The Pendulum Swung

Perspective taking is a cognitive capacity; it’s mostly about thinking. Empathy is an emotional response; it’s mostly about feeling. ~Daniel Pink

How does one balance thinking and empathy when interacting with a person, with humanity? Is it better to err on either side or maintain a steady middle way balancing on the cutting edge of a razor blade equal shares blood dripping on either side?

Advertisements

Light That Cuts

As much as we like to stand out and consider ourselves individuals, at our core, we are herd animals that are biologically designed to find comfort when we feel like we belong to a group. ~Simon Sinek

My preferred herd is prime, the prime number two. The only even prime number. The challenge with such a herd comes when there is enough space between the dual souls that a sliver of light can squeeze through.

Propping Up Dick-Tators

In a world that prefers security to justice, there is loud applause whenever justice is sacrificed on the altar of security. ~Eduardo Galeano

Americans put a great deal of emphasis and trust in illusions until they become delusions. The illusion of security, the delusion we can isolate ourselves from external harm, the hallucination we can control outcomes thus the silly zealotry believing a border wall will insulate us from those seeking justice.

The American Equation

Every gun that is fired, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. ~Eduardo Galeano

In a world where might makes right, the weak are viewed as wrong. Wrong to be born or thrust into poverty, wrong to be conceived with genetic issues making them sickly. In America, wrong not to be born white, Christian, and at least, middle-class American.

Am I A Blasphemer?

The trees have been her scripture and earth her revelation. ~Amitav Ghosh

Camping and backpacking used to be a passion for me. There were few better feelings than sleeping beneath a canopy of stars on a cool night serenaded by night creatures, wakened by the song of gentle flowers in flight.

Earth was my God, nature revelatory scripture open for daily study, sustenance for my thirsty spirit, a salve for my tortured soul.

Does the fact I have not graced a tent in years indicate a fall from grace? Is this what it feels like to be a fallen angel? Am I a blasphemer because I don’t suckle on the honey of nighttime stars? Will Mother accept the return of this prodigal or am I already condemned to hell?

22 Jan 2019

Funktionslust or Funktion Slut?

Funktionslust (German): The love of doing something merely for the sake of doing it, not simply because it’s likely to work. ~Seth Godin

There are mornings my ritual writing ablutions feel perfunctory, a routine duty hastily performed to get it out of the way, to bolster my shaking claim at being a real writer and not a hack, to convince myself I have a buried talent and daily practice is the shovel to set it free so it can soar above the clouds under the wind of its own creative elegance.

Preparing My Soul To Rejoice

Art is an effort, an opportunity to deviate enormous emotion and energy in a specific direction. ~Seth Godin

I approach my art, my morning ablutions as a perfunctory ritual, something I must do when every fiber would prefer to meditate with eyes closed, snoring, looking for inspiration on the inside of my eyelids.