Mass Media And Advertising

We are inundated with propaganda! Everyday! With financially based motives often involving perpetuation of fear, where do we go to get information with integrity and honesty at the core? (This includes our local, state, and federal governments.) I don’t have the answer; I know, though, it is imperative that we remain conscious and maintain our critical thinking and instincts.

Political Reflection

With the 2016 election results, I felt utterly horrified. However, unlike many other people including friends, I knew I would not be rocked deeply to my core day in and day out of the term. This type of destructive character with bravado and a relentless drive to win no matter what the costs was very familiar, as well as the systems in place that support and condone inherent egregious behavior. Years of divorce proceedings groomed me to withstand relentless bombardment of sexism, patriarchy, elitism, and injustice, all cornerstones of our judicial system. As I worked to rise through the oppression, my container for holding varying degrees of emotions simultaneously expanded greatly. So did my awareness, strength of character and resilience. And often during this ordeal starting in 2009, I acknowledged Barack Obama, a President with elegance, wisdom, intelligence, and fortitude, and felt gratitude for a reprieve of not worrying about the direction of our country too.

With the changing of the guard, I found myself quietly saying to myself and my therapist, now everyone is going to have to figure out how to stay stable and sane because I knew what was in store for us.

Into The Fire

Hit The Road Jack

Feeling inspired this beautiful morning and excited about possibility and turning this ship around, I logged onto Spotify and repeatedly played Ray Charles’ version. I fervently hope that this song title will mark the occasion and triumph of going forward.

Zen Artist Board

I love this birthday gift from my son! The sequence is painting an image with water and observing its disappearance. According to Zen Life, “With the Zen Artist Board you can watch your stress disappear right before your eyes. It’s as simple as dipping the brush into a bit of water then putting the brush onto the board. Leave your worries behind as you unleash your inner child and bring your artistic creations to life. Within a few minutes the image will disappear and you can create your next masterpiece”.

In an “Aha” moment, I realized this Artist Board and quick, creative process of usually text-based images, mirror life which is impermanence. There’s always movement and nothing stays the same - Ever! With varying degrees of ease and difficulty, this is a daily, working practice of acknowledging impermanence as a given, remembering to breathe deep, and letting go into what is so I don’t suffer from the grasping of attachments. Essentially, be here now. To be continued.

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Swirl Again

I’ve been zooming along working to stay above the intensity of the collective fray. However, starting with last weekend and for 6 days, I dipped emotionally and found my mind swirling in a downward cycle of unhealthy, negative thought patterns. When this happens, it’s usually because of fear based on regrets from past decisions and/or what the future and unknown hold. This morning, day 7, I woke up with a positive, ready-to-begin again frame of mind, determined to recognize the fear yet avoid succumbing to its trap. As an energetic gesture of confirmation, I immediately stripped my bed of the linens, threw them into the washer and dryer, and ironed each piece.

I understand the swirl was a necessary part of the process of deeper awareness. I continue to learn that positive mental habits surely lead to a shift in perspective and emotions allowing for showing up with a bigger heart, kindness, compassion for myself and others, and living in the moment. And, although I may experience moments of feeling defeated, I AM not defeated! I always bounce back with greater strength and resolve.

HBO Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel

Last night I watched Monday’s 10/20/20 episode S26Ep9. The 1st segment featured young gamers, the 2nd a prisoner and art called “Fairway to Freedom”, and the 3rd a former pro football player with ALS. I found each to be incredibly compelling on so many levels and further confirmation that each of us comes into this lifetime with a destiny and right conditions and circumstances to foster it. I went to sleep appreciating the movement and feeling inspired once again.

The Social Dilemma

This documentary on Netflix was both informative and uncomfortable to watch. Per Wikipedia, it “explores the rise of social media and the damage it has caused to society, focusing on its exploitation of its users for financial gain through surveillance capitalism and data mining, how its design is meant to nurture an addiction, its use in politics, its effect on mental health, and its role in spreading conspiracy theories”.

Key former employees of Google and Facebook were interviewed, all vying for changing the tech business model of manipulation, “attention extraction”, and pervasive data grabbing in order to grow profits each quarter. Again, as with so many realms of our society, new paradigms and systems are needed for the well-being of people and the planet.

Ironically, as a counterpart, I paused and then started watching Emily in Paris, a Netflix series of 10 episodes, with a theme being the power of social media. I was hooked immediately with the frivolity, romance, exciting fashion, characters, and beautiful Parisian backdrop. After watching a number of them consecutively, I suddenly realized I fell for the “user” trap and “attention extraction”. It can happen so quickly!

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Vale

A noun - “The world, or mortal or earthly life: this vale of tears”. (Dictionary.com word of the day 9/10/20.)

“How is vale used? All he really wanted to do in company was to make jokes, to turn the world upside down and laugh at it, to enrich and enliven this vale of tears with a little fantasy.”

Further, “As Keats witnessed more and more suffering—his brother Tom’s death; the infectious illnesses sweeping London—he connected his aesthetic vision to lived experience, and wrote in a letter that life is “a vale of soul-making: Do you not see how necessary a world of pains and troubles is to school an intelligence and make it a soul?” (Meghan O’Rourke, “Americans Have To Accept Uncertainty,” The Atlantic, May 6, 2020.)

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