The stories we live by in a society, and as a civilization, are a cross-pollination of narratives, derived from age-old belief systems, traditions, rituals, religions and literature, tempered and adapted organically by modern epistemology, pedagogy, philosophy, cultural context and the purely experiential. There’s an inherent, and perhaps predictable narrowing, or reduction, of the “allowable” within these structures. And because of an inevitable tendency toward identity and ideology, our struggles individually and socially arise as and when this unconscious mechanism is either unwittingly or deliberately used against us.
Tag: history
This is about Canada’s treatment of its indigenous peoples over the past century and more. It’s not an easy topic to discuss, and I believe that most of us are ignorant as to just how terrible it was.
Since the advent of psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, pharmaceuticals, and grandiose illusions of purpose, meaning, and happiness, those who do not fit neatly into “normal” behavior have faced stigma and violent prejudice. We have also dehumanized large segments of society in favor of political, ideological, economic, or dogmatic ignorance and stupidity.
Every lifetime has its ups and downs, peaks and valleys, flurries of activity, lulls and stagnation; times of stillness, contemplation and regrets, gratitude and love… but ultimately, it all ends. A forest, a community, a nation or empire; a civilization, a religion, a species — all of their stories eventually come to a close. That which endures through the ages is subtlety, energy, the building blocks for what’s next, fragmented timelines, and relics of what once was.
For each of us, on the winding road toward discovery, wisdom, meaning and making sense of this singular lifetime, we are endowed with unique capabilities. We can choose to free our minds of relics, fragmentation, and stagnant energies.
You might think it’s possible to live in the past, or the future. But right now is all you get. So long as you agree with the linear way of things, that’s how it has to be.