, after they already know what I think, allows them to come forward and see the evidence in front of their eyes. When I take the opposing side, it pushes them to the polar opposite. Esther Perel talks about this in one episode I did: https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/polarization-on-esther-perel-and.
So many extraordinary comments here already, expressing my own impressions. I'll just add the "As within, so without" dictum. It clearly goes both ways as you have described beautifully. Which is why we can't let ourselves descend into anger; that's the preferred food of the old world. As we evolve into loving, discerning individuals, we are feeding a New Reality.
"Which is why we can't let ourselves descend into anger; that's the preferred food of the old world. As we evolve into loving, discerning individuals, we are feeding a New Reality."
'Feeding a New Reality' is a good way to think about it.
Deep thoughts. In reading Albion's Seed - a long slog, but worth it - I realize again the value of having relationships that must be taken as givens:
Your family, especially extended family.
Your regional culture.
Your religion - whatever it is, it binds you to others.
It is our freedom, the absence of these givens, that require us to think deeply about things that we would otherwise just accept. Our society gives us vast freedom. Few of us know what to do with it. We don't use it to build strong networks of family or social networks.
I grew up around people more or less like me. My young family is growing up around people who are similar to them. Getting along with people you should be able to understand is hard enough. Layering in all of the DEI stuff (as it was three decades ago) was too much for my now grown family. They simply didn't develop supportive networks at all. Kind of like Putnam observed in "Bowling Alone."
"Albion's Seed" describes how the four major founding cultures (Puritan, Royalist, Quaker and Border/Presbyterian) dealt with such dilemmas. Mainly, through Kahnemann's fast rather than slow thinking. Not always perfect, not fair, but good enough.
"Our society gives us vast freedom. Few of us know what to do with it. We don't use it to build strong networks of family or social networks."
Thanks interesting, I don't tend to think of society giving us vast freedom. And I definitely see the ways in which there has been systemic attack on those binding units - especially family. I think the pressure cooker we're in, dissolves a lot of the superfluous and extraneous, and imagine what we'll build post this collapse, will be built on connections and networks that actually nourish us.
Yes, I would share that view - and the irony that in fact we are free, not in the pretend sense but in fact. We can claim that though only after we see through the false freedom presented. Thanks, Graham.
On separate note, I saw an article where it was claimed 400 thousand Ukrainians have died since the war started. I sincerely hope that shocking number if not true. What do you think?
Truth is the first casualty in any war. My reckoning is that Ukraine has lost somewhere between 80,000 and 120,000 soldiers and perhaps 50,000 civilians. But I could be way off.
Some dead left identifiable corpses, some not, Some were kidnapped to Russia. Some were buried anonymously. Many escaped to the west without the knowledge of the authorities. Some accepted Russia's offer of citizenship to relieve their hardship without our knowing.
The Russians lie about everything, including of course their own dead.
Of course not. But when the US has lied, at least historically, we have wanted at least a somewhat plausible lie. The Russians simply don't care and never have. See Custine from two centuries ago.
The Russians claim to have killed more Ukrainians than were ever in our army, and destroyed more equipment than ever we had. Their audience is their own public, and they simply don't care.
It's my impression that the supposed freedoms we enjoy tend to be of the superficial variety, e.g., we're allowed to choose our sources of propaganda, as long as we submit to the propaganda of the day.
Fortunately the propaganda du jour is often contradictory and self destructing and those with discernment are impervious to it.
Again, quite beautiful Kathleen. In harmony with the "new" energies on our planet, by allowing it, we drop the false selves and open to and embody who we truly are, our authentic selves. A positive, beautiful prospect, and future world.
"In harmony with the "new" energies on our planet, by allowing it, we drop the false selves and open to and embody who we truly are, our authentic selves. A positive, beautiful prospect, and future world."
Gee, Philip, I think I coulda just said that!! Thank you, so succinctly put!
Nice affirmation in your title. We have many knots to work out and Kathleen, your perspective, but especially the way you present your perspective, surely helps many people along the way. Thank-you.
I love the way you illumine an aspect of what is occurring universally and how helpful with the personal reflection. Really appreciate your example-so very clarifying to what you are getting at. Not everyone can walk that terrain and call out what is leaving and what remains!
Thanks, Mary!
I can't seem to get away from the theme; this interaction between the two. Just endlessly interesting to me. (Though I find it challenging to express.)
Appreciate the comment. Best.💕
The recognition of growth within yourself is vastly important and often forgotten as a point of celebration. I’m sure you’ve noticed that the universe will bring you the same lesson over and over until you learn it. One can’t avoid discomfort or suffering when being taught those lessons, but we can avoid being taught the same lesson time and time again. Having moments of reflection that celebrate your growth is a way to signify you’re ready for the next lesson, a way to dance with the universe and nod to its challenges. Thank you for another thoughtful journey, Kathleen.
I want to highlight and copy your entire comment, Tonika. I'll pick one line:
"Having moments of reflection that celebrate your growth is a way to signify you’re ready for the next lesson, a way to dance with the universe and nod to its challenges."
What a clear reading on terrain you obviously know well.
Celebrate growth - yes! - let's do more of that. (Usually it's pretty hard-won.)
Thank you.💕
It is indeed! 💃🏻 🍷 🥰
"One can’t avoid discomfort or suffering when being taught those lessons, but we can avoid being taught the same lesson time and time again. "
Beautiful!
Perfectly said, Tonika.
"I ignored the signs of Linda’s effect on the group, attempting to apply ideas I picked up from a distorted ‘spiritual’ premise that elevated acceptance but didn’t include discernment. (Symptom of the New Age virus.)"
That quote really stood out for me. I have seen this phenomena play out all around me - in the larger context of the country - the ideas of what "should be because our ideology says so" but lack any kind of discernment of what is actually happening. But I also see it in a spiritual community I've been involved with. People who understand (or say they do) that an old world is dying and a new world is forming. However, a large subset of these people cling to their old social and political alliances and were susceptible to the massive propaganda campaign. This lack of discernment is really shocking to me for people who have supposedly worked many decades on their personal growth.
Obviously, we need some frame of reference to live in a physical world. So I can understand clinging to an ideology as a path forward as the world unravels all around us. But all kinds of agendas will rush to fill the vacuum of a dying world so having discernment is vital. But those ideologies will ultimately fail as they are part of an old world. It will be tempting to grab onto new ideologies as a way to understand and navigate what is happening and to assuage the anxiety of an unknown future. This is where I think using discernment will be so important.
"But I also see it in a spiritual community I've been involved with. People who understand (or say they do) that an old world is dying and a new world is forming. However, a large subset of these people cling to their old social and political alliances and were susceptible to the massive propaganda campaign."
Exactly - same for me. It's frustrating when you can see it and others can't. Very hard to tell someone they are being manipulated and what's good in them is being hijacked. Sigh.
I understand too, Patricia. I feel for those who don't, because the learning curve is only getting steeper!
Thanks for your expanding comment. Best.
Hi Kathleen,
I noticed that you said in one of the comments here that you'd found it hard to express. I really get that. As I have grappled for understanding of the all the division, and I increasingly find myself marvelling at the capacity of human beings, all of us, to see what we want to see. It's not even what we want to see really, it's what is somehow consonant with patterns and fears and aspriations and... knots... inside us. I share your sense that it is an exciting time (as per our previous exchanges) - massive change happening at a level which cannot be other than turbulent. But there are so many great people out there doing such great work - we just have to take the hits and keep on going to the other side. I also find myself relating some of what you have said to the schism that is going on between 'pro' and 'anti' Enlightenment camps. I think the 'anti' camp are wrong about much - dangerously so - but tjhey are right that the modern propensity to theorise, to be led by 'ideas', instead of by experience, by what life is showing us, leads us into much trouble. I think you have described with courage and honesty a widespread dynamic that is one of the central causes, operating in so many people, amplifed by technology, ideology etc etc, that is setting the world on fire. But also creating a lot of great firefighters! Ha! Not at all sure how well I have expressed myself!
" It's not even what we want to see really, it's what is somehow consonant with patterns and fears and aspriations and... knots... inside us."
Nicely put.
And this: "... propensity to theorise, to be led by 'ideas', instead of by experience, by what life is showing us, leads us into much trouble." So, so true.
You expressed it quite well, and thank you for that insightful comment. The overall comments thus far are very encouraging to me. Appreciate you, Michael.
Likewise Kathleen. Keep doing your good work.
Beautiful image by the way - painted by yourself?
No I found it on internet land and couldn't find artists name to credit it.
Well, great choice anyway!
We have received conflicting instructions from our teachings and society at large; tolerate/accept this, or that, do not tolerate/accept this or that. Now we see the patterns that emerge from our tolerance and acceptance of these values, which can work to create monsters/destruction in the worst cases. I can relate to the disruptive person in your group, the constant critic, who arrives with a bang but without good intention for the whole. I think it is, like an ever wimpering 2 year old, a desire to be noticed and cared for, perhaps a gaping hole left by a lack of parenting or trauma. That constant criticalness eventually turns on its source. We all need to 'feed the good' and not the negative, but first we have to discover what is good/helpful and what is negative/deleterious.
Thanks, Jacquelyn.
"Now we see the patterns that emerge from our tolerance and acceptance of these values, which can work to create monsters/destruction in the worst cases." They have been fully weaponized, imo, for our destruction. Tolerance and generosity = open borders. No background check, no official process, just come on in. When inevitable problems arise it will be the result of our going along and allowing those qualities (tolerance and generosity) to have been used against us.
When you see it, you see it. When you don't...
Appreciate the comment - best.
Superb points.
Beautifully put, Kathleen. There's nothing so destructive as a false identity--for society, for our relationships, for ourselves. This process of shedding the pupal exoskeleton of what is false, though uncomfortable and even painful, is necessary to emerge into our adulthood ("authentic self", as you put it). If we are stuck as a species, it is because of those who resist or outright refuse this transformation.
Thanks James. I so agree this is all necessary and the quicker we grok that and let go of what's leaving, the sooner we can get a handle on what we want to create.
Great comment. Best.
This was amazing. And, so are the comments. The commenters are obviously astute and, as I see it, shedding perceptions and retooling to fit into this very different spinning globe. I always appreciate your beautifully worded reality salad. Is that a thing? If it wasn't, it is now.♥
Thanks SadkieJay! I feel the same the comments - astute and insightful and I always learn from them. Including the 'reality salad' one which is a perfect description for what we got going on out! ❤️ Hope you well and enjoying life!
Woo Hoo! The fun really begins when we start shedding our false identities! Thank you, Kathleen, for so eloquently articulating the link between the inner world and the outer world that I've also noticed in my spiritual counseling practice: Souls are flinging off the encumbrances of the past more quickly than ever before. When they start to act on the red flags they notice and set effective boundaries like, "Sorry, I don't think you'd be a good fit for our group," they start to conserve their precious energy and live with more grace and ease. Thanks for sharing that sad but illuminating story about the dissolution of your group--it's a very helpful reminder about the importance of discernment.
Thanks Rev! I love how confirming this comment. It's happening!
Great to hear someone who is witnessing it.
"Souls are flinging off the encumbrances of the past more quickly than ever before."
I cracked up reading that line btw. Definitely the tone of someone who sees a lot of it. 😊
Oh and one more thing. I had originally (prior to editing) ended the essay with a 'Woo-Hoo!" So thanks for putting that back in.😁
I adore this post. Are you sick of hearing me say that? I'm feeling quite redundant ;-)
I was thinking the same this morning. That we're ready to shed our skins. It is the end-times we're living through. Not yet the end of time, while we still have a use for it, but the end of illusions. The PTB are doing a final push and it's laying everything bare.
Even my ex's BiL has, at some level, chosen to give his life so his daughter can live in a different world. That sounds harsh but the alternative is that his death is random and has no meaning. I don't believe that. The lives being taken in Palestine are, on a spiritual level, being given as the last sacrifice to end the madness. And that's already been accomplished although we don't see it yet.
I've looked at the same group dynamics and come to the same conclusion. It's necessary to exclude to protect what you have. People who write about cooperative living talk about that too. A friend who teaches women to be fearlessly alone in the wilderness came up against it with 'men who identify as women.' It changed the whole dynamic and ended up being all about them.
I've seen it ruin group after group. I would also say it's ruining my community. A neighbor and I were talking about how none of the next generation can afford to live here, and she said, "I think everyone who wants to live here should be able to." Really? That's the thinking that puts families last, when they ARE the community.
It's the biggest psyops of all, turning our love against us. It's how every psyops works. We want to give, include, make sure everyone has what we want for ourselves. It fools us into giving up responsibility for creating what we want, and instead feeling responsible for others and taking away their responsibility for themselves.
Thank you again!
"Are you sick of hearing me say that?" Umm... NO! I shamelessly love it. :-)
Perfect example with your neighbor, who I'm sure is a good person and wants to be inclusive - even if means destroying her life. We're in deeply inverted, crazy times.
"The lives being taken in Palestine are, on a spiritual level, being given as the last sacrifice to end the madness. And that's already been accomplished although we don't see it yet."
I have thought the same. And agree the sacrifice - is meaningful - and recognizing that is sanity-inducing.
Yes! Biggest psyops of all is turning our love against us. How devilishly brilliant is that?
Awesome and insightful as usual, comments - best to you, Tereza.
PS - I don't know what's going on with your ex and daughter? Did he die recently?
(Feel free to ignore the question if you'd prefer.)
No, my ex's brother-in-law has had pancreatic cancer, the turbo variety, for a year and a half. He went to check out a persistent pain in his lower back and they told him he had six months to live. Just before that, he'd visited for the first time since the divorce (six years then) and we'd had a good talk about the vaccines. He was still for them but he actually listened, which wasn't like him. With his diagnosis, I did everything I could to get him not to do chemo and do an alternative. But it's hard to take that risk when everyone tells you the opposite and the stakes are so high. He's still hanging in there. It feels very unreal. But I tell myself that these things need to happen to bring about the next phase and, at some level, each one chooses the role they'll play. And in the end, all those roles are figments of the same dream and we're all immortal as one being, dreaming we're many.
Gotcha. (I know someone diagnose 11 months ago with the same, also on chemo)
I feel that 'unreal' quality all the time. Your figments of the same dream, I think of it as various shards of the same kaleidoscope always shifting. Somewhere and somehow it all has to be okay, matter how awful it looks.
Beautifully said. I completely concur.
Struggling with my repetitive advice to lived ones and strangers on the gene "therapy" disgrace. I have to give up as it's sinking me.
Protect your heart, not just physically from that gene "therapy" but also emotionally. So hard, Kelliann. I know that dilemma. Sometimes I find that backing off, after they already know what I think, allows them to come forward and see the evidence in front of their eyes. When I take the opposing side, it pushes them to the polar opposite. Esther Perel talks about this in one episode I did: https://thirdparadigm.substack.com/p/polarization-on-esther-perel-and.
Thank you, Tereza
So many extraordinary comments here already, expressing my own impressions. I'll just add the "As within, so without" dictum. It clearly goes both ways as you have described beautifully. Which is why we can't let ourselves descend into anger; that's the preferred food of the old world. As we evolve into loving, discerning individuals, we are feeding a New Reality.
Great essay, Kathleen. You're on FIRE!!
I agree on the comments comment!
"Which is why we can't let ourselves descend into anger; that's the preferred food of the old world. As we evolve into loving, discerning individuals, we are feeding a New Reality."
'Feeding a New Reality' is a good way to think about it.
Thanks, Mary. Best to you.
Huge key here, "Which is why we can't let ourselves descend into anger..."
Wow! Brilliant and I'm going to read this again after more coffee💖🙏
💕 Thank you, Kelliann! Much appreciated. Best.
"What remains will be what is essential. The rest will be stripped bare." I feel that too.
Thank you, Meredith. What a time to be alive on this little globe.
Loved your article.
Liberating, isn't it?
Deep thoughts. In reading Albion's Seed - a long slog, but worth it - I realize again the value of having relationships that must be taken as givens:
Your family, especially extended family.
Your regional culture.
Your religion - whatever it is, it binds you to others.
It is our freedom, the absence of these givens, that require us to think deeply about things that we would otherwise just accept. Our society gives us vast freedom. Few of us know what to do with it. We don't use it to build strong networks of family or social networks.
I grew up around people more or less like me. My young family is growing up around people who are similar to them. Getting along with people you should be able to understand is hard enough. Layering in all of the DEI stuff (as it was three decades ago) was too much for my now grown family. They simply didn't develop supportive networks at all. Kind of like Putnam observed in "Bowling Alone."
"Albion's Seed" describes how the four major founding cultures (Puritan, Royalist, Quaker and Border/Presbyterian) dealt with such dilemmas. Mainly, through Kahnemann's fast rather than slow thinking. Not always perfect, not fair, but good enough.
Thanks, Graham.
"Our society gives us vast freedom. Few of us know what to do with it. We don't use it to build strong networks of family or social networks."
Thanks interesting, I don't tend to think of society giving us vast freedom. And I definitely see the ways in which there has been systemic attack on those binding units - especially family. I think the pressure cooker we're in, dissolves a lot of the superfluous and extraneous, and imagine what we'll build post this collapse, will be built on connections and networks that actually nourish us.
Will be fascinating to watch. Best to you.
To be more cynical, they pretend to give us a lot of freedom, then suppose to tell us exactly how we are supposed to use it.
Yes, I would share that view - and the irony that in fact we are free, not in the pretend sense but in fact. We can claim that though only after we see through the false freedom presented. Thanks, Graham.
On separate note, I saw an article where it was claimed 400 thousand Ukrainians have died since the war started. I sincerely hope that shocking number if not true. What do you think?
Truth is the first casualty in any war. My reckoning is that Ukraine has lost somewhere between 80,000 and 120,000 soldiers and perhaps 50,000 civilians. But I could be way off.
Some dead left identifiable corpses, some not, Some were kidnapped to Russia. Some were buried anonymously. Many escaped to the west without the knowledge of the authorities. Some accepted Russia's offer of citizenship to relieve their hardship without our knowing.
The Russians lie about everything, including of course their own dead.
I suspect "the Russians" are not unigue in that way.
Of course not. But when the US has lied, at least historically, we have wanted at least a somewhat plausible lie. The Russians simply don't care and never have. See Custine from two centuries ago.
https://www.amazon.com/review/RU32GOBJW812X/ref=cm_cr_srp_d_rdp_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B00HO11CMS
The Russians claim to have killed more Ukrainians than were ever in our army, and destroyed more equipment than ever we had. Their audience is their own public, and they simply don't care.
Yes.
Thanks. It's all heartbreaking.
It's my impression that the supposed freedoms we enjoy tend to be of the superficial variety, e.g., we're allowed to choose our sources of propaganda, as long as we submit to the propaganda of the day.
Fortunately the propaganda du jour is often contradictory and self destructing and those with discernment are impervious to it.
Again, quite beautiful Kathleen. In harmony with the "new" energies on our planet, by allowing it, we drop the false selves and open to and embody who we truly are, our authentic selves. A positive, beautiful prospect, and future world.
"In harmony with the "new" energies on our planet, by allowing it, we drop the false selves and open to and embody who we truly are, our authentic selves. A positive, beautiful prospect, and future world."
Gee, Philip, I think I coulda just said that!! Thank you, so succinctly put!
Appreciated! - Best.
I was guided here by Tereza Corraggion of "Third Paradigm," and I thank her for it. Fine work!
"In the growing demand for truth and reality in the world, what remains will be what is essential. The rest will be stripped bare."
Yes.
Thank you, Goeff and welcome! And thanks to Tereza as well - one of my favorite stackers.
Nice affirmation in your title. We have many knots to work out and Kathleen, your perspective, but especially the way you present your perspective, surely helps many people along the way. Thank-you.
How kind of you, Sounder. Thank you.💕