The philosopher Diogenes was eating bread and lentils for supper. He was seen by the philospher Aristippus, who lived comfortably well by flattering the king. Said Aristippus, "If you would learn to be subservient to the king you would not have to live on lentils."
Said Diogenes, "Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king."
--The Song of the Bird
by Anthony De Mello
Monday, January 18, 2010
Friday, January 8, 2010
Fantastic new view of Corporate America
I always enjoy strolling by John Greer's blog, The Archdruid Report. Here's a link to what he's been talking about recently that caught my attention. I am a math-challenged individual, but his columns make economics easy enough for even me to grasp, which is appreciated. I wanted to pass along his wisdom:
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2010/01/housebreaking-corporations.html
In other news, Molly was talking about similar things on her Astrology About blog today:
http://astrology.about.com/b/2010/01/08/will-there-be-a-wisdom-revolution.htm
I have a strange feeling that my husband's Saturn Return is going to walk parallel to these societal lines very intimately in the next few years. We are taking a hard look at institutions everywhere, because like it or not, we'll be rolling with Systemic Redesign at a whole new level as a couple engaged in looking for work and higher education.
Thankfully the local library here is stocked full of books covering ways to become self-sufficient, full of wisdom written down from others who have made the gap between dependence on money and self-sufficiency, so we are not starting from scratch and for that I'm most grateful.
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2010/01/housebreaking-corporations.html
In other news, Molly was talking about similar things on her Astrology About blog today:
http://astrology.about.com/b/2010/01/08/will-there-be-a-wisdom-revolution.htm
I have a strange feeling that my husband's Saturn Return is going to walk parallel to these societal lines very intimately in the next few years. We are taking a hard look at institutions everywhere, because like it or not, we'll be rolling with Systemic Redesign at a whole new level as a couple engaged in looking for work and higher education.
Thankfully the local library here is stocked full of books covering ways to become self-sufficient, full of wisdom written down from others who have made the gap between dependence on money and self-sufficiency, so we are not starting from scratch and for that I'm most grateful.
Monday, January 4, 2010
three years - television free
I haven't watched TV in about three years unless I'm out and there's a TV in a restaurant which I can't avoid. I can watch anything I want on DVD of course and put those into the computer for movie nights about once a month. We especially like Brett's version of Sherlock Holmes through Granada here.
But we sold our television when we left Los Angeles because it was never on unless we were using a TV gaming console like wii or PS2. So we sold it. We haven't missed it one bit. The side-effects of leaving TV out of our home have been really noticeable. But the biggest has been financial solvency. Even without a job in the past six months, we have still managed to pay down our debts consistently, despite moving states and all the costs that entails. For this, I have to point to an ad-free and pressure-free existence which TV would have generated if we'd kept it on in our home.
Without commercials we don't get half as inspired to buy things advertised now. We've fallen away from the "beautiful person" model that is shown all the time on TV, so we are less compelled to be "beautiful people who have it all." We now know that we already are beautiful people and we can have what we really want, as opposed to what is shoved on us by an advertiser.
I'm also far less prone to random fits of depression and sporadic make-overs because as Neil Postman put it: I've stopped watching a make-believe world that so many people desperately want to believe is true reality. It also helped that I worked for a while in Hollywood and I know that I don't have a make-up crew following me around on my errands and I can't say CUT when I make a mistake and cover it up.
I have to add that my attention span has increased from thirty second spots, and forty-three-minutes-and-twenty-seven seconds cut time for airing programs on US television to actual long hourly conversations and three or four chapters at a time of book reading. I can even listen to someone else read aloud and follow the discourse.
It probably helps that I didn't grow up with TV, but of course when visiting girlfriends I got all the TV I ever wanted at their houses as a child, so I never felt deprived of pop culture references. Now there's even TV in the schools, in restaurants, in day care, and even in hair salons and stores . . . so I'm not sure any kid could ever truly be deprived of it.
I also know how hard it is to go cold turkey. My husband watched TV a lot in his family, growing up TV was his friend, but over the past three years he gradually moved away from it. He replaced it with school at first, where 72-hour long projects cut out any TV time if he wanted a good grade. And then it didn't seem as interesting when he had the time for TV again. He'd replaced it with other pursuits.
It is interesting for us to watch TV now. We stare at it and feel totally disassociated from it after three years without it. We cannot relate. It also feels highly manipulative to us both when it's on.
Two good books on TV are "Amusing Ourselves to Death" and "Four Reasons for the Abolishment of Television." You will never see TV the same way again afterward.
But we sold our television when we left Los Angeles because it was never on unless we were using a TV gaming console like wii or PS2. So we sold it. We haven't missed it one bit. The side-effects of leaving TV out of our home have been really noticeable. But the biggest has been financial solvency. Even without a job in the past six months, we have still managed to pay down our debts consistently, despite moving states and all the costs that entails. For this, I have to point to an ad-free and pressure-free existence which TV would have generated if we'd kept it on in our home.
Without commercials we don't get half as inspired to buy things advertised now. We've fallen away from the "beautiful person" model that is shown all the time on TV, so we are less compelled to be "beautiful people who have it all." We now know that we already are beautiful people and we can have what we really want, as opposed to what is shoved on us by an advertiser.
I'm also far less prone to random fits of depression and sporadic make-overs because as Neil Postman put it: I've stopped watching a make-believe world that so many people desperately want to believe is true reality. It also helped that I worked for a while in Hollywood and I know that I don't have a make-up crew following me around on my errands and I can't say CUT when I make a mistake and cover it up.
I have to add that my attention span has increased from thirty second spots, and forty-three-minutes-and-twenty-seven seconds cut time for airing programs on US television to actual long hourly conversations and three or four chapters at a time of book reading. I can even listen to someone else read aloud and follow the discourse.
It probably helps that I didn't grow up with TV, but of course when visiting girlfriends I got all the TV I ever wanted at their houses as a child, so I never felt deprived of pop culture references. Now there's even TV in the schools, in restaurants, in day care, and even in hair salons and stores . . . so I'm not sure any kid could ever truly be deprived of it.
I also know how hard it is to go cold turkey. My husband watched TV a lot in his family, growing up TV was his friend, but over the past three years he gradually moved away from it. He replaced it with school at first, where 72-hour long projects cut out any TV time if he wanted a good grade. And then it didn't seem as interesting when he had the time for TV again. He'd replaced it with other pursuits.
It is interesting for us to watch TV now. We stare at it and feel totally disassociated from it after three years without it. We cannot relate. It also feels highly manipulative to us both when it's on.
Two good books on TV are "Amusing Ourselves to Death" and "Four Reasons for the Abolishment of Television." You will never see TV the same way again afterward.
living our questions
Wait. Live your questions. Then ask.
I've been in Washington since June 4th and the last few weeks, I've been kind of beating myself up for not "trying more options" as things have come to a financial head here. But opening to this page has really helped me to remember that, it obviously took six months for me to detox from that bad situation and to come to the answers by living with my own questions for that long. The questions are important.
And so while I feel the pinch of where to get my next paycheck right now, I can't let my inner critic beat me up for taking the time to live the questions. Work was sought all during the past six months. In fact, my husband was working for an internship the past two months and it failed to take him on for a paid position, which was a blow, but even during that time, work was being sought. There was just no work to gain. And that was all actually living our questions: we discovered that graphic design work isn't feasible. And we had to try. Student loans outstanding and three years of college courses mandated that we had to try. The sad fact is that you can't know the job market until you play in it for a considerable length of time. You may see plenty of job listings, but you can't tell until you apply for them all, whether or not you're even being considered. That is the invisible half of the equation.
As for my side of asking questions, it was clear that by this month it was time to get back into something constructive, like school. I signed up for a local University last night and hopefully they'll take me for the spring semester. I'm also looking for work at the library as a kind of hold-me-over until I'm accepted at school, but then I will turn my attention toward getting an MA in illustration. I'm a perennial student and always have been. Other girls dream of Hollywood, but I dream of Harry Potter's boarding school.
My goal is to come away from 4-8 years of schooling with a teaching degree for college education in art and illustrative writing. Illustrative writing is the delightful work you see in children's books which are a mix of illustration and narrative combined together. You know all those old stories we used to read in the watercolor imagery and short sentences? Or even stuff like Sherlock Holmes written with Paget's drawings. That's the kind of thing I'm going back to learn. I also plan to study astrology in depth and learn how to read charts for my family. That requires a very different kind of schooling since astrology isn't considered accreditable.
But it took six months for me to be sure that I wanted this above everything else. It takes a long time to live your questions. It can take months -- even years!
I'm living big picture these days, with Mars in my Ninth House of higher education, greater moral vision, long distances and the great outdoors. Please bear with me while I wax philosophic. It'll help me to get the whole of it off my chest and explain it, I think.
Living with my questions, I've made the decision that I don't want to go back to Corporate America. I don't agree with like 99.999% of what goes on there and six months of research into green living and downshifting has taught me that Corporate America is largely responsible for much of what is polluting our world and keeping us chained to work hours that last longer than medieval peasantry.
I've read Neil Postman, John Michael Greer, and even picked up really old work like Eleanor Roosevelt's essays and articles in order to get a feel for all this. I have read much more in the past, but this was recent additions to what I already researched on this topic before. I just can't feel justified in supporting that Corporate Culture any longer. This isn't a conspiracy theory or anything, but a reality of human weakness and greed that carried certain individuals on to hogging resources and treating human labor poorly. Every system eventually sees its peak and downfall and that's all I'm really referring to.
Unfortunately, my old degree won't help me get out of Corporate America and my previous Hollywood experience was just another fringe facet of Corporate America, so it was time to return to University. Not just because University is where you learn, but because I feel that it is one of our last bastions of community. Real Community with Real Social Capital.
University certainly has its flaws and drawbacks, but I'd take it over Corporate Culture any day. I can sign up for University and find a community, health care, housing, structure, and eventually reach a point to turn around and enter from the other side, and give it all back as a professor. That's why I think of all institutions in the land, the University still retains all its original characteristics. There is a medieval constancy in the structure of the Ivory Tower and its denizens have fought tooth and nail to keep it that way.
And as a Virgo, I'm all good with the pedantry that is most people's major complaint about University life. To me, pedantry is like breathing! If I get a cranky review committee, I'm the sort of person to agree with their idea of killing one footnote to pass my dissertation review. No sweat! (But as a Scorpio Rising, I may turn around after attainment and make some waves.)
I realize I'm going to be walking in the opposite direction of most of modern America by doing this, but I think it's the right choice and I just keep telling myself that I will find like-minded folks inside my University of Choice. I can't help but value an institution that values teaching and learning. I have always been drawn to teaching and the pursuit of knowledge.
But Knowledge is also a fire in the mind; it is pointless without context and reference. That is why I've never been a Hermione Granger type, memorizing the text book and regurgitating the facts. Fire in the Mind comes from experience and hard won "street wisdom." Only in applying what you know can you make a difference to the world. For the past fifteen years, I gathered this kind of knowledge, and I want to help others with it now.
I've been in Washington since June 4th and the last few weeks, I've been kind of beating myself up for not "trying more options" as things have come to a financial head here. But opening to this page has really helped me to remember that, it obviously took six months for me to detox from that bad situation and to come to the answers by living with my own questions for that long. The questions are important.
And so while I feel the pinch of where to get my next paycheck right now, I can't let my inner critic beat me up for taking the time to live the questions. Work was sought all during the past six months. In fact, my husband was working for an internship the past two months and it failed to take him on for a paid position, which was a blow, but even during that time, work was being sought. There was just no work to gain. And that was all actually living our questions: we discovered that graphic design work isn't feasible. And we had to try. Student loans outstanding and three years of college courses mandated that we had to try. The sad fact is that you can't know the job market until you play in it for a considerable length of time. You may see plenty of job listings, but you can't tell until you apply for them all, whether or not you're even being considered. That is the invisible half of the equation.
As for my side of asking questions, it was clear that by this month it was time to get back into something constructive, like school. I signed up for a local University last night and hopefully they'll take me for the spring semester. I'm also looking for work at the library as a kind of hold-me-over until I'm accepted at school, but then I will turn my attention toward getting an MA in illustration. I'm a perennial student and always have been. Other girls dream of Hollywood, but I dream of Harry Potter's boarding school.
My goal is to come away from 4-8 years of schooling with a teaching degree for college education in art and illustrative writing. Illustrative writing is the delightful work you see in children's books which are a mix of illustration and narrative combined together. You know all those old stories we used to read in the watercolor imagery and short sentences? Or even stuff like Sherlock Holmes written with Paget's drawings. That's the kind of thing I'm going back to learn. I also plan to study astrology in depth and learn how to read charts for my family. That requires a very different kind of schooling since astrology isn't considered accreditable.
But it took six months for me to be sure that I wanted this above everything else. It takes a long time to live your questions. It can take months -- even years!
I'm living big picture these days, with Mars in my Ninth House of higher education, greater moral vision, long distances and the great outdoors. Please bear with me while I wax philosophic. It'll help me to get the whole of it off my chest and explain it, I think.
Living with my questions, I've made the decision that I don't want to go back to Corporate America. I don't agree with like 99.999% of what goes on there and six months of research into green living and downshifting has taught me that Corporate America is largely responsible for much of what is polluting our world and keeping us chained to work hours that last longer than medieval peasantry.
I've read Neil Postman, John Michael Greer, and even picked up really old work like Eleanor Roosevelt's essays and articles in order to get a feel for all this. I have read much more in the past, but this was recent additions to what I already researched on this topic before. I just can't feel justified in supporting that Corporate Culture any longer. This isn't a conspiracy theory or anything, but a reality of human weakness and greed that carried certain individuals on to hogging resources and treating human labor poorly. Every system eventually sees its peak and downfall and that's all I'm really referring to.
Unfortunately, my old degree won't help me get out of Corporate America and my previous Hollywood experience was just another fringe facet of Corporate America, so it was time to return to University. Not just because University is where you learn, but because I feel that it is one of our last bastions of community. Real Community with Real Social Capital.
University certainly has its flaws and drawbacks, but I'd take it over Corporate Culture any day. I can sign up for University and find a community, health care, housing, structure, and eventually reach a point to turn around and enter from the other side, and give it all back as a professor. That's why I think of all institutions in the land, the University still retains all its original characteristics. There is a medieval constancy in the structure of the Ivory Tower and its denizens have fought tooth and nail to keep it that way.
And as a Virgo, I'm all good with the pedantry that is most people's major complaint about University life. To me, pedantry is like breathing! If I get a cranky review committee, I'm the sort of person to agree with their idea of killing one footnote to pass my dissertation review. No sweat! (But as a Scorpio Rising, I may turn around after attainment and make some waves.)
I realize I'm going to be walking in the opposite direction of most of modern America by doing this, but I think it's the right choice and I just keep telling myself that I will find like-minded folks inside my University of Choice. I can't help but value an institution that values teaching and learning. I have always been drawn to teaching and the pursuit of knowledge.
But Knowledge is also a fire in the mind; it is pointless without context and reference. That is why I've never been a Hermione Granger type, memorizing the text book and regurgitating the facts. Fire in the Mind comes from experience and hard won "street wisdom." Only in applying what you know can you make a difference to the world. For the past fifteen years, I gathered this kind of knowledge, and I want to help others with it now.
Friday, January 1, 2010
they tell me Virgos are going to get a break in 2010 . . . .
2009 on the down side: I lost my job and income. I lost $10,000 in one day. I lost my beloved cat. I lost my house. I lost my career (like losing my identity). I lost my longest known friend to a cross-continental move and a strange emotional distance. I lost my father. I lost my grandmother.
2009 on the plus side: I gained a husband. He is my soul mate. I gained knowledge of things like astrology and finally embraced spirituality. I learned how to crochet. I moved back to the state I’ve wanted to live in for the past fifteen years: I gained lots of trees (very important to me). I lost weight, which is to say, I regained my body. I restored my health. My nails grew back (which to me is a sign of no longer having an injured first chakra).
I’m still waiting for the big boon: I’d like one steady income — doesn’t even have to be me — but in six months neither my husband nor I have been able to find work day in and day out searching for it. One of us should really be employed, and soon, or we will be in a very interesting pickle! And most of all, I’d like to move from this very thin-walled apartment back to a house. (Can you believe that will actually be cheaper?)
That’s my wishlist for 2010! It’s got to get better this year, right?
I've finished, for all intents and purposes, my Saturn Return. Uranus will move out of Pisces over the decade, and Neptune will replace him. Saturn will move on to Capricorn by the end of the decade -- his proper place in the Zodiac -- and I'm supposed to get my Jupiter Return this year. All very good signs. I'll be as hopeful as a skeptic can be . . . .
2009 on the plus side: I gained a husband. He is my soul mate. I gained knowledge of things like astrology and finally embraced spirituality. I learned how to crochet. I moved back to the state I’ve wanted to live in for the past fifteen years: I gained lots of trees (very important to me). I lost weight, which is to say, I regained my body. I restored my health. My nails grew back (which to me is a sign of no longer having an injured first chakra).
I’m still waiting for the big boon: I’d like one steady income — doesn’t even have to be me — but in six months neither my husband nor I have been able to find work day in and day out searching for it. One of us should really be employed, and soon, or we will be in a very interesting pickle! And most of all, I’d like to move from this very thin-walled apartment back to a house. (Can you believe that will actually be cheaper?)
That’s my wishlist for 2010! It’s got to get better this year, right?
I've finished, for all intents and purposes, my Saturn Return. Uranus will move out of Pisces over the decade, and Neptune will replace him. Saturn will move on to Capricorn by the end of the decade -- his proper place in the Zodiac -- and I'm supposed to get my Jupiter Return this year. All very good signs. I'll be as hopeful as a skeptic can be . . . .
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