I will hopefully have some more sophisticated thoughts about this soon, in blog post form. For now, I will just call this a masterpiece and a treasure.
Thank you for writing this, Daniel. I think it's something I really needed to read, at exactly the right time. Funny, that.
Superb piece! And I can so relate to many things you describe here. The depression is real. Some of it is inevitable, but some of it is of our own making I found. There is a cliché that, if really understood in the right spirit, is actually terrifying and true: happiness is a choice. The lesson I'm trying to learn at the moment is to enjoy the process, to enjoy even the trials, the dead ends... As you said, by going in new directions we open ourselves to Grace, even if God can take his time, and even if it seems we come full circle at the end, yet wholly changed...
I am a member of the Octagon Society, Order of Spiritual Alchemy, the librarian on the council. The work is like intense self psychoanalysis, no grading, no oversight, just you looking at yourself and what made you who you are. Membership confers nothing but your own gratification. I found it very rewarding, and I think you might too. I'm here by way of Mark Bisone's The Cat Was Never Found.
💬 the converse of this aphorism seems true as well
Got dumbfounded for a fleeting moment, for my default of converse = to reverse the if... then relationship and proceed from How to Why—while yours is to change the premise to its opposite. Funny, that. Now I’m stuck contemplating what deep-rooted differences in our sense-making algorithms that might be pointing at 🤦 Thankyouverymuchindeed 😜
To divert those sticky thoughts that won’t flush around the U-bend, went excavating for Hannah Arendt’s observation on the state of world many decades back ↓
🗨 Under the most diverse conditions and disparate circumstances, we watch the development of the same phenomena—homelessness on an unprecedented scale, rootlessness to an unprecedented depth.
↑ Makes us long for a place to call home and a group to call our own.
I wandered here but I'm sure I've been here before. My tonic to indecisive action is to read as many hours of the day as necessary to prevent too much of my own thought from creeping in and upsetting me because i can't figure out where or what I'm supposed to be doing, although i know what i am doing is not it. Any hoo - pretty sure I've been here before but you might have succumbed to one of my manic unsubscribing fits because i realize I'm reading too much so attempt to solve it by stopping subscribing (it rarely works). So, all that unnecessary babble aside i wanted to tell you what a wonderful article this is and that it really spoke to me. I hope you have had more luck finding the appropriate soil and location to plant your tree than i have had, but regardless I'm a little less stressed that i may never figure it out after reading this. Thanks🙃
I'm aware this isn't the main topic but as you touched upon the concentration camps, have you ever heard of Rheinwisenlager? Nice little story right there.
Getting Unstuck...
I will hopefully have some more sophisticated thoughts about this soon, in blog post form. For now, I will just call this a masterpiece and a treasure.
Thank you for writing this, Daniel. I think it's something I really needed to read, at exactly the right time. Funny, that.
Superb piece! And I can so relate to many things you describe here. The depression is real. Some of it is inevitable, but some of it is of our own making I found. There is a cliché that, if really understood in the right spirit, is actually terrifying and true: happiness is a choice. The lesson I'm trying to learn at the moment is to enjoy the process, to enjoy even the trials, the dead ends... As you said, by going in new directions we open ourselves to Grace, even if God can take his time, and even if it seems we come full circle at the end, yet wholly changed...
I very much enjoyed this essay! Thank you.
I am a member of the Octagon Society, Order of Spiritual Alchemy, the librarian on the council. The work is like intense self psychoanalysis, no grading, no oversight, just you looking at yourself and what made you who you are. Membership confers nothing but your own gratification. I found it very rewarding, and I think you might too. I'm here by way of Mark Bisone's The Cat Was Never Found.
https://octagonsociety.org/octagon-society/
💬 the converse of this aphorism seems true as well
Got dumbfounded for a fleeting moment, for my default of converse = to reverse the if... then relationship and proceed from How to Why—while yours is to change the premise to its opposite. Funny, that. Now I’m stuck contemplating what deep-rooted differences in our sense-making algorithms that might be pointing at 🤦 Thankyouverymuchindeed 😜
To divert those sticky thoughts that won’t flush around the U-bend, went excavating for Hannah Arendt’s observation on the state of world many decades back ↓
🗨 Under the most diverse conditions and disparate circumstances, we watch the development of the same phenomena—homelessness on an unprecedented scale, rootlessness to an unprecedented depth.
↑ Makes us long for a place to call home and a group to call our own.
I wandered here but I'm sure I've been here before. My tonic to indecisive action is to read as many hours of the day as necessary to prevent too much of my own thought from creeping in and upsetting me because i can't figure out where or what I'm supposed to be doing, although i know what i am doing is not it. Any hoo - pretty sure I've been here before but you might have succumbed to one of my manic unsubscribing fits because i realize I'm reading too much so attempt to solve it by stopping subscribing (it rarely works). So, all that unnecessary babble aside i wanted to tell you what a wonderful article this is and that it really spoke to me. I hope you have had more luck finding the appropriate soil and location to plant your tree than i have had, but regardless I'm a little less stressed that i may never figure it out after reading this. Thanks🙃
Excellent article, thanks!
I'm aware this isn't the main topic but as you touched upon the concentration camps, have you ever heard of Rheinwisenlager? Nice little story right there.