Jeez let me gather my scattered self and I'll reply...
Ok, deep breath...
First, broke doesn't mean broken!
I am older, I've lived a lifetime of 'broke' and still I refuse to be broken.
I am worn out and I'm tired of being brave too but I am smiling through it, not because it is demanded but because I refuse to be beaten.
“keep all that beautiful gentleness close to your heart, keep those people with hearts that beat in brave unison in close sight, keep the poets and the lovers and the artists and the humble and the kind, keep the quiet waters that run deep, keep that observant eye and the brimming of laughter,”
The Dog has soul, he has wisdom, he knows there is more "smoke from fires" and "wildfires ahead" but in between there is light and love and poetry and trees and oceans and beautiful empathetic people who care like you and me and Lor and Kimberly and Fotini and so very many more...
And there will always be "a slither of burning crimson laying across the western horizon" perhaps not every day but for those days when you and your philosophies and your anxious heart need sustenance!
PS Now I'm just going to wander a while in my own deep forest of quiet reflections. Right after I delete everything I wrote yesterday on the same subject of course, because damn it, this letter is so much more eloquent - as always! Comme on dit en France, soit courageux Jonathan.
Never broken, Susie, I'm far more willow than oak. I’ve got a huge dollop of the “refuse to be beaten” gene too. I know you’ve got it. I can hear it pulsating through your writing. And thank you for the kindness and love. There really are so many beautiful souls here and I'm privileged to know you. I reciprocate all the Love right back atcha :)
I do think all writing can be an exercise in expressing deep feelings, or an attempt to make sense of the complex chaos in which we find ourselves. I’m definitely someone that doesn’t shy away from tackling the foolishness of we humans, as individuals our en masse. Partially I guess because I’m so disappointed in the way we generate so many traumatised individuals and a system of insane values that then manifests in ego-driven attention seeking, destructive behaviours. But I’m also in love with so many individual humans and their extraordinary selfless kindness and intelligence and idiosyncratic ways.
I guess this post is just me trying to prepare myself for what will be a truly sad period of being dragged through history by a group of despicable people from which there is no escape (of course there is, in those loving and beautiful places you mention, but you know what I mean).
Thankfully we that see the beauty are still here to pick up the pieces of what's left when the tantrums have been thrown and the rudder is finally taken back into calmer and more mature hands.
Anyway, lots of warmth from this icy cold Northern crimson light ❤️
I'm imagining us all making sense of the chaos in ice crystals backlit by crimson, the fire, now, just the smouldering embers of disappointment... I think we willows (especially) could rewrite/right the rules...
This is like the wisdom in 'the boy, the mole, the fox and the horse' story which I happened to read to my boy last night. Beautifully expressed, Jonathan. Love the hopeful voice running through the reality we are experiencing.
You're so right Síodhna. I love the Kurt Vonnegut brilliant (and hilarious) thesis, The Shape Of Stories, where he suggests stories have a certain shape. We're only half way through the "A Man In A Hole" shape where basically someone gets into trouble the gets out again. A kind of redemption story I guess. And as you say, we're only half way through coz we're in the "getting in trouble" but and not yet the getting out again. So here's to the next act, the Redemption! ;)
The redemption ✊.. this, what's yet to happen, yes.. the story arc *is* still shaping, and those wise, courageous voices against injustice are emerging, refining…. practicing.
I think you might be able to create a pretty interesting children's story, a parable type thing. Well, I certainly enjoyed that and it echoes exactly my feelings, top to bottom. Editor's note: did you mean slither or sliver? thanks, Jonathan. And that dog, what a beauty.
Damn that's the second time I've Slithered when I should have Slivered! I'm sure it was you who rightly pointed it out last time too. Years of slivers of wood sharpen the the Editors fingers I guess, ouch! I've fixed it now. (Thanks pal).
I'm not surprised we're aligned with our feeling here Wes, crazy world really.
I once had a "slither" punch right the web next to my thumb. You never forget your first really bad sliver.
In our small communities of millennia ago, errant behavior was instantly held accountable by punishment or banishing, all of which kept the behavior on the side of healthy morality.
Forgiveness is a struggle. "They know not what they do," makes it easier. And if they know what they do? Then they are choking on the smoke and can't help themselves on a deeper level? And if they are just Evil? Then forgive them because there is a Evil shaped place in the universe just there for them to fill, just as some others fill up Love shaped places? Is it just the way of things? I don't know. But as the dog says, trying is all we've got, and you my friend are trying, and what else is there?
I read a dog training manual that said "Don't hug your dog. They don't like it." What kind of dog would that be? Not ours, not yours... No dog I have ever known...
Me too, love cats, love the way they see you as an ally rather than a leader. Something so reassuring in their never quite domesticated attitude. Let's always live with fur - on the original owner ;)
Thanks Jonathan for the shout out to cats. My familiar literally came to the front door 14 years ago and since then we have formed an unbreakable bond. (But my sister has a dog whose eyes are pools of carmel love, so there's that.) Praise be to our four-leggeds who are wise beyond us two-leggeds in many ways.
It's strange how animals can be so comfortable in their skin, whilst we manage to feel so alienated from ourselves. Sounds like your cat searched you out, that's quite lovely :)
What an essential, hopeful, yet piercing piece Jonathan. I will return to this sentence again and again, for its stark truth but also for the fragility, the tender vulnerability at its core. “…while we humans might be morality generating creatures, the most dominant and powerful social/economic system on earth is a Trauma Generation Machine. It’s all Fire and Smoke.
I want to believe we are morality driven, and feeling into the legacy of trauma helps me tap into compassion for the messiness of it all. Though it is heart-breaking to feel how that trauma emboldens itself against itself, unknowingly.
The Church of The Dog :) Love it! If I was ti attend a Church this would be the only one 😂
I'm so glad you recognise the hope weaving through this piece Kimberly, there is so often (maybe always) hope in my pieces even when they talk of collapse and loss or whatever. I find thinking of these complex systems in narrative ways much easier. It's so easy to fall into "sides" where repetitive arguments ruin clear thinking. In the near future I think I'll write a few more of these kind of pieces:)
"I am much better at poetically describing the current idiocy than I am at mapping a route to a better place. And what that place might look like is far beyond my capacities to foresee."
There is great wisdom in not intervening at every opportunity. Don't be frustrated for you are part of the flow instead of a rock in the stream. We poets and artists and writers should be mapping the now too. Thanks for being here rena 🙏🏽
I wake today to see the darkness, feathers of a Corvus call and out of a moment of clarity: Eyes.com twists truth sees swim in tidal flow carpe diem in a flash light beam to cross channels to your door without knocking to open the batter that bakes the rising tide with screams to drink Bloody Mary cocktails in drunken wasted ways.
An hour has left a few lines with fingers tip of ice cold cubes floating on the surface. The crow one like the dog a friend that speaks wisdom while the Orwell -ions Zip around atoms of confusion planned to raise drawbridge cords the moat of scapegoat.
The nights may be dark but irradiated i’s and crossed teas Ste tough to drink. But squeeze the tea Lea bag to the last drop. Writing is clear. Hot water boils, but will cool. The crow feathers pen contains the gift of Phoenix flight and ever stroke of the wings flies to the rising sun. Keep flying. The world wide ways are followed with a flock that will find biscuits for the companion Dog.
I return to sleep with dreams to stay covered to keep warm in the coldest times to come. You do the same.
Oh man Richard. I love reading your extraordinary comments. You are a master. I confess to reading them a few tomes before the mists clear and I suddenly see what you are driving at in such poetic ways. Thank you my friend!
There is a mire mist but with fog lights on we drive on to finally get to the point of no return. See you there. Thanks for reading a few times. As I often sift through your words to get to the finer tidbits that show me the best ways to go.
Goodness what a powerful read this is. Of course it’s all because of the wisdom of the dog, if only more people had the wisdom of a dog, we would be so much better off. Your words will stay with me on my walks in the woodlands on Kintyre, just me and my dog, working it out together. What I am learning here on Substack is just home many people are wandering in the woods, or by the sea, or on paths all over the world, chatting to their dogs, getting the complicated stuff of the human world a bit straighter in their heads, so that they can get on with the important stuff of talking to the trees!
Thanks for your wonderful comment Sarah, I think the world would be a better place if only more contemplative walks were taken with wise dogs. Maybe we spearheading a movement :)
Dear Jonathan, so beautifully written, thank you!! The Dog is very wise, and very adorable, too!! We might be only one person, but you aren't thinking in terms of the ripples, Sweets!! There are always ripples. Ripples become legacies. Thanks for sharing! XO
I will hold these words with me today: “In this eternal battle between light and dark. It’s not the choice of what to do, but who you are.”
Also love the mention of Stockholm's old town. I lived in Sweden back in the 80's ( gosh that's a long time ago!) and I still can smell and feel the wonder and beauty of that area. I have Swedish ancestors and relatives so feel very connected to Sweden despite it being so far away from New Zealand. xx
Thanks Jo, I really appreciate your reading and enjoying my writing. I remember a comment of yours from ages ago that was really encouraging so thanks :)
As for NZ and Sweden, in a strange mirroring I used to live in NZ in the 70's/80's! Been back a few times over the years. Lived in CHCH, loved it, formed me in so many ways, beach life in Summer, Mt Hutt, Tekapo, The Remarkables in Winter, walking the Abel Tasman and the Routeburn, hanging about in Takaka and Nelson and Hanmer Springs. The West Coast. Really loved it so also feel connected to NZ (my father still lives there). Things have surely changed (haven't been back for 15 years at least), but the NZ of my very early days was a paradise for me in many ways.
oh wow! Such familiar places - in my neighbourhood esp The Remarkables ( 1 hr away) and the Routeburn which I ran a couple years ago. Where does your father live?
Thanks for sharing such lovely connections Jonathan. ❤️
I grew up in the Auckland area so very familiar with the North Island. If you think Sumner is great you should check out the North Island beaches!
Yes just slow and steady for the Routeburn. It's about 32 km and the main thing is you need to organise with someone to run/ walk from the other end so you can do a car key swap. That way you drive home from the end rather than turning around and running another 32 km back to your car!
Fire and smoke, what a perfect analogy for trauma. I really enjoyed your thoughts on this and their relevance to the US election. It's mind opening to think of it in that way. I agree that humans seek justice, although I've always felt vengeance plays a big part when it's toward someone outside our community. I find humans to be kinder beings when we can 'afford' to be, when we feel comfortable in our own lives. There is so much poverty in the US, trauma as you say, that survival instincts provoke selfishness and protectionism. It's going to take a lot to overcome, a modern-day Robin Hood.
It's not much consolation, really, when things take a step backward, but I try to place the world in the context of deep time (for my own mental wellbeing). Despite everything, I think we've still got it pretty good compared with the violence and inequality that was prevalent in the lives of our ancestors, particularly where justice is concerned. Things aren't perfect, we're deluded to think they'll ever be. But there are tangerine sunsets and forest walks and the knowledge, for those of us that talk to dogs, that what we do does matter, if but in our own spheres.
What a great comment Alia. Agree with you. I might say that in some ways vengeance is bad justice, retaliation for a wrongdoing, a kind of score settling, but that's just hairsplitting and I fully agree that humans dehumanise the "other" for so many feeble and faulty reasons.
I think in complex societies, because of these tendencies, we should create structures that minimise the tendency toward dehumanising, which we could so easily do, yet enforced inequality and poverty (as you say) means we so easily do the opposite.
Thanks Alia, and also I've got your latest about catalysts for change in the queue to read, thought it look really interesting, will get there soon :)
Good, I'll be reading although I'd better get to pt 1 and 2 first then - In the queue, in the queue! (Good planning by the way - I need to get better at that, I'm still trying to work out four hours from now...no wait, that'll be sleep I hope).
Haha, it's a first. I normally only discover what I'm writing about once I sit down and see what words start appearing. When I started writing this one I realised it would be very long, so I decided to split it, and as I only publish fortnightly now, it will take me up to Christmas. So it was lazy planning really :)
Superb -- so with you on the US election being a choice between which kind of trauma people got to buy into and I see that in other places too, though the US writes it large. And amen to all of it -- to a very wise Dog and to the courage to forgive, and some radical gentleness as we breathe in the smoke.
Jeez let me gather my scattered self and I'll reply...
Ok, deep breath...
First, broke doesn't mean broken!
I am older, I've lived a lifetime of 'broke' and still I refuse to be broken.
I am worn out and I'm tired of being brave too but I am smiling through it, not because it is demanded but because I refuse to be beaten.
“keep all that beautiful gentleness close to your heart, keep those people with hearts that beat in brave unison in close sight, keep the poets and the lovers and the artists and the humble and the kind, keep the quiet waters that run deep, keep that observant eye and the brimming of laughter,”
The Dog has soul, he has wisdom, he knows there is more "smoke from fires" and "wildfires ahead" but in between there is light and love and poetry and trees and oceans and beautiful empathetic people who care like you and me and Lor and Kimberly and Fotini and so very many more...
And there will always be "a slither of burning crimson laying across the western horizon" perhaps not every day but for those days when you and your philosophies and your anxious heart need sustenance!
PS Now I'm just going to wander a while in my own deep forest of quiet reflections. Right after I delete everything I wrote yesterday on the same subject of course, because damn it, this letter is so much more eloquent - as always! Comme on dit en France, soit courageux Jonathan.
Never broken, Susie, I'm far more willow than oak. I’ve got a huge dollop of the “refuse to be beaten” gene too. I know you’ve got it. I can hear it pulsating through your writing. And thank you for the kindness and love. There really are so many beautiful souls here and I'm privileged to know you. I reciprocate all the Love right back atcha :)
I do think all writing can be an exercise in expressing deep feelings, or an attempt to make sense of the complex chaos in which we find ourselves. I’m definitely someone that doesn’t shy away from tackling the foolishness of we humans, as individuals our en masse. Partially I guess because I’m so disappointed in the way we generate so many traumatised individuals and a system of insane values that then manifests in ego-driven attention seeking, destructive behaviours. But I’m also in love with so many individual humans and their extraordinary selfless kindness and intelligence and idiosyncratic ways.
I guess this post is just me trying to prepare myself for what will be a truly sad period of being dragged through history by a group of despicable people from which there is no escape (of course there is, in those loving and beautiful places you mention, but you know what I mean).
Thankfully we that see the beauty are still here to pick up the pieces of what's left when the tantrums have been thrown and the rudder is finally taken back into calmer and more mature hands.
Anyway, lots of warmth from this icy cold Northern crimson light ❤️
I'm imagining us all making sense of the chaos in ice crystals backlit by crimson, the fire, now, just the smouldering embers of disappointment... I think we willows (especially) could rewrite/right the rules...
Just a thought for the weekend. 🔥
This is like the wisdom in 'the boy, the mole, the fox and the horse' story which I happened to read to my boy last night. Beautifully expressed, Jonathan. Love the hopeful voice running through the reality we are experiencing.
This is not the end of the story.
You're so right Síodhna. I love the Kurt Vonnegut brilliant (and hilarious) thesis, The Shape Of Stories, where he suggests stories have a certain shape. We're only half way through the "A Man In A Hole" shape where basically someone gets into trouble the gets out again. A kind of redemption story I guess. And as you say, we're only half way through coz we're in the "getting in trouble" but and not yet the getting out again. So here's to the next act, the Redemption! ;)
The redemption ✊.. this, what's yet to happen, yes.. the story arc *is* still shaping, and those wise, courageous voices against injustice are emerging, refining…. practicing.
I think you might be able to create a pretty interesting children's story, a parable type thing. Well, I certainly enjoyed that and it echoes exactly my feelings, top to bottom. Editor's note: did you mean slither or sliver? thanks, Jonathan. And that dog, what a beauty.
Damn that's the second time I've Slithered when I should have Slivered! I'm sure it was you who rightly pointed it out last time too. Years of slivers of wood sharpen the the Editors fingers I guess, ouch! I've fixed it now. (Thanks pal).
I'm not surprised we're aligned with our feeling here Wes, crazy world really.
I once had a "slither" punch right the web next to my thumb. You never forget your first really bad sliver.
In our small communities of millennia ago, errant behavior was instantly held accountable by punishment or banishing, all of which kept the behavior on the side of healthy morality.
Damn dude, that thumb story hurts!
I shot a gun nail right through my right pinky toe after I taped the gun trigger so I could bypass the safety. So much good judgement back then....
Still feeding the dog mushrooms I see..
That really made me laugh :) Clear thought brother, clear thought :)
"...forgive those hearts that beat only for themselves for they are choking on the Fire and the Smoke and they know not what they do..."
Forgiveness, the wise elder with whom I wrestle, speaks through a man and his dog as the sun sets and the winter dawns.
Thank you for putting words to our deepest struggles, Jonathan.
Gotta give credit to the dog too ;)
Thanks Troy, we shall overcome.
Forgiveness is a struggle. "They know not what they do," makes it easier. And if they know what they do? Then they are choking on the smoke and can't help themselves on a deeper level? And if they are just Evil? Then forgive them because there is a Evil shaped place in the universe just there for them to fill, just as some others fill up Love shaped places? Is it just the way of things? I don't know. But as the dog says, trying is all we've got, and you my friend are trying, and what else is there?
Dogs are the wisest of all beings! Here’s to trying!
I read a dog training manual that said "Don't hug your dog. They don't like it." What kind of dog would that be? Not ours, not yours... No dog I have ever known...
Obviously written by a cat! *
Utter nonsense of course, you’re so right Linnea.
(Just kidding cat people:)
I had lots of cats over the years before I finally got dogs. What would we do without our kitty cats, what would we do? We'd live fur free! Snark!
Me too, love cats, love the way they see you as an ally rather than a leader. Something so reassuring in their never quite domesticated attitude. Let's always live with fur - on the original owner ;)
Thanks Jonathan for the shout out to cats. My familiar literally came to the front door 14 years ago and since then we have formed an unbreakable bond. (But my sister has a dog whose eyes are pools of carmel love, so there's that.) Praise be to our four-leggeds who are wise beyond us two-leggeds in many ways.
It's strange how animals can be so comfortable in their skin, whilst we manage to feel so alienated from ourselves. Sounds like your cat searched you out, that's quite lovely :)
What an essential, hopeful, yet piercing piece Jonathan. I will return to this sentence again and again, for its stark truth but also for the fragility, the tender vulnerability at its core. “…while we humans might be morality generating creatures, the most dominant and powerful social/economic system on earth is a Trauma Generation Machine. It’s all Fire and Smoke.
I want to believe we are morality driven, and feeling into the legacy of trauma helps me tap into compassion for the messiness of it all. Though it is heart-breaking to feel how that trauma emboldens itself against itself, unknowingly.
I will worship at the Church of Dog with you.
The Church of The Dog :) Love it! If I was ti attend a Church this would be the only one 😂
I'm so glad you recognise the hope weaving through this piece Kimberly, there is so often (maybe always) hope in my pieces even when they talk of collapse and loss or whatever. I find thinking of these complex systems in narrative ways much easier. It's so easy to fall into "sides" where repetitive arguments ruin clear thinking. In the near future I think I'll write a few more of these kind of pieces:)
"I am much better at poetically describing the current idiocy than I am at mapping a route to a better place. And what that place might look like is far beyond my capacities to foresee."
Me too. Frustrated.
There is great wisdom in not intervening at every opportunity. Don't be frustrated for you are part of the flow instead of a rock in the stream. We poets and artists and writers should be mapping the now too. Thanks for being here rena 🙏🏽
The rock in the stream diverts the flow, channels, slows, erodes a different path. See the stream, ride the rapids.
A big hug to you and the dog!
Thanks, we accept hugs the dog and I :)
Next time you go deep into the woods give me a call :) My heart will fly to you.
🙏🏽 💚 Thank you my friend. When you hear a whistle coming from the far far North, that'll be us :)
I wake today to see the darkness, feathers of a Corvus call and out of a moment of clarity: Eyes.com twists truth sees swim in tidal flow carpe diem in a flash light beam to cross channels to your door without knocking to open the batter that bakes the rising tide with screams to drink Bloody Mary cocktails in drunken wasted ways.
An hour has left a few lines with fingers tip of ice cold cubes floating on the surface. The crow one like the dog a friend that speaks wisdom while the Orwell -ions Zip around atoms of confusion planned to raise drawbridge cords the moat of scapegoat.
The nights may be dark but irradiated i’s and crossed teas Ste tough to drink. But squeeze the tea Lea bag to the last drop. Writing is clear. Hot water boils, but will cool. The crow feathers pen contains the gift of Phoenix flight and ever stroke of the wings flies to the rising sun. Keep flying. The world wide ways are followed with a flock that will find biscuits for the companion Dog.
I return to sleep with dreams to stay covered to keep warm in the coldest times to come. You do the same.
Oh man Richard. I love reading your extraordinary comments. You are a master. I confess to reading them a few tomes before the mists clear and I suddenly see what you are driving at in such poetic ways. Thank you my friend!
There is a mire mist but with fog lights on we drive on to finally get to the point of no return. See you there. Thanks for reading a few times. As I often sift through your words to get to the finer tidbits that show me the best ways to go.
It is my pleasure Richard, it really is.
Goodness what a powerful read this is. Of course it’s all because of the wisdom of the dog, if only more people had the wisdom of a dog, we would be so much better off. Your words will stay with me on my walks in the woodlands on Kintyre, just me and my dog, working it out together. What I am learning here on Substack is just home many people are wandering in the woods, or by the sea, or on paths all over the world, chatting to their dogs, getting the complicated stuff of the human world a bit straighter in their heads, so that they can get on with the important stuff of talking to the trees!
Thanks for your wonderful comment Sarah, I think the world would be a better place if only more contemplative walks were taken with wise dogs. Maybe we spearheading a movement :)
We walk united:)
Dear Jonathan, so beautifully written, thank you!! The Dog is very wise, and very adorable, too!! We might be only one person, but you aren't thinking in terms of the ripples, Sweets!! There are always ripples. Ripples become legacies. Thanks for sharing! XO
Thanks so much Danielle, the dog nods in gratitude too. May we surf the ripples to wonderful legacies :)
Sage advice from Dog ... thank you for this ✨️
My pleasure Christine, thank you for reading and engaging. The Dog is a wise soul for sure :)
This is a beautiful piece Jonathan. Thank you.
I will hold these words with me today: “In this eternal battle between light and dark. It’s not the choice of what to do, but who you are.”
Also love the mention of Stockholm's old town. I lived in Sweden back in the 80's ( gosh that's a long time ago!) and I still can smell and feel the wonder and beauty of that area. I have Swedish ancestors and relatives so feel very connected to Sweden despite it being so far away from New Zealand. xx
Thanks Jo, I really appreciate your reading and enjoying my writing. I remember a comment of yours from ages ago that was really encouraging so thanks :)
As for NZ and Sweden, in a strange mirroring I used to live in NZ in the 70's/80's! Been back a few times over the years. Lived in CHCH, loved it, formed me in so many ways, beach life in Summer, Mt Hutt, Tekapo, The Remarkables in Winter, walking the Abel Tasman and the Routeburn, hanging about in Takaka and Nelson and Hanmer Springs. The West Coast. Really loved it so also feel connected to NZ (my father still lives there). Things have surely changed (haven't been back for 15 years at least), but the NZ of my very early days was a paradise for me in many ways.
oh wow! Such familiar places - in my neighbourhood esp The Remarkables ( 1 hr away) and the Routeburn which I ran a couple years ago. Where does your father live?
Thanks for sharing such lovely connections Jonathan. ❤️
Well hats off to you Jo, running that route is hard core 🙌
He moved to the North Island in 2011, just before the earthquake. Well done on RUNNING the Routeburn, that's quite a feat Jo, Amazing.
I grew up in the Auckland area so very familiar with the North Island. If you think Sumner is great you should check out the North Island beaches!
Yes just slow and steady for the Routeburn. It's about 32 km and the main thing is you need to organise with someone to run/ walk from the other end so you can do a car key swap. That way you drive home from the end rather than turning around and running another 32 km back to your car!
a hushed sigh...
an escaped tear.
immense gratitude.
namasté Jonathan
🙏🏽 💚
Fire and smoke, what a perfect analogy for trauma. I really enjoyed your thoughts on this and their relevance to the US election. It's mind opening to think of it in that way. I agree that humans seek justice, although I've always felt vengeance plays a big part when it's toward someone outside our community. I find humans to be kinder beings when we can 'afford' to be, when we feel comfortable in our own lives. There is so much poverty in the US, trauma as you say, that survival instincts provoke selfishness and protectionism. It's going to take a lot to overcome, a modern-day Robin Hood.
It's not much consolation, really, when things take a step backward, but I try to place the world in the context of deep time (for my own mental wellbeing). Despite everything, I think we've still got it pretty good compared with the violence and inequality that was prevalent in the lives of our ancestors, particularly where justice is concerned. Things aren't perfect, we're deluded to think they'll ever be. But there are tangerine sunsets and forest walks and the knowledge, for those of us that talk to dogs, that what we do does matter, if but in our own spheres.
That's for sharing your thoughts, Jonathan :)
What a great comment Alia. Agree with you. I might say that in some ways vengeance is bad justice, retaliation for a wrongdoing, a kind of score settling, but that's just hairsplitting and I fully agree that humans dehumanise the "other" for so many feeble and faulty reasons.
I think in complex societies, because of these tendencies, we should create structures that minimise the tendency toward dehumanising, which we could so easily do, yet enforced inequality and poverty (as you say) means we so easily do the opposite.
Thanks Alia, and also I've got your latest about catalysts for change in the queue to read, thought it look really interesting, will get there soon :)
Absolutely, I agree with you on vengeance. I didn't articulate it very well, but I feel humans are satisfied with 'bad justice' much of the time.
Your second paragraph is, funnily enough, what part three of my current essay will be about. It won't be out for 4 weeks, but it's coming 😂
What a relief! I’m also usually a spectator in the process. Oh look, I’m writing this. Not always. But a lot.
Its working for you though, I enjoy your writing so keep lazy planning 😉
Good, I'll be reading although I'd better get to pt 1 and 2 first then - In the queue, in the queue! (Good planning by the way - I need to get better at that, I'm still trying to work out four hours from now...no wait, that'll be sleep I hope).
Haha, it's a first. I normally only discover what I'm writing about once I sit down and see what words start appearing. When I started writing this one I realised it would be very long, so I decided to split it, and as I only publish fortnightly now, it will take me up to Christmas. So it was lazy planning really :)
Superb -- so with you on the US election being a choice between which kind of trauma people got to buy into and I see that in other places too, though the US writes it large. And amen to all of it -- to a very wise Dog and to the courage to forgive, and some radical gentleness as we breathe in the smoke.
Thanks so much Jan, I’m so glad you found an affinity with this piece. I hope you get a chance to read some older pieces too. Welcome welcome 🙏🏼