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mattlistener(I'd like to interview some folks! If you're an interviewee for me, leave a comment to let me know. Be patient -- I may think on it a while, and they'll be spiffy questions.)
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keyne asked:
1. Do you find smell or sound more evocative? Tell me a story about one or the other.
2. Is paganism a matter of religious belief for you? an ethical framework? a consciousness-altering practice? something else?
3. What interests you about natural disasters?
4. You're in a young-adult fantasy and some being has just lent you a kind of mystical Allen wrench you can use to make one small adjustment to society. What changes do you consider?
5. What words or phrases do you overuse?
1. I've always told people that I have a very poor sense of smell. More recently I've realized that my sense of smell isn't *that* poor; sometimes I even detect smells that others can't. I just never trained my brain to focus on smell data, or learned good distinctions therein. In my youth I once let the dog in the house not realizing she'd been skunked -- my parents were baffled.
Sound, on the other hand, is very evocative. It's hard for me to write about -- in Dawna Markova's model of the mind, I've got Auditory associated with my unconscious. Spoken words, music, and tones of voice can have a deep, direct affect on me sometimes. When I catch myself humming a tune unawares and think out the lyrics, I usually find they're significant to my situation, in much the same way folks report dreams can be. Sometimes I can do things listening to energetic music that I don't have the energy for otherwise. The key, of course, is recalling and applying this fact when needed.
2. Paganism certainly isn't a matter of religous belief for me. There isn't an organization or a doctrine or a pantheon that I follow. It's not an ethical framework either. There is certainly much ethical thinking within paganism that is consonant with my own. I've got my own ethical framework, I feel well-grounded in myself.
Is it a consciousness-altering practice? Yes, and I hope to grow more in that. I've had some very significant such experiences, mostly in large-group rituals.
I'm gradually looking at more of my life from the point of view of ritual design. Getting handfasted feels daunting partly because it feels like a very advanced, large-group ritual, and I haven't designed for more than two before -- and that on a winging-it basis. I don't think I'd be satisfied with a handfasting ritual that felt less than Brandi and I were capable of, but we've got a whole lot to learn and I'm not clear how we're getting there, so I've probably designed myself into a box here. This suggests I would do well to start a ritual design group of some kind. Or make a more mindful practice of making group-process suggestions in group settings.
3. Ah, natural disasters. I more *enjoy* them than I'm interested in them. Wouldn't want to have one befall me personally, of course, but if there were ever a tornado within visual range it would take some serious convincing to get me to the basement instead of the floor with the best view. Especially if it was moving away!
Why do I enjoy them? I don't have the whole of it, but here's some facets.
I'm a systems thinker, and I like seeing how a complex system can shift catastrophically from one state to another (eg avalanche), or develop a perverse self-sustaining feature (eg tornado).
I'm unhappy that homo sapiens is beating up the planet. Part of me enjoys the planet beating up homo sapiens once in a while.
I'm poorly connected to my source of power a lot of the time. Witnessing or just understanding a massive natural force in action is evocative in a way that helps me get closer to the source.
4. One small adjustment to society? That's an easy one -- I'd make everyone a little more empathic. More empathy would mean less violence, less discrimination, less market for benefitting from the misfortune of others. More empathy would mean more sources of understanding and comfort around for everyone; fewer would fall off their personal cliffs; more would find themselves with surplusses of love and put more energy into giving it away.
Empathy. Please, teach it to your kids!
5. What words or phrases do I overuse? None are coming to mind! I think when I start to notice myself overusing a word or phrase, I start getting bored of it, and my brain starts looking for more nuanced or entertaining ways of expressing the same thing. All my life I've played a background game of "how can I say this in a way that's unfamiliar to you, but the meaning's still clear?"
keyne asked:1. Do you find smell or sound more evocative? Tell me a story about one or the other.
2. Is paganism a matter of religious belief for you? an ethical framework? a consciousness-altering practice? something else?
3. What interests you about natural disasters?
4. You're in a young-adult fantasy and some being has just lent you a kind of mystical Allen wrench you can use to make one small adjustment to society. What changes do you consider?
5. What words or phrases do you overuse?
1. I've always told people that I have a very poor sense of smell. More recently I've realized that my sense of smell isn't *that* poor; sometimes I even detect smells that others can't. I just never trained my brain to focus on smell data, or learned good distinctions therein. In my youth I once let the dog in the house not realizing she'd been skunked -- my parents were baffled.
Sound, on the other hand, is very evocative. It's hard for me to write about -- in Dawna Markova's model of the mind, I've got Auditory associated with my unconscious. Spoken words, music, and tones of voice can have a deep, direct affect on me sometimes. When I catch myself humming a tune unawares and think out the lyrics, I usually find they're significant to my situation, in much the same way folks report dreams can be. Sometimes I can do things listening to energetic music that I don't have the energy for otherwise. The key, of course, is recalling and applying this fact when needed.
2. Paganism certainly isn't a matter of religous belief for me. There isn't an organization or a doctrine or a pantheon that I follow. It's not an ethical framework either. There is certainly much ethical thinking within paganism that is consonant with my own. I've got my own ethical framework, I feel well-grounded in myself.
Is it a consciousness-altering practice? Yes, and I hope to grow more in that. I've had some very significant such experiences, mostly in large-group rituals.
I'm gradually looking at more of my life from the point of view of ritual design. Getting handfasted feels daunting partly because it feels like a very advanced, large-group ritual, and I haven't designed for more than two before -- and that on a winging-it basis. I don't think I'd be satisfied with a handfasting ritual that felt less than Brandi and I were capable of, but we've got a whole lot to learn and I'm not clear how we're getting there, so I've probably designed myself into a box here. This suggests I would do well to start a ritual design group of some kind. Or make a more mindful practice of making group-process suggestions in group settings.
3. Ah, natural disasters. I more *enjoy* them than I'm interested in them. Wouldn't want to have one befall me personally, of course, but if there were ever a tornado within visual range it would take some serious convincing to get me to the basement instead of the floor with the best view. Especially if it was moving away!
Why do I enjoy them? I don't have the whole of it, but here's some facets.
I'm a systems thinker, and I like seeing how a complex system can shift catastrophically from one state to another (eg avalanche), or develop a perverse self-sustaining feature (eg tornado).
I'm unhappy that homo sapiens is beating up the planet. Part of me enjoys the planet beating up homo sapiens once in a while.
I'm poorly connected to my source of power a lot of the time. Witnessing or just understanding a massive natural force in action is evocative in a way that helps me get closer to the source.
4. One small adjustment to society? That's an easy one -- I'd make everyone a little more empathic. More empathy would mean less violence, less discrimination, less market for benefitting from the misfortune of others. More empathy would mean more sources of understanding and comfort around for everyone; fewer would fall off their personal cliffs; more would find themselves with surplusses of love and put more energy into giving it away.
Empathy. Please, teach it to your kids!
5. What words or phrases do I overuse? None are coming to mind! I think when I start to notice myself overusing a word or phrase, I start getting bored of it, and my brain starts looking for more nuanced or entertaining ways of expressing the same thing. All my life I've played a background game of "how can I say this in a way that's unfamiliar to you, but the meaning's still clear?"
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no subject
Date: 2004-02-26 11:45 pm (UTC)neat!
Date: 2004-02-27 10:36 am (UTC)And I agree with you. We need more empathy in this world. Not just for each other but for all the critters & plants too.
*smooch*