Tag Archives: separation

Magic and the real

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“Logic only gives man what he needs… Magic gives him what he wants.” ~ Tom Robbins

I’m fascinated by the popularity of magical fantasy worlds. The empire of the “Harry Potter” series – books, audiobooks, films, amusement park, merch – is just one example. More recently, the book, “The Night Circus,” became an international best seller. My son and I were hooked on the British show, “Merlin,” which ran for five seasons. It’s the backstory of Merlin and Arthur as young men. The voiceover at the beginning says, “In a land of myth and a time of magic. . . .”

What’s behind our attraction to these kinds of stories?

Maybe we turn to these fictional worlds of magic to soothe our longing for the actual magic of the wild world from which we have disconnected. Continue reading →

Perfectionism’s last stand

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In all my years as a dedicated perfectionist, I never once stopped to ask myself — what is perfection? What has to happen for me to be satisfied? Even if I had asked these questions, perfection is a wily shapeshifter, a trickster goading me to try to control events and outcomes. It tells me I can live in a world entirely of my own design, safe and predictable. Everything can turn out the way I want it to.

Perfectionism keeps the focus on exterior appearances, at the expense of inner literacy and spiritual connection. It dictates that only the material, measurable world is real, and tries to be both means and ends. Borrowing a bit of wisdom about peace: There is no way to work for perfection. Perfection is the way. Continue reading →

Anti-aging, cultural delusions and wildness

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An online search of the term, “anti-aging,” yields 6.7 million results. There are anti-aging foods, techniques, guidelines, secrets, creams, fitness regimes, experts, medicine, supplements, checklists, fellowships, diets, and systems. And that’s just on the first page of results. Interestingly, Dr. Oz figures prominently, but that may just be due to savvy SEO.

That we even have a term like “anti-aging” is a sign of our continued delusion of control over this foe we call “nature.” Witness the place of hour that “anti“ has  in our national vocabulary: anti-abortion, anti-guns, anti-terrorism, anti-nukes, anti-fracking, anti-slavery, anti-environment. Some of these movements are quite well intentioned, and yet find themselves lumped into a subclass of “war on” phrases: war on terror, war on drugs, on poverty, etc. Continue reading →

From scarcity and hierarchy, through abundance to miracle

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The story of scarcity infects not only my relationship with time, but with other people. It destroys my peace of mind and isolates me from the world. My habit of rushing for no real reason usually hurts only me. More damaging is an ingrained tendency to see difference, to rank myself in comparison with others, or to let biases stand unexamined. As long as I believe there isn’t enough to go around, I will mindlessly go after my share before someone else grabs it. Since those in positions of power stand the best chance of getting the goods, it’s only natural to strive for domination and control over others, right? We are told from childhood that’s how to get what we want.

In a 2005 New York Times essay, “The Founding Sachems,” author Charles Mann outlined the influence of Haudenosaunee’s “Great Law of Peace” on the colonists and founding fathers. The democratic ideals practiced by this alliance of six tribes, also known as the Iroquois confederation, derived from an unshakable belief in the sanctity and value of each individual, man, woman, and child. Continue reading →

A case for direct experience

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I’m in a rain-misted spring forest examining a batch of cheeky green fungus that has flagged me down. In sliding my eyes along the fallen branch it’s growing on, I notice a snail shell and marvel at its size and intricacy, thinking it’s exactly like a shell one might find along a beach. Then I notice a white fungus, same shape as the green, but with wedding-dress frills instead of garden-party apple green flounces. And just like that, metaphors have crashed the party.

This setting teaches me that metaphor is a habit of culture, a way of mediating direct experience and keeping my distance with cleverness. Continue reading →

Big green fear campaign

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Sometimes everything feels like a strange mashup. One moment, I’ll encounter mythic stirrings in the echoes of an ancient Celtic festival and the next crash right into the increasingly blatant tactics to maintain the status quo. Such dissonance is a fact of life here on the threshold between stories. As the old story frays, exposing its faults more clearly, the attempts to hold onto it and force it on nonbelievers become more desperate and personal.

On the eve of Halloween, the New York Times ran a story about political consultant Richard Berman’s secretly taped speech to a group of oil and gas industry executives in Colorado last summer. After reading the article and a transcript of Berman’s talk, my first reaction was to label. Greedy, morally bankrupt, and sociopathic have a satisfying ring after learning of a coordinated and well funded campaign against environmental groups that rely on volunteers and committed activists. Groups that I happen to agree with and feel thankful they are out there holding the line against the rapacious fossil fuelers. Continue reading →

Are we really rewriting the OS?

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Last week, a tech entrepreneur announced the OS Fund, offering $100 million of his own money to the best and brightest startups that want to change the world by designing a better future. Sounds exciting, right? Their manifesto says it straight:

“In order to affect real change for humanity at a global scale, we need to think and operate on a fundamental level: the operating system.”

Yes, I thought, he’s onto something. It’s another way of saying we need a new story. This is a compelling perspective:

“Historically, germ theory, American democracy and the Internet rewrote the operating systems of healthcare, governance and our societal infrastructure.”

Can’t argue with that. As I read further, though, I realized this wasn’t about a new OS at all. It’s about fancy new software. An arms race of software, like those fat seats and giant cupholders in American cars. Continue reading →

Releasing environmental hope

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Driving away from a coffee meeting a couple of years ago, I was suddenly flooded with longing to go back and shake sense into the young woman architect I had just met. Her question to me, a local advocate of sustainability, was innocent enough: “How can I plug into this movement more effectively?” In a burst of empathic knowing, I was this woman, twenty years earlier, talented and hopeful and full of ambition and possibility.

I thought it was the work in her graduate portfolio, her obvious delight in ideas that had pushed me over the edge. The tangibility of hand and eye and imagination, of drawings and models, sculpture and paintings employed to make artifacts of meaning and beauty. Art for art’s sake.

She could spend a happy lifetime doing work like that and instead was about to leave it all behind by stepping into the fast-moving water of environmental hope. Continue reading →

The lazy indulgence of dystopia

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Stories create worlds. And not just in the way we think, to escape into mindless entertainment. The power of our imaginations and collective beliefs literally creates the world we inhabit, today and every day.

Which is why I have such reservations about dystopian fiction. I can’t offer a fully researched, scholarly critique of the genre – I haven’t even read Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road.” Nor am I one of the legions of fans of Hugh Howey’s “Silo” series, or any other of his multiple best-selling stories. (Given his readership, I may be the lone holdout.). It’s fun to quote from his blurbs, though, such as this one for “Wool”: Continue reading →

Dancing with disappointment and resistance

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A mentor once asked me, if you aren’t disappointing other people, who are you disappointing? It was one of those ah-ha moments when I came face to face (not for the first time) with my lifelong habit of “being good.” I’m so wired for it that it takes an effort to be honest with myself. Which is why writing in my journal brings such relief – it’s a no B.S. zone.

Recently I was asked what advice I would share with my 21-year-old self. She needed plenty of advice! One bit is: don’t be afraid to disappoint others. You’re going to anyway, so you might as well get used to it, rather than trying to avoid it. The freedom I felt from this advice tells me I’ve rarely followed it myself. The upside of having a son moving into his teens is that I’m getting a lot of practice, because I seem to disappoint him several times a day. Continue reading →