Normalism

The Christmas season is more or less managed the Middle Way ... from childhood conditioning with the magic of Santa, an old white man with a long white beard, bearing an astonishing resemblance to artist's depictions of God, albeit without the red suit ... and reindeer ... anyway, it must have resonated with plenty of disappointed children, discovering the well meant deception over Santa and leaping into atheism as a result ... maybe ... rejection of Christmas, along with Christianity and the enforced jollity and conspicuous consumption meant various alternative arrangements to avoid it, including working instead, often at premium rates ... on the buses, if memory serves correctly, it was double time plus a day in lieu for a short shift and folks with family often eager to swap shifts ... then there was a trip to the Theravadan Monastery on a snowy day, somehow driving along slippery back roads to arrive and enjoy the tranquillity ... and now integrating the "normal" Christmas Day by helping with the Community Christmas Lunch in the local Church Hall, much appreciated by folks dreading spending the day alone ... not to mention those keen to escape toxic relations ...

The theme of normalism arises during the extended wander on Boxing Day ... body mind noting  the distance around hour three, picking up again at hour four and speeding home for a wonderful expedition along the top of the south side of the Dale and back along by the river for a late lunch after five glorious hours in the mild and sometimes sunny weather ... normalism as a word which popped up without reference to previous known usage has the advantage of flexibility ... dictionary references are vague, some suggesting the word is obsolete, others offering it as a potential new entry into officially recognised linguistic form ... in Wear and Dao it just stands for a process of lazy assumptions about what is acceptable in a given culture and the insidious shaping of stories emerging to describe current delusions to make the psyche content that what has been, is, and seems likely to continue, is within the realm of civilised behaviour. The related word, Normal, of course, has coercive properties in the conditioning of humans ... and maybe the training of animals and plants tamed to serve our needs above their own too ...

The context for this speculation is the long held awareness that what stands for Normal in the world as observed is often unacceptable to sensitive souls and being coerced to believe it is too often leads to disease, physical, mental and spiritual ... though not necessarily in that order ... perhaps the existential pain from living fragmented in the dystopia sets off the addictive behaviours, leading to self-medication with drugs, prescribed or proscribed, booze, sex, shopping and so on ...

Meanwhile, mind turns to a break from the overlong midwinter festivities, the unfinished sitting room and convivial company seems like a good idea ... local Buddhist monastery offers New Year Retreat, but that infers more silence than required, since that is the default setting ... also the routine is in line with the form of Soto Zen, sleeping arrangements austere, expectation of conforming to the norms ... whereas it's the formless which is sought and the Krishnamurti Centre where it is best experienced in simple comfort, the teachings all available and random K types usually happy to explore the important questions like: What is Truth? Who am I? What time's Lunch? and so on ...

And, since it is Normal at this time to visit family, maybe a trip to the family home to see elder sister and brother in law, plus any assorted nephews who may be about ...

Messengers ...

Messengers continue to turn up with pieces of the jigsaw ... after some time with Jordan Peterson and his compelling style and interesting insights, attention turned to Alan Wallace with his combination of experience exploring the external world with traditional science and other worlds through deep meditation ... his teaching that Mind cannot reveal its secrets through peering at brains but only by looking inward ... necessarily a subjective view and therefore declared invalid by the often arrogant scientists, still operating under the illusion that observer and observed are separate ... then Gabor Mate' with penetrating insights into root causes of chronic disease ...

Other messengers are less famous of course, and may be found in the least likely places, whilst traditionally revered messengers are called gurus or prophets and attract followers forgetting that, whilst the message and the messenger may not be separate, accepting the message conceptually without embodying it and testing its inherent validity personally, is an error with grave consequences,  elevating the messenger to a status separate from the followers and opening them up to potential abuse, if not from the messenger, then from successors assuming positions of power in hierarchies ... as history clearly shows ...

Meanwhile, local messenger and friend, who taught techniques of Mindfulness and recently launched his second book, called The Enlightened Spaniel, turns up at nearby cafe to sign copies and catch up on events ... you can order your copy through Hive, the ethical alternative to the virtual shop currently taking over the world of retail internationally and powerful enough to avoid taxes and any pretence of concern for the workers in vast warehouses ... our own power, appearing limited, is exercised by avoiding such corporate entities, driven as they are by a relentless search for shareholder profit ...

Starring on social media is a warrior for the planet, Greta Thunberg, a 15 year old Swedish girl, who, having learnt about the consequences of unbridled economic growth and burning of fossil fuels, decided to embody her lessons by going on strike outside the Parliament building, saying it was pointless continuing in school when there soon would be no school, Sweden or Earth if nothing was done ... inspirational and quite unlike the stereotypical teenager in Western democracies ...

On the home front, while solar panels limp along in dismal weather, work on the multi-fuel burner of fossil fuels resumes ... hypocrisy acknowledged ... best not tell Greta since she is very stern and takes no prisoners from the complacent ancient generation responsible for so much of the mess ...

Polarised politics

A recent and long overdue rebalancing of political power play is noted on social media - the formation of a Progressive International. .. players onstage including Yanis Varoufakis, Jeff Sachs, Bernie Sanders, and Ada Colau ... recognising that in an increasingly interconnected world, where the economic system is almost entirely capitalist, albeit cloaked in deceptive forms as in China, and dominated by multi-national corporations with enormous wealth, enabling the purchase of politicians and the mainstream media to keep us all stupid enough to tolerate gross inequality, ongoing wars and planetary degradation, action on a supranational level is essential ...

Meanwhile, the French are revolting, having swallowed the story that Macron was the lesser of two evils and seen the continuation of the neoliberal programme ... whilst in the USA it went the other way, with the Clinton dynasty rejected in favour of a rabid populist president ... replacing the supposedly civilised Obama, who nevertheless oversaw the widening gap between rich and poor and the ongoing plan to restructure the Middle East, started by Bush the younger, aided and abetted by a Labour Prime Minister in the UK ... media narratives rely on short memories and focus on the desperate plight of millions of refugees fleeing the chaos created by the war crimes of the Western powers ... and the game goes on, with Obama M being prepared for future presidential dynastic succession once the tide of public opinion, quite evenly split between right and so-called left turns again ... Tweedledum and Tweedledee ...

Sunday Telegraph offers rare glimpse of a previously unvisited parallel universe, where actors playing patriotic anti-EU roles are taken seriously ... whilst wavering PM, personally pro and posing as anti succeeds in setting scene for collapse of exit strategy and succession of radical PM, personally anti with a majority of MPs and members pro ... though erstwhile Telegraph journalist and current friend predicts collapse of EU itself ... and he got the referendum result right ...

All of which detracts from spiritual matters, though continued learning from Alan Wallace and others, plus daily early rising, walking the fells and woods and service in the community keep things more or less on track ...