HUBRIS

Our heads have grown so big that we

want to one-up nature by climbing

into the creator/evolution’s seat

ourselves.  Half human/half robot?

Adding letters to our DNA?

Our  scarlet petticoat is showing,

discounting  and gambling our precious

humanity and creativity, our  struggle

to  actualize our love, and nurture that

with which we were uniquely born.

Oh power-hungry one in the lab, it

is our lives and our grandchildren’s

that you want to gamble with!  Nurture

nature!  Surely there are sufficient

challenges in  our own back yard.  Crossed

fingers may not work for you, taking all

that we hold dear with you.

What’s the word for having trouble with perspective?  I’m loosey goosey in firm-footed perspective on many (most? All?) things. As a result I tend to be too acquiescent.

Looking back on my life I see that I am a reactor, not an actor.  I have gone with the flow until the flow ends me somewhere else.  Now, at 81 (I know, elsewhere on this blog I have miscounted my own age),  a decision to ACT  is too vulnerable to being discounted as the loosening of my marbles.

Intellect, Instinct or Genes?  Or Randomness? Or something else?

There are so many crossroads in  life!  I have been swept along, usually (always?) without a struggle.  I can see every side of an argument (usually) and can justly be called wishy-washy.  Anger is so far underground that it may  have mouldered away.  I suspect this is a woman issue.  How else to explain away the women who have voted for a man who denigrates, insults and dismisses  them so unashamedly?.

Tears come to my eyes when I think deeply about penguins, whose lives are entirely pre-scripted.  Their lives follow a narrow red carpet laid out before them. Why do I feel sorry for the penguins but not the migratory birds?  Come to think about of it, maybe humans?

I’ve also agreed with the wise ones who encourage us to “go with the flow.”   Ira Progoff says that we’re born with the seed in us of what we have the potential to become, if that isn’t limited or interfered with in some way to prevent our blossoming/becoming.

I apologize for (see, there I go again!)  entangling so many issues here,  but the fact is that they’re already  entangled. Oh, and I forgot, a second problem I struggle with is poor judgment.  That’s much more noticeable to others.  Maybe it’s just my ripe old age that  lets me look back and  notice the zig-zaggy path my life has taken. To tell the truth, I’d not be willing to have another chance to live this particular life because  I’m almost certain I wouldn’t end as well as I have,  despite all the detours, potholes and roadblocks. I’m remarkably content at 81, despite, or maybe because of,  the  narrow misses….

From catapult.co  via Digg

…These were my stated reasons for leaving. What I never said was that I was having a hard time maintaining my optimism around children, that instead of feeling hope when looking into their eager faces, I felt despair at how much we’ve failed them and how little of everything we were leaving for them—how little of the earth, how little joy, how little justice, how little of the things I was telling them every day the world was about. Maybe because I didn’t have any young children of my own, my body rejected a biological imperative to believe in the inevitability of their survival….

Ray Villafane, http://villafanestudios.com/

so I have a little time for the blog.  Let me introduce you to my pages:

RELIEF-REFRESHING is the most enjoyable.

 I like SECRETS,  but it needs updating. It’s a list of amazing things I did not know.

JOURNAL YOURSELF INTO  BEING  is written in hopes of introducing folks to the creative potential of keeping a journal over time, to include doodles, poetry,  quotes from books,  [noting author and page numbers makes later use  much easier] , dreams, images, thoughts and whatever else emerges from your pen.  The last half (approximately) of my book on incest is from my own journal. And sometimes I’m depressed, wih a sense of humor.

DREAM ON  was started not only to share some concepts from dream experts, but to include some dreams. Unfortunately, bloggers who follow me don’t seem to be into sharing their dreams. I can still hope and one day soon will post something on puns in dreams.

 SERENDIPITY AND SYNCHRONICITY is a place to share spooky coincidences. I’m trying so hard to record them, but they sift through my fingers usually.  I’d welcome others sharing.

 LIFE ISSUES is one of my favorites, because I have given myself permission to include any life issue here.

OUR SHADOW SELVES deals with trying to figure out what our dark side (usually Jungian) is all about. Still haven’t resolved that touchy question.  Join in the discussion under Comments!

More than  year ago, still true:

I have a son with Downs Syndrome. I know a lot of people with intellectual disabilities. Without exception, they love to work. Probably more so than the average person, because work can give them a sense of competence they can’t get elsewhere.

They all work in sheltered workshop settings. What I don’t understand is the dogma that this kind of work is unacceptable. This flies into the face of what I see nearly everyday. People who are very happy to work and proud of what they do.

I have seen the alternative, where the sheltered work programs are shut down. And people like my son are warehoused in programs that “include” people with intellectual disabilities by making them sit most of the day in a stuffy building playing with scraps pf paper and puzzles, and getting “included in the community” by a field trip to the Mall.

I wonder if the zealots who want to close down these kind of programs really work with the more disabled of the population ?

Leonie Haimson, leader of Class Size Matters and Student Privacy Matters, gathered the following links to an important story: China has developed a credit score game that rates its citizens by their behavior. She writes: “Check out this video and news articles about Sesame Credit, the big data social credit score and game […]

via The Chinese Obedience Game — Diane Ravitch’s blog