Love & the Great Resist

Tessa Lena 'Not Bothered by Monsters' and Charles Eisenstein's Bloodroot & Raven

You can only change what you love, as my daughter Cassandra says. Following in the footsteps of Tessa Lena and Charles Eisenstein, I talk about love, God, meaning and truth as synonyms. I tell the story of how Tessa became qualified to talk about love with no kumbaya, through haunting personal experience. She talks about this in her episode Coming of Age and Not Being Bothered by Monsters, which has the byline “When does a child become an adult in the modern world?” I relate this to Charles, who tells a story on the precipice of incredible in Bloodroot & a Raven. I very much recommend both of their essays. And I share the confidence of both that riding on the current of current events is going to bring us to the place I call The Great Rest, where we can be who we were born to be.

I recorded this without a script, from the heart, and I think some topics are better heard than read so I’m not putting it into text. Thanks for letting me into your life and your thought process of figuring out what’s real. Here are the two episodes I recommend as follow up from the video. I want to reiterate from the second that I have the smartest and most loving listeners/ readers and I’m so grateful for what I learn from them in the conversations. Thank you for being one of them!

The Epiphany Jumpstart on Gabor Mate:

Responding to four interviews between Gabor & Russell Brand, this far-ranging episode discusses religion, faith & spirituality, Palestine, politics, pandemics & parenting, aboriginal art, the three brains of the body & anthropologists from Mars. At Gabor's suggestion, I delve into The Globalization of Addiction by Bruce Alexander (of Rat Park fame) on the dislocation common to slavery, money & addiction, bringing in David Graeber's Debt: the First 5000 Years. Bruce's essay, “What Shakespeare Knew About Addiction and We've Forgotten,” looks at addiction as a "semantic palimpsest" and its connection to devotion. In his second existential crisis he calls for epochal social change as the only way to bring about psychological health. I find that Gabor and I share a go-to deadly sin and I analyze his marriage, with much admiration. I begin by talking about the second greatest force in the universe, which I think is a person who changes their mind, and I end with the most powerful force that I call the epiphany jumpstart.

The Utopian Imagination on Naomi Klein:

In Russell Brand's interview, Naomi asks "What does the world look like after we win?" She states that we need a vision, a revival of the utopian imagination. I talk about the arrogance of hopelessness, and propose AA groups for activists addicted to it. We need to find our people, who take seriously that we will win and develop pragmatic visions. I quote Ursula K. LeGuin's speech that "Hard times are coming... We'll need writers who can remember freedom." I suggest that our utopia-planning committee fall madly in love with each other and rigorously challenge ideas while adoring the person—something for which Russell's viewers are perfect.