Stay and face trouble
Be at home
Be here in this moment
Gather forces
2021 – Ten highlights of a hard year. In photos.
Ten highlights of a hard year. In photos.
1. I posted here every month and looking over the posts I see how much I enjoy doing that, especially images.
Easy to repeat a few favourites:
The above are all my efforts, and here is one from a solo tramping trip up the Hope river that was also a highlight:
2. Tramping the Routeburn with Kate
And we went on to do the East Matuki
3. Painting with grandchildren:
4. Couple therapy Training
5. Theatre of Spontaneity at the Quakers
6. Journal Writing
7. Getting a new cat. Tom.
8. Writing an article for the Journal
https://aanzpa.org/wp-content/uploads/AANZPA2021WEB-0721Logeman.pdf
9. Biology Expeditions with Grandchildren
10. Warming up to a lifestyle transition
Charlie Brown revolutionary
Captures the essence of base and superstructure.
Identity – personal reflections
I had an insight this week. Its profound, though it will sound like a cliche. I’m not a cliche.
I’ve been sick. That knocked me down a peg. Two weeks of virus. Not covid, got tested. But the feelings that went with the flu were bigger than I used to have with a bug like that. Age. I’m 77. That means the question “Will this flu ever end?” wakes me up, my health is more fragile than it has been, anything can happen. Covid. This year I had psychodrama events planned all over the calendar, and also events with colleagues. In the second half of the year, nothing. Everything cancelled. That was 2021, 2020 was worse. Add this: bypass surgery in March 2020, has taken a toll. In unexpected ways, the surgery worked well, but sleep problems with restless legs creeps in deep every night (pills help). Ah, pills also impact my mood. And the recovery took a long time… perhaps its ongoing. The recovery impacted my relationship with Kate. We grappled with our relationship this year. Successfully. And the outcome is that Kate has leapt into a new phase of self loving. I’m good, but the process has shaken me. We are in a transition: looking for a place where she can live with her horses and her need for rural spaciousness is satisfied. Selling and buying. Loss and adventure. Transition. In 2019 I retired from 50 years of work as a psychotherapist. That means before 2020 came I was already in in a life transition. One that was not processed when the heart attack came along. A retirement transition. Ongoing.
So here is the insight:
A flood of life changes impacts identity.
A sense of identity is built on some things that don’t change. A change here or there can be worked through. Too many and something can break. A fracture in the identity container is a stress.
So now I am falling. Surrendering. Surfing a decline. Perhaps I’ll learn to fly? Maybe there is a landing place?
Those notions are from a poem Kate got from her mother:
“When you come to the edge of all of the light you’ve known, and are about to step off into the darkness of the unknown; faith is knowing one of two things will happen. You’ll have something solid to stand on, or you’ll be taught how to fly.”
I lack the faith.
But the fall is ok.
Is a system a “thing”?
Perhaps in an approach of the social universe we can learn from Democritus and close our eyes to the actual configurations social “matter” presents to us families, factories, schools, nations, etc. Perhaps a mind not distracted by the gross facts in society will be able to discover the smallest living social unit, itself not further divisible, the social atom.
J.L. Moreno “Who Shall Survive?” p 291
Three Modes of Knowledge Development
1. Personal writing
For me that was Evernote, then for a while Google Docs, now Obsidian
Obsidian suits because of linking and tags. And because I’m not combining it with tasks, and because I’m not using it to store reference material or bookmarks. I’m also learning to process my thoughts more fully.
Later: Sunday, 20 March 2022 – I use it for Tasks. But not for storing reference material. with Dataview plugin I can add a task to any note, and it will be on the list of tasks. I don’t think it interferes with my knowledge dev. I can add tasks that are just about plans for that note. Writing Plans.
2. Public writing
This blog has almost 30 years of my public note taking. Psyberspace — my overgrown garden with indexes and categories. For it to be public there must be readers, and this blog does have some, dear reader!
3. Collaborative Writing
Google Docs, there must be a better way! Social Media done right? Social Creation? Comments on posts? Relationships are always the hardest, the neglected…
Consider this however, that this post was stimulated by a whole movement of people engaged in PKM and theorising about it. I’m not just a lonely brooder.
