If I've learned one thing as I've begun attending anti-racism workshops and groups, it's that most white people don't really know where to begin or hoIf I've learned one thing as I've begun attending anti-racism workshops and groups, it's that most white people don't really know where to begin or how to face their internalized racism. I say this as a white person, albeit a mixed-race person who has been forced to confront my internalized racism since I was young. Much of this from the fact that my Mexican-American mother dated a black man for most of my childhood. The discomfort I saw in myself around him made it so when a teacher at my community college class called us all racists, amidst the protests from most of my white peers, I was able to admit to myself, "yeah, that's probably true."
If you're wondering where to start, this is as good of a place as any. Resmaa Menakem has wonderful, somatic-based techniques that help people sit with their discomfort as we as a society are called out on our legacy of white-supremacy. He isn't out to shame anyone, he just wants people to understand the legacy we have all inherited in this country, and what we can do about it. And that's wonderful. I don't entirely understand the popular Goodreads critique that said there was a strong aspect of body-shaming or fatphobia in this book. There was a comment about trying to keep to a healthy weight, but I have faith in the author that if it was brought to his attention that people felt this way about it, he would apologize.
The thing to remember is that undoing internalized racism is that there's no finish line. We need all the tools we can to continue with this work. I recently took the Harvard Implicit Bias Test about skin tone, and tested as having a slight preference for dark skin people over light skin. This is the result of decades of pushing back against my own stereotyping and biases. I'm white, married to a white man with a white daughter, but I recognize my historical debt and my role in countering racism. This means that I will always be engaged in this work, and that I read books like this one with a beginners mind. I haven't experienced like to grow up Black, or to be perceived as other than white in this country, and people like Mr. Menakem have my gratitude for being so gracious as to share their experiences so that people like me can learn.
I urge all white Americans to start trying to engage in material such as this, even if it's painful. If you're aghast at the continued support of Trump despite it all, start here with looking inward. Once we see how painful it is to honestly confront our own internalized racism, it becomes more apparent why we're in the state we're in politically. As Mr. Menakem urges, we must all learn to chose the clean pain over the dirty pain, and begin the long and real work of healing our country's traumatic past. It begins with us. ...more
I love Brene Brown's research and perspective. However, reading this, it became clear that her investment in corporate culture and unquestioning faithI love Brene Brown's research and perspective. However, reading this, it became clear that her investment in corporate culture and unquestioning faith in the capitalistic model of being makes the wonderful work she's done feel as though it is founded on quicksand. Yes, shame is an epidemic in this country, and suppressed trauma and anxiety run rampant. Why? Let's take a look at how those corporations Dr. Brown does consulting for and how they market to us. Let's talk about a culture that would have us overwork in order to have a place to live and money to eat rather than let us take care of ourselves when we're broken. Let's talk about a healthcare system that is set up to benefit insurance companies rather than the people who need help. Let's talk about an economic model based on perpetual growth and exploitation of natural resources and the labor of developing countries. Let's talk about our current moment in time, where we're living a lifestyle that is unsustainable for the planet we live on. Let's talk about our country's toxic history and how we all carry that with us.
I can drink Dr. Brown's form of kool-aid wholeheartedly. But there are some Texas-sized gaps in her thinking that keep her work from being truly great. IMHO. ...more
More of us have experienced moments of enlightenment awakening than we think. The thing is that after we have that moment of transcendence, that feeliMore of us have experienced moments of enlightenment awakening than we think. The thing is that after we have that moment of transcendence, that feeling of connection to limitless cosmos, that divine love, we're...still ourselves. Because of that, and because so often these moments don't contain an external witness, we might feel we have less experience of spiritual awareness than we do.
This book is a wonderful affirmation of these moments from a wide range of spiritual traditions, though Buddhism remains at the heart. Jack Kornfield's writing and presence in that writing is tremendously loving and compassionate. "After the Ecstasy..." strives to present "enlightenment" as something that is actually quite accessible, and by stripping it of its romanticization, make us realize that we've likely stumbled across it, or at least near it, before.
When I was in my early and mid-twenties, I was thoroughly miserable, both to be around and in my own mind. Every so often, however, the clouds would burst, and I would have a moment of illumination, where everything fit into a harmonious cosmic whole that I was seamlessly a part of. These moments were horribly brief, and after, I would go back to being a mess. I finally understand now that I had yet to do the therapeutic work I needed to hold onto this feeling, and hadn't wanted to face the trauma I was carrying. I've grateful to it for giving me the insight to realize that I was capable of something beyond feeling shitty about myself, but still clung to the wish that it had stuck. Kornfield reassures us that the transience of that blissful state is normal, and I love him for it.
The great teachers of each spiritual traditions are not the exception. We can all experience the mystic, and probably have. It's the everyday that we struggle with, the forgetting of the whole outside the myriad. Still, it's there, whenever we take a moment to tune into whatever brings us closer to it....more
It’s easy to shrug off the homey, self-deprecating and lightly handled writing of Dr Brene Brown. I’ve only watched her TED talks before this, and I fIt’s easy to shrug off the homey, self-deprecating and lightly handled writing of Dr Brene Brown. I’ve only watched her TED talks before this, and I forget how profound her message is amongst the Texas accent and stories from her own life. Her work is testimony to the fact that profundity can come in colloquial tones, and that deep thinkers can love sing alongs to Garth Brooks. This book was almost simple seeming, but the lessons are those that take a lifetime commitment to uphold. How to connect honestly with ourselves and each other in a way that is kind, genuine and courageous is one of the toughest things we can do. How wonderful we have Dr Brown to spell out a roadmap for us with her research in a nondenominational and accessible way. ...more
As a biracial American woman who practices Tibetan Buddhism, I've come to view Lama Rod as a teacher. Though I don't know him personally, I attend hisAs a biracial American woman who practices Tibetan Buddhism, I've come to view Lama Rod as a teacher. Though I don't know him personally, I attend his online practice sessions weekly whenever possible. His powerful call to bring authenticity into how we in the west practice Vajrayana Buddhism has changed the way I relate to my personal practice. This is not a form of Buddhism that allows you to sit comfortably on your cushion, do your prostrations and chanting, and bypass all the uncomfortable feelings and truths you carry around with you trying not to see. It is a spiritual practice that invites you to look at your shit, acknowledge it in all its brilliance and ugliness, and level with it straight on. The first time I heard Lama Rod speak, it felt like what I'd been waiting to hear from a teacher for a long time now--someone deeply learned in the traditional form of the religion who also calls for us as Americans to look at ourselves with eyes wide open to our personal and societal baggage.
"Love and Rage" is, in keeping with Lama Rod's teachings, extremely personal, with Lama Rod laying himself bare. It was in these waters that I vacillated in how I received the book. On the one hand, I felt it to be both profound and radical that a teacher was placing himself on the same level as all the rest of us. He is refusing to sit high and holy on his dais, preaching to us as if he is above the struggles we all face every day. He is here in the muck of it all, doing his best to walk the talk, sharing what he has learned as a tool he has found helpful to confront his demons. That is both fucking deep and courageous, and my respect for him is boundless.
On the other hand, that same approach occasionally left me a bit tepid. The practice he shares in this book is a highly practical approach to spirituality, which is exactly what a religion should offer to its followers. Yet that very groundedness in the personal and everyday made me miss the dizzying heights of the transcendental. This isn't to say that the mystical doesn't lay inside the practices and stories that Lama Rod shares in this book. It is the difference of looking at the ground from up close, versus standing atop a mountain and viewing the entire range. We need this connection to the earth on which we stand, and to not get lost in the abstractions. We as a society will not confront injustice without our feet firmly planted in the everyday, and I will not deal with my bullshit while my head is in the clouds. Still, I missed the vistas.
All in all, this is a wonderful addition to mindfulness and Buddhist texts. Lama Rod has powerful medicine for American Buddhism, and his teachings are much needed at this time. Five stars on that alone. ...more
A bit about me. I was a overweight, lazy, depressive kid who became an overweight, lazy, depressive teenager. My godmother, instead of serving in any A bit about me. I was a overweight, lazy, depressive kid who became an overweight, lazy, depressive teenager. My godmother, instead of serving in any religious capacity, had, from an early age, tried to get me to connect with nature. When I was a teen, she stopped taking me car camping and started taking me backpacking. At first, she had to lure me up the trail with pieces of double chocolate chip cookies—the heavy pack, the effort of hiking, it was all too much, and I wanted to stop every couple steps. Once we ascended past the tree line, however, something shifted.
From an early age, my father, a dedicated outdoors man without the patience to lug his chubby kid along, had told me that his favorite terrain was alpine country. Thinking of the great outdoors primarily as the inner recesses of forest, I’d never pictured such a place. Emerging from the dark, dappled forest, alpine country is bright and and almost garden like. Rock outcropping dot the landscape as the green becomes granite running up to the peaks, and trees exist in miniature, almost as bonsai. Grasses and sedges lend the terrain an almost cultivated appearance, with wild lupine, Indian paintbrush, and variety of members from the aster and carrot family flowering in mid summer once the snow has melted off.
Though this high country is very similar on both sides of the Puget Sound, this first exposure in the Olympic mountains solidified a reverence for that particular piece of land. Since then, I’ve returned multiple times, and the feeling I get being there is as specialized as the ecosystem. Never before have I read a book that echoed the feeling of that place so completely until this one. “Landmarks” is a book that holds the meditative reverence that can exist in a person when struck by natural beauty and distills it. Though localized to the British Isles, the feeling transcends the local dialects and nature writing that are its focus. Robert Macfarlane, through writing about his favorite authors and experiences in nature, invites the reader to think of their own relationship with the land and revel in it.
“Landmarks” is one of the most beautiful books I’ve read in a long time, and I recommend this book for witches, writers, intellectuals and nature lovers alike. ...more
To read this collection of lectures given just months before he was killed is to realize how much we as a nation were deprived by having this great maTo read this collection of lectures given just months before he was killed is to realize how much we as a nation were deprived by having this great man taken from us. "When culture is degraded and vulgarity enthroned, when the social system does not build security but induces peril, inexorably the individual is impelled to pull away from a soulless society. This process produces alienation--perhaps the most pervasive and insidious development in contemporary society." --page 44 Written in 1967, it could not be truer today. Reading those words, I mourn King anew. ...more
This book has been a balm to my spirit. With very, very few exceptions, this book, written in 1967, is as relevant today as it was then.
"First, the lThis book has been a balm to my spirit. With very, very few exceptions, this book, written in 1967, is as relevant today as it was then.
"First, the line of progress is never straight. For a period a movement may follow a straight line and then it encounters obstacles and the path bends. It is like curving around a mountain when you are approaching a city. Often it feels as though you were moving backward, and you lose sight of your goal; but in fact you are moving ahead, and soon you will see the city again. We are encountering just such an experience today. The inevitable counterrevolution that succeeds every period of progress is taking place. Failing to understand this as a normal process of development, some Negroes are falling into unjustified pessimism and despair. Focusing on the ultimate goal, and discovering it still distant, they declare no progress has been made."
"The hard truth is that neither the Negro nor white has yet done enough to expect the dawn of a new day. While much has been done, it has been accomplished by too few and on a scale too limited for the breadth of the goal. Freedom is not won by passive acceptance of suffering. Freedom is won by a struggle against suffering."
"Like life, racial understanding is not something that we find but something that we must create. What we find when we enter these mortal plains is existence; but existence is the raw material out of which all life must be created. A productive and happy life is not something that you find; it is something that you make. And so the ability of Negros and whites to work together, to understand each other, will not be found ready-made; it must be created by the fact of contact."
"One of the most agonizing problems of human experience is how to deal with disappointment. In our individual lives we all too often distill our frustrations into an essence of bitterness, or drown ourselves in the deep waters of self-pity, or adopt a fatalistic philosophy that whatever happens must happen and all events are determined by necessity. These reactions poison the soul and scar the personality, always harming the person who harbors them more than anyone else. The only healthy answer lies in one's honest recognition of disappointment even as he still clings to hope, one's acceptance of finite disappointment even while clinging to infinite hope."
"Ever since the birth of our nation, white America has had a schizophrenic personality on the question of race. She has been torn between selves--a self in which she proudly professed the great principles of democracy and a self in which she sadly practiced the antithesis of democracy. This tragic duality has produced a strange indecisiveness and ambivalence toward the Negro, causing America to take a step backward simultaneously with every step forward on the question of racial justice..."
"As Negroes move forward toward a fundamental alteration of their lives, some bitter while opposition is bound to grow, even within groups that were hospitable to earlier superficial amelioration. Conflicts are unavoidable because a stage has been reach in which a reality of equality will require extensive adjustments in the way of life of some of the white majority. Many of our former supporters will fall by the wayside as the movement presses forward against financial privilege. Others will withdraw as long-established cultural privileges are threatened. During this period we will have to depend on that creative minority of true believers."
"...if the present chasm of hostility, fear and distrust is to be bridged, the white man must begin to walk in the pathways of his black brothers and feel some of the pain and hurt that throb without letup in their daily lives."
"We will be greatly misled if we feel that the problem will work itself out. Structures of evil do not crumble by passive waiting. If history teaches anything, it is that evil is recalcitrant and determined, and never voluntarily relinquishes its hold short of an almost fanatical resistance. Evil must be attacked by a counteracting persistence, by the day-to-day battering rams of justice. We must get rid of the false notion that there is some miraculous quality in the flow of time that inevitably heals all evils. There is only one thing certain about time, and that is that it waits for no one. If it is not used constructively, it passes you by. In this generation, children of darkness are still shrewder than the children of light. They are always zealous and conscientious in using time for their evil purposes. If they want to preserve segregation and tyranny, they will not wait on time; they will make time their fellow conspirator. If they want to defeat a fair housing bill, they don't say to the public, 'be patient, wait on time, and our cause will win'. Rather, they use time to spend big money, to disseminate half-truths, to confuse the popular mind. But the forces of light cautiously wait, patiently pray and timidly act. So we end up with double destruction: the destructive violence of the bad people and the destructive silence of the good people."
"Our nettlesome task is to discover how to organize our strength into compelling power so that government cannot elude our demands...it would be the height of naivete to wait passively until the administration had somehow been infused with such blessings of goodwill that it implored us for our programs. The first course is grounded in mature wisdom; the other is a childish fantasy."
"Many civil rights organizations were born as specialists in agitation and dramatic projects; they attracted massive sympathy and support, but they did not assemble and unify the support for new stages of the struggle. The effects on their allies reflected their basic practices. Support waxed and waned, and people became conditioned to action in crises but inaction from day to day. We unconsciously patterned a crisis policy and program, and summoned support not for daily commitment but for explosive events alone. Recognizing no army can mobilize and demobilize and remain a fighting unit, we will have to build far-flung, workmanlike and experienced organizations in the future if the legislation we create and the agreements we forge are to be ably and zealously superintended...We shall have to have people tied together in a long-term relationship instead of evanescent enthusiasts who lose their experience, spirit and unity because they have no mechanism that directs them to new tasks."...more
I don't know why, but I find it easy to forget that the Dalai Lama is not only an amazingly kind holy man, but also a brilliant and learned scholar. TI don't know why, but I find it easy to forget that the Dalai Lama is not only an amazingly kind holy man, but also a brilliant and learned scholar. The Prajnaparamita, or "Heart Sutra" is a deceptively short and almost simple-seeming teaching on emptiness, but as the Dalai Lama unpacks it, one realize how amazingly complex it is. The Buddha's teachings are often such that there are layers embedded in a single sentence, and this is the epitome of that style. I will have to read this again to fully understand all of what is being said, as the philosophical complexity is dense, yet strangely accessible in the way that only great teachers can make it. ...more
Holy moly. I listened to this book on tape each day while I walked my dogs--I laughed, I teared up, I recoiled in horror--I wonder what people passingHoly moly. I listened to this book on tape each day while I walked my dogs--I laughed, I teared up, I recoiled in horror--I wonder what people passing by made of my expressions? The three miles went by quickly, one disc per walk. At first, I couldn't wait to take the walk and hear what happened next. As the story went on, I began to almost dread what the upcoming miles had in store for me, I mean, Louis Zamporini. I listened cringing inside but enthralled as Louis lived through ordeals that tested the limits of human endurance. Lauren Hillenbrand's precise and detailed descriptions were heartbreaking in their compassionate detachment from what was one man's horrific reality. Some question the accuracy of the recall of events that happened more than sixty years ago. I have no opinion about that whatsoever, but both the storytellers and the author did an amazing job making the war come alive. With minimal sentimentality, Hillenbrand showed temperance in telling a story that contains every emotion on the spectrum of feelings, allowing her description of the action to dictate how the reader feels rather than trying to wring it out of them. The themes involved are deep, too deep for a goodreads review. This is not a perfect book, but it is a worthwhile one, and I recommend it highly on that basis. You cannot read without pondering the deeper nature of humanity, and knowing that it is a true story makes it even more powerful. As the last of the World War 2 veterans pass on, books like these become even more important so that we remember not to forget what happens when we enter into war. ...more
I don't think I'll ever be able to sit down and read this book all the way through. While there are aspects that I enjoy and read with gusto, there isI don't think I'll ever be able to sit down and read this book all the way through. While there are aspects that I enjoy and read with gusto, there is a self-mythologizing tendency to his writing that I find somewhat intolerable. In the first few chapters of "Secrets.." while filling us in on some of the relevant facts of his life, he goes on a bit ad nauseum about how hurt and sensitive and precocious and in touch with nature he was from the time he was very young child. This may have been true, and I should empathize with this a bit more than I do, but I think it would have been a bit more to my taste if a) he had undergone more trauma than it seems that he did (other than the trauma of not fitting in), or b) took himself less seriously. There are some bits later on in the book where he can poke a little bit of fun at himself, but they are precious few.
Related to this is the unabashed romanticization of the Maya. By saying this, I mean no disrespect; I find what happened to this country and its traditional way of life unbelievably tragic. I am against romanticizing or any culture. Every way of life has its blemishes, and I keep wondering as I read this if Martin would have found his life there so idyllic if he had been a woman. Yes, the Maya lived and probably still do live closer to nature than we do , and in a way that links them with the earth in profound ways. But nature is also cruel, and lives that are lived that close to nature can be brutally hard. Prechtel mentions this in passing, but it is quickly connected to how great life is there.
I do enjoy his descriptions of the religious beliefs and rituals of the Tzutujil people, and this is what keeps me reading. Perhaps I am just jealous that Prechtel got to have such a rich and meaningful experience living there. It would be an amazing and magical thing to show up in a village surrounded by a verdant forest and rugged mountains and be taken in immediately as an apprentice to one of the best healer priests in the area and shown the secret shrines of the local gods. But I second the reader who said that it smacks a little of Carlos Castaneda . Perhaps not, but regardless of the truth, stylistically, this author is not my cup of tea. ...more
Reviews of this book vacillate between lauding author Jeannette Walls for her strength, and a mild dislike of her coupled with doubt over the integritReviews of this book vacillate between lauding author Jeannette Walls for her strength, and a mild dislike of her coupled with doubt over the integrity of her story. After I finished 'The Glass Castle', I wasn't so sure of her either. I did some research of the book, and saw some testimony on Amazon.com of former classmates of Walls that verified sections of the memoir. While its nice to know that there are still authors who don't have to do a James Frey and claim fiction to be fact in order to get published, the childhood that Walls had to endure would make even Dickens cringe.
Walls' voice is clear and does her best to refrain from judgment or self-pity. While at times I doubted that she would be able to remember all those little instances from her early childhood so well, I was enthralled by the eccentric and horrific romanticism of the life her parents subjected their children to. Trained to survive from their wits from infancy, it isn't so surprising to me as it seemed to be for other readers that Walls would triumph in her wish for success and stability. The difficult part is watching the Walls children rapidly eclipse their parents in maturity and and common sense, but be unable to do anything about it. At best, our parents love us and set us up with skills that will enable use to succeed in life, at worst we are their prisoner, captive to their neurotic paradigm. Walls enables us to see this entire spectrum within the mess of her childhood, and I think that there's more truth to that then in simply blaming her parents for their massive flaws and incompetencies. Interesting, intelligent, and engaging, I would rather read books like these rather than a gossip column any day. ...more
When it comes to classic books on dog training, the Monks of New Skete are on the must-read list. The most current edition of this book includes updatWhen it comes to classic books on dog training, the Monks of New Skete are on the must-read list. The most current edition of this book includes updates on the latest behavioral research into dogs, and addresses the positive training trend that is currently popular amongst dog enthusiasts. ...more
I think the comment I have heard most about this book is "essential". It is. The stories that husband and wife team Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunnI think the comment I have heard most about this book is "essential". It is. The stories that husband and wife team Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn recount to us of women in Asia and Africa who have been raped, beaten, and mutilated, could be horrific. Instead, the authors offer us hope in the form of women who used their suffering to survive and grow stronger. Kristof and WuDunn give examples of the countless things we can do to help stem the tide of global gender inequality, from donating money to starting a movement. This is not light reading, but it is necessary and enthralling. ...more
'Last Chance Dog' is a collection of anecdotal stories from Seattle-based holistic veterinarian Donna Kelleher. The stories all follow a similar formu'Last Chance Dog' is a collection of anecdotal stories from Seattle-based holistic veterinarian Donna Kelleher. The stories all follow a similar formula--a sick animal treated by standard, Western medicine is failing to get better. As a last resort, the animal is taken to Dr. Kelleher, who combines the Western approach with traditional Chinese medicine, chiropractic care, and herbalism. Often, this proves to be just what the animal needs, and the once-sickly animal begins to thrive again. Far from being trite, these stories are inspirational in their encouragement to treat illness with a multifaceted approach that occasionally verges on the shamanistic. At the end of each story, Dr. Kelleher includes instructions for animal care particular to that case, and recipes ranging from a basic, everyday meals you can make your animal to tinctures that treat various inflictions which can compliment Western veterinary care. Her descriptions of the practice of Chinese medicine are fascinating, and made me want to learn more about that system of medicine. While I wasn't always crazy about her personal reflections, I admired her compassion for each animal, and her willingness to admit that she too has episodes of self-doubt. While I feel that Dr. Kelleher may be a bit too New Age for some, I would highly recommend this book to animal-lovers, or even to pet-less people who have a strong interest in complementary medicine. ...more
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