42 Comments
User's avatar
Eleanor Ommani's avatar

Oh, Caitlin and Tim! This is indeed one of your best! (& there are MANY!) writings sooo targeted at the blinders/avoidance/shoulder-shrugging as if our current reality should just be accepted as is! 💔Thank you for putting into words my very own feelings and observations!!

Les's avatar

Very good E.O.

In which case, you should appreciate this.

Ukraine Notes - The Long Proxy War IV. Of Madness and Men. Women, some of them.

https://les7eb.substack.com/p/ukraine-notes-the-long-proxy-war-67b

Diana van Eyk's avatar

Such an important point. We can't let ourselves numb out and miss life on its terms.

George Watts's avatar

I lived a 'calloused' life for a long time. It took a lot of work to begin to appreciate the world's beauty again, even longer to appreciate the world's beautiful people. It is literally like eyesight, it can get out of focus and if you're not aware of it, you start to believe that's just the way the world looks. Another great piece, thanks.

teddyG's avatar

Some men (and women) just want to see the world burn. Those men and women must be separated and confined from the rest of us. Forever.

Feral Finster's avatar

Those who rule or seek rule would gladly destroy 99%of life on earth, as long as they were granted dominion over whatever is left.

forceOfHabit's avatar

I dunno. Sounds a little like trying to "separate and confine" your shadow. Off the top of my head, the only way I can think of to accomplish that requires living in darkness.

Diego Prendergast's avatar

Poetry of the highest order.

Melinda Fouche's avatar

Refreshing! Thank you!

Doris Wrench Eisler's avatar

We were created in a planet so beautiful, we cannot even imagine one more beautiful. Nature is awe-inspiring, all other animals have grace, love, and complete adaptation. They could not live anywhere else any more than we could. Yet the crazy myth persists, and even Stephen Hawking the renowned physicist, bought into the idea that migration into space is our only hope for future survival. How dumb: abandon a perfectly viable planet for a very hostile unknown instead of using the brains nature gave us to solve the problems we have created, all on our own. Which brings into question the concept of intelligence: obviously, it's often confused with something quite different: a knack for a discipline , either in science or art.

anon having fun's avatar

I wish we’d not allowed ourselves to become desensitized to everything that is going on right now. For example, homelessness.

It is a problem that keeps growing and will continue to do so until we put our foot down and demand the wealthiest civilization in human history... actually provides housing for everyone within its grip.

The Revolution Continues's avatar

"That’s what authentic living is, in my view: meeting life just as it is, without egocentric filters, distortions or manipulations, come what may. This is the only way to really live our time on this earth, to really experience each moment instead of missing it. It’s also the only way for ordinary people to respond to tyranny and abuse with the emotional energy it requires."

Emotional energy--and maturity--are what is necessary to bring about positive change in this world. If we can't love our neighbors as we love ourselves then we aren't serious about building a better world. We just want more of the same with ourselves on top. Socialists include everyone as equals in a better world.

Daniel Geery's avatar

BE HERE NOW. You are an integral part of a conmos that is evolving every nanosecond. imho

Steven Berger's avatar

Well, let's just stay in that same Pink Floyd vein for a while.

"He's haunted by the memory of a lost paradise

In his youth or a dream, he can't be precise..."

https://youtu.be/NO9Kp_Wn_2A?feature=shared

Mike Hampton's avatar

The whole concert is amazing but such a pity that the band is brainwashed regarding the war in Ukraine. At least Roger Waters is villlified cause that means he's on the right side. His anti-war 'The Final Cut' is underrated, and his 'Amused to Death' cover is the synonym for the modern version of our species.

Steven Berger's avatar

Aye, there's the rub - artistic genius doesn't always translate to seeing things clearly...

I'll leave you with this and say goodnight for now:

https://youtu.be/FFeAD_OzNWI?feature=shared

Grant Lenaarts's avatar

Expanded Awareness is Impact Awareness plus sensitivity to beauty.Indeed the same aperture.

Perception is our greatest treasure.It is automatically imprinted by ideology and the blueprints of experience.

Eric French's avatar

You are correct Caitlin never let a day go by without taking in and marveling the creation around you. We know our start date and we never know our end date. Live for the hyphen that's between. I stopped watching TV years ago so I'm not up to speed on what is being used to propagandize the populous. I do know that our military-industrial complex is responsible for the tragedies that unfold around the world.

Les's avatar

"We must never let ourselves become desensitized to this. To any part of this".

Correct, hence this dated July 30th, 2022 on this matter and Vogue magazine . . .

Ukraine Notes - The Long Proxy War IV. Of Madness and Men. Women, some of them.

https://les7eb.substack.com/p/ukraine-notes-the-long-proxy-war-67b

Jack Lomax's avatar

For the educated and enlightened middle class such good and worthy advise .But for the struggling lower classes bottoming out as those homeless street dwellers living in their cars or under thin tents live in the grip of the claws of capitalism and these words and ideals are sadly forever beyond their reach.Unless the spirituality so engended causes the readers and hearers to activate their spiritual knowledge into nonviolent direct action against the capitalist monster which is the root cause of the misery and loneliness of their lower class brothers and sisters. That would indeed be poetry in action