I empty drawers of other summers
First off it feels way to much like fall already. Secondly, I have been super busy with bike events and all that goes along with getting those under way. Thirdly ... is that even a word? Onward as it is sometimes said.
I am burning the candle at both ends and hoping they don't burn into the middle before I can jump off or move out of the way. And as usual there is always more going on than ever meets the eye.
This is from the 37 days website:
"“Xenophobia looks like it is becoming the mass ideology of the 20th-century fin-de-siècle. What holds humanity together today is the denial of what the human race has in common.” -Eric J. Hobsbawm
xenophobia [(zen-uh-foh-bee-uh, zee-nuh-foh-bee-uh)] An unreasonable fear, distrust, or hatred of strangers, foreigners, or anything perceived as foreign or different.
Sometimes we need something to brace our feet against, something to push against. Often times, having something to leverage against is a positive thing; giving my bosses something to say “yes” to was always a strategy of mine. So we often need a wall to push against-but often, too often, I fear that the wall we push against is people who are unlike us. We leverage ourselves off of them. Immigrants, for example, groups unindividualized, fueling our burning fear of becoming a translation nation.
All of us humans tell ourselves stories constantly inside our heads and out-and some of them are that Otherness is a big, mean monster, unsafe-that we must push against it-and not in a good way to create momentum for all, but in that way that leverages others for our own gain. We step on others, “Them,” to make “Us” feel better, look good, rise above. Maybe we should move toward “We” instead. Humans create whole languages or frames of meaning: “axis of evil,” “war on terror,” commodifying the wall to push against. “In a society that has lost its values,” my friend David mentioned when we spoke last week, “fear is its only recourse.” I wonder what would happen if we started being for something, not just against things-and not politically, but as human individuals recalculating our ability to move the faucet by framing the process in “for” units, not “fear” units.
Antonio Tabucchi has said that “Xenophobia manifests itself especially against civilizations and cultures that are weak because they lack economic resources, means of subsistence or land. So nomadic people are the first targets of this kind of aggression.” We push against those unable to push back, or those who do not have things-like oil-that we need. Fear, and the ignorance or not-knowing that often creates it, makes bullies of all of us, it seems."
http://37days.typepad.com/37days/2007/09/x-is-for-xenoph.html#more
Finally - just throwing these out because it is how I feel today...
Think out loud. Say yes. Reach for it - rather than push it away. Seek answers to questions which haven't been formed yet. Turn it over. Embrace the possibilities. Wish for something. Give. Linger. Imagine. And then some. Smile. Plow through the seconds and teeter on the minutes. Whisper. Dig deeper. Hold on. And let go.
See ya peeps.
I am burning the candle at both ends and hoping they don't burn into the middle before I can jump off or move out of the way. And as usual there is always more going on than ever meets the eye.
This is from the 37 days website:
"“Xenophobia looks like it is becoming the mass ideology of the 20th-century fin-de-siècle. What holds humanity together today is the denial of what the human race has in common.” -Eric J. Hobsbawm
xenophobia [(zen-uh-foh-bee-uh, zee-nuh-foh-bee-uh)] An unreasonable fear, distrust, or hatred of strangers, foreigners, or anything perceived as foreign or different.
Sometimes we need something to brace our feet against, something to push against. Often times, having something to leverage against is a positive thing; giving my bosses something to say “yes” to was always a strategy of mine. So we often need a wall to push against-but often, too often, I fear that the wall we push against is people who are unlike us. We leverage ourselves off of them. Immigrants, for example, groups unindividualized, fueling our burning fear of becoming a translation nation.
All of us humans tell ourselves stories constantly inside our heads and out-and some of them are that Otherness is a big, mean monster, unsafe-that we must push against it-and not in a good way to create momentum for all, but in that way that leverages others for our own gain. We step on others, “Them,” to make “Us” feel better, look good, rise above. Maybe we should move toward “We” instead. Humans create whole languages or frames of meaning: “axis of evil,” “war on terror,” commodifying the wall to push against. “In a society that has lost its values,” my friend David mentioned when we spoke last week, “fear is its only recourse.” I wonder what would happen if we started being for something, not just against things-and not politically, but as human individuals recalculating our ability to move the faucet by framing the process in “for” units, not “fear” units.
Antonio Tabucchi has said that “Xenophobia manifests itself especially against civilizations and cultures that are weak because they lack economic resources, means of subsistence or land. So nomadic people are the first targets of this kind of aggression.” We push against those unable to push back, or those who do not have things-like oil-that we need. Fear, and the ignorance or not-knowing that often creates it, makes bullies of all of us, it seems."
http://37days.typepad.com/37days/2007/09/x-is-for-xenoph.html#more
Finally - just throwing these out because it is how I feel today...
Think out loud. Say yes. Reach for it - rather than push it away. Seek answers to questions which haven't been formed yet. Turn it over. Embrace the possibilities. Wish for something. Give. Linger. Imagine. And then some. Smile. Plow through the seconds and teeter on the minutes. Whisper. Dig deeper. Hold on. And let go.
See ya peeps.