2. I’ve been noticing this in the last five years — the persistence of mumble and mess, the way that your best moments can be so tangled up with your worst moments, it feels wrong somehow, though I prefer this to the periods of my life that felt overwhelmingly dark.
I wonder if it’s related to our devotion to/instinct for binary thinking * — which you’ve referred to. I remember an English professor talking about that being a unique feature of western thought and philosophy. I’ve never stopped thinking about that and the way it makes things seem so “wrong” or counterintuitive — our discomfort with contradiction and the way the brain glitches when faced with paradoxical ideas.
I think (? Maybe?)that it’s helped me to realize that binaries are organizational tools, but philosophically and emotionally primitive. Reality is far more complex and tangled.
Accepting that feels a little like falling off a cliff and landing in the incomprehensible expanse of space, so it’s a limited sort of comfort…but I think it’s where truth lives, so it helps me contextualize the brain hiccups.
You, my friend, are able to convey such things with beautiful and spartan language and imagery. When you write about it, you convey this HUGE IDEA, followed by a shrug and a comforting hug, so your readers aren’t left hurtling through space.
*… and also linear thinking which is its own rabbit hole to fall into. 🐰
That's interesting -- I've never pinpointed binary thinking as unique to Western culture. I wonder how I could be adopted into a culture that perceives everything on a continuum. Is it because our central myth (the bible) is essentially a story of binaries? (Or is it?)
I heard a guy at one of Dawn's conferences say that discomfort is the feeling of ignorance leaving your body. (Maybe he was quoting someone, but, either way, I can't attribute it.) Do you think it's a biological imperative to avoid discomfort as much as possible?
Anyway, I'm always glad to hear your thoughts. I wish I heard them more often.
Congratulations! Getting that MFA with children to raise is no easy feat, but so well worth it, as we both know. But no matter what letters you now have after your name, you are and have always been a bona fide writer. You always write, and beautifully. And as I am now 60, 46 and 47 both look pretty damn young to me.
Sorry about health and child concerns, I remind myself with my five kids that they are on their own journeys, per Khalil Gibran in the poem "On Children" in the book "The Prophet." I do all I can to support them but they were born with their soul's agenda. That doesn't make it hurt less, but reminds me not everything is always all my fault.
1. You’re a boss and a marvel.
2. I’ve been noticing this in the last five years — the persistence of mumble and mess, the way that your best moments can be so tangled up with your worst moments, it feels wrong somehow, though I prefer this to the periods of my life that felt overwhelmingly dark.
I wonder if it’s related to our devotion to/instinct for binary thinking * — which you’ve referred to. I remember an English professor talking about that being a unique feature of western thought and philosophy. I’ve never stopped thinking about that and the way it makes things seem so “wrong” or counterintuitive — our discomfort with contradiction and the way the brain glitches when faced with paradoxical ideas.
I think (? Maybe?)that it’s helped me to realize that binaries are organizational tools, but philosophically and emotionally primitive. Reality is far more complex and tangled.
Accepting that feels a little like falling off a cliff and landing in the incomprehensible expanse of space, so it’s a limited sort of comfort…but I think it’s where truth lives, so it helps me contextualize the brain hiccups.
You, my friend, are able to convey such things with beautiful and spartan language and imagery. When you write about it, you convey this HUGE IDEA, followed by a shrug and a comforting hug, so your readers aren’t left hurtling through space.
*… and also linear thinking which is its own rabbit hole to fall into. 🐰
That's interesting -- I've never pinpointed binary thinking as unique to Western culture. I wonder how I could be adopted into a culture that perceives everything on a continuum. Is it because our central myth (the bible) is essentially a story of binaries? (Or is it?)
I heard a guy at one of Dawn's conferences say that discomfort is the feeling of ignorance leaving your body. (Maybe he was quoting someone, but, either way, I can't attribute it.) Do you think it's a biological imperative to avoid discomfort as much as possible?
Anyway, I'm always glad to hear your thoughts. I wish I heard them more often.
Congratulations! Getting that MFA with children to raise is no easy feat, but so well worth it, as we both know. But no matter what letters you now have after your name, you are and have always been a bona fide writer. You always write, and beautifully. And as I am now 60, 46 and 47 both look pretty damn young to me.
Sorry about health and child concerns, I remind myself with my five kids that they are on their own journeys, per Khalil Gibran in the poem "On Children" in the book "The Prophet." I do all I can to support them but they were born with their soul's agenda. That doesn't make it hurt less, but reminds me not everything is always all my fault.
Thank you friend.
HOORAY for you! Amazing, gifted, brilliant you!