I hope you won't mind this adapted from the YT comment:
You cover many important facets of our lives here, Tereza.
The precarious condition of our housing caused by the corrupt debt based central banking, making housing impossibly unaffordable. (I don't know how anyone is able to move to California now)
The story of Jeeji, is so heart wrenching; what you describe, people who are losing their loved ones in Gaza have gotten scars of anguish cauterized by tears that can never be any less than just under the surface and never completely gone. Tragedies like what's happening in Gaza must be stopped.
I can relate to loss but it wasn't violent. Someone I loved as friend passed away; she and I knew each other for over 25 years, we had not been in touch for awhile, then out of the blue she called and we got all caught up, exchanged pictures of family. This was in 2020, she said she would be in touch. Just last year, I got this nagging feeling about her and I checked her name --- she had passed away in 2022.
All we have in this life is each other and love itself in it's many forms. In English we only have one word for love; in Sanskrit there is a word for each type of love experienced.
Your dream about a revolution is a really great example of how everyone can come together, to nullify the Tyrants of the Technocracy, blue shower cap, mask and all. Although, Internet is great for while it is working, it's great for a starting point for creating our tribe; we need to be able to come together without the "dependence on" the internet and other automated technology. To talk with each other, share our ideas, compare solutions, react to the issues and hold compassion for one another as a community.
Feminized statistics has some of the best wisdom, I love your feminine perspective. I am looking forward to your SOTO address, it sounds interesting. ;-)
I realized reading your comment, Nef, that in mine I didn't even address Jeeji. I find it all too much and words feel so inadequate to the task. Yet reporting on the heartbreak real humans are experiencing in such great numbers is so needed. Thanks.
Pain of loss is something I have felt well up from inside. In my own experience is over powering. When I see people like the Palestinians experience it, I'm right there with them. I'm feeling it too.
We don't really exist as separate beings. There's one consciousness, it hurts to see others feeling loss. Love is the thread that runs through all of us.
What a delight to see your face showing up in my early morning 'likes' ;-)
You personify, Pasheen, the integrated self. You move seamlessly between that hard masculine logic/ scrutiny and the feminine intuition and relationships. Proud to call you my friend.
And yes! Are you a sub of Amy's I Am Here for It, Whatever It Is? https://bttrain.substack.com/ I first found her through our friend Ratio, when he named some of his favorite stacks and her name--"What's In a Name, Really?" intrigued me. She embodies that playful, loving, feminine energy like nobody's business (and worked in construction, and is an amazing piano player--imagine the underline on that). But I'm happy to take credit for mirroring her glory ;-)
Very touching "In Memory Of My Best Friend, Jumana by Ghaydaa Owaidah"
This story has been repeated over and over in the Levant during the past 75 years. Mostly in Palestine, but also in Lebanon, Iraq and Syria. Gaza is the latest and very possibly last of these criminal episodes. From the suffering of the people in weak artificial statelets, a resistance like a phoenix was born, and like Saint George, it will slay the dragon.
Quote: "It wasn’t just candy he was there for, but community."
Brought to mind words from the 1980s Cheers theme song:
"Sometimes you wanna go
Where everybody knows your name
And they're always glad you came"
At the time, I was working in the US, one day I decided enough, time to pack and leave.
I'm forgetting where I saw that, if you went to a funeral every day for a child killed in Palestine, it would take 43 years. And every one as much a tragedy as your own child would be.
I was trying to figure out what Byblos, the oldest city in the world, was called now. But it didn't seem to have a name--20 miles outside of Beirut was as close as I could find.
That Cheers song still makes me feel wistful. There's something so wrong about the arbitrary way people are shuffled around. Even the university system. It's said that to make a slave, you first need to rip a person from their context. That seems like part of the agenda.
The Gaza genocide is horrendous, but really nothing new, except "smartphones" that can instantly expose what is happening all over the world. It is probably the last of the genocides or at least one of the last genocides globally. The Empire is dying.
Byblos in Arabic is "Jbayl or Jbeil". You had it right in your article.
"There's something so wrong about the arbitrary way people are shuffled around"
When you uproot them, you destroy human network, emphasis then becomes on accumulating material things, first step to enslavement.
I've travelled a lot, and when asked what's the best place to live in? I reply: it's where you spent your childhood & teen years. It the human network that counts, not the size of your house or power of your bike/car.
I also feel that Gaza is 'the last useless sacrifice.' That's a phrase from A Course in Miracles that says we re-enact this blood ritual again and again, sometimes as the victim, sometimes as the aggressor, until we say 'no more.' I think this is the end.
Smartphones are an unprecedented change in the dynamic. It feels like a flood of information is coming out now, on Mossad's threats to the ICC, the history of the Balfour. I still think, though, the Jews are meant to 'Yews' and discard when their moral authority is used up. It's those manipulating them who get the benefit without the blame.
Travel and learning are two of the greatest joys in life, I think. I've given some thought, in my book and some other episodes, in how to make them a lifelong pleasure instead of 4 intense years followed by a life of debt servitude.
When I first came to Santa Cruz, I thought there should have been a headline at my birth, "Misplaced California baby born in Appalachia." I felt I had escaped and didn't look back. But when my dad died, and my mom was alone for the first time in 90 yrs, I developed an adult relationship with my hometown and found it had changed along with me.
I've now transformed my childhood home and use it as an AirBnB, mostly to have an excuse to go back. It's at the other end of the spectrum, where housing is too cheap because money is tight. I'm glad to have roots in both places, so my economic plan takes into consideration that it's not the cost of housing that's the problem but its relationship to money in circulation--rather than siphoned out.
As usual a lot to unpack, will address one statement:
Quote:
"I also feel that Gaza is 'the last useless sacrifice.' That's a phrase from A Course in Miracles that says we re-enact this blood ritual again and again, sometimes as the victim, sometimes as the aggressor, until we say 'no more.' I think this is the end."
True in many if not most cases, the bloodshed is sacrificial to advance interests of what I call Money Powers. However with a deeply religious moral leadership, not a drop goes to waste.
A famous saying of Sayyed Abbas Mousawi the Hezbollah leader prior to Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah:
"The blood of the martyr when it falls, it does so in the hand of God, and when it falls in the hand of God it flourishes."
A frequent saying by leaders of Resistance Axis, starting with Imam Khomeini, in reference to the battle of Karbala: "Victory of blood over the sword".
The string of victories of the Resistance Axis dating back to the 1980s can be traced back 13 centuries to the Battle of Karbala. This provides such a level of spiritual power, making invincible heroes out ordinary men and women. A lot of blood has been spilt during the past 4 decades, none of it has gone to waste. The resulting transformation in the region is beyond belief. The myriad achievements of the Resistance Axis, including military supremacy are the fruits of the accumulation of blood and suffering during this period. The leader of Hamas in Gaza recently evoked the Battle of Karbala.
When I wrote 'useless sacrifice,' I thought about clarifying that I didn't mean it the way the cult of Yahweh does, as a holocaust. I'm certain that the bombings and firestorms, whether Gaza or Maui or Dresden, are all part of a ritual bloodletting in a twisted belief in supernatural powers.
The theology I entertain is that we're OneMind Dreaming, and not separate bodies at all. It's not a belief but, as a theory consistent with phenomenon, I consider it a possibility. Although it's something I came to independently, it's the basis of the Course, and led me to take it seriously.
I'm grateful that you teach me the sayings of Hezbollah and the Resistance, which I've heard nowhere else. And I'll be very interested to watch your linked video, with a piece of history I've never known. Without a doubt, what you're presenting is true in this plane of 'reality.'
And maybe, on a spiritual level, we're getting ready to give up on the whole idea that love (aka God) requires sacrifice. I don't think I'm putting this well but I'm trying to convey what seems like a contradiction: the blood of martyrs has meaning, and maybe the time of sacrifice is over for good.
I don't believe God requires sacrifice. Resisting oppression though is necessary, and this may entail "sacrifice". However for believers in an afterlife, it is not really a "sacrifice", just moving on earlier to a more just reality.
Quote "what seems like a contradiction: the blood of martyrs has meaning, and maybe the time of sacrifice is over for good."
I am not by any stretch of the imagination a reference on Islam, however living in the Levant one does pick up some things from discussions with friends. What I understood from Moslem friends, is that when we pass away our spirit goes to the afterlife (heaven), if we led a righteous life, then our spirit will be higher in the echelons of the afterlife, and for martyrs their spirit will be close to the great men and women of history, such as the Prophet, his grandson Hussein, Zaynab bint Ali the granddaughter of the Prophet, etc. The purpose of life thus being is to secure a good place in the afterlife. Martyrdom may be the quickest but not the only way, righteous life is the most important.
Here is a somewhat interesting bit: It is very important that when a man dies, that he have no debts. So when a Hezbollah fighter is martyred, Hezbollah investigates if he had any debts, if he did, then they pay his debt so he can go to heaven.
There are a myriad of religions and each has different interpretations; my belief is that the common factor being attachment to moral values and detachment from materialism. Another belief I hold is that there is no religion that is better than another, rather the "best" religion is that of your ancestors, i.e. religion is part of your cultural/civilizational heritage, which is essential to preserve ones "humanity".
I had an interview about the Settler Colony post with Kevin Barret yesterday, should be uploaded soon. Time was too short to cover the topic, nevertheless I tried to clarify some of the main issues in that post.
"And maybe, on a spiritual level, we're getting ready to give up on the whole idea that love (aka God) requires sacrifice. I don't think I'm putting this well but I'm trying to convey what seems like a contradiction: the blood of martyrs has meaning, and maybe the time of sacrifice is over for good."
I agree we are getting ready to drop that overlay of control, which served, of course, the controllers. A big identity-snag for many, but direct-connect and freedom is on the other side.
The Martyr, one who falls while fighting to defend Life is standing with God; in a sense, making the Stand and Life itself connected to God. At least that's how I comprehend it?
I'm looking at this from my own Spiritual sense perspective. Every action must be done for the sake of the action itself and not the fruits of that action, this includes war and sacrifice.
I see the Feminine aspect saying "Useless Sacrifice" out of seeing the very real physical death; turning away from death, seeking to nurture and uphold life. I see the Masculine saying "Victory of blood over the sword," as a willingness to fight and die, in a sacrifice of life to defend life.
One is willing to see the Preservation of Life as essential; while avoiding death, the other is willing to see Sacrifice as essential; in order to Protect Life, even if death is necessary.
For there to be real transformation we need to view this with Both lenses, our strongest Stand with God is Integral.
I see your point and I see Tereza's.
There was a post we put out together on the Bhagavad Gita and the Isha Upanishad, that has the "Justification of Works." I think you might find it interesting:
Being able to have exposure to both places, especially the contrast between Appalachia and California, gives the best reflection to the giant differences in economics for both places. You have studied these differences quite well; it is nicely reflected in your book.
The true source of Treasure we have is our own Human Capital.
Hello, Nef. I think you're right that "we don't own things, things own us," and I think it's been twisted into "You will own nothing and be happy."
I know that we agree on this so I'm saying just to put together, not to disagree. Part of the psyops that people don't need to own homes, which I see young people falling for, is that no one should 'own the land' or something like that.
I see homes as a 'living asset' that, like all things living, need constant care and attention or they bite you in the ass ;-) Homes are a money pit and time sink. They definitely own you, not the other way around.
And people don't fully become adults until they develop that relationship. I don't think home ownership is a luxury, it's a responsibility. It should be easier, both to buy and to take care of a home. But depriving people of that function is another way we're being made into permanent adolescents. I started to write 'depriving young people' until I thought about all the people I know in their 50's who never have and will never own a home, with the way things are going.
But that may just be the material Taurus in me speaking ;-)
Yep on all points. As you know, my plan (as I would implement it) has a monthly dividend targeted towards home improvement. So that creates jobs for anyone who knows how to use a power tool. But I would also put a maximum wage for what someone can make on an hourly basis and withdraw as income monthly, if they're accepting carets. And remember, all housing is priced in carets and costs twice as much in dollars. So that's a real advantage.
What I hope that would do is give an incentive for more people to go into the 'trades' of useful work. Along with the dividend of 'new' money, it would make home projects affordable for those of us not doing them ourselves. And for long-term residents (I'm thinking 7 yrs here) I'd allow them to transfer a set amount of $ to ^ monthly, so they get the 2:1 benefit for local goods, housing and services, and the commonwealth bank has more dollars to distribute at a 1:2 ratio as carets.
I think it was 70,000 home insurance policies that State Farm dropped. It makes me wonder if they're in on the next land-clearing cataclysm. And of course, it's all the citrus farms in the desert sucking up the water, along with high-density LA housing that was never sustainable. But there are so many ways we can all drop off a cliff (or canyon) I've decided not to worry. Easier said than done.
Hoo-wee! What a rollercoaster! Heartbroken for Jeeji, for the girl that went up in the wilderness and didn’t come back til she was an adult, for all the women who have to make the choice to not experience motherhood… so much heartbreak.
I wonder if women are meant to carry all this grief, so it softens us, so we could keep the world tender. Millions of traumatic events coming at us like bludgeoning meat tenderisers breaking our hearts over and over and over again, and we emerge holding nothing but our pain as our shield, ushering a new world, a post-collapsed infant world, a world whose vulnerability is its primary strength.
Happy birthday to your youngest, T. May her trip around the sun be magical this year and every year.
Your words made me tear up, Tonika, you put that so poetically.
The one sent to the wilds of Utah is very special to me. She's just had her nose fixed, which had been broken several times. She gave a couple different accounts of how but they don't add up. What she did say, while I read her oracle card, was that she'd protected her sisters by making herself a target of her abusive dad. She was the bad kid. She also said she counted 30 nannies, who she made a game of getting fired. When the mom finally kicked the dad out, I don't think she wanted the reminder. I think it was easier to start over with the daughters who were less damaged, and pretend the rest had never happened. I may be wrong, but she describes him as a psychopath.
This birthday is my oldest one, the grief counselor. You would like her but it's the youngest, Cassandra, that I hope you someday meet. She's my witchy woman, born Oct 13th, I had remembered it as a Friday but have been corrected. When we need a walking oracle, she's our gal. But I'll convey your magical wishes to Veronica, who also makes miracles.
karif, I'm going to think of you next time a monarch flutters by. And that's more than a daily occurrence. Aren't those purple flowers magnificent? I looked up salvia and delphinium but I don't think they're either. I do know they're not long in their glory, so I'm glad I captured them so they can live forever, or as long as YT tolerates me ;-)
thank you, Tereza! i lost my immersive nature therapy in my own divorce and so i am vicariously thrilled to see you surrounded by such beauty as i am gifted by the wisdom you share
I'm so sorry for your loss, karif. And thank you for the reminder that my SOTU 2030 needs to solve the Great Dispossession that is divorce. I had a couple of lucky breaks: first, I had bought the house before we'd met and we had built another in his hometown of Tucson, where he wanted to retire. Two, a sympathetic assessor, who he'd chosen, who'd been through her own messy divorce.
But it was still 30 months of my future hanging by a thread, with my ex brandishing the scissors. Every time I thought we had an agreement, he'd have drinks with his lawyer buddies and warn the girls that things were about to get ugly.
We finally wrote up the post-nuptual agreement on what the divorce would look like when he retired, staying married on paper for taxes and insurance, and he went through and changed 4.5 of the 7 agreements. But didn't notice that he'd left a loophole, that would change things in my favor if I filed immediately.
So it was the post-nup that had me a nervous wreck. But he did sign it without realizing and, by my stipulation, we didn't talk for a month before we met back with the mediator, by which point he had. I said, "This is what it gives me the right to do but that's not what I want. I want what's fair." He replied, "Write it any way you want. I'm your bitch."
Obviously, it shouldn't take an alignment of the stars to keep the family home in the family. I've started the draft of a book called The Family Friendly Divorce. But the law is definitely not on the side of mothers, as men seem to think, and certainly not on the side of the children.
And yes, buddleia! A beautiful name for a beautiful flower! Thanks so much and sending vicarious nature your way as often as possible.
yes the beautiful landscape i had worked so hard on, building rockery, a pond, swales, creating secret gardens to find was a loss for my soul that i have been refinding after divorcing a gaslighting narcissist. the trade was big but not worth my soul. he looked perfect from the outside and everyone thought i was the crazy one but i finally realized i needed to trust what i hadn't for 30 years😂: myself.
thankfully after 6 years in a dark condo i was able to afford a small house with a yard that i need to start from scratch: all lawn and weeds. hopefully i will live to see some of what i can plant mature, but that really isn't the whole point is it? it's the creation of a living space for those who will come
thank you for sharing your inspiration and care: surviving and i hope thriving
and i trust you knew that a butterfly bush was the appropriate flower to include in your tapestry
Thanks Nef, but I would never say he was terrible. A typical divorce would have started by engaging lawyers who would have assessed the speculative value of the house and gone for the jugular. He knew how much the house meant to me and that it's always been my intention for it to stay in the family for generations.
I don't think divorce needs to be traumatic. It goes back to the competitive cost of housing based on maximum debt for two wage-earners. Under my system, the cost of housing gets cut in half as the first goal, certainly in California. I don't know what choices your mother had and what caused her to abandon you and your sister, but it doesn't sound like she had good choices. I feel certain that wasn't what she wanted, but was all she thought she could do.
Oh, I have a professional question for you--what's your preferred product/ treatment for scale on citrus and a mass infestation of aphids on a plum and a persimmon tree? The scale is on the Buddha Hand and hasn't yet reached neighboring citrus but I know it's a matter of time ... thanks so much!
Love this, Tereza and not only cause of the shout-out -thank you.
"Everyone is hanging by a thread." & "a thousand contactless cuts".
Yes and YES! Bullseye. You've nailed the precariousness our youth are attempting to navigate and come into themselves within. What a challenge. I trust they are up to it.
Love your vision of our future - why not? Works for me and makes perfect sense. A community I crave and would love to live among, be part of.
Your reciting of some of Mary's poetry, made me realize I need to re-read it!
Beautiful. I'll post this comment on your stack too. Thank you.
Thanks so much, Kathleen. Yes, as mothers I think we have a particular window on that precariousness.
I'm very excited about your challenge. I started my book as A 2020 Vision: the Economics of Community and got the domain (back in 2012) for a2020vision.org. I think it may still be relevant, and putting the last 5 years in context as the final stand of the empire may be useful.
And then I'm thinking to write in 5-yr increments for how we get to a whole new generation that's been raised within a system of response-ability.
And yes, Mary's poem gives me hope and that's always worth revisiting ;-)
Understood, thank you for clarifying. On that note, I think - following Adam Smith (who apparently did argue for localized production and linkages, so did Keynes, but anyway, that doesn't make it automatically correct) - following Adam Smith, it's specialization. And a gender identity can be worked into a readymade template for specialization; dysfunctional male-female couples often do this, I think, where the male does grim duty for love of the world (the 'wife'), the female is the vessel of virtue, and must be nonchalant and unaware and victim. And these reinforce each other, since only a knight would marry a queen, so I must be. And, on the 'male' side, "i love the vessel and Love so much, I condemn myself, and protect the world from the difficult things that a man must do). Reinforcement of lies, which would be okay if it didn't affect others.
It's interesting, since this might be connected to disruption of human beings in contemporary society, since in traditional societies, or among people with solid self-identities, these things don't happen. It's also an outcome of common patriarchy: women for example in nominally Hindu South Asian societies are nominally deified, resulting in misogyny and other cultural outcomes.
I think it was the geographer named Semple who said something about how societies are "closer to the earth" are more democratic, and less affected by hierarchy. She was talking about "mountain folk" I think.
I like that comment about "Every time you say a kind word to a stranger..." etc. Or do a kind work.
You might like Timothy Luke's book 'Ecocritique', where he discusses the desirability of "feminizing" society.
My other comment: toxic masculinity is hierarchy, but so is toxic femininity. I'd say that any toxic, unjust behavior is hierarchy. But the word is confounding; community and parts do exist, just like you wouldn't ask a fish to climb a tree, et al.
Thank you, shaqer. Funny, I was just thinking about that this morning because I have a future post on Michael Tsarion, who thinks the only good feminine is a masculine one. Likewise for masculine men, who are the only worthy ones. I know this isn't what you're saying but it seems like the only time he thinks men and women are equal is that, if men can be toxic (which he doesn't think), women are worse.
What I was writing this morning is that toxic masculinity is superiority, and manipulative femininity is passive-aggressive weakness and self-sacrifice. I think that they're different dynamics. Women seek to bind others to them through guilt and obligation, men subjugate others through power.
When women are toxic, and I've seen plenty of them including mothers, it's because they're seeking power over others through the masculine means of money and status. But I'd say the guilt-trip is more specifically female: "I've given up everything for you!" It seeks power over others through sacrifice of the self.
That said, I'm a firm believer in manipulation. It's the best tool a parent has. But I try to be as transparent as possible.
I also wrote that the true masculine is facts + reason + physicality, and the true feminine is intuition + relationships + spirituality. The integrated self is love + logic.
Amy!!! I'm so glad you saw this embellished with your awe-inducing pictures. Didn't they fit beautifully? Some I already had on my desktop but others I went back for. I was so tickled by how the fragmented women fit! The first even looks like my daughter's friend Camille. And the second--half human, half consumed by the droid--looks like Sophia if she had lip injections.
Of course, with Sasquatch, the image came first and I had to find a way to make him fit in the story line. But since, I've made him my desktop background and I laugh and laugh everytime I open my computer. It's like I'm looking in and he's peering back from his portal! He's adorable.
Thank you for noticing all my little details. Yes, I chat my way through the farmer's market, the stores, the baristas, the sidewalks. The credit for making it into a formula goes to Cassandra. As the most asocial of my children, she ended up being the best at making friends as an adult. I think because she's very deliberate about it, she doesn't expect it to happen naturally. She puts herself awkwardly in the middle of other people's conversations and tries to be a bridge when others are newcomers. So I learn a lot from her.
And homeless people, that's something I've given a lot of thought to. I suspect that, like California, Florida has more than its share. I think we have 10X the proportion. And it's always the rallying cry for allowing developers to build more mega-developments, with some amount of 'affordable housing' and why our streets are getting more and more scary. My sidewalk chat yesterday was telling two women to cross the street before they got to the ranting guy, shouting at someone in his head to leave him alone.
The first five years of my plan includes a return of those without shelter to the place they were born or where they currently have family. They become equal recipients of the commonwealth distribution there, making them an asset to whoever takes them in, whether that's their own family or a new community. Families, whether born or made, are strengthened in my model.
Every community has the first obligation to enable its own residents to take care of themselves and each other, within small self-chosen circles. When we accept that it's govt's role to take care of everyone's needs, it's a trick to take away our own responsibility--and ability to respond.
And, in a way, we're actually demeaning others when we take responsibility for their family and community members. We're acting like their communities are not capable or don't care, and like these people are a burden, not people worth loving. The cost of believing it's your job to take care of everyone is to give up on taking care of your own. Not one of my daughters' friends still lives here, unless it's with their parents. Instead, other people's kids do, in the form of students they're cramming into 5-story dorms they want to build in every neighborhood. I'd put a 5-yr moratorium on student migration also.
Always such a joy to have your art collaboration light up my stack, and your perceptive comments spark off my writing, Amy.
I hope you won't mind this adapted from the YT comment:
You cover many important facets of our lives here, Tereza.
The precarious condition of our housing caused by the corrupt debt based central banking, making housing impossibly unaffordable. (I don't know how anyone is able to move to California now)
The story of Jeeji, is so heart wrenching; what you describe, people who are losing their loved ones in Gaza have gotten scars of anguish cauterized by tears that can never be any less than just under the surface and never completely gone. Tragedies like what's happening in Gaza must be stopped.
I can relate to loss but it wasn't violent. Someone I loved as friend passed away; she and I knew each other for over 25 years, we had not been in touch for awhile, then out of the blue she called and we got all caught up, exchanged pictures of family. This was in 2020, she said she would be in touch. Just last year, I got this nagging feeling about her and I checked her name --- she had passed away in 2022.
All we have in this life is each other and love itself in it's many forms. In English we only have one word for love; in Sanskrit there is a word for each type of love experienced.
Your dream about a revolution is a really great example of how everyone can come together, to nullify the Tyrants of the Technocracy, blue shower cap, mask and all. Although, Internet is great for while it is working, it's great for a starting point for creating our tribe; we need to be able to come together without the "dependence on" the internet and other automated technology. To talk with each other, share our ideas, compare solutions, react to the issues and hold compassion for one another as a community.
Feminized statistics has some of the best wisdom, I love your feminine perspective. I am looking forward to your SOTO address, it sounds interesting. ;-)
Thank you, Nef. I'm sorry for the loss of your friend. That sounds so hard to not even know and find someone gone.
Very interesting that Sanskrit has so many words for love. I think it's an intentional part of their agenda that we only have one.
I think most ancient languages have a similar expanse of words. This leads to an altered perception of experiences and how to relate them to others.
About my friend, I tried to reach out to her daughter whom she was living with, I got no response.
I realized reading your comment, Nef, that in mine I didn't even address Jeeji. I find it all too much and words feel so inadequate to the task. Yet reporting on the heartbreak real humans are experiencing in such great numbers is so needed. Thanks.
Pain of loss is something I have felt well up from inside. In my own experience is over powering. When I see people like the Palestinians experience it, I'm right there with them. I'm feeling it too.
We don't really exist as separate beings. There's one consciousness, it hurts to see others feeling loss. Love is the thread that runs through all of us.
Stunning...such a gorgeous post - walking us through the gamut of emotions...weaving such profound tapestries of life and love...💖💞 TY
What a delight to see your face showing up in my early morning 'likes' ;-)
You personify, Pasheen, the integrated self. You move seamlessly between that hard masculine logic/ scrutiny and the feminine intuition and relationships. Proud to call you my friend.
And yes! Are you a sub of Amy's I Am Here for It, Whatever It Is? https://bttrain.substack.com/ I first found her through our friend Ratio, when he named some of his favorite stacks and her name--"What's In a Name, Really?" intrigued me. She embodies that playful, loving, feminine energy like nobody's business (and worked in construction, and is an amazing piano player--imagine the underline on that). But I'm happy to take credit for mirroring her glory ;-)
the AI artwork is amazing too...just delicious!!!
That was just beautiful Tereza...at times, profound and moving. x
I so appreciate that, Pauline, especially from you, with your sharp mind.
Very touching "In Memory Of My Best Friend, Jumana by Ghaydaa Owaidah"
This story has been repeated over and over in the Levant during the past 75 years. Mostly in Palestine, but also in Lebanon, Iraq and Syria. Gaza is the latest and very possibly last of these criminal episodes. From the suffering of the people in weak artificial statelets, a resistance like a phoenix was born, and like Saint George, it will slay the dragon.
Quote: "It wasn’t just candy he was there for, but community."
Brought to mind words from the 1980s Cheers theme song:
"Sometimes you wanna go
Where everybody knows your name
And they're always glad you came"
At the time, I was working in the US, one day I decided enough, time to pack and leave.
I'm forgetting where I saw that, if you went to a funeral every day for a child killed in Palestine, it would take 43 years. And every one as much a tragedy as your own child would be.
I was trying to figure out what Byblos, the oldest city in the world, was called now. But it didn't seem to have a name--20 miles outside of Beirut was as close as I could find.
That Cheers song still makes me feel wistful. There's something so wrong about the arbitrary way people are shuffled around. Even the university system. It's said that to make a slave, you first need to rip a person from their context. That seems like part of the agenda.
The Gaza genocide is horrendous, but really nothing new, except "smartphones" that can instantly expose what is happening all over the world. It is probably the last of the genocides or at least one of the last genocides globally. The Empire is dying.
Byblos in Arabic is "Jbayl or Jbeil". You had it right in your article.
"There's something so wrong about the arbitrary way people are shuffled around"
When you uproot them, you destroy human network, emphasis then becomes on accumulating material things, first step to enslavement.
I've travelled a lot, and when asked what's the best place to live in? I reply: it's where you spent your childhood & teen years. It the human network that counts, not the size of your house or power of your bike/car.
I also feel that Gaza is 'the last useless sacrifice.' That's a phrase from A Course in Miracles that says we re-enact this blood ritual again and again, sometimes as the victim, sometimes as the aggressor, until we say 'no more.' I think this is the end.
Smartphones are an unprecedented change in the dynamic. It feels like a flood of information is coming out now, on Mossad's threats to the ICC, the history of the Balfour. I still think, though, the Jews are meant to 'Yews' and discard when their moral authority is used up. It's those manipulating them who get the benefit without the blame.
Travel and learning are two of the greatest joys in life, I think. I've given some thought, in my book and some other episodes, in how to make them a lifelong pleasure instead of 4 intense years followed by a life of debt servitude.
When I first came to Santa Cruz, I thought there should have been a headline at my birth, "Misplaced California baby born in Appalachia." I felt I had escaped and didn't look back. But when my dad died, and my mom was alone for the first time in 90 yrs, I developed an adult relationship with my hometown and found it had changed along with me.
I've now transformed my childhood home and use it as an AirBnB, mostly to have an excuse to go back. It's at the other end of the spectrum, where housing is too cheap because money is tight. I'm glad to have roots in both places, so my economic plan takes into consideration that it's not the cost of housing that's the problem but its relationship to money in circulation--rather than siphoned out.
As usual a lot to unpack, will address one statement:
Quote:
"I also feel that Gaza is 'the last useless sacrifice.' That's a phrase from A Course in Miracles that says we re-enact this blood ritual again and again, sometimes as the victim, sometimes as the aggressor, until we say 'no more.' I think this is the end."
True in many if not most cases, the bloodshed is sacrificial to advance interests of what I call Money Powers. However with a deeply religious moral leadership, not a drop goes to waste.
A famous saying of Sayyed Abbas Mousawi the Hezbollah leader prior to Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah:
"The blood of the martyr when it falls, it does so in the hand of God, and when it falls in the hand of God it flourishes."
A frequent saying by leaders of Resistance Axis, starting with Imam Khomeini, in reference to the battle of Karbala: "Victory of blood over the sword".
The string of victories of the Resistance Axis dating back to the 1980s can be traced back 13 centuries to the Battle of Karbala. This provides such a level of spiritual power, making invincible heroes out ordinary men and women. A lot of blood has been spilt during the past 4 decades, none of it has gone to waste. The resulting transformation in the region is beyond belief. The myriad achievements of the Resistance Axis, including military supremacy are the fruits of the accumulation of blood and suffering during this period. The leader of Hamas in Gaza recently evoked the Battle of Karbala.
Battle of Karbala: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEv24xcoMYw
When I wrote 'useless sacrifice,' I thought about clarifying that I didn't mean it the way the cult of Yahweh does, as a holocaust. I'm certain that the bombings and firestorms, whether Gaza or Maui or Dresden, are all part of a ritual bloodletting in a twisted belief in supernatural powers.
The theology I entertain is that we're OneMind Dreaming, and not separate bodies at all. It's not a belief but, as a theory consistent with phenomenon, I consider it a possibility. Although it's something I came to independently, it's the basis of the Course, and led me to take it seriously.
I'm grateful that you teach me the sayings of Hezbollah and the Resistance, which I've heard nowhere else. And I'll be very interested to watch your linked video, with a piece of history I've never known. Without a doubt, what you're presenting is true in this plane of 'reality.'
And maybe, on a spiritual level, we're getting ready to give up on the whole idea that love (aka God) requires sacrifice. I don't think I'm putting this well but I'm trying to convey what seems like a contradiction: the blood of martyrs has meaning, and maybe the time of sacrifice is over for good.
Quote "love (aka God) requires sacrifice."
I don't believe God requires sacrifice. Resisting oppression though is necessary, and this may entail "sacrifice". However for believers in an afterlife, it is not really a "sacrifice", just moving on earlier to a more just reality.
Quote "what seems like a contradiction: the blood of martyrs has meaning, and maybe the time of sacrifice is over for good."
I am not by any stretch of the imagination a reference on Islam, however living in the Levant one does pick up some things from discussions with friends. What I understood from Moslem friends, is that when we pass away our spirit goes to the afterlife (heaven), if we led a righteous life, then our spirit will be higher in the echelons of the afterlife, and for martyrs their spirit will be close to the great men and women of history, such as the Prophet, his grandson Hussein, Zaynab bint Ali the granddaughter of the Prophet, etc. The purpose of life thus being is to secure a good place in the afterlife. Martyrdom may be the quickest but not the only way, righteous life is the most important.
Here is a somewhat interesting bit: It is very important that when a man dies, that he have no debts. So when a Hezbollah fighter is martyred, Hezbollah investigates if he had any debts, if he did, then they pay his debt so he can go to heaven.
There are a myriad of religions and each has different interpretations; my belief is that the common factor being attachment to moral values and detachment from materialism. Another belief I hold is that there is no religion that is better than another, rather the "best" religion is that of your ancestors, i.e. religion is part of your cultural/civilizational heritage, which is essential to preserve ones "humanity".
I had an interview about the Settler Colony post with Kevin Barret yesterday, should be uploaded soon. Time was too short to cover the topic, nevertheless I tried to clarify some of the main issues in that post.
"And maybe, on a spiritual level, we're getting ready to give up on the whole idea that love (aka God) requires sacrifice. I don't think I'm putting this well but I'm trying to convey what seems like a contradiction: the blood of martyrs has meaning, and maybe the time of sacrifice is over for good."
I agree we are getting ready to drop that overlay of control, which served, of course, the controllers. A big identity-snag for many, but direct-connect and freedom is on the other side.
The Martyr, one who falls while fighting to defend Life is standing with God; in a sense, making the Stand and Life itself connected to God. At least that's how I comprehend it?
I'm looking at this from my own Spiritual sense perspective. Every action must be done for the sake of the action itself and not the fruits of that action, this includes war and sacrifice.
I see the Feminine aspect saying "Useless Sacrifice" out of seeing the very real physical death; turning away from death, seeking to nurture and uphold life. I see the Masculine saying "Victory of blood over the sword," as a willingness to fight and die, in a sacrifice of life to defend life.
One is willing to see the Preservation of Life as essential; while avoiding death, the other is willing to see Sacrifice as essential; in order to Protect Life, even if death is necessary.
For there to be real transformation we need to view this with Both lenses, our strongest Stand with God is Integral.
I see your point and I see Tereza's.
There was a post we put out together on the Bhagavad Gita and the Isha Upanishad, that has the "Justification of Works." I think you might find it interesting:
https://nefahotep.substack.com/p/bhagavad-gita-has-an-important-message
https://nefahotep.substack.com/p/isha-upanishad-points-to-spiritual
The world needs to see Gaza and the blood shed there, as a vehement reason to say "No More." We need to build a world that nurtures and protects life.
Well said, Nef.
Being able to have exposure to both places, especially the contrast between Appalachia and California, gives the best reflection to the giant differences in economics for both places. You have studied these differences quite well; it is nicely reflected in your book.
The true source of Treasure we have is our own Human Capital.
The best place to be is where you grew up, I agree. The human network is vital for community. Home is where the heart is.
About material and enslavement; we don't really "own" things, ---- things own us. Unless we can change our perception of material.
Hello, Nef. I think you're right that "we don't own things, things own us," and I think it's been twisted into "You will own nothing and be happy."
I know that we agree on this so I'm saying just to put together, not to disagree. Part of the psyops that people don't need to own homes, which I see young people falling for, is that no one should 'own the land' or something like that.
I see homes as a 'living asset' that, like all things living, need constant care and attention or they bite you in the ass ;-) Homes are a money pit and time sink. They definitely own you, not the other way around.
And people don't fully become adults until they develop that relationship. I don't think home ownership is a luxury, it's a responsibility. It should be easier, both to buy and to take care of a home. But depriving people of that function is another way we're being made into permanent adolescents. I started to write 'depriving young people' until I thought about all the people I know in their 50's who never have and will never own a home, with the way things are going.
But that may just be the material Taurus in me speaking ;-)
Yep on all points. As you know, my plan (as I would implement it) has a monthly dividend targeted towards home improvement. So that creates jobs for anyone who knows how to use a power tool. But I would also put a maximum wage for what someone can make on an hourly basis and withdraw as income monthly, if they're accepting carets. And remember, all housing is priced in carets and costs twice as much in dollars. So that's a real advantage.
What I hope that would do is give an incentive for more people to go into the 'trades' of useful work. Along with the dividend of 'new' money, it would make home projects affordable for those of us not doing them ourselves. And for long-term residents (I'm thinking 7 yrs here) I'd allow them to transfer a set amount of $ to ^ monthly, so they get the 2:1 benefit for local goods, housing and services, and the commonwealth bank has more dollars to distribute at a 1:2 ratio as carets.
I think it was 70,000 home insurance policies that State Farm dropped. It makes me wonder if they're in on the next land-clearing cataclysm. And of course, it's all the citrus farms in the desert sucking up the water, along with high-density LA housing that was never sustainable. But there are so many ways we can all drop off a cliff (or canyon) I've decided not to worry. Easier said than done.
Hoo-wee! What a rollercoaster! Heartbroken for Jeeji, for the girl that went up in the wilderness and didn’t come back til she was an adult, for all the women who have to make the choice to not experience motherhood… so much heartbreak.
I wonder if women are meant to carry all this grief, so it softens us, so we could keep the world tender. Millions of traumatic events coming at us like bludgeoning meat tenderisers breaking our hearts over and over and over again, and we emerge holding nothing but our pain as our shield, ushering a new world, a post-collapsed infant world, a world whose vulnerability is its primary strength.
Happy birthday to your youngest, T. May her trip around the sun be magical this year and every year.
Your words made me tear up, Tonika, you put that so poetically.
The one sent to the wilds of Utah is very special to me. She's just had her nose fixed, which had been broken several times. She gave a couple different accounts of how but they don't add up. What she did say, while I read her oracle card, was that she'd protected her sisters by making herself a target of her abusive dad. She was the bad kid. She also said she counted 30 nannies, who she made a game of getting fired. When the mom finally kicked the dad out, I don't think she wanted the reminder. I think it was easier to start over with the daughters who were less damaged, and pretend the rest had never happened. I may be wrong, but she describes him as a psychopath.
This birthday is my oldest one, the grief counselor. You would like her but it's the youngest, Cassandra, that I hope you someday meet. She's my witchy woman, born Oct 13th, I had remembered it as a Friday but have been corrected. When we need a walking oracle, she's our gal. But I'll convey your magical wishes to Veronica, who also makes miracles.
All your daughters sound like they have plenty to offer to the world. No doubt imbued by their mom.
Your Utah daughter by proxy sounds like a warrior. I still grief for her suffering as hers is all of ours.
And yeah, my comment was written in my slap happy phase right before crashing. What can I say, you get it out of me. 🤗
what a beautiful moment to consider being a butterfly in your garden
i enjoy your flowers like your words
🌬️thank you
karif, I'm going to think of you next time a monarch flutters by. And that's more than a daily occurrence. Aren't those purple flowers magnificent? I looked up salvia and delphinium but I don't think they're either. I do know they're not long in their glory, so I'm glad I captured them so they can live forever, or as long as YT tolerates me ;-)
thank you, Tereza! i lost my immersive nature therapy in my own divorce and so i am vicariously thrilled to see you surrounded by such beauty as i am gifted by the wisdom you share
thank you for your care of this miraculous earth
dig your hands in for me
and too glad you're on rumble;-)
(maybe buddleia/butterfly bush?!?)
I'm so sorry for your loss, karif. And thank you for the reminder that my SOTU 2030 needs to solve the Great Dispossession that is divorce. I had a couple of lucky breaks: first, I had bought the house before we'd met and we had built another in his hometown of Tucson, where he wanted to retire. Two, a sympathetic assessor, who he'd chosen, who'd been through her own messy divorce.
But it was still 30 months of my future hanging by a thread, with my ex brandishing the scissors. Every time I thought we had an agreement, he'd have drinks with his lawyer buddies and warn the girls that things were about to get ugly.
We finally wrote up the post-nuptual agreement on what the divorce would look like when he retired, staying married on paper for taxes and insurance, and he went through and changed 4.5 of the 7 agreements. But didn't notice that he'd left a loophole, that would change things in my favor if I filed immediately.
So it was the post-nup that had me a nervous wreck. But he did sign it without realizing and, by my stipulation, we didn't talk for a month before we met back with the mediator, by which point he had. I said, "This is what it gives me the right to do but that's not what I want. I want what's fair." He replied, "Write it any way you want. I'm your bitch."
Obviously, it shouldn't take an alignment of the stars to keep the family home in the family. I've started the draft of a book called The Family Friendly Divorce. But the law is definitely not on the side of mothers, as men seem to think, and certainly not on the side of the children.
And yes, buddleia! A beautiful name for a beautiful flower! Thanks so much and sending vicarious nature your way as often as possible.
yes the beautiful landscape i had worked so hard on, building rockery, a pond, swales, creating secret gardens to find was a loss for my soul that i have been refinding after divorcing a gaslighting narcissist. the trade was big but not worth my soul. he looked perfect from the outside and everyone thought i was the crazy one but i finally realized i needed to trust what i hadn't for 30 years😂: myself.
thankfully after 6 years in a dark condo i was able to afford a small house with a yard that i need to start from scratch: all lawn and weeds. hopefully i will live to see some of what i can plant mature, but that really isn't the whole point is it? it's the creation of a living space for those who will come
thank you for sharing your inspiration and care: surviving and i hope thriving
and i trust you knew that a butterfly bush was the appropriate flower to include in your tapestry
Thanks Nef, but I would never say he was terrible. A typical divorce would have started by engaging lawyers who would have assessed the speculative value of the house and gone for the jugular. He knew how much the house meant to me and that it's always been my intention for it to stay in the family for generations.
I don't think divorce needs to be traumatic. It goes back to the competitive cost of housing based on maximum debt for two wage-earners. Under my system, the cost of housing gets cut in half as the first goal, certainly in California. I don't know what choices your mother had and what caused her to abandon you and your sister, but it doesn't sound like she had good choices. I feel certain that wasn't what she wanted, but was all she thought she could do.
Oh, I have a professional question for you--what's your preferred product/ treatment for scale on citrus and a mass infestation of aphids on a plum and a persimmon tree? The scale is on the Buddha Hand and hasn't yet reached neighboring citrus but I know it's a matter of time ... thanks so much!
Beautiful post! I don't even have the wods to describe my reaction. Moving and sad at the same time. ❤️
Thank you so much, Heather. Love back 'atcha (because I don't know how to do emojis on my computer ;-)
Love this, Tereza and not only cause of the shout-out -thank you.
"Everyone is hanging by a thread." & "a thousand contactless cuts".
Yes and YES! Bullseye. You've nailed the precariousness our youth are attempting to navigate and come into themselves within. What a challenge. I trust they are up to it.
Love your vision of our future - why not? Works for me and makes perfect sense. A community I crave and would love to live among, be part of.
Your reciting of some of Mary's poetry, made me realize I need to re-read it!
Beautiful. I'll post this comment on your stack too. Thank you.
Thanks so much, Kathleen. Yes, as mothers I think we have a particular window on that precariousness.
I'm very excited about your challenge. I started my book as A 2020 Vision: the Economics of Community and got the domain (back in 2012) for a2020vision.org. I think it may still be relevant, and putting the last 5 years in context as the final stand of the empire may be useful.
And then I'm thinking to write in 5-yr increments for how we get to a whole new generation that's been raised within a system of response-ability.
And yes, Mary's poem gives me hope and that's always worth revisiting ;-)
That's a great idea. Retrospect (could you ask for richer material?) then the way forward, in small enough bites (5 years) to digest.
Post Covid (and who knows what else coming) many of us will be looking for grounded and thoughtful ideas.
"A system of response-ability." The "Ability to Respond," I like it! And a system that supports the ability to respond.
Understood, thank you for clarifying. On that note, I think - following Adam Smith (who apparently did argue for localized production and linkages, so did Keynes, but anyway, that doesn't make it automatically correct) - following Adam Smith, it's specialization. And a gender identity can be worked into a readymade template for specialization; dysfunctional male-female couples often do this, I think, where the male does grim duty for love of the world (the 'wife'), the female is the vessel of virtue, and must be nonchalant and unaware and victim. And these reinforce each other, since only a knight would marry a queen, so I must be. And, on the 'male' side, "i love the vessel and Love so much, I condemn myself, and protect the world from the difficult things that a man must do). Reinforcement of lies, which would be okay if it didn't affect others.
It's interesting, since this might be connected to disruption of human beings in contemporary society, since in traditional societies, or among people with solid self-identities, these things don't happen. It's also an outcome of common patriarchy: women for example in nominally Hindu South Asian societies are nominally deified, resulting in misogyny and other cultural outcomes.
I think it was the geographer named Semple who said something about how societies are "closer to the earth" are more democratic, and less affected by hierarchy. She was talking about "mountain folk" I think.
Thank you again for clarifying.
Shaqer
Waiting for a star to fall.
I like that comment about "Every time you say a kind word to a stranger..." etc. Or do a kind work.
You might like Timothy Luke's book 'Ecocritique', where he discusses the desirability of "feminizing" society.
My other comment: toxic masculinity is hierarchy, but so is toxic femininity. I'd say that any toxic, unjust behavior is hierarchy. But the word is confounding; community and parts do exist, just like you wouldn't ask a fish to climb a tree, et al.
Thanks Tereza.
Thank you, shaqer. Funny, I was just thinking about that this morning because I have a future post on Michael Tsarion, who thinks the only good feminine is a masculine one. Likewise for masculine men, who are the only worthy ones. I know this isn't what you're saying but it seems like the only time he thinks men and women are equal is that, if men can be toxic (which he doesn't think), women are worse.
What I was writing this morning is that toxic masculinity is superiority, and manipulative femininity is passive-aggressive weakness and self-sacrifice. I think that they're different dynamics. Women seek to bind others to them through guilt and obligation, men subjugate others through power.
When women are toxic, and I've seen plenty of them including mothers, it's because they're seeking power over others through the masculine means of money and status. But I'd say the guilt-trip is more specifically female: "I've given up everything for you!" It seeks power over others through sacrifice of the self.
That said, I'm a firm believer in manipulation. It's the best tool a parent has. But I try to be as transparent as possible.
I also wrote that the true masculine is facts + reason + physicality, and the true feminine is intuition + relationships + spirituality. The integrated self is love + logic.
Amy!!! I'm so glad you saw this embellished with your awe-inducing pictures. Didn't they fit beautifully? Some I already had on my desktop but others I went back for. I was so tickled by how the fragmented women fit! The first even looks like my daughter's friend Camille. And the second--half human, half consumed by the droid--looks like Sophia if she had lip injections.
Of course, with Sasquatch, the image came first and I had to find a way to make him fit in the story line. But since, I've made him my desktop background and I laugh and laugh everytime I open my computer. It's like I'm looking in and he's peering back from his portal! He's adorable.
Thank you for noticing all my little details. Yes, I chat my way through the farmer's market, the stores, the baristas, the sidewalks. The credit for making it into a formula goes to Cassandra. As the most asocial of my children, she ended up being the best at making friends as an adult. I think because she's very deliberate about it, she doesn't expect it to happen naturally. She puts herself awkwardly in the middle of other people's conversations and tries to be a bridge when others are newcomers. So I learn a lot from her.
And homeless people, that's something I've given a lot of thought to. I suspect that, like California, Florida has more than its share. I think we have 10X the proportion. And it's always the rallying cry for allowing developers to build more mega-developments, with some amount of 'affordable housing' and why our streets are getting more and more scary. My sidewalk chat yesterday was telling two women to cross the street before they got to the ranting guy, shouting at someone in his head to leave him alone.
The first five years of my plan includes a return of those without shelter to the place they were born or where they currently have family. They become equal recipients of the commonwealth distribution there, making them an asset to whoever takes them in, whether that's their own family or a new community. Families, whether born or made, are strengthened in my model.
Every community has the first obligation to enable its own residents to take care of themselves and each other, within small self-chosen circles. When we accept that it's govt's role to take care of everyone's needs, it's a trick to take away our own responsibility--and ability to respond.
And, in a way, we're actually demeaning others when we take responsibility for their family and community members. We're acting like their communities are not capable or don't care, and like these people are a burden, not people worth loving. The cost of believing it's your job to take care of everyone is to give up on taking care of your own. Not one of my daughters' friends still lives here, unless it's with their parents. Instead, other people's kids do, in the form of students they're cramming into 5-story dorms they want to build in every neighborhood. I'd put a 5-yr moratorium on student migration also.
Always such a joy to have your art collaboration light up my stack, and your perceptive comments spark off my writing, Amy.
Amy, your Art is Beautiful, -- and I can tell your Heart is Beautiful too.
Awesome comment, by the way I thought I was the master of long comments Ha Ha. You covered it all. ;-)