Starting a Blog

Starting a blog is my first topic, which seems timely. Hopefully nothing I write here will sabotage my future political career. To be honest, I'm starting this blog as a procrastinatory measure against writing a paper for school. Perhaps framing writing as a recreational--and optional--activity will somehow morph into actually writing the paper. I know what you're wondering: What is the paper about? I'll tell you here: It's about literature's potential to heal the various divisions in the world by giving readers experiences of embeddedness within the world/cosmos. An assumption is that the self/world split is actually an illusion that has developed over time (and rapidly since the birth of patriarchy and at lightning speed since the industrial revolution), but that split--however illusory--nonetheless creates major problems for the Earth community. Basically, it leads to people being mean to each other and ruining the Earth Party in countless ways. One way to dissolve this perceived split, and to get the band back together, is to provide experiences for "others" of experiencing themselves as being inexorably part of the Universe. Basically, to experience communion with everything in creation. My paper is about how reading certain forms of literature can help do this. Of course, there are many ways--literature is not the only way! Lots of people do drugs to simulate this communion and that may be a legit way to move toward this type of healing of which I speak. But that route has obvious risks. Lots of people choose spiritual paths and meditation to become one with all there is. I guess this is a good path, too, but meditation takes so friggen long and then you have to get all disciplined about it, go through a stage of self-righteousness, think you have the solution to everything and annoy people around you who have seen this happen for countless people fresh from three weeks in an ashram. And worse, sometimes "spiritual experiences" can leave a person too "one with all" and with an attitude of "everything is as it should be," and they are left unmotivated to actively transform the world. Well, everything AIN'T as it should be, as any oppressed person would tell you, and we need people to DO things to change them.

Lots of events and practices that are considered "natural" and part of evolution are actually harmful to our community and threaten our future. I'm sure evolutionary psychologists have lots to contribute to the world, but they are leaving a legacy of people who think because the dominant humans do something, it somehow contributes to progress on our evolutionary path. When you start out with that premise, it's easy to concoct a rationale for how any action vibes with Darwin's theory of natural selection. Man, all sorts of counterproductive things get explained away by that kind of thinking: sexism, racism, etceterism. "War is natural because I've read about it in all of my history books! People have told me that it's always existed, so I guess that means it's natural. Man, I feel like shooting something right now." The co-opted "it's natural argument" a roadblock in exploring the mystery of life. The stories that get generated by biological determinism are neat, complete and bear no call for change. "Oh, that's why I hate math! I'm a girl and can't be good at it anyway. Cool, now I don't have to study! Let's go foraging...I mean shopping." I think that is why explanations from a biological deterministic standpoint they are so appealing. There's the question and an answer and the show is over. In my opinion, in our American culture, there's an aversion to mystery and change that makes the status quo seem inevitable--and so it only makes sense that from there, the only thing to do is to make the status quo tolerable. But then, why do so many people experience so many things as intolerable? If sexism were "natural," wouldn't women thrive because of it and not just in spite of it? Wouldn't I be in a better mood more often?

I seek to join others working and living to spread the paradigm that makes everybody happy. As I write this, i realize that I haven't talked much about this, but I will at some point. My very personal stake in chnging the world is that I'm sick of being hurt by people who perceive me as completely separate from them. If all goes according to my plan, there'd be no reason for anyone to intentionally hurt another because it would be such an obvious act or self-inflicted harm. And tell me how evolutionary psychology could explain that one. (that's not a challenge--I'm sure they could find a theory, those crafty rascals...I'm trying to stop saying bastards.) This new paradigm will be marked by gentleness and sacred ways of seeing EVERYTHING! I'm not talking about living in a limp handshake kind of way--but the more active--yang, if you will--complement to this gentle way will be more like playful sparring. Imagine kittens playing. That's how harmless and fun the non-gentle aspects of living will be in the new paradigm I have brewing. Maybe there will be "violence" but it would be more like kung fu matches after which everybody goes out for dinner together afterwards--winner pays.

Ok, so my first foray into this blog world has been quite a trip. I'm not sure that it's lending itself to writing a paper that an instructor would consider scholarly and well-researched, but those papers are boring and, in my opinion, don't change the culture very much in positive ways. Often they don't even get used as anything other than research for additional scholarly well-researched papers. I may completely change my mind on this last claim within hours, or as caffeine levels dictate.

Hopefully, I've said some things here that inspire support or silent challenges. Honestly, I'm more in the mood for support, so if you have ideas that vibe with some of the things I've said, I'd love to hear them. If you can help me connect my ideas better--and ground them in stories--I'd be very happy. If you find yourself disagreeing with my ideas, I still love you, but am not in the mood right now for challenges. All this is still incubating and I want to give it a chance to take a more resilient form. Please go easy on a sister who is just a newbie blogger. A good way to start a comment is "Jenn, you are a totally rocking chick. Oh by the way, could you explain a little bit more about your idea..."

Over and out,
Jenn Powell