Month: April 2024

A few little nuggets of wisdom and insight that floated across my consciousness recently:

JLA (renowned Universalist minister James Luther Adams – I’m still slowly making my way through “Selected Essays…“) on the purpose and meaning of “church” (something I think about a lot):

Respecting this associational dimension of human existence, we may say by their groups shall you know them. It is through group participation that sensitivity and commitment to values are given institutional expression. It is through groups that social power is organized. It is through groups that community needs are brought to the focus that affects public policy. It is through groups that the cultural atmosphere of a community and a nation is created.

—”By Their Groups Shall You Know Them,”
James Luther Adams, 1969

Taylor Swift – as I come extremely late to Swiftdom but am, again, making my way slowly through her catalog. When I grokked the line “You look like my next mistake” I muttered to myself “Oh… you clever girl.”

Saw you there and I thought
“Oh, my God, look at that face
You look like my next mistake
Love’s a game, wanna play?”

So it’s gonna be forever
Or it’s gonna go down in flames
You can tell me when it’s over, mm
If the high was worth the pain

Taylor Swift “Blank Space”

I am also (in this case quickly, not slowly) making my way through Brian Christian’s The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values – it’s excellent, written a few years ago, so it isn’t directly on point about today’s generative AI hype, but, in my view, it’s also still completely relevant (and, so far, I haven’t found it to be wrong anywhere, either, for being just a few years in advance of the emergence of ChatGPT and the subsequent “land” rush).

Do we prioritize a life of achievement, a life of adventure, a life of human connection, or a life of spiritual growth? Oxford University philosopher Ruth Chang, for instance, has spent decades arguing that nothing so characterizes the human condition as the incommensurability of the various motives and goals we have.

Christian, Brian. The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values (pp. 130-131). W. W. Norton & Company. Kindle Edition.

One of my absolute favorite pieces of culture created in the last decade or so is the television show “The Good Place.” I have watched each episode multiple times, listened to each one (to fall asleep to) even more than that, and also listened through Marc Evan Jackson’s podcast about it at least twice. I’ve also read Michael Schur’s book How to Be Perfect (which is basically the nonfiction book version of all the ideas that are explored through the storytelling in the show.)

It’s clever and human and witty and warm. If you haven’t seen it: 1) do not read any spoilers and 2) working your way through the seemingly goofy first few episodes will be rewarded. Found some cool quotes here – this page just scratches the surface, though.

“It turns out life isn’t a puzzle that can be solved one time and it’s done. You wake up every day, and you solve it again.” – Chidi Anagonye, The Good Place 4×09

I quit my job (current position of 3 years, in an organization I’d been with for 24. Yes, 24 years.) There’s a lot behind that statement that is not the subject of this post. Instead, I want to just put a marker down that in a few weeks I will be in a brand new-to-me state of being. Without a day job to be thinking about and mentally preparing to ‘do’ for the first time since I was 15 years old. I count my education years as ‘work’ – for itself and also because I always had some sort of work-study or assistantship when I was studying. So I’ve been working for 37 years, with a very small few weeks off for maternity leave 16 years ago.

That’s a long time. In ye olden dayes, I hear tell that people could retire after 37 years! I’m not retiring, I’m just taking a little bit of downtime before deciding on next steps. A friend of mine close to my age said recently (paraphrase) “I feel like I’ve got a good 5-10 years of really experienced creativity and idea generation to offer when I’ll also have some decent energy, too, so I want to be in a place where I can do what will probably be my best work.”

Me too. I don’t know what that’s going to look like. Another friend of mine, a therapist (but not my therapist) cautioned me to not make assumptions about how I would feel once I have officially left – my soul and brain have never been in that state-of-being before, and they reminded me to just wait and see how I feel and how my mental health is after I’ve had a little time removed from the day-to-day internal and external pressures of management and working life.

I fully recognize the immense privilege I have that allows me to do this, at least for a little while. And believe me, the Calvinist/Puritan-work-ethic guilt is strong in me. And I get that ‘middle-class, middle-aged white woman hangs out at home for a few weeks’ is ‘news’ that’s not even worth the electrons spent displaying this text to you. But, hey, my blog, my words. It’s a big deal to me, even if unremarkable in the grand scheme of things. And I am super grateful to my immediate family who are being supportive (emotionally and otherwise) of me doing this risky and frankly, terrifying (again, to me), thing. It’s time for a big change in this little one and precious life. Let’s go.

A relevant poem from Held:

This evening I’m spending time in what I call my ‘writing room’ – which is really the bonus room in the basement I’ve appropriated as my space for writing, crafting, spiritual practices, exercise, candle burning, wine sipping, and adult coloring books. (Adult as in meditative, not as in ‘sexy’ although, now that I mention it, why shouldn’t they be both?)

ANYWAY, tonight I’m reading some more James Luther Adams while listening to Beyonce’s new album “Cowboy Carter” (songs in released order, as one should.) Just posted the below on FB and wanted to capture it here rather than leave it to the voracious blackhole of corporate social media:

I must amend my previous post – tonight’s spiritual practice is listening to “Cowboy Carter” while still making my way through JLA’s Berry Street essay.

“The ‘restraints of reason’ are inadequate for entering the ‘war within the cave.’ Merely intellectual education is not enough. The world has many educated people who know how to reason and they reason very well; but, curiously enough, many of them fail to examine the pre-established premises from which they reason, premises that turn out on examination to be antisocial, protective, camouflages of power.” -James Luther Adams, 1941. (Berry Street Essay, 1941.)

“Can we stand for something?
Now is the time to face the wind (Now is the time to face the wind)
Now ain’t the time to pretend
Now is the time to let love in (To let love in)
Together, can we stand?” – Beyonce, 2024.