Happy Sunday and I am well-rested and reading..I just received inspiration from my fellow blogger Estella's revenge.
Thanks to her I will be starting a second therapist's blog for family's and loved one's coping with personality and dissociative disorders--an area of my research and practice.
I want to infuse art with therapy for these folks and provide therapeutic services for this area of need. The two loves of my life: transformative healing and art--they both are complimentary!
More of this to come...
Follow the Stones
Perched on the veranda of life
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Thursday, July 8, 2010
What moves you?
This Spanish building is reminiscent of the Baroque period and, in my opinion, is a feat of architectural magnificence.
Aesethitics in Humanities is about what is pleasing to the eye.
When did art stop being a thing of beauty and one of provocation and mere disturbance? One of my students asked me today. Maybe it was sometime during the Industrial Era. Any thoughts on this are welcome.
What moves you?
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Sustainability
What does this word mean?
I like Estella's Revenge definition: a way to grow your own food on less than 1/4 of an acre. But what does it mean in terms of values whether economic, emotional, or spiritual. Having said this, I live in the grand state of Texas now for 5 years. I've learned there are portion sizes and there are Texas-sized portions. I don't want to lecture about obesity as I have a few extra (10 or 20 lbs) myself!
Sustainability in its most basic definition means I have what I need, take only what I need, and give back the extra as a free gift. I might even call this a spiritual principle. What happened to our society that previously allowed for this type of giving (and may still in some areas of the planet)? Were things too "socialized" for people so they decided to get greedy, or did fear of the stranger, foreigner, or unknown creep into the minds of folks keeping them from even considering such a thought- their minds pervaded by terror? As I teach a diversity class the word terror has a terrorizing effect on people and it is used very liberally in mass media. And if you don't think sustainability and terror go hand in hand, think again.
Safety is considered a basic human right that many do not have the quite the privilege of enjoying. It is one of the foundational rights of life in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs only second to food and water. As Americans and our still disproportionate amount of "stuff" we have accumulated, we fear loss of our safety possibly only second to loss of our "stuff." I can admit I don't want to lose my stuff I worked to earn the money to buy (all the contents that fit into a 700 square foot one-bedroom apartment). The question this begs, however, does my stuff define me? Because if it does, how sad for me. And this is where the paradigm shift takes place.
The question is, what do I value if I do not want shear materialism to define me and not just because it's not cool, but because it's not what this world needs at this point in history.
What about the houses that stand empty of people (not furniture) because it is one house of two or three that a wealthy family owns, and then what of the people who are homeless in record numbers because unemployment insurance was not continue a third time in favor of bringing down the Federal deficit? When I worked in a homeless shelter every client, before gaining admittance, were "shaken down" about any family or friends s/he could stay with because the shelter was only for people who had NO ONE and NOTHING or NO STUFF like the basics-food and clothing or at least very limited. What happened to the value of judging a country by how it takes care for its young, elderly, and feeble?
What will happen in our economic downturn? How will it force us to re-define American values and what we mean by the word "humanity"? I am not supposing we will solve world hunger, end war, or even poverty because we are all too apathetic for that. But what about how our values can change so we can create a sense of "being taken care of" by each other? Is this the definition of community or socialism? I can answer this question without fear. It is what allows me to get some sleep at night and consider retiring here in my country of origin instead of feeling "pushed out" because there is always some conservative camp wanting to preserve my one in a .15% chances of earning (stealing) millions and a possibly spot on the next reality show where I can win my 15 minutes of fame and possibly millions-because this is living in reality, right? So, let's keep up the Wall Street charade of capitalism and refuse re-organization for fear of socialism. I have news---the world has changed. Are we going to find solutions going forward or hang onto the past?
Sustainability-living in such a way that people feel secure in sharing the resources necessary for survival and (maybe even) better enjoyment of life. Building the value of sustainability means cultivating interpersonal relations and friendships with the value of taking care of each other as a foundational principle.
I like Estella's Revenge definition: a way to grow your own food on less than 1/4 of an acre. But what does it mean in terms of values whether economic, emotional, or spiritual. Having said this, I live in the grand state of Texas now for 5 years. I've learned there are portion sizes and there are Texas-sized portions. I don't want to lecture about obesity as I have a few extra (10 or 20 lbs) myself!
Sustainability in its most basic definition means I have what I need, take only what I need, and give back the extra as a free gift. I might even call this a spiritual principle. What happened to our society that previously allowed for this type of giving (and may still in some areas of the planet)? Were things too "socialized" for people so they decided to get greedy, or did fear of the stranger, foreigner, or unknown creep into the minds of folks keeping them from even considering such a thought- their minds pervaded by terror? As I teach a diversity class the word terror has a terrorizing effect on people and it is used very liberally in mass media. And if you don't think sustainability and terror go hand in hand, think again.
Safety is considered a basic human right that many do not have the quite the privilege of enjoying. It is one of the foundational rights of life in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs only second to food and water. As Americans and our still disproportionate amount of "stuff" we have accumulated, we fear loss of our safety possibly only second to loss of our "stuff." I can admit I don't want to lose my stuff I worked to earn the money to buy (all the contents that fit into a 700 square foot one-bedroom apartment). The question this begs, however, does my stuff define me? Because if it does, how sad for me. And this is where the paradigm shift takes place.
The question is, what do I value if I do not want shear materialism to define me and not just because it's not cool, but because it's not what this world needs at this point in history.
What about the houses that stand empty of people (not furniture) because it is one house of two or three that a wealthy family owns, and then what of the people who are homeless in record numbers because unemployment insurance was not continue a third time in favor of bringing down the Federal deficit? When I worked in a homeless shelter every client, before gaining admittance, were "shaken down" about any family or friends s/he could stay with because the shelter was only for people who had NO ONE and NOTHING or NO STUFF like the basics-food and clothing or at least very limited. What happened to the value of judging a country by how it takes care for its young, elderly, and feeble?
What will happen in our economic downturn? How will it force us to re-define American values and what we mean by the word "humanity"? I am not supposing we will solve world hunger, end war, or even poverty because we are all too apathetic for that. But what about how our values can change so we can create a sense of "being taken care of" by each other? Is this the definition of community or socialism? I can answer this question without fear. It is what allows me to get some sleep at night and consider retiring here in my country of origin instead of feeling "pushed out" because there is always some conservative camp wanting to preserve my one in a .15% chances of earning (stealing) millions and a possibly spot on the next reality show where I can win my 15 minutes of fame and possibly millions-because this is living in reality, right? So, let's keep up the Wall Street charade of capitalism and refuse re-organization for fear of socialism. I have news---the world has changed. Are we going to find solutions going forward or hang onto the past?
Sustainability-living in such a way that people feel secure in sharing the resources necessary for survival and (maybe even) better enjoyment of life. Building the value of sustainability means cultivating interpersonal relations and friendships with the value of taking care of each other as a foundational principle.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Free Wheeling!
On a fourth of July weekend...had a productive night writing 8 pages of manuscript. The relationship between meditation and productive writing appears to be in the results....when I am in the present, I encounter a relationship with my daily events to the story/chapter I am currently writing. I am in some "flow" that allures me into a space enabling me to assimilate information into a novel world of fiction that may suddenly spring to life! The absurd thing is that this seems like a remote possibility when I am in this place! On the topics of yoga and meditation, as an avid yoga practitioner...I am beginning to study yoga in Spanish from a Chilean website out of Santiago; it's a matter of time before I visit this amazing ashram!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Thoughts as the manuscript comes together
Cro Magnun.....NPR as I listened to NPR's segment of the difference between Neanderthals and the Cro Magnun ala a Dr. Brian Fagan, University of California, Santa Barbara professor, I am becoming happily steeped in my book research. The Cro Magnun, precursors to homo sapiens, were like modern people in terms of art, tradition, and social life. Since Atnarctica is central to the first part, Gowandalan (spelling?) was comprised on Antarctica, Africa, and South American--imagine the connection! It was thought that no humans or ancestors to the homo sapiens ever inhabited this super-continent with 6500 feet of ice sheet deep!
As far as the animism part goes, why do Anglo scholars find it so fascinating that the Original Inhabitants viewed animals as people and that humans and animals can be so engaged in a complex relationship? Observe any dog owner and this bond is unshakable...and I haven't even toughed on cats and their spiritually narcissistic tendencies liken to the humans they own. Okay, coming down off my soapbox now...
My character who is just taking shape is fishing for Patagonia toothfish and seeing the totem spirit of the woolly mammoth while he slips on the ice and proceeds to the fourth level; the first being the caverns under the ice of three levels; level one is for food storage and fish smoking, the second level is for habitation, and the third level is where the shaman live. The fourth level is visited only during times of rites of passage...what is this? A premonition, a message...from whom?
As far as the animism part goes, why do Anglo scholars find it so fascinating that the Original Inhabitants viewed animals as people and that humans and animals can be so engaged in a complex relationship? Observe any dog owner and this bond is unshakable...and I haven't even toughed on cats and their spiritually narcissistic tendencies liken to the humans they own. Okay, coming down off my soapbox now...
My character who is just taking shape is fishing for Patagonia toothfish and seeing the totem spirit of the woolly mammoth while he slips on the ice and proceeds to the fourth level; the first being the caverns under the ice of three levels; level one is for food storage and fish smoking, the second level is for habitation, and the third level is where the shaman live. The fourth level is visited only during times of rites of passage...what is this? A premonition, a message...from whom?
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