Monthly Archives: February 2010

Feb3

Stumble and Fall

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Stumble and Fall

I’m much less scared of failure than I used to be. Maybe because I’ve made enough mistakes to realize that life goes on anyway. The world does not stop when I fail, and i’ve also found that when I approach failure with the right mindset, I learn amazing and incredible things. A life of only success is pointless and dull.

My world has always fallen apart frequently. It’s been that way as long as I can remember. I used to think of it as a curse, but I am beginning to see the real blessing in it. Each time my life cracks open, a bigger life emerges.

Lately, the process has been accelerating. Shit falls apart sometimes once every few days it feels like. Of course I long for some peace, a rest. I am meeting this longing with an attempt to create some gentle routines in my life, so I can rest in motion a bit more. My soul is accelerating so fast right now, Its important to relax and enjoy.

Positive spin is crucial. Not only am I doing everything I can to create more positive structure in my life, attune with my highest spiritual values, stay wide open to divine guidance, and ride whatever comes, I’m also finding it helpful to root out the positive aspects of every single thing that happens. I’m finding that, in doing so (while still refusing to give up any of my ideals or overarching goals), I strengthen the good energies in events.

Also, in an effort to create the highest degree of attunement I can, I am cleaning up my diet, beginning a regular spiritual practice of heart-opening meditation in the evening and yoga in midday. I feel good things pouring through me and I am happy to enjoy the ride!

Feb2

Taking the Path in Joy

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Taking the Path in Joy

No sooner than I finished that last post then I opened an email with a link to this (you’ll have to cut and paste, as I can’t hyperlink with my phone):

freewillastrology.com/beauty/beauty.main275.shtml

Wow, I needed to read this in exactly this moment!!!

The post I wrote yesterday about Piercing the Shared Dream was a milestone in my life, in that I had a vision of how all my life paths are converging.

This exerpt from Rob Breszny is a sign for me of what spirit I wish to progress in. I want to be able to embody this much Joy in my Quest! Although I am seeing a lot of things in the world that I don’t like, I can still do my work from a place of “Beauty and Truth” and perhaps I can even find a way to do the dark work of dismantling with joy and sponteneity.

Also, I am also seeing how I can learn to keep my work a process. Just as Breszny talks about his meditation while driving, I can make adjustments as I go, not needing to stop every time I see a flaw in my approach. I think I’m finally in a place now where I can trust enough in the flow to put myself out there even as I and my work are works in progress!

Feb2

Political Reality: Critical Thinking

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Political Reality: Critical Thinking

One way of examining the merits of a system of thinking is to ask, “who benefits?”

For a very current example, the supposition that a public health care option is socialism. This spin technique takes advantage of our cultural paranoia of socialism. Our fear of socialism is of course linked with our fear of communism, which evokes memories of the Cold War.

Pundits and politicians scare up socialism fears because it’s an easy and effective button to push. By pushing this button, they bypass meaningful dialogue and yet stay afloat politically.

Who benefits from this negative hype? Who benefits from the cultural fear surrounding even the word socialism?

In this case, Insurance Companies. Lobbyists. Politicians who will receive campaign backing from Insurance Companies.

I think any policy choices should be examined against what we hold valuable.

See now, here is where it comes down to the shared dream. Here is the place our personal beliefs effect everything, not only about what is important but about how things actually work.

Say, I believe that all people should be able to see a doctor when they are sick. Ok, time for the public option, then? Well, maybe.

Say I also have the belief that in our country, anyone who wanted to find work can find it, and buy their own health insurance. According to my belief, someone who doesn’t have health insurance is obviously not trying hard enough, so it’s not my problem that they can’t get it.

The issue I have with a notion like this is that it assumes an amount of independance that I don’t believe ever really exists. I don’t believe anyone is ever really self-made (unless they are a recluse in the woods). Generally, people are vulnerable to shifts in the economy, are dependant on the government for things like basic law enforcement, keeping the roads driveable and all sorts of other things. Every person who is a financial success had things turn in their favor, often starting with their birth into a white and/or affluent family. There are, also of course success stories of people who started poor and “made it” but, as exalted as these stories are in our culture, they are not the norm. Class mobility is both more rare and more difficult than it is believed to be in this country.

I feel these things are often underplayed in public discourse. “The American Dream” of making it big is still a major part of our cultural tapestry, while the truth is that middle class and poor families keep getting poorer as the rich keep getting richer. In any economic system, policy helps determine how the money moves. Right now, the equation is still tilted towards those who already have plenty.

Who benefits from the belief that anyone can make it on their own? It’s not too hard to see! Now, when will we begin to dream up a new dream?

Feb1

Piercing the Shared Dream

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Piercing the Shared Dream

I watched the Matrix yesterday, first time I’ve watched it in a few years. It’s still a damn good movie!

While watching it, I realized that all my career interests rotate around the same goal: piercing and eventually deconstructing the shared dream.

I used to think this was the question:
What is real and what is not?

But now, I’m asking different kinds of questions:
Who creates our shared reality?
Who benefits?
How do humans learn what is real, and how is this process disturbed or enhanced?
How does the shared dream enhance or limit the quality of our individual and community lives?
How can we deconstruct our perceptions of and stories about “the way the world is” in a way that will empower individuals and enhance our communities?
How can alternate views be introduced?

Here’s how it came together in my head:

The media (as well as art, literature, etc) we consume informs our understanding of culture, relationships, and even the nature of how life works. This is why the arts are so important! And, with most of popular media being controlled by major corporations, our culture is being strangled. Ideas that are controversial or revolutionary, that challenge the status quo are silenced by mainstream media. People are consumed by the latest celebrity scandals, reality tv shows and national politics that they are absent from their own lives and are zombies in their own communities. The media tells us who we are, how the world works, and in return we get to “relax” by zoning out in front of the TV, a risk-free way to “live,” (after all, your TV won’t reject you, David Letterman smiles at you, you won’t look stupid in front of anyone).

National Television creates a cultural homogeneity that not only guarentees big profit for big businesses, but also quells civic activism. People are treated as consumers not citizens and act suchly, thereby enforcing the profit margin. Maybe we are not really living in little glass pods like the fields in the Matrix, but is it really so different? Corporations are making lots and lots of money off us as our local communities fall apart. Because we are so “plugged in,” we only become more and more alienated from each other. Less invested in our community and our families, everyone ultimately suffers.

I have always been fascinated by the way that people create the structures of their realities. Having dealt with severe mental illness in my early twenties, I’ve spent almost my entire adulthood deconstructing and rebuilding the way my brain works. I have nearly completely rebuilt my personal paradigm from scratch. So, I’m in a pretty unique position to examine the process of paradigm shifting. Also, I’ve learned a lot by watching my daughter, Joy, learn about the world. If you want to understand your brain, read some child development books!

So, I can almost hear the more practical of you asking, “what do you even mean by ‘reality?’”
Great question! So, I’ll ask you some questions in return! The answers are not right or wrong, but each your answers demonstrate a bit of your reality. Your reality (or I guess your beliefs about reality) generally shape your actions.

How can a person be successful in life?
Can anyone be successful?
What is success?
Is there such a thing as luck?
Is there such a thing as Karma?
What kind of other influences affect the outcomes in your life?
How important is independance?
How much interdependance is healthy?
What impact does your life have on other people?
How does your affluence (or lack thereof) effect other people?
How does your life effect the environment?
Do you feel (emotionally/energetically) connected with other people?
What is your responsibility to the people in your community?
What is your community’s responsibility to you?

So, why do I want to deconstruct the shared dream? Because I believe our culture needs to become self-aware if we are to avoid total self-destruction. I really believe that our country and culture has been hijacked by big corporations, and we need to take back our power. A few days ago, I asked how do we do that? This is my answer.

Here’s where my interests come in:

Media Literacy Education:
Teaching critical thinking skills around media messages

Filmmaking:
Through creative storytelling, challenging cultural constructs and offering alternatives (especially the alternative idea that reality is malleable, and every individual has more power than they know

Activism:
Challenging existing structures to improve

Mysticism:
Continuing to explore, through trance, meditation, ritual and other experiences of the divine, the nature of reality itself. Continue self-exploration to clear beliefs or perceptions that are destructive or limiting.

girlchasingfrogs.com:
Continue to document and explore my explorations into the nature of reality, perceptions of reality, and processes of change-making

Hope you stay tuned! I’d love to hear your thoughts about any/all of this!

Blessed Be!