A Resumption of our Humanity
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There’s been a lot going on since my last email! In addition to the latest content below, you may want to check out “The Clown Coup (https://practopian.org/blog/hbowie/the-clown-coup.html) ”, as well as “The Big Truth (https://practopian.org/blog/hbowie/the-big-truth.html) .”
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** Quotation
“In grounded theory, researchers try to understand what we call ‘the main concern’ of study participants. When it comes to belonging, I asked: What are people trying to achieve? What are they worried about?
“The answer was surprisingly complex. They want to be a part of something – to experience real connection with others – but not at the cost of their authenticity, freedom, or power. Participants further reported feeling surrounded by ‘us versus them’ cultures that create feelings of spiritual disconnection. When I dug deeper into what they meant by ‘spiritually disconnected,’ the research participants described a diminishing sense of shared humanity. Over and over, participants talked about their concern that the only thing that binds us together now is shared fear and disdain, not common humanity, shared trust, respect or love.”
– Brené Brown, 2017, from the Book titled Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone
** News and Analysis
“In a hidden valley on an Indonesian island, there is a cave decorated with what may be the oldest figurative art ever glimpsed by modern eyes.
“The vivid depiction of a wild pig, outlined and filled in with mulberry-hued pigment, dates back at least 45,500 years.
“Sulawesi was already considered by some experts to be the site of the earliest known representational cave art in the world. A captivating scene elsewhere on the island, which displays human-animal hybrids, was found to be at least 43,900 years old, reported by the same team in a 2019 study.
“These examples of cave art… hint at the rich cultures living on the Indonesian islands. The discoveries also open a debate over whether the artists could have been Homo sapiens, or members of another extinct human species.”
– from “Pig Painting May Be World’s Oldest Cave Art Yet, Archaeologists Say (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/science/cave-painting-indonesia.html) ” by Becky Ferreira at The New York Times
** Essay: A Resumption of our Humanity
As I watched the Biden-Harris inaugural ceremonies this week, I found myself overcome by unanticipated thoughts and feelings.
Although I’ve been aware of presidential inaugurations since 1960, when I was nine, this is the first one I’ve ever taken the time to watch in its entirety.
Of course, as a reliable Democrat, there were the expected feelings of relief as the political pendulum swung in favor of my preferred affiliation.
And obviously, given the armed insurrection we witnessed in our Capitol building only a couple of weeks ago, there was great relief as the wheels of democracy once again seemed to engage reliably, carrying us forward into a new administration, even if it did require 25,000 members of our National Guard to be on hand to defend our duly elected political leaders from another attack.
But there was more. In addition to the speakers and performers, there was the unexpected comfort of seeing fellow human beings mingling together, without rancor, and with some joy at greeting and conversing with each other. I found it especially moving to see VP Mike Pence and his wife being accepted into this gathering – knowing, as we do, that it was only a few weeks ago that the president whom he had served loyally for four years had branded him as a traitor, and set his followers upon him, as if loosing a pack of dogs, to hunt him down like a wild animal in the halls of our nation’s Capitol.
And then there was the music, and the poetry. I’m not a particular fan of any of the singers chosen, but I appreciated the mix of styles and genres and backgrounds coming together to sing of our national heritage, and I was moved by all of their renditions. And I appreciated the inclusion of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land,” along with the more traditional “America the Beautiful.” And even though I don’t consider myself a Christian in any sort of orthodox way, I was moved by “Amazing Grace,” speaking as it does to a univeral hope for redemption, one that stretches beyond our national boundaries (and reminding me of the time when my brother broke out into a spontaneous rendition of this hymn a few years back while we were celebrating his birthday in a restaurant in New Orleans).
And then there was the completely unexpected joy of hearing and seeing Amanda Gorman, our national youth poet laureate, delivering her original work “The Hill We Climb” on a national stage. For anyone used to associating political events with empty words, it was entirely impactful to hear a recitation in which every word was precisely and carefully chosen to achieve an original effect, and a carefully crafted meaning.
But overall, taking it all in together, the entire gestalt for me was a feeling that our feelings and practices of humanity, after being put on hold for four years, could now be resumed.
I realized that, for four long years, I’ve felt trapped inside a national model for human relations that knew only leading and following, only domination and submission, only winning and being beaten. And it was not so much that I was tired of being part of one side or the other, but I was just weary of living in a world where the glory and hope of humanity had been reduced to these few paltry elements.
And the inaugural ceremony swept me away, back to the land I scarce realized we had abandoned: a land in which we are happy to be connected to another just because of our shared humanity; a land in which we revere this great gift of language that we’ve been given, and use it carefully, joyously and wisely; a land in which we dare to dream of a better tomorrow, not just for some few of us, but for all who wish to join us; a land in which we each recognize our individual limitations, yet aspire to greatness through our union with others; a land of music and poetry and song, right alongside plain, straightforward speech.
And in sensing all of this, I felt a great and much-needed expansion, a feeling of reclaiming something like the full breadth and depth of what it means to be human on this planet in the 21st century.
And because we are human, I know mistakes will be made, accomplishments will fall short of aspirations, partisan bickering will certainly occur, along with differences of philosophy and deeply held beliefs about policy.
But nonetheless, for now I feel nothing but joy and hope and a celebration of who we are, as well as who we might become.
And for now that’s more than enough, at least for me.
– Herb Bowie, published at Practopian.org (https://practopian.org/blog/hbowie/a-resumption-of-our-humanity.html)
If you liked this piece, feel free to give it a few claps on Medium.com (https://hbowie.medium.com/a-resumption-of-our-humanity-cb2945e3260b) .
** Next Steps…
Thanks for reading!
Feedback is always welcome at hbowie@practopian.org (mailto:hbowie@practopian.org) .
This post, and so much more, can always be found at Practopian.org (https://practopian.org) .
** Recent Writings You Might Have Missed
- “The Big Truth (https://practopian.org/blog/hbowie/the-big-truth.html) ” If we want to end The Big Lie, what undisclosed pieces of truth do we need to bring out into the open in order to achieve a more spacious shared understanding of our common reality? In other words, what is The Big Truth that we have yet to acknowledge?
- “The Clown Coup (https://practopian.org/blog/hbowie/the-clown-coup.html) ” So much of our public attention is devoted to posturing, puffoonery and empty opinionizing that many of our citizens seem to have lost the ability to distinguish this sort of behavior from actions that have real-world consequences.
- “Life is Complicated (https://practopian.org/blog/hbowie/life-is-complicated.html) ” At some point you might suspect that these people are making things sound more complicated than they really are. I mean, you know how these elites are: if they didn’t make everything so darned complicated, then all these high-priced experts would be out of a job, wouldn’t they! But there’s a very good reason why life is so complicated, and has to be this way, and it’s called… evolution.
- “Diving Back Into Our American Muddle (https://practopian.org/blog/hbowie/diving-back-into-our-american-muddle.html) ” As we approach not only the end of the Trump presidency, but the unraveling of the Trump mythos, we have to ask ourselves: what will replace it? Trump came to ascendancy because he was able to tap into the resentments and disaffiliation of almost half of our population. These people will not suddenly feel reaffiliated into something larger than themselves just because Trump has left the building.
- “Hallelujah (https://practopian.org/blog/hbowie/hallelujah.html) ” The history of Leonard Cohen’s song “Hallelujah” is a fascinating one. Cohen’s songs had never really been embraced by the masses, and his first recording of “Hallelujah” in the early eighties was part of an album so lacking in obvious commercial appeal that the president of CBS Records responded to it by saying: “What is this? This isn’t pop music. We’re not releasing it. This is a disaster.”
- “Social Distancing and our Essential Nature (https://practopian.org/blog/hbowie/social-distancing-and-our-essential-nature.html) ” As ever more people work from home, and more students attempt remote learning, I’m concerned about a growing chorus of folks who are celebrating this enforced distancing as a welcome wave of the future, and suggesting that what started as a temporary fix should be embraced as a permanent fixture of 21st century society.
- “Reframing our Debates about Capitalism (https://practopian.org/blog/hbowie/reframing-our-debates-about-capitalism.html) ” There is a flaw in the reasoning behind our infernal, never-ending, society-splitting debate concerning socialism vs. capitalism, and I want to point it out.
- “The Era of Environmental Accommodations is Over (https://practopian.org/blog/hbowie/the-era-of-environmental-accommodation-is-over.html) ” When historians look at the long span of our human history, they try to make sense of it by breaking it up into phases. One might describe our most recent phase as one in which we dealt with environmental issues through a series of accommodations. But it is becoming increasingly clear these minor adjustments are no longer sufficient.
- “The Shocking Truth About Us Liberals (https://practopian.org/blog/hbowie/the-shocking-truth-about-us-liberals.html) ” Consumers of right-wing media seem to have some very odd ideas about us liberals. Let me set the record straight.
- “Undoing Trumpism (https://practopian.org/blog/hbowie/undoing-trumpism.html) ” Getting Trump out of office is an important first step. But it won’t be enough to put an end to Trumpism.
- “Cooperation, Competition and Coercion (https://practopian.org/blog/hbowie/cooperation-competition-and-coercion.html) ” When we look at the major societal choices facing us today, and the major political battles in front of us, I’m starting to think the primary question is not really whether we want a society that is more cooperative, vs. one that is more competitive, but rather the following: Are we ready for a society that is less coercive?
- “Can the US Become a Truly Egalitarian Society? (https://practopian.org/blog/hbowie/can-the-us-become-a-truly-egalitarian-society.html) ” As with many of us, I’ve been thinking deeply lately about the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breanna Taylor, and so many other people of color, and wondering how and why these atrocities continue to occur in my country, and what we can do to turn things around.
- “Democracy (https://practopian.org/basics/democracy.html) ” A Practopian “Basics” piece that fleshes out the following core value: “We believe in democracy, with all citizens having an equal say in defining their society’s laws, and an equal opportunity to influence their governments.”
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