so we filter our minds and thoughts like we filter the food we put in our body. is that right? at this moment I am bombarded with media, the soft sounds of sufjan stevens, the base noise of the music playing at starbucks (yikes), the flailying arms of the energetic man in front of me, the hum of the cooler holding hyper prosessed baked goods from all over the world, the continual reminder of the americorps member development packet lying next to my computer which I am expected to fill out, the practice GRE software program that I am half assing, a little side project of picture manipulation that I find joy in fiddling with, this blog...the the flashing lights of the arby's and the outback steakhouse across the street, griding of coffee beans, pulses of electricity circulating with the awareness that a police officer just walked it, judgement of all I see.... ahhh uhh ahh
how much of this ought i filter? well for one you might suggest that i change locations.. of course I have excuse of caffine and internet addition which right now is being completely satisfied with my starbucks trip.. but even if I did change locations though I may be filtering the media from my mind, I am not filtering its existance in my life. though I am better off without many of the above, or rather substituting this experience with some other more psychologically healing or building experience, to what extent does it ignore the existance of crud.
put more simply can have an unbiased opinion towards what goes in our minds (ie what is acceptable for us to accept)? we are contintualy being bombarded with stuff that we mindlessly accept, but without recognition does our worldview suffer?
maybe that answer lies in not rejecting all the dumbed down american modernity but rather changing the passive acceptance, to critical thought- to what extent our energy allows.
fuck what i just wrote (or not)
think of it like this.. take in the good, the positive, the growth ready, take in the beautiful and the critical, take in all the people that add the richness to your mind and your body. junk the rest. in doing this we will only allow ourselves to grow- right? seems far to simplisitc. in my life even the most beautiful must have an opposiing with this the beauty is set against for comparison. I begin to realize that on so many occasions beatuy is coupled with the history of an object, a thought, a person, whatever.. we ascribe a story of beauty, why something is beautiful to us. though some things we can just look at and see some sort of symeticrical vivid beauty... what what about how chatoic our minds work. though they are extremely frustrating and tiresome at times, in their essesne our minds are beautiful with all the nooks and cranies of faults and triumphs.
I am a whole hearted believer that nothign cannot come to fruitition without sustained and continual affirmations of our intentions. {!we must be the change we want to see in the world!} and as I see it, the more one focuses on the growth and change the more holistically the change will come in the world around them. but there is some room for the junk, if only to know that it exisits, and that others are entrenched in the lifestyle. without understanding the history and perspective of the world around us we are left with little to relate to. ultimately recognize what you may consider as junk, then actively engage the junk with other junk lovers. relate through it, and communicate.
of course I might disagree with this post shortly. how beautiful
Monday, March 30, 2009
Monday, March 23, 2009
La vida rural en Oregon
Trees, large gusts of wind, green green grass, moss, mulch, ocean, snowy plovers: a few of the things I've enjoyed today. I've recently inherited a 1/4 acre of prime garden space next door to my house. One day, as my knees pulsed together with untapped energy, I got up from studying macroeconomic theory and went to meet my neighbors. One by one, I found out that Becky grows tomatoes, Megan is raising six chicks in her bedroom, Susana and MartÃn lost their squash sprouts to slugs, and Rachel and Jeffrey have a secret garden. This secret garden is now my sanctuary. Four large raised beds, a greenhouse, many pounds of wonderfully decomposed organic matter, fruit trees galore (e.g. apple, pear, cherry, fig), various tool sheds filled with tools!, a peaceful gazebo, and a crank compost device are all at my disposal. My neighbors have some physical ailments that keep them from gardening, but are happy to let me have a go at it. With the help of Wes, Doug, and Connie, one bed is now de-weeded after many years of disuse and filled with two varieties of large bulbous onions and red chard.
So, moral of the story, I may never leave here. Here as in the west coast, the pacific northwest most likely, maybe even Tunison Avenue. Doug and I will be able to feed ourselves and many others from this garden and learn so much in the process. Before moving to Oregon I had never grown anything. Y todo de repente, I have six basil plants, a few tomatoes and chili peppers, chives, and cilantro on my windowsill, a rain barrel with great potential, two lovely chickens that are battling death right now (wish them luck or pray or do what you think is appropriate: they could use your support right now), and a large plot of land to do whatever I want with. Is this serendipity or what? My only looming concern is if karmic forces are in check, then will this garden discovery mean failure or loss somewhere else? I wonder if the chickens are somehow involved...
So, moral of the story, I may never leave here. Here as in the west coast, the pacific northwest most likely, maybe even Tunison Avenue. Doug and I will be able to feed ourselves and many others from this garden and learn so much in the process. Before moving to Oregon I had never grown anything. Y todo de repente, I have six basil plants, a few tomatoes and chili peppers, chives, and cilantro on my windowsill, a rain barrel with great potential, two lovely chickens that are battling death right now (wish them luck or pray or do what you think is appropriate: they could use your support right now), and a large plot of land to do whatever I want with. Is this serendipity or what? My only looming concern is if karmic forces are in check, then will this garden discovery mean failure or loss somewhere else? I wonder if the chickens are somehow involved...
Thursday, March 12, 2009
learning
I can't believe someone ELSE finally posted on this blog...I knew it would happen one day!
Following Laura's post, I definitely concur that we have to be very active, discriminating information-gathering folks.
(1) I have some trouble with the passive intake. I love to read and listen and can't stand to eat or shit without taking something else in simultaneously. So at school when I pack my lunch, I eat in the kitchen where typically the only thing to read is the new Wall Street Journal. So I find myself reading about the economic recession and investment banking from libertarian and capitalist minded Americans, which doesn't jive with me particularly well. But I take it in, sometimes in horror and other times forgetting my own perspective or others.
(2) As for information consumption in a more structured environment that I technically choose to put myself in, that's hit or miss, and often miss for true learning ah-ha! moments. Those structured learning environments often take a long time to translate into true knowledge gain because we're rarely asked to critically assess what we're learning and why. It's only after some space and time from those experiences that I can synthesize what came out of it. And if it turns out that the particular learning environment was reinforcing oppressive modes of being, then at least I can learn from those situations and imagine how learning might differ (let's think free schools!). I don't believe that many people ever assess these learning environments though and, unfortunately, take them in without question, which is obviously a huge PROBLEM!
(3) And then I think of my active searches for knowledge and the world gets so much more vibrant and exciting. I've recently been reading many south end press titles, having fantastic conversations about feminism, organizing my neighborhood into a food oasis where we can share gardening knowledge, tools, and land, analyzing sex (doing it) and monogamy, learning how to repair my bicycle organizing with the Corvallis bicycle cooperative, bake bread, & sprout, and listening/dancing to samba, funk, and alt. pop here and there. And these are obviously the things that make me feel alive. But I also think without a smidgeon of the bad passive intake and institutional learning, I might have a hard time relating to those who use these two modes as their only knowledge sources. It's certainly easy to find opportunities for "learning" via pathways (1) and (2). However, we must collectively go towards pathway (3) if we hope to push our understandings and relationships of and with the world.
Following Laura's post, I definitely concur that we have to be very active, discriminating information-gathering folks.
(1) I have some trouble with the passive intake. I love to read and listen and can't stand to eat or shit without taking something else in simultaneously. So at school when I pack my lunch, I eat in the kitchen where typically the only thing to read is the new Wall Street Journal. So I find myself reading about the economic recession and investment banking from libertarian and capitalist minded Americans, which doesn't jive with me particularly well. But I take it in, sometimes in horror and other times forgetting my own perspective or others.
(2) As for information consumption in a more structured environment that I technically choose to put myself in, that's hit or miss, and often miss for true learning ah-ha! moments. Those structured learning environments often take a long time to translate into true knowledge gain because we're rarely asked to critically assess what we're learning and why. It's only after some space and time from those experiences that I can synthesize what came out of it. And if it turns out that the particular learning environment was reinforcing oppressive modes of being, then at least I can learn from those situations and imagine how learning might differ (let's think free schools!). I don't believe that many people ever assess these learning environments though and, unfortunately, take them in without question, which is obviously a huge PROBLEM!
(3) And then I think of my active searches for knowledge and the world gets so much more vibrant and exciting. I've recently been reading many south end press titles, having fantastic conversations about feminism, organizing my neighborhood into a food oasis where we can share gardening knowledge, tools, and land, analyzing sex (doing it) and monogamy, learning how to repair my bicycle organizing with the Corvallis bicycle cooperative, bake bread, & sprout, and listening/dancing to samba, funk, and alt. pop here and there. And these are obviously the things that make me feel alive. But I also think without a smidgeon of the bad passive intake and institutional learning, I might have a hard time relating to those who use these two modes as their only knowledge sources. It's certainly easy to find opportunities for "learning" via pathways (1) and (2). However, we must collectively go towards pathway (3) if we hope to push our understandings and relationships of and with the world.
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