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nverland October 22 2007, 11:19:42 UTC
In honesty, I'm saving these back to read when I get the chance to be awake and have time (hectic right now). But I so appreciate you doing this.

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slashfairy October 22 2007, 13:56:41 UTC
If you'd like, I can send you the whole work-up in Word for later.

But that you would look at all moves me to tears. Thank you.

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yellow_oranges October 22 2007, 14:19:11 UTC
I just have a moment to skim...despair without denial...that is incredibly hard. Will come back and read more carefully!

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slashfairy October 22 2007, 15:59:27 UTC
It is really hard. The next parts have to do with validating, feeling, imaging, waiting, and community- the 'five steps' of despair work, of getting from that illusion of isolation to the truth of community.

Thank you for being brave with me. And beautiful icon.

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stormatdusk November 1 2007, 10:50:00 UTC
"we can always come to terms with apocalyptic anxieties in ways which are integrative and liberating"

i guess i knew this deep-down, or you wouldnt love this essay, wouldnt have posted it. but its still good to see it and confirm it, that this is about something empowering, and not just about forcing ourselves to see the futility of... everything.

am on hubbys mac, and every time i try to use an apostrophe, it thinks i want to search the page for something. only happens now and again, i suppose when i inadvertently hit the wrong key, but i dont know how to get it back on track. any ideas?

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slashfairy November 1 2007, 16:09:45 UTC
i have no idea bout the apostrophe thing, mine works just fine.

but yes, innit wonderful to just face it, in company, and start dealing with it?

"this is about something empowering, and not just about forcing ourselves to see the futility of... everything."

exactly.

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stormatdusk December 9 2007, 17:57:51 UTC
The refusal of feeling takes a heavy toll
*points at icon* (i made that as a reminder for myself, not as a directive for others)

One can even feel guilty about it. As Daniel Boorstin noted, failure of home, in a country which was built and nurtured on utopian expectations and which “voraciously demands stronger and deeper faith in it,” can seem un-American, feel like betrayal

“There is nothing more feared and less faced,” writes Jesuit essayist, William Lynch, “than the possibility of despair.”
well, that makes me feel a bit less ashamed at having been putting this off...

Despair is resisted so tenaciously because it represents a loss of control, an admission of powerlessness. Our culture dodges it by demanding instant solutions when problems are raised.let's just get a pill, or google it. it's surely that simple. and since it's surely that simple, let's just not bother addressing it at all. not meaning this in a snarky way. just thinking that that's how our (u.s.) culture tends to handle things, these days. we don't listen, ( ... )

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slashfairy December 10 2007, 05:22:08 UTC
mmm, you've picked out some really good points [well, they all are, but these are good in that they're about how it's striking you, the idea that it can be looked at, approached, that it's hard, that you're not alone].

it is a society-wide, somewhat willing, somewhat unwilling blindness. what despair-work offers is a way to look at the situation without losing one's vision, one's sight, both inner and outer.

thank you for starting this, hon. i know it's scary, but isn't it good?

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