In my cohousing community we regularly have to "parent in public." Some days the toddlers come home from preschool sobbing and wailing with their weary parents in tow, and the whole neighborhood is reminded of themselves at that age because of the pedestrian oriented design of the village. In community we are forced to "normalize tantrums." It has the curious effect of taking their power away, and lessening the grip of the 'tantrums' we continue to experience as half-baked adults.
Grateful and I think unfortunately the way we're often repeating problems is to engage with material like this intellectually. I mean, it's delightful as a thinking experience. Enjoying it more as a meditation in pieces as I watch petals fall from a tree, noticing the odors of gasoline and wet soil, feeling what it might be to let go of my own learning. Wondering if any of us can fully sense this without being in the patterns of growing, tending, composting, and engaging with manure.
Yes, I agree. But also I think I spent a lot of time sharing my personal experience of being lost without a future, from which the ideas came. If you pare that down simply to the ideas, and not the real hard experience I was trying to convey, I think you lost the thread....
No, exactly, I think- or maybe I only think I think - that it's not the ideas, and that the mechanisms of information transfer ("podcasts", Substack, or even hardware) reinforce the passivity of the experience of the ideas (even if we're engaging intellectually). I'm gesturing towards the idea that trying to feel into your experience of trying to farm and its complexity, I also need to have a physical connection, and also that no matter how I do experience it, I will still seem to want to find something to call "better" or "more effective" about the way I am doing and simply then repeating my own misunderstanding. On the other hand, I recognise the likelihood that I have, as you propose, lost some aspects of listening that would help me to follow the thread more effectively?
What I am trying to do is to convey that same sense that nature gives me, into this medium. Not sure if it is possible. Just thought of the possibility recently. Otherwise, it seems to me there is a lot more despair coming.
Perhaps our listening has more depth in a collective practice, that we do hear differently when we're with one another, being with (not just in the same place). (At least, this is the thesis I'm mostly working on now). What makes this true? What are 'we' when we're in a practice of witness, breathing, making space? Something different, emergent, like ants making bridges? (And then, what makes us mammals interested in being trees? Because I do keep wrestling with this idea).
One thing you might find interesting, is that the young people there and I had a round of "disclosure" just before we recorded, and I kinda fell in love with each of them. Maybe we should have done more of that in the recorded version. But then, that's the problem with this media. We are all running these great experiments to figure this stuff out.
Indeed, and can we actually do this in public? I am in favour of less public and more indications that the private containers are happening but not as performance. The dynamics we have developed by conflating communication and information transfer / media are complicated!
Outstanding. I am sharing it widely and am looking forward to engaging more. For now, I wanted to express my gratitude by sharing this gem from "playing for change" and suggest that soul shine might be an instantiation of casual wid. 💛
In my cohousing community we regularly have to "parent in public." Some days the toddlers come home from preschool sobbing and wailing with their weary parents in tow, and the whole neighborhood is reminded of themselves at that age because of the pedestrian oriented design of the village. In community we are forced to "normalize tantrums." It has the curious effect of taking their power away, and lessening the grip of the 'tantrums' we continue to experience as half-baked adults.
Grateful and I think unfortunately the way we're often repeating problems is to engage with material like this intellectually. I mean, it's delightful as a thinking experience. Enjoying it more as a meditation in pieces as I watch petals fall from a tree, noticing the odors of gasoline and wet soil, feeling what it might be to let go of my own learning. Wondering if any of us can fully sense this without being in the patterns of growing, tending, composting, and engaging with manure.
Yes, I agree. But also I think I spent a lot of time sharing my personal experience of being lost without a future, from which the ideas came. If you pare that down simply to the ideas, and not the real hard experience I was trying to convey, I think you lost the thread....
No, exactly, I think- or maybe I only think I think - that it's not the ideas, and that the mechanisms of information transfer ("podcasts", Substack, or even hardware) reinforce the passivity of the experience of the ideas (even if we're engaging intellectually). I'm gesturing towards the idea that trying to feel into your experience of trying to farm and its complexity, I also need to have a physical connection, and also that no matter how I do experience it, I will still seem to want to find something to call "better" or "more effective" about the way I am doing and simply then repeating my own misunderstanding. On the other hand, I recognise the likelihood that I have, as you propose, lost some aspects of listening that would help me to follow the thread more effectively?
Totally agree.
What I am trying to do is to convey that same sense that nature gives me, into this medium. Not sure if it is possible. Just thought of the possibility recently. Otherwise, it seems to me there is a lot more despair coming.
Perhaps our listening has more depth in a collective practice, that we do hear differently when we're with one another, being with (not just in the same place). (At least, this is the thesis I'm mostly working on now). What makes this true? What are 'we' when we're in a practice of witness, breathing, making space? Something different, emergent, like ants making bridges? (And then, what makes us mammals interested in being trees? Because I do keep wrestling with this idea).
One thing you might find interesting, is that the young people there and I had a round of "disclosure" just before we recorded, and I kinda fell in love with each of them. Maybe we should have done more of that in the recorded version. But then, that's the problem with this media. We are all running these great experiments to figure this stuff out.
Indeed, and can we actually do this in public? I am in favour of less public and more indications that the private containers are happening but not as performance. The dynamics we have developed by conflating communication and information transfer / media are complicated!
Outstanding. I am sharing it widely and am looking forward to engaging more. For now, I wanted to express my gratitude by sharing this gem from "playing for change" and suggest that soul shine might be an instantiation of casual wid. 💛
https://youtu.be/K3fjOFaYq6g?si=R-H0xmaFmTFhdwlY
Thank you so much. I love playing for change. Even better when it's given as a link in exchange for a conversation ....
Wonderful conversation! The last 20 minutes …✨✨