The common good, or the general welfare, absolutely requires a more fully inclusive society for all of us. And learning to sit with the pain of another, and ask what is underneath it all…
–
Self-Discipline and the importance of mastering ones feelings
I am saddened and surprised at how old a person can become and still not have learned how to see from another one’s perspective. How crucial it is to give what that person needs rather than what you want to give, what that person really wants rather than to simply give what you wish to be given. We all do it, but time should teach us to better discipline our feelings and learn to put our actions in line with our principles rather than our base desires.
But discipline -self discipline, restraint, and working for a cause seem to be little cherished values in the world today.
So many friends lost because they wished to gossip, prefered to snicker about the past rather than learn from it, or refused to uphold their promises of brotherhood over the gossip of relationships long gone.
Another unable to listen, unable to consider, to subordinate cravings for intention, to walk the truths spoken lets fellowship crumble to indulge base fears.
None of them could understand, perhaps, how important their promises to me were, and how painful was their betrayal. We promised to be family, ended in anger.
Why does it always fall to me, the gadfly, to tell the truth, and be disowned for it?
To your gossips and your bottles, then, go, and there remain,
but pledge me no more your brotherhood
offer me not again your solace
abuse me not for your gain
I am tired nearly to death
can stomach none of it
my wounds grievious
rage smouldering
yet discipline
ever consoles
and true so
I remain
working
for
Peace
–
So, it turns out that a week later, I wrote this, which explains the gossip :
“2008-03-07 13:33:00
how out of touch ‘nice middle-class people’ can be
As I look back over Senn’s 1981 ‘Poverty and Famines’ after yet another argument with my nice Thai officemate on why America is not in fact the Land of Opportunity if you start off poor, I see again what hit me when I first arrived at this university.
Middle class people really don’t get it. My office mate keeps saying ‘just work hard adn you’ll get a job’ but can’t fathom the lack of opportunities for people who have no connections and no home or family on which to fall back.
Senn likewise documents the lack of resources and opportunities that play in with the system of entitlments in famines to ensure that the wealthy and middle classes tend not to suffer much, but the poor suffer by falling further into destitution or even starving to death. This is something I found myself thinking as I read ‘well, duh’ -it’s obvious to someone who lives among poor people because it’s all around the poor and the working classes. But to someone living in a house the next block over, with an office or a shop to tend to daily, it may not be so obvious. Just like an academic presenting ‘findings’ showing that the poor in England (lone mothers in that seminar) were better off if they had both a job and child care support. Well, duh. Why is this not immediately obvious to begin with? Because people with connections can’t imagine not having them. Or something. I’m not sure. It looks clear to me that people who’ve never missed a meal (as my older Chinese former roommate pointed out about the younger students, saying “they can’t understand because they haven’t suffered”), like my officemate, can’t understand the difficulties of people who weren’t blessed with such luck.
Let’s make more luck for all of us, together.”
and the poem that got me banned from the survivor’s group (Triggers –suicidality…):
“Sliding into the hot water
perfume so strong in her nose
memory of his scent, his touch
driving her into the reeking inferno
heat is not as hard as a thrust
pushing into the watery bed of nails
“It won’t feel warm for long”
the perfume will cover his smell
awful fragrance of blood and lust
“I will wash it away…”The blade feels clean down her arm
carrying away guilt, the blood flows
another thrust, another blow
another vein to sate the lust
like the smell of his semen
the smell of blood permeates
over the perfumed bath oils
carrying away the pain
into the baptismal water
‘love’ and blood.”
Action Items:
1.) Search for two different sources related to the Holocene Epoch and to the Holocene Calendar.
2.) Share them with us in the comments, here, please.
3.) Share your thoughts on how a calendar based on the Holocene Epoch might help, or hinder, inclusive thinking,
4.) Write a book, blog post or tweet that uses an alternate calendar, tells a good story, and makes a difference. I’m working on that through my historical fantasy #WiP, #WhoByFireIWill. If you write a book, once published, please consider donating to your local public library.
Dear Readers, ideas on learning, especially multiple #LanguageLearning, on-going education and empathy-building, to #EndPoverty, #EndHomelessness, #EndMoneyBail & achieve freedom for All HumanKind?
Support our key #PublicDomainInfrastructure & #StopSmoking for CCOVID-19:
1. #PublicLibraries,
2. #ProBono legal aid and Education,
3. #UniversalHealthCare, and
4. good #publictransport
Read, Write -one can add Stayed on Freedom’s Call via this GoodReads button:
Nih sakh sh’lekk, sleem wa. Yassas, γεια σας! Salût ! Nos vemos! Görüşürüz! ! שָׁלוֹם
February, 2021 CE = February 12021 HE
(The previous lesson 57/67 published since this post, and the most recent lesson 58/67…)
Shira Destinie Jones by ShiraDest is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Ranger Mayann 