Winter Reading

Haddon  Turner

You Are Limited

If there is an overarching theme to nearly everything I’ve thought and written about in the past ten years, it is this: I’ve received a clear, unavoidable message that I Am Not In Control (and that’s a good thing)* How do I then understand reality and live a good life in this paradigm? Haddon Turner is also thinking about these questions. His essay feels especially relevant in the first cold snap of winter: the first time the snow and ice has stayed on the ground. Winter driving alone makes me very aware of my limitations and those of the people around me. (I approve of AI tools to make driving safer. For me at least, driving a car is a unnatural activity and it makes complete sense that I need to supplement my attention and cognition to do it safely.)

Quote:

“…..The irrevocable limitations of the created order will always be something we come up against — things which cause us to stop and will confound the best of our limitless plans. As long as there is daytime in which we can work, the limitations of the darkness of night will not be far behind. The seasons will always influence (for good or for ill) our labour and health, and the uncontrollable weather will waylay our best plans. And most profoundly, the earth’s spatial, energetic and resource limitations will constrain the heights our economic growth is able to reach. We live on a limited earth. Only a fool forgets this.”

Alex Kaschuta

Cope Springs Eternal

Every time I read a perceptive essay about the illusions and delusions of the internet, I think, This is ironic. Would I be better off not spending time on the internet instead of reading criticisms of it? To some degree, the answer is Yes. But if you are going to use any part of the internet for information or entertainment or connection or commerce, and I assume most people are, including myself, this sort of critique is helpful.

Quote:

“Cope is not about the content, but about the psychological function of consuming it. Both the content that offers options for what you might do, such as interior design, fitness, health, and financial planning, and the content that provides reasons for why you are not doing these things, such as conspiracies, social critique, and, let’s be honest, politics, can serve the function of cope. You might do one of the 176 useful things you’ve scrolled through today, or, even better, you might collect a few more for use in an indeterminate future. You could start looking around for little ways to improve your existence, but when the world is on fire and “improvement” itself is a heteropatriarchal concept or a plot by our gynocentric hypergamous overlords, it seems best to sit tight.”

Heather Heying

Interconnection

An anecdote that is a sort of bookend to my previous blog about politicizing every experience, every relationship, every communication and why that might be not a good idea.

Quote:

“…..My friend feels free to share her anguish with me, because, like so many of our friends and family members, she cannot conceive that I might feel the exact opposite. And that’s a large part of how we got here: Hubris.

We’re so right, many of them have been saying for years now, and we have God on our side. How could any sane person see anything differently than how we see it? And if you do think differently, well, you're just plain wrong, and you’re probably an “ist,” - a racist, a sexist, a misogynist, and especially, our favorite word, a fascist.”

Haddon Turner (again!)

Where You Are Is Where You Are

The quote above mentioned hubris, and Haddon Turner tackles hubris head on here, discussing what should be the main focus of our attention: the local, national, or global? When I look back at my life, I think I have always wanted, consciously or sub consciously, to live my life immersed in local community. But it took a lot of exploring, including time living in places far from my birthplace, to be able to begin to understand how to do that. It wasn’t something I was taught. I would venture this is true of many people born in the last 40-50 years. We learned, directly or indirectly, that we create our identities through consumption, not through participation in local community. 

I also continue to come to terms with the fact that my forebears were fleeing fractured communities (many layers of dislocation) and they did not, most likely could not, (not having experienced it themselves) pass on to me the kind of continuous tradition and coherent identity I have always wanted at some level. I agree with Turner that the local is the correct place to  aim one’s focus most of the time: but myself personally, and undoubtedly many other millions of people, are in their current home because of global forces beyond their control. So understanding who you are now may require also learning a bit about the global. 

Quote:

“You are not responsible for the whole world — far from it. But you are responsible for the local places in front of you: the local people who you relate to, the unique buildings, art, and beauty that you enjoy every day, and the local environments and habitats that surround the place you dwell. Where you are is where you are — and what you are responsible for. This is a burden heavy enough for us. This is a burden that matches our limitations. This is a burden that we can faithfully discharge. And this is a burden that will present us with a lifetime of opportunities for doing good.”

And the last word goes to Paul Kingsnorth: 

The Moses Option

Quote:

I used to believe in Big Movements and Big Ideas. I wrote whole books about them. Not any more. For a long time, I have believed something else instead: that if there is any world-saving to be done - if this notion is not in fact just hubristic and stupid in itself - then it is only going to come from the small, the local and, above all, the spiritual. And if there is no world-saving to be done - well, then our work remains exactly the same.

….And I might as well get on with it.