Author Archives: gardnerz

A Different Method to Practice Introspection

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As someone who has always found contemplative practice to be something that doesn’t suit me, I still have yet to really take anything beneficial away from them.  I have always been an introspective person who does my deepest thinking when listening to music, hiking, or cooking so trying to force myself to be meditate generally has the opposite effect and I end up feeling less introspective and self-aware.

Due to this it is challenging to connect course content to what I am getting from the contemplative practice since I really don’t feel there is a huge benefit for me personally.  I think this is just because I’m a generally impatient person who needs a lot of stimuli to think clearly and contemplate the deeper meaning of things.  While all live music experiences give me the room to be more introspective, there is nothing that matches when I am seeing Phish.  The way they create space and improvise for long periods makes getting into a meditative state easy for me.  Even during really intense or funky jams everything slows down and I can feel every second while freely associating and working through challenging topics.

What has been occurring to me throughout the quarter is how many of their songs are about death which is why it is so relevant.  The lyrics in their songs that deal with death are all whimsical to the point of being cheesy about something people consider to be a dark subject.  Reading the chapter in Pollan’s “How To Change Your Mind” entitled Trip Treatment explaining how they used psychedelics to assist people who were dying of cancer with managing the anxiety and stress of their impending death really drove it home for me.  The idea of escaping from the ‘prison of self’ and egolessness really makes me think of the lyrics to ‘Ruby Waves.’

While I know a lot of people have a challenging time connecting with their music it has helped me immensely and always helps me ground myself so if you keep an open mind, listen to the lyrics and have an extra 30 minutes you can try and work through different ways of dealing with the probability of civilization irreversibly changing in the near future due to climate collapse and over consumption.

Solidarity in Trying Times

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As we face climate change, I can understand an increase in anxiety among the younger generation.   Reading The Worm at its Core connected struggling with anxiety to self-esteem in a way I had previously not viewed it, with the authors explaining how a lack of self-esteem contributes to a higher amount of anxiety.  With the increased use of social media, people are inundated with a skewed view of what life looks like due to the way the algorithm elevates certain content while also advertising what your life should be like which is a sure fire way to make most people question their self-worth.

When this happens, I believe most people find stability the way they always have, by finding like-minded individuals to be in community with.  Currently with impending climate catastrophe I think that means people who are willing to alter their way of life to do what they can to minimize their impact gravitate towards each other.  While this can be seen as a positive the story Karen told about her vegan friends no longer talking to her after she started to eat animal protein again was to me unsurprising but shows a serious problem with the way people view community.  Individuals absolutely have a role to play in stewardship of the planet but far too many people identify against each other as opposed to with each other.  You see it in the lack of class-consciousness and with situations like the professor alluded to and I believe it is to the detriment of any ability to combat or slow climate change.  The only way I see to make a change is solidarity among people and a strong stance against the continued extraction of resources and exploitation that the people of the global south bear the brunt of.

One has to look no further than the COP26 conference to see how unserious the wealthy elite are about changing our extraction and exploitation economy with the number of private jets flown in so they can ensure nothing will fundamentally change.  The sooner people stop listening and supporting the plutocrats the better.

 

The lies that they feed to me, are as edible as Mercury-Tom Marshall, Ernest Giuseppe Anastasio III