As always - so glad you continue to share this aspect of the spiritual path with your readers- so much truth and kindness about the ever present and endless path of awakening consciousness.
When the reading is finished there is a smile and a lightness and a nod of recognition! Thanks, dear one. Love you back...The Universe Appearing as Annette
I appreciated this newsletter, and REALLY appreciated the Youtube link. I really resonated with this conversation. I have been feeling so frustrated as a CIS white woman who always tries to be an ally, and as a person who is open and curious to the full range of human experience. But I am frustrated by the culture of oppressing the oppressor that's abundant right now. There are assumptions thrown my way about my own lived experience that are entirely based on my skin color, age and sexual preference. I want to understand, but, predictably, being silenced is just creating anger and frustration in me. But I also don't buy in to the toxic backlash against "woke culture". AND, on top of it, I have been in a loop of "addiction" around my spiritual practice, and this really woke me up to that fact. Thanks, Joan!
I hear you. I'm a long-time progressive leftist who was once in the radical anti-imperialist left, but I feel increasingly homeless politically. I've been waking up from wokeism. I first used the term woke to indicate something positive, but now I use it for everything I find off on the left and in the Democratic Party. But for many years, I was totally encapsulated in the left-wing bubble, listening to MSNBC and Democracy Now, and basically being a very dogmatic and self-righteous leftist.
I think the shift in my political allegiance began with the start of BLM (Black Lives Matter), and my sense that they were often jumping to false conclusions and pushing a narrative that I thought was in part questionable. Of course I abhor racism and police brutality, but I felt that racism was being seen in some cases where it didn’t exist. I disliked the vengeful and divisive spirit. I felt racial identity was being strengthened rather than weakened. I began listening to Coleman Hughes, John McWhorter, Glenn Loury, Thomas Chatterton Williams, Thomas Sowell and other black intellectuals (conservative and progressive) who questioned or disagreed with the way the left and BLM were seeing and dealing with racism.
Progressive friends who taught in universities began describing to me the stifling atmosphere there of political correctness from the left and the extreme intolerance to diverse views. I saw liberal professors being driven out of their jobs for questioning some aspect of woke ideology, and I learned about cancel culture and de-platforming people. I saw people being falsely branded as white supremacists or bigots for ridiculous reasons. I saw how mobs of woke students refused to let people speak whose views they had decided were incorrect.
I began to question this woke ideology more and more—the emphasis on identity politics, the particular way that race and gender are being taught in schools now, the outrageous practice of actually changing the words in published books to make them more “politically correct,” the whole idea of microaggressions and trigger warnings, ideological capture influencing scientific research and medical practice, censorship, the whole notion of equity rather than equality, the demand for reparations and defunding the police, diversity defined solely as different skin colors, genders and sexual orientations rather than also as a diversity of perspectives and views, and so on.
And then I read Abigail Shrier’s book Irreversible Damage. As a gender non-conforming lesbian who enthusiastically supports gender fluidity and who seriously considered a gender transition myself, I had only positive feelings about the increasing acceptance of transgender people. I initially thought it was great that children who felt they were in the wrong sex were being allowed to socially transition. Shrier’s book woke me up. She looks into the damage being done to children by the now prevailing “gender affirming care” model that includes sometimes giving puberty blockers and cross sex hormones to children and teenagers who express gender dysphoria. She describes the ways that being trans has become a trendy fad amongst many teenagers, leading many of these young people into irreversible medical transitions and then often into painful attempts at de-transitioning.
I was shocked to discover that trans activists tried to ban her book from sale on Amazon, most of them never having read it. It seemed to me like a very reasonable and well-researched book that was in no way transphobic or against trans people. Many other people, some of them trans, confirmed what Shrier reported. The UK and many Europen countries have been waking up and moving away from this approach of automatically “affirming” a child’s sense that they are in the wrong sex and then often medically transitioning them, but this approach is still quite entrenched in the US. The trans movement seems to have captured major medical institutions and the Democratic Party.
Anyway, I could go on....but I'm with Shiv and Robert that something is way off here. And now I endeavor to listen to voices on both the left and the right. One person I tune into occasionally now is Megyn Kelly, who describes herself as center right. A recent YouTube from her on the trans issue: https://youtu.be/FxB0LHvS4fg
Thank you for your integrity, honesty but above all, clear presence. That's what I learn from what you write. If you make your experience known, I'll have a chance to recognize it.
Just by reading that I can recognize my epistemological limits as a human being was already liberating:)
There is something to learn from everyone. But how you formulate your experiences is special and sizzles with liveliness. At least for me. It is recognized by me. Your eloquent words help me deepen. I call that teaching.
Beautiful, thank you! I keep coming back to “hold it all lightly” as my orientation - the key being “coming back to”, again and again.
As always - so glad you continue to share this aspect of the spiritual path with your readers- so much truth and kindness about the ever present and endless path of awakening consciousness.
When the reading is finished there is a smile and a lightness and a nod of recognition! Thanks, dear one. Love you back...The Universe Appearing as Annette
Clueless, unknowing , Being at ease loving what Is. Compassion, empathy, kindness arises naturally ❣
I appreciated this newsletter, and REALLY appreciated the Youtube link. I really resonated with this conversation. I have been feeling so frustrated as a CIS white woman who always tries to be an ally, and as a person who is open and curious to the full range of human experience. But I am frustrated by the culture of oppressing the oppressor that's abundant right now. There are assumptions thrown my way about my own lived experience that are entirely based on my skin color, age and sexual preference. I want to understand, but, predictably, being silenced is just creating anger and frustration in me. But I also don't buy in to the toxic backlash against "woke culture". AND, on top of it, I have been in a loop of "addiction" around my spiritual practice, and this really woke me up to that fact. Thanks, Joan!
I hear you. I'm a long-time progressive leftist who was once in the radical anti-imperialist left, but I feel increasingly homeless politically. I've been waking up from wokeism. I first used the term woke to indicate something positive, but now I use it for everything I find off on the left and in the Democratic Party. But for many years, I was totally encapsulated in the left-wing bubble, listening to MSNBC and Democracy Now, and basically being a very dogmatic and self-righteous leftist.
I think the shift in my political allegiance began with the start of BLM (Black Lives Matter), and my sense that they were often jumping to false conclusions and pushing a narrative that I thought was in part questionable. Of course I abhor racism and police brutality, but I felt that racism was being seen in some cases where it didn’t exist. I disliked the vengeful and divisive spirit. I felt racial identity was being strengthened rather than weakened. I began listening to Coleman Hughes, John McWhorter, Glenn Loury, Thomas Chatterton Williams, Thomas Sowell and other black intellectuals (conservative and progressive) who questioned or disagreed with the way the left and BLM were seeing and dealing with racism.
Progressive friends who taught in universities began describing to me the stifling atmosphere there of political correctness from the left and the extreme intolerance to diverse views. I saw liberal professors being driven out of their jobs for questioning some aspect of woke ideology, and I learned about cancel culture and de-platforming people. I saw people being falsely branded as white supremacists or bigots for ridiculous reasons. I saw how mobs of woke students refused to let people speak whose views they had decided were incorrect.
I began to question this woke ideology more and more—the emphasis on identity politics, the particular way that race and gender are being taught in schools now, the outrageous practice of actually changing the words in published books to make them more “politically correct,” the whole idea of microaggressions and trigger warnings, ideological capture influencing scientific research and medical practice, censorship, the whole notion of equity rather than equality, the demand for reparations and defunding the police, diversity defined solely as different skin colors, genders and sexual orientations rather than also as a diversity of perspectives and views, and so on.
And then I read Abigail Shrier’s book Irreversible Damage. As a gender non-conforming lesbian who enthusiastically supports gender fluidity and who seriously considered a gender transition myself, I had only positive feelings about the increasing acceptance of transgender people. I initially thought it was great that children who felt they were in the wrong sex were being allowed to socially transition. Shrier’s book woke me up. She looks into the damage being done to children by the now prevailing “gender affirming care” model that includes sometimes giving puberty blockers and cross sex hormones to children and teenagers who express gender dysphoria. She describes the ways that being trans has become a trendy fad amongst many teenagers, leading many of these young people into irreversible medical transitions and then often into painful attempts at de-transitioning.
I was shocked to discover that trans activists tried to ban her book from sale on Amazon, most of them never having read it. It seemed to me like a very reasonable and well-researched book that was in no way transphobic or against trans people. Many other people, some of them trans, confirmed what Shrier reported. The UK and many Europen countries have been waking up and moving away from this approach of automatically “affirming” a child’s sense that they are in the wrong sex and then often medically transitioning them, but this approach is still quite entrenched in the US. The trans movement seems to have captured major medical institutions and the Democratic Party.
Anyway, I could go on....but I'm with Shiv and Robert that something is way off here. And now I endeavor to listen to voices on both the left and the right. One person I tune into occasionally now is Megyn Kelly, who describes herself as center right. A recent YouTube from her on the trans issue: https://youtu.be/FxB0LHvS4fg
Joan, you always make me comfortable with not having everything (actually, nothing) figured out. Love you back. David
Thank you for your integrity, honesty but above all, clear presence. That's what I learn from what you write. If you make your experience known, I'll have a chance to recognize it.
Just by reading that I can recognize my epistemological limits as a human being was already liberating:)
There is something to learn from everyone. But how you formulate your experiences is special and sizzles with liveliness. At least for me. It is recognized by me. Your eloquent words help me deepen. I call that teaching.