‘Repetition produces a gradual lowering of vivid appreciation. Convention dominates. A learned orthodoxy suppresses adventure.’ [1] "Without adventure civilization is in full decay. ... in their day the great achievements of the past were the adventures of the past. Only the adventurous can understand the greatness of the past."
At the start of 2015 I was writing an article on Alan Watts, and hence shared a "Wattsian Message" for the new year. As 2016 begins my focus has turned to Alfred North Read more [...]
Posts in category Random Life Stuff
2015 in review
‘Repetition produces a gradual lowering of vivid appreciation. Convention dominates. A learned orthodoxy suppresses adventure.’ [1] "Without adventure civilization is in full decay. ... in their day the great achievements of the past were the adventures of the past. Only the adventurous can understand the greatness of the past."
At the start of 2015 I was writing an article on Alan Watts, and hence shared a "Wattsian Message" for the new year. As 2016 begins my focus has turned to Alfred North Read more [...]
Reframing your mind: changing negative to positive one micro story at a time
“Whatever you want to succeed at, you need to replace any negative scripts you might have with positive ones” (Ash and Gerrand 2002: 7). We need to reframe our minds, changing negative stories to positive stories, one micro story at a time.
Eve Ash and Rob Gerrand's (2002) Rewrite your life! is a book full of tips on how to reframe the micro stories in your mind from negative to positive affirmations, that empower you to be work hard (rather than procrastinate), be confident (rather than full Read more [...]
Taming the beast: technology, corporatism and our shared future
Have we reached a point in the processes of industrialisation, globalisation, and corporatisation in which we have lost control over our culture, our lives and our shared future?
Looking at my life, the lives of those around me, the media and global politics and economics, I think we have.
It seems to me that technology controls us, rather than us controlling it. Corporations control us, rather than us controlling it. Laws control us, rather than us controlling them.
We have become slaves Read more [...]
Slave to society
Society draws us into its world of the trivial, making us slaves to the superficial, the menial, its time-wasting ego-based self-absorbed naval-gazing meaninglessness. It is evermore relentlessness with its inescapable myriad of communication paths that bath you in guilt.
"I haven't replied to this." "I haven't called that person back." "I have to do this." "I must remember that." The voices in my head remind me that I could spend my whole life, day in day out, responding to this and that.
It Read more [...]
Commemorating 100 years of Alan Watts
Today marks the 100-year birthday of Alan Watts. While Watts’ "came out of this world" on 6 January 1915, and "returned to the world" in 1973 (far too young, at 58 years old), his legacy continues and expands in influence and appreciation.
Alan Watts was a polymath of spirituality, religions, mysticism, philosophy, psychology, phenomenological, among his many disciplines. Though he tried to prevent labels, he was an expert in Zen Buddhism, Taoism, had a stint as an Episcopal clergyman, and Read more [...]
2014 in review
September 2014 marked the five year anniversary of this blog and I didn't even notice. My adventures with ideas haven't stopped, but unfortunately I've been out of the habit of sharing them online.
I went to Istanbul in August to present a paper at the International Peace Research Association (IPRA)'s 50th anniversary conference. My talk was on the Global Ecological Crisis: A "New Story" to Address Structural Violence.
This was a slice of my MPhil research, which I graduated from in November. Read more [...]
Listen to Your Younger Self
I recently watched a show where "Elders" were asked what advice they would give to their 20-year old self. I imagined myself in my mid-to-late seventies being ask that question: what advice might my older self give to my present self? "Listen to your younger self".
By this I do not mean to advise one to listen to that insecure or arrogant version of you, in your teenage years or early twenties, but to listen to the optimism and openness of your earliest years of life, and which sometimes can be Read more [...]
Other people’s shit is other people’s shit
Language warning: there is a lot of "shit" in this post.
People are constantly dealing with shit. Sometimes people feel like shit, they treat others like shit, they spread shit all over the place.
The arrogant kid on the street, the snickering old lady in a shop, the road rage, people with bad attitudes, negative energies, people who think that dreams are not possible.
99.999999% of the time, other people's shit is all about that person, and nothing to do with the people that surround them.
It Read more [...]
The end of a world, and the start of a new one
After four years of reading, writing and scratching my head, and a last min cram, I have submitted a 60,000 word thesis on "Narrative and Peace: a 'New Story' to address structural violence".
During those years I have also presented papers in India, Krakow and Sydney, travelled around Europe and had a horrible scooter accident, taught two undergraduate courses at a university in North Carolina and visited Chicago, New York, and Seattle, spent three weeks with friend in Vancouver, taught yogalaties Read more [...]
