Drug Companies & Stuff

31 December, 2005

Okay, so the shopping is over for now and while we all protest that we can't stand the commerciality of the season, and certainly the crowds, lines, prices, searching are a pain, don't we realize on some level what a priviledge and a pleasure it is to have these holiday hassles? A family at our school had nothing this year and we were all asked to contribute something for their kids and single mom. What would it be like to have nothing to offer your kids as they witness this blizzard of marketing and Christmas myth making? What would it be like to have no food to celebrate with your family the "bounty" of the season? We complain about left overs for weeks, the extra pounds added by nogs and chocolate yule logs and hours watching the "bowls." What a "cushioned" life (per Pinter) we have, though! Let's remember to acknowledge our inner hoarders who need to insure a stash of stuff for the long times of famine/drought/psychological emptiness. We are, after all, still animals with basic biological & psychological drives for self-preservation. It's just the credit card has replaced the spear and we need to keep it sharpened.

And when we rant about the drug companies and their price gouging and corrupt ways of covering up faulty test results and un-claimed risk factors, how many of us haven't benefited from an allergy pill, a clot-busting blood thinner, an aspirin? Yes, many companies have been revealed for their less than honest practises, but we must remember that the boards of directors of most companies are not out to help humanity, but to make money. Most of this commodity driven economy is about making money and if we keep mindful of that every day we can make better choices.

C.S. Lewis admonishes us in Narnia to keep our eyes open. This is the only way to keep beauty and truth in our lives, because every day, as you wade through the hwejsh (dont' know how to spell this great Arabic word for stuff/misha-gosh) of existing in a self conscious culture, that you can keep nourished and alive. In "Gadjo Dilo" the journey is the destination as much as any other theme in this touching gypsy portrait.

Keep an eye on the brilliant colors of their women's skirts against the drab landscape of their world and you can get carried away by dance, music and voice.

Gracias a la vida!

Rites & Rituals

3o December, 2005

I wonder if we need more ritualitzed, physical experiences of rites of passage, even (or especially) in this modern world. The trauma of a painful transformation can re-shape your worldview and if it helps you leave behind the old will that help build the new? Or do we lose too much in the process? Does the childlike self completely dis-integrate or can one re-eintegrate those vital necessary parts? The creativeity, sense of wonder, oae, unbridled appreciation and enthusiasm, inquisitiveness, daring, fearlessness we should want to keep but add to some rewsponsibility, caution, awareness, compassoin, long term perspective, those mature skills which guide adulthood.

Does dance, in distinct moments, allow tha tphysical transformation, like sports, sex, violence all release the built up tension of repressed needs un answered? We should let the child out more.

Narnia reminded me of those archetypes we forget about, how important it is to honor those heroes we are programmed to at least strive to become.

A New Place

12/28/05

To present a different face to the world, to better access those shadow selves, here's a place to be mindful of how others might see you and how one might choose to present oneself in a chosen reality.

On NPR today, a story about tatoos and scarring as parts of rites of passage. Reading about Mythology and the role of these physical experiences makes me wonder if we don't still needs those exercizes as we travel through life stages. The idea of pain and "let petits morts" that we must (must we?) experience to give birth to new life is slightly anathema to my perception of being an American these days, where I see a desire to just pick and choose from a perceived smorgasbord of pleasures, experiences, partners, materials. Yes, out of death comes life, but what do you choose to kill off in the quest for a better fit in the world?

We are encouraged to stick with the word "I" in this nation. But in so doing, how much harm is done? Can we remember to see ourselves as others do in our daily interactions. At a recent wedding, the priest encouraged us to look at the classic Western Vows: "I take you as my husband/wife." But in Spanish they say, "Me entrego a ti," I link myself to you. Could we not say: "I walk side by side with you"?

Another commentator's admonition that we should lie less in reference to many leaders made me consider the role of dissembling on a personal level. Don't we all lie to ourselves every day, just to get out of the house? Do we hold our leaders to higher standards than ourselves? Aren't we lying when we complain about our corrupt culture but continue to buy, literally and figuratively, into it? Do we really take the time to understand the complexities of the issues we rant about? If you're not willing to the full price for a tomatoe picked by a minimum wage worker, then aren't you lying when you say you're against illegal immigration? When you say you love your spouse but are never emotionally present for them, isn't that a lie as well? When someone feels rage burbling up and decides to stuff it back down with a half quart of vanilla ice cream, isn't that denial of a feeling a lie to one's self as well? Which lies are more costly? Those of a corporate thief whose malfeasance costs thousands their pension funds or the patriarch of a family whose tyranny sculpts generations of dysfunctional families? Mine or yours? Who knows? "The shadow does."