Brilliant, Eric. Your comments are always exceptional and brilliantly stated. I agree with every word, and could hardly begin to state it so well.
Gaffe my ass. I’m delighted at all the opinion pieces pushing back against the idea that Biden did anything other than speak for humanity. In my life I am surrounded by kind, gentle people wh…
Brilliant, Eric. Your comments are always exceptional and brilliantly stated. I agree with every word, and could hardly begin to state it so well.
Gaffe my ass. I’m delighted at all the opinion pieces pushing back against the idea that Biden did anything other than speak for humanity. In my life I am surrounded by kind, gentle people who think always of treating others well. My own wife said weeks ago that Putin needs to be offed. When WOMEN are calling for disposing of someone, that tells you something.
Biden himself was told, by women fleeing the war, that they would strangle Putin.
“In my life I am surrounded by kind, gentle people who think always of treating others well”.
Roland, that comes out in your writing. And I am positive that they live that way in part because you do to.
As I age, I feel more and more drawn to observing that same fact in my own life. My wife is a loving, gentle matriarch and our four children are brilliant, active and celebrate their parents (more than they serve in one case :).
And don’t get me started on my grandchildren. 😊
Thank you for your generous comment. It is wonderful to wake up to someone who reaches out in that way.
I read, listen to, and watch people doing their level best to sort out the terrible mess we have blasted ourselves into. It is unfathomable really. People can explain parts of it coherently in a way that nurtures my understanding. They can speculate on other parts, with rather less success in general.
I find myself thinking that nobody goes far enough in their analysis. They can and do arrive at proximate causes. But I find myself thinking more and more that we are not connecting the dots.
Ultimately the pundits do not go far enough. The simple truth is that not enough people have had the good fortune that we have - and it is in large part the luck of the draw - to be born into, and nurtured by families who put love first and that as their highest people. Those children then go in to nurture and love in the same way they were.
Nowadays it seems to me that in too many homes the stresses on individuals are so acute as to make them live either mostly in their head or never in their head. Parenting slowly becomes just one more thing to do in the intervals between texting, Netflix, and self-medication. It is terribly sad (there but for the grace of God go I), and in obsessing over the huge problems we ignore this root cause at our peril.
Great talking directly to you Roland. I know you are a good man.
Given what and how you both spoke, Eric and Roland, I present myself as that child from an unloving, violent home, AND I have and am breaking the cycle. I can now relate with 100% certainty from my decades of exhaustive experience, that there is ONE LOVE shared by each of us from our Creator (or whatever name/word man has thought of for such an entity). I offer two instrumental books that helped me to see with clarity the ego damage caused by my sick family of origin, and unhesitantly recommend them to read by as many folks as I can, knowing the human reality behind them. The first is the Updated and Revised version of The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog (2017) written by Dr. Bruce D. Perry, MD, PhD, and coauthored by Maia Szalavitz. Perry's 2006 version is fine as well, I'd imagine, yet the 2017 update is required reading by anyone who has any human relationships, full stop. The second is another book by Perry, coauthored with Oprah Winfrey (2021) called What Happened to You? This book is best heard on Audible because both collaborators speak as themselves. People like me who suffered from severe Developmental Trauma, being held hostage by dissociation and disconnection from self and others, know well the hell I lived in isolation (that is if they don't suicide/kill another, or to your point, perpetuate and project their self-hatred onto others, first). It is a condition in which the awareness of and dismantling of generational fear mongering is accomplished through enacting God's unconditional love into ourselves and others. This is how we end human suffering forever. My conviction about God's Love and Truth is coming from yet a very different source: its acroynm is ACIM, and it is a spiritual guide that has answered ALL MY questions about what I am and what this world of illusion is (our egos). Thanks for letting me share. I hope you and others in this group have your curiousity piqued and if interested, check these books out and see for yourself why I know what I offer is legitimate to our cause for Salvation before we destroy ourselves entiredly. Peace!
I was horrified by your account of your upbringing and amazed at your resilience and courage in shaking off the shackles. As a classroom teacher of 4+ decades, I saw plenty of children who had had no fighting chance in life. (And interestingly money was not a common factor. Many came from well to do homes). It was easy to anticipate adolescent problems before they occurred and sad to speculate how these children would turn out as adults. And then wreak havoc on their children, acting out what they knew. And of course I was often the target for displaced anger, especially if the worst offender was a father.
Your story of redemption is only too rare. Without really knowing the circumstances, I can only shake my head in admiration for how you overcame so much and broke the cycle. That is magnificent.
I was interested in the books that have so greatly influenced your life. I had not heard of ACIM and so I looked it up and read some sections. I was impressed by the calm certitude that the text presented. It was well-written, sequential in thought, and did not give off any huckster vibes to me.
I read some criticism of it as well. There are some limitations which would be hard for me to get past (esp. the concept of Creationism), which has long struck me as ludicrous. (Sorry)
Other criticisms were less significant to me, so in general I ended up believing that there was much of substance. I read a tiny bit on their theology of sin, and found there was food for thought in it.
All of the above is very superficial of course and I apologize for that. I was raised a firm Catholic and then went from doubting to lapsed. I have trouble with the predatory aspects of all organized religion and am not especially sure of the existence of God.
No matter. This has obviously been a huge blessing to you in your life (and to many others it seems). Whatever has given you the strength to live in a way that defies your upbringing must have something solid to answer.
My general feeling is that we are all broken in one way or another and most of us do our best to hide that from others - which of course can make one’s own brokenness harder to endure.
Today’s world has lost the capacity/time for reflection, so we make monumentally bad decisions and are addicted to time-constrained, simplistic solutions. In this manner we ended up with a Donald Trump (qualified “we”, as I am Canadian). If America does recover, it will take generations. I am not an optimist by nature.
Thank you for reading what we wrote and for your sharing - a deeply courageous act in my view.
In the I formation Age this is the most common and heartbreaking common occurrence. Sorry it happened to you.
I was once typing a 3000 word essay for a university course in the very early days of PCs. My son ran into the room, tripped over the cord and thus shut off my computer.
Not backed up. Not even saved. It was back in the days when you (at least I) didn’t think of potential tripwires. Lost everything.
Oh, I hear you! The once crucial 'SAVE your work' reminder didn't seem necessary, so I mistakenly thought. I felt these were some of the most poignant things I had ever written publicly, and while other tasks call to me at present, I so wanted to put my thoughts out there. I'm not ready to go deep into history apart from my own, yet I'm realizing I do have something important to add and be after so many years of being completely hidden away and stifled. I so appreciate you and the other LFA subscribers, and thoroughly comprehend what a gem our Professor Richardson is!
The group is very inspirational. There are some clap backs here and then, and too much cheerleading/wishful thinking to suit me. But its purpose isn’t to suit me, and the vast majority of people are able to see beyond their own often very considerable problems for at least long enough to chip in with thoughts about saving America. Because we are there.
Reading between the lines, I suspect there is a huge majority of courageous people who haven’t been spoon fed through life. They keep ‘showing up”, an inspirational act in itself.
I feel lucky to have met so many. This group could run America and they’d do it with clear-eyed compassion.
Brilliant, Eric. Your comments are always exceptional and brilliantly stated. I agree with every word, and could hardly begin to state it so well.
Gaffe my ass. I’m delighted at all the opinion pieces pushing back against the idea that Biden did anything other than speak for humanity. In my life I am surrounded by kind, gentle people who think always of treating others well. My own wife said weeks ago that Putin needs to be offed. When WOMEN are calling for disposing of someone, that tells you something.
Biden himself was told, by women fleeing the war, that they would strangle Putin.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10655075/amp/Hes-butcher-Biden-slams-Putin-visiting-Ukrainian-refugees.html
“In my life I am surrounded by kind, gentle people who think always of treating others well”.
Roland, that comes out in your writing. And I am positive that they live that way in part because you do to.
As I age, I feel more and more drawn to observing that same fact in my own life. My wife is a loving, gentle matriarch and our four children are brilliant, active and celebrate their parents (more than they serve in one case :).
And don’t get me started on my grandchildren. 😊
Thank you for your generous comment. It is wonderful to wake up to someone who reaches out in that way.
I read, listen to, and watch people doing their level best to sort out the terrible mess we have blasted ourselves into. It is unfathomable really. People can explain parts of it coherently in a way that nurtures my understanding. They can speculate on other parts, with rather less success in general.
I find myself thinking that nobody goes far enough in their analysis. They can and do arrive at proximate causes. But I find myself thinking more and more that we are not connecting the dots.
Ultimately the pundits do not go far enough. The simple truth is that not enough people have had the good fortune that we have - and it is in large part the luck of the draw - to be born into, and nurtured by families who put love first and that as their highest people. Those children then go in to nurture and love in the same way they were.
Nowadays it seems to me that in too many homes the stresses on individuals are so acute as to make them live either mostly in their head or never in their head. Parenting slowly becomes just one more thing to do in the intervals between texting, Netflix, and self-medication. It is terribly sad (there but for the grace of God go I), and in obsessing over the huge problems we ignore this root cause at our peril.
Great talking directly to you Roland. I know you are a good man.
Given what and how you both spoke, Eric and Roland, I present myself as that child from an unloving, violent home, AND I have and am breaking the cycle. I can now relate with 100% certainty from my decades of exhaustive experience, that there is ONE LOVE shared by each of us from our Creator (or whatever name/word man has thought of for such an entity). I offer two instrumental books that helped me to see with clarity the ego damage caused by my sick family of origin, and unhesitantly recommend them to read by as many folks as I can, knowing the human reality behind them. The first is the Updated and Revised version of The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog (2017) written by Dr. Bruce D. Perry, MD, PhD, and coauthored by Maia Szalavitz. Perry's 2006 version is fine as well, I'd imagine, yet the 2017 update is required reading by anyone who has any human relationships, full stop. The second is another book by Perry, coauthored with Oprah Winfrey (2021) called What Happened to You? This book is best heard on Audible because both collaborators speak as themselves. People like me who suffered from severe Developmental Trauma, being held hostage by dissociation and disconnection from self and others, know well the hell I lived in isolation (that is if they don't suicide/kill another, or to your point, perpetuate and project their self-hatred onto others, first). It is a condition in which the awareness of and dismantling of generational fear mongering is accomplished through enacting God's unconditional love into ourselves and others. This is how we end human suffering forever. My conviction about God's Love and Truth is coming from yet a very different source: its acroynm is ACIM, and it is a spiritual guide that has answered ALL MY questions about what I am and what this world of illusion is (our egos). Thanks for letting me share. I hope you and others in this group have your curiousity piqued and if interested, check these books out and see for yourself why I know what I offer is legitimate to our cause for Salvation before we destroy ourselves entiredly. Peace!
Hello Diana Zak. I’m pleased to meet you :)
I was horrified by your account of your upbringing and amazed at your resilience and courage in shaking off the shackles. As a classroom teacher of 4+ decades, I saw plenty of children who had had no fighting chance in life. (And interestingly money was not a common factor. Many came from well to do homes). It was easy to anticipate adolescent problems before they occurred and sad to speculate how these children would turn out as adults. And then wreak havoc on their children, acting out what they knew. And of course I was often the target for displaced anger, especially if the worst offender was a father.
Your story of redemption is only too rare. Without really knowing the circumstances, I can only shake my head in admiration for how you overcame so much and broke the cycle. That is magnificent.
I was interested in the books that have so greatly influenced your life. I had not heard of ACIM and so I looked it up and read some sections. I was impressed by the calm certitude that the text presented. It was well-written, sequential in thought, and did not give off any huckster vibes to me.
I read some criticism of it as well. There are some limitations which would be hard for me to get past (esp. the concept of Creationism), which has long struck me as ludicrous. (Sorry)
Other criticisms were less significant to me, so in general I ended up believing that there was much of substance. I read a tiny bit on their theology of sin, and found there was food for thought in it.
All of the above is very superficial of course and I apologize for that. I was raised a firm Catholic and then went from doubting to lapsed. I have trouble with the predatory aspects of all organized religion and am not especially sure of the existence of God.
No matter. This has obviously been a huge blessing to you in your life (and to many others it seems). Whatever has given you the strength to live in a way that defies your upbringing must have something solid to answer.
My general feeling is that we are all broken in one way or another and most of us do our best to hide that from others - which of course can make one’s own brokenness harder to endure.
Today’s world has lost the capacity/time for reflection, so we make monumentally bad decisions and are addicted to time-constrained, simplistic solutions. In this manner we ended up with a Donald Trump (qualified “we”, as I am Canadian). If America does recover, it will take generations. I am not an optimist by nature.
Thank you for reading what we wrote and for your sharing - a deeply courageous act in my view.
I spent a good hour producing a heart-felt response to you that didn't post. How frustrating! Hope it pops up. Thanks!
In the I formation Age this is the most common and heartbreaking common occurrence. Sorry it happened to you.
I was once typing a 3000 word essay for a university course in the very early days of PCs. My son ran into the room, tripped over the cord and thus shut off my computer.
Not backed up. Not even saved. It was back in the days when you (at least I) didn’t think of potential tripwires. Lost everything.
So here I can feel your pain.
Oh, I hear you! The once crucial 'SAVE your work' reminder didn't seem necessary, so I mistakenly thought. I felt these were some of the most poignant things I had ever written publicly, and while other tasks call to me at present, I so wanted to put my thoughts out there. I'm not ready to go deep into history apart from my own, yet I'm realizing I do have something important to add and be after so many years of being completely hidden away and stifled. I so appreciate you and the other LFA subscribers, and thoroughly comprehend what a gem our Professor Richardson is!
*deserve rather than ‘serve’. Sadly I can’t blame that on autocorrect.
The depth of empathy and humanity shown in your words is inspiring, Eric and Roland.
The group is very inspirational. There are some clap backs here and then, and too much cheerleading/wishful thinking to suit me. But its purpose isn’t to suit me, and the vast majority of people are able to see beyond their own often very considerable problems for at least long enough to chip in with thoughts about saving America. Because we are there.
Reading between the lines, I suspect there is a huge majority of courageous people who haven’t been spoon fed through life. They keep ‘showing up”, an inspirational act in itself.
I feel lucky to have met so many. This group could run America and they’d do it with clear-eyed compassion.