Tag Archives: philosophy
Weekly Photo Challenge: Future Tense
The challenge for this week is Future Tense. I admit, thinking about the future often makes me tense, anxious, sometimes panicky. I have a vivid imagination and a lot of irrational fears. And I’m working on breathing, living in the present moment, all those Buddhist practices that address those thought patterns that Western Pragmatism put into my head. The OMG! your children, your finances, your health, your retirement….you must have a PLAN for the future, you must be PREPARED, if you’re not anxious, you obviously haven’t grasped the situation!!!! There are DANGERS out there in life!
Do you think life is something to be feared? Do you think life is a wonderful adventure, naturally unfolding, peaceful and harmonious and without judgment? How do you want to live your life? You have a choice.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Lost in the Details
This week’s photo challenge is hosted by a nature photographer. His shot of an icy falls reminds me of some that I took at Wehr Nature Center…and for that reason, I want to go in a different direction. (Yes, I fear comparison!)
“Lost in the Details” is an interesting posture. Are you forgetting the big picture? Are you so overwhelmed that you are purposely choosing to downscale? Or are you simply appreciating the most minute things in wonder? Details… are they petty? or pretty?
This would be a great theme for macrophotography. Unfortunately, I don’t have the lens. Here’s one detail shot that I’ve posted before that I like:
And here’s one that I took this Wednesday after our latest snow storm:
I enjoy details…and I always want to be reminded to look up! (or as my mother would quote from her Girl Scout leader days, “Look wider still.”)
Examining Entitlement – the “Feed and Frustrate Formula”
I am working on finding The Middle Way in my life and on communicating what I can of that journey to anyone who might find that helpful…with my own children in mind as always. The other day, I came up with a phrase that I am finding useful in describing the continuum of experiences needed to grow and develop as a person: “Feed and Frustrate”. We all need a certain amount of feeding, starting in infancy when we are in our most dependent phase, and continuing through adulthood. We have physical needs, emotional needs, and intellectual needs. How do you determine what is a ‘need’ and what is a ‘want’ and what that certain amount actually is? That’s a good question and leads to examining entitlement, which I will get to in a moment. I want to take a look now at the other end of the continuum and describe our need for frustration.
Frustration, challenge, resistance, a force up against we must push is a very necessary part of development. Consider the emergence of a butterfly from its cocoon. Many well-meaning folks have discovered a curious thing. If, in their effort to be kind to animals, they assist a butterfly in its struggle to free itself from the structures surrounding it, the insect will weaken and die. The butterfly needs the activity of straining to get fluids moving to its wings, to strengthen them for flight and to dry them out. A similar thing happens if you facilitate a chick in hatching from an egg. The work to chip away at the shell, the time and effort it takes to accomplish that task on its own, is vital to the chick’s health and makes it more robust. Without that hindrance, the chick remains weak. We need to frustrate our children and ourselves enough to stimulate our ability to access our own strengths.
Working out the balance of feeding and frustrating is a lifelong endeavor. I find myself looking at my adult children and wondering how I did as a parent. I became a mom at the tender age of 22 and felt all those biological and hormonal urges to protect, provide, nurture, and “spoil” my kids. I also had a pragmatic sense of limitations. My mom might say that’s the Scotch in me. I am frugal. My kids call me “cheap and weird”. I’m not sure I had a notion of the value of frustration, even though I’m sure I frustrated my kids unintentionally anyway. So, they didn’t get everything they wanted, but I’m not sure I taught them a “work ethic” or a “frustration ethic” very well. I am not sure if my parents taught me that, either. Regardless, the responsibility of developing that ethic is my own. It is the responsibility of each individual to examine their ideas of entitlement and challenge themselves to develop the resources necessary to achieve their goals.
I like to learn through story and art. I think of examples of characters who live out their “feed and frustrate” scenarios and find some tales to be inspiring, some to be cautionary. Too much feeding as well as too much frustration can lead to helplessness and hopelessness. One story I’ve been following lately is that of a young man who is an NBA basketball player in his second year as a pro. I like watching Jimmy Butler play. He has the kind of untapped strength that seems to increase with the number of challenges he’s given. While his teammates recover from injury, he gets to play more minutes, and he seems to be growing up before my eyes. I did some background checking and learned that he was abandoned by his father as an infant and kicked out of his mother’s house when he was 13. A friend’s mom eventually took him into her home and gave him some strict rules to follow…and he blossomed. The feed/frustrate formula made him confident in his ability to improve himself, which he keeps on demonstrating on the basketball court.
This idea is not only pertinent to individual lives, but also to systems. Politically and economically, how are we balancing the feed and frustrate formula in order to support a robust society? Are we giving too much assistance? Are we giving too little? It’s a good thing to re-evaluate over time.
So, perhaps I’ve given you something to think about. How do you see the feed/frustrate balance in your life? Where do you think an adjustment might help? If you’re a writer, what is happening on this level in the story you’re working on now? How does that dynamic work in your characters’ lives? Thanks for listening to me hash out my thoughts!
And one more point. “Ahem! This theory, which is mine…” footnote reference to Monty Python sketch featuring Miss Ann Elk...I own it and it’s mine. I might use it in an article or something. If this gives you an Aha! moment and you want to share it, please reference this blog post. Thanks for your respect!
Weekly Photo Challenge: Beyond
Do you have a photo which invites the viewer to look beyond? Are there hidden depths in the background? Is the focal point just a framing for the rest of the picture? If it’s not clear why we should look beyond, tell us! Lead us through the story in your photo.
December 22, 2012, just at dusk. I am upstairs, in bed, cold, alone. The world did not end, even though the sun is far away. I feel disconnected from warmth. I look out my window. The neighbors advertise their jolly associations, but I do not belong to that club. I look beyond…the sky is aflame, fire licks around the turquoise expanse of our atmosphere, the sun invites me to the outer edges of my vision. There is the belonging, there the community, there the warmth. Beyond. The Universe is bigger than we imagine, and so are we.
Beyond
Winter Holy Days
The world did not end yesterday. We are in a new cycle, heading closer to the Sun once more.
In years past, I would have spent this day at an Episcopal church, practicing with the choir, ushering my children through the Christmas pageant, greeting friends, and sneaking private moments in the candlelit darkness whispering devotions to Jesus and His Father. I would have sent more than a hundred letters through the mail to people far and wide with Scriptural messages and personal anecdotes illustrating the great salvific actions of the Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer of the world. I would have asked for and promised prayers for numerous specific ailments and misfortunes. I would have spoken and written my heartfelt greetings using words like “blessings”, “gifts”, “faith”, “Emmanuel” and “Savior”.
This year is different.
I have no tree; I have no gifts wrapped and waiting; I have not sung a hymn or carol; I have no creche with empty manger awaiting the figure of a baby. I am the same person, though, with the same heart and breath and life blood. I use a different language now to try to express my deepest hope for peace and love to rule my life and the lives of those with whom I share this planet. I no longer profess to know a single Truth; I no longer presume to belong to a select portion of humanity; I no longer pretend that the concepts in my brain adequately reflect very much at all of reality.
The posture I hope to adopt is openness. To face the world, the people in it, the marvel of change and mystery beyond my control, without hiding behind a mask or label or system, is a severe challenge. Had I not already buried a husband, fledged a flock of four, sold a home I had for 20 years, and left employment, I might not believe that I could live without clinging to conventional structure. I test my ability to be flexible, graceful, alive and aware every day. I hope to learn. I hope to grow. I hope to love the world (and myself) more genuinely as I do. This is my holy quest, and every day is a holiday. I celebrate the mingling of material and spirit, the incarnation of life in the substances of Earth. I will eat and drink and hug the bodies of people I love with festive joy as before – but differently.
I include the entire Universe in this celebration. Yes, this means you! Peace to you all. Love, joy, humility and grace be with us all together….scillagrace.
U.S.A. Evolving
The 2012 presidential election is over, swept up like confetti in the parade of change and movement. The conservative, religious, wealthy White male was defeated…for the second time. This seems to be frightening a lot of people. Our nation was founded and shaped by those types. Isn’t that what America is supposed to be? Or is America “The Melting Pot”? Is evolution, change and movement something to resist, or something to embrace? Why?
Fear is a powerful agent. Safety is a motivator. Primal survival instincts are very active in our social species. However, the history of the planet shows that species evolve, they change, they adapt to the environment, and they die out. It’s natural. Is it acceptable? Can you accept that your country, your “club” and your family will change? Elements that may threaten you WILL be introduced. How do you respond? How do you want to respond? Who do you want to be? The “fighter”? The “opposer”? The peacemaker? The tolerater? Do you change along with the rest of the Universe…or do you go down stubborn as plastic into the landfill?
You can probably guess my preference. I want to be mulch. I believe something beautiful will always grow.
All the best, America! Be joyful and courageous in change and movement!
Detail: Aldo Leopold’s shack
Weekly Photo Challenge: Mine
What do we really possess? What possesses us? What is “me” all about?
For years I called this place “my prairie”. I do not own the land; I think it belongs to the village park district. I cannot even claim to own land in the neighborhood any more, as I moved out of state almost 2 years ago. But I associate some of my deepest “me” moments with this place. I walked into this prairie, with a feeling of reverence and retreat as if I were entering my personal sanctuary, on a regular basis while I was living nearby. I was in the midst of raising 4 children, nursing a dying husband, and striving to grow mature in those 20 years. My sense of identity, my sense of spirit and of sanctity and of God were all shaped by the time I spent here. I felt the place “talk” to me, as changes in weather, flora and fauna taught me to observe and ponder the significance of transience and transcendence. I cannot say that anything here is “mine”, really, but much of me will always belong with this place.
How to Be Awesome
I’m transitioning to another phase in life. My job as an interpreter at Old World Wisconsin is ending for the season. Working for minimum wage at a living history museum was one of the most awesome choices I’ve ever made. I decided to spend my time doing something that I found interesting and valuable instead of compromising my satisfaction to make a bigger paycheck. However, I want to do better. I want to do something even more significant and important with my time and energy, something more socially responsible, more environmentally responsible, more philosophically moral. I don’t know what that will turn out to be… yet. A blogger friend posted this Oprah quote and got me thinking: “Luck is when preparation meets opportunity.” (Thanks, Susan from skedazzles!) I want to prepare myself for my next awesome choice and make sure that I am open and aware of opportunities. Something will undoubtedly fall into my lap. As I was talking to Steve about this, we were actually living an example. Here’s what happened…
Driving home from the grocery store, I noticed a black Labrador trotting down the street toward the park without an owner in sight. After I’d unpacked the groceries and made lunch, I heard a woman calling outside. I went out to ask if she was looking for a black dog. She was, and I told her where I’d seen it. About a half hour later, Steve and I went out to take a walk. The woman was still looking for the dog; she told us that it belonged to her niece who lives around the corner from us at a house with a “For Sale by Owner” sign. So we went walking in the direction of the park. We heard someone calling a dog down by the river and learned that another couple was looking for a German shepherd named Corky. We told them that there was also a lab named Drake on the loose. We resumed our walk. A little while later, it started raining, and we headed back toward home. We saw Corky’s folks turning their van into an adjacent park across the street. They called to us and told us they’d found the lab down by the bridge. They hadn’t found Corky yet, though. When we got to the bridge, there was Drake, secured to a post by a leash, presumably donated by Corky’s folks. So we untied him and walked him home. By then, it was pouring. About a block from home, a car was driving slowly down the street. I guessed it was the woman looking for Drake. She was incredibly excited and pleased to see us leading the dog homeward. Her niece was at work on her first day back from maternity leave and had asked her aunt to let the dog out at lunch. Now I imagine this young mother, worried about leaving her dog and baby and going back to work. I’m soaking wet, but loading the dog into auntie’s car, I felt awesome. I had been out in my neighborhood, just paying attention to my surroundings, and was able to help someone out. I wasn’t trying very hard at all, but I was open to events as they unfolded. It was a very satisfactory afternoon.
Outside of the Box
System, structure, dogma, convention, party line, category, pigeon-hole. There are all kinds of ways to get living beings corralled into something that some authority will find manageable. And then there are those of us who defy this kind of tidy dismissal. Here are two examples that I photographed on my walk yesterday:
