258) Day 26 -- Reason #26 to revolt against Predatory Capitalism: You can make a difference
You are a courageous, intelligent, beautiful, bad-ass-motherfucker. Let that light shine.
248) Day 16 -- Reason #16 to revolt against Predatory Capitalism: David Suzuki
We are the Earth. This is not just a slogan. It is one of the deepest, most robust and profound facts of human existence.
And yet, we have built a civilization largely in denial of that fact.
229) The Salvation of Eden, Chapter 54 -- The Sign-tific Process. And a horsey joke.
Melkorn was so happy, walking toward the barn with Reilly. People didn’t usually ask HIM to spend personal time with them like this.
212) The Salvation of Eden, Chapter 44 -- Melkorn and the unexpected solution to madness
Although none of them were aware of this subtle shifting in their minds, they were already slowly succumbing to the psychic poison of the Reapers, a demonic possession that crept into the unconscious so slowly there was no possibility of stopping against it, an unshakable, nihilistic emptiness rooted in the knowledge of a violent, fiery, inevitable End.
167) Thanks Mom: Intergenerational Wisdom, Part 2 -- Friendship and Community
I am coming to realize that this Tale of Aloneness was never actually true, and that what made me feel alone was simply Shame, not the reality of being disconnected from people.
When I look at my life from a different angle, then that same passage of time that seemed bereft of social connections was, in fact, RICH with relationships!
Realizing this has given me a sense of almost something like awe…
82) A pandemic a day keeps everyone away. But it also might bring us together.
Seriously, why skim the surface, stay in your safe box, maintain your personality-defenses and your societal persona and status symbols, worry about all that stuff, and occupy your mind with the trivia of everyday gossip-news, when you could truly, truly root yourself in This Moment, drink in the miraculous Life dripping into your pores and senses in every moment, and love, love with your whole heart, love so fiercely that it makes you cry. Often.
Because no doubt, you’ve got a river of tears in you that need to be cried.
39) Jordan Peterson: Part 1, Subsection 2: Philosophical Foolishness
If you examine [Jordan Peterson’s] rhetoric and restate it in the simplest terms, it would be something like, “If you disagree with me (about this), you are Ignorant, Evil, or both.”
I should not need to point out how incredibly dangerous an ideology this is. In fact, in the Great Pissing Contest of Most Murderous Ideologies of All Time, I nominate as my champion, this specific belief system: “I and mine are right and good; you and yours are ignorant and evil.”
38) Jordan Peterson: Part 1: Problems with fundamental assumptions
In the most succinct way I can put it, I think a good part of Jordan’s recent public narrative has a deep and fundamental problem — it is Foolish.
34) Less than half, and none of the important ones: Part 4
I believe that healing starts with feeling.
Feeling the truth of your pain. Feeling the ache of loneliness that seems to open into infinite blackness in your heart. Feeling the guilt that eats away at you for the ways you know, deep down inside, that you have failed people, or yourself. Feeling your awfulness. Your grief. Your desperation. Your failures. If you don’t first stop and FEEL the soft, suffering animal that you are, then you will spend your life trying to hammer yourself into shape. This won’t make you stronger; it will just make you bruised and broken and exhausted. The “road to self-improvement” will become more like a hamster wheel, a treadmill that takes you nowhere.
33) Less than half, and none of the important ones: Part 3
“She said she had made a list of all the qualities she wanted in a partner. At the end, she concluded, “he has less than half. And none of the important ones.”
This was the end of my sanity, for a long time. I don’t know why. I just stopped being a person. I was a blank page. And anything written on me turned into invisible ink.
…..Less than half, and none of the important ones. I hate that phrase. It still haunts me, practically every day.”
32) Less than half, and none of the important ones: Part 2
Independence is a delusion. And it’s a dangerous one. Anyone who has been abused knows the deep truth of interdependence, right in their very bodies. The assaulted. The betrayed. The terrorized. The gas-lighted. But also the lonely. The invisible. The unwanted. The ridiculed and rejected.
People live out, in their consciousnesses, their bodies’ attempts to ‘process’ what has happened to them in life; we construct our entire ‘selves’ around this problem of body-world adaptation. It’s good to remember that.
31) Less than half, and none of the important ones: Part 1
Have you ever been on the receiving end of someone’s harshness? Criticism? Gas-lighting? Name-calling? Bullying? Shaming? Humiliating? Lying?
Well, “sticks and stones may break your bones but words….”
Just stop. Right there. Because “words can never hurt you” is absolute, dangerous, bullshit. Words can break your heart, poison your mind, even destroy your life.
30) Hell: Epilogue
“Hell” is an allegory. It can help a person understand the suffering of feeling existentially Alone. And thus, it points towards Connection, through opening to suffering.
This is useful, if it helps you connect with others, and if it motivates you to go more deeply into your questions. But it’s not useful if it just scares you into clinging to The Answer that some particular cult insists upon.
25) Gratitude Day 5: Aging
Thich Nhat Hanh once likened life to rapids that tumble down the mountainside in a frothy, ecstatic rush, slowing somewhat to a burbling, meandering stream further down, then broadening into a slow, flat, peaceful river near the bottom. And then eventually emptying, into the ocean.
24) Y/Y
Two old friends meet on a riverbank one day. One paces, one sits, watching the water. They do this every year. They have become famous in the local area. Their arguments are legendary. People think they hate each other. Most believe one will eventually kill the other and be done with it.
15) Seize the Carp!!
Walking down the street, one of the last sunny fall days. The higher-pitch of a voice that has only been in use less than eleven years bounces up.
“Do you…do you ever think about….?” Pause. I lean in, as this seems important. We continue walking...leaves skittering….
14) Free Sex! Free Drugs! Free Gold Bars!!! And a rowboat...
Did you ever sing Row Row Row Your Boat?
Hey, I did too!
Did you realize that it held the Secret to Life?
