Because you had better character than they did, and you did the right thing when they wouldn’t.
It is so frightening and deeply hurtful to our hearts, seeing people we thought we thought shared our basic values just fall away or even co-sign the unthinkable. So much existential damage to our basic trust and sense of reality.
I have cried over this country more days than not since January, and other times I’ve just felt enraged or numb, and I know I’m not alone in that. But we know we have clarity and we aren’t alone, though it really feels like it in the darkest hours sometimes.
It can be really hard to keep hope alive in this wreckage without being seduced into dangerous complacency by our society’s addiction to American exceptionalism and magical thinking. But you don’t make that error in your thinking, unlike so many others despite their good intentions, because you have clarity.
We appreciate you. Your writing is wonderful in both substance and style. Your account is one of the very best on this entire platform in my opinion. I hope you have a good and restful holiday.
Yours is a beautifully written philosophy that speaks to your identity. Were we ever to see words like these spoken by a politician, ah... that would be reason enough to honor that day as Thanksgiving.
My dream growing up was to discover kindred spirits and live in such a community. My favorite author in younger times, Jack London, had such a community with his eclectic Bohemia Club. In the latter part of the 19th century, this arose with the Chataqua Societies. Those are gone. Nothing that I know of replaced them. The best we can do is to meet each other in cyberspace.
Would like to point out a thought to add to your many. "When friends chose positioning over principle, they gave me an unintended gift: the clarity to see that integrity isn’t just personal virtue but political necessity."
I use the word "integrity" in my medical practice in speaking to patients and to other physicians and scientists. Integrity is a Rosetta Stone, that philosophically extends to the Creation and the one-ness or whole-ness of all that is. It is the microcosms within the macrocosms that are repeated and repeated to arrive at what we call the uni-verse or one-story. Integrity is the basis of many religions and is inherent in monotheism. The most sacred prayer of Judaism is the She'ma. Literally it calls out as "Hear O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is One," but metaphysically, and for me medically and in all life it is the interconnectivity of all, the world-wide web or more accurately the universal web, or inter-net.
Years ago, I broached the concept of SAIN medicine with the acronym spelled out as SAIN (Systems Analysis & Integrity Networking). This is being validated with all the tools to identify pathways of communication between cells and what they do. These are the "omics of medicine in the future, just arriving recently at our doorsteps. All of these "omics" brings together what cells do to communicate, to proliferate to thrive or to die. Here's a list of omics:
genomics, epigenomics. microbiomics, lipidomics, proteomics, glycomics, foodomics, transcriptomics, and God knows what other omics.
We are seeing now, in this Trumpian nightmare, the cost of losing integrity- in a multitude of arenas. Anti-integrity is Trump's calling card. He displays retribution, causes deaths (not peace), divides not unites, brings confusion rather than understanding. This is what occurs in the world of the ultimate malignant narcissist that only sees "I" or "Me" - both of which are antagonistic to Integrity. The truth of anything rests within its integrity and all the interaction and communications that integrity calls for.
You, Michael Brock, and I suspect many or most of your readers, are drawn to integrity, and espouse it, because you sense or feel that this feels good and right. Thanksgiving exudes when Integrity is expressed. And it's no surprise that when we accept and care for all the diversity in this world, we unite the world and one-ness and at-one-ment become are PRESENT.
I'm reminded of Graeber and Wengrow's Dawn of Everything, in which the standard narrative of human social evolution by the Enlightenment is overthrown by endless examples from around the globe. Humans have tried very kind of arrangement, many with tremendous success from a humanitarian POV -- far better than the predatory violence of our "apical civilization".
The upshot is that we could-should know that it's up to us to design how we want to live. Choose our values, cast aside the abominable, and try again. The "masters of the universe" are not even masters of themselves, to say nothing of their own fate! Ordinary people inherit, from our foraging ancestors, the brilliant insights to live lightly on the Earth, with joy, plenty, art, and modesty. The Hopi say we're at the anal end of our downward evolution, starting over, upward . Let's go!
Lovely, Mike. Thank you. We, too, are grateful for you. Interestingly, I have found that the less power adjacent you are, the easier it is to give and receive unconditional love to all in your communities, regardless of shared, not shared, or absence of ideology. Have a beautiful Thanksgiving!
Clarity comes with humbling and, very frequently, devastating force - the kind that precludes any potential for dismissing and rationalizing the truth away. Perhaps the most beautiful gift anyone could ask for, including the exquisite pain that comes with it. Thank you for your work. I shared your Entropy Budget piece with my Environmental Law class and professor. There are countless ways we can help make sure that what remains standing are the only things that can remain standing. Otherwise, there is nothing. I would say Happy Thanksgiving, but I honor those who have seen through the white supremacy, patriarchal lies their entire lives, for much longer than have I. Prayers (to a loving universe), Peace, and Power.
Happy Thanksgiving Mike. I am grateful 🙏 for finding a kindred spirit here along the wire. The center will hold if we keep it together with each other. Thank you for your thoughtful voice.
Thank you Mike for sharing your brilliance so generously. I’ve learned so much from your writing and I truly savor every word. Your work means more than you know, and this community has your back.
Welcome to the Wilderness, Mike. So glad to look up one day and find you here. Let's hold each other up as we keep going, celebrating new community, new strengths, new possibilities, and new allies. All hail the Hero's Journey.
Not a hero. A citizen doing what citizenship asks of me. I refuse to accept that speaking truth is heroic. It's a virtue to be embodied. A moral minimum one should strive for.
Im thankful you starting writing and putting to words what so many of us are feeling 💛
Happy Thanksgiving to you, Mike. I’m truly grateful for your writing the important stuff. Best wilderness ever!
Because you had better character than they did, and you did the right thing when they wouldn’t.
It is so frightening and deeply hurtful to our hearts, seeing people we thought we thought shared our basic values just fall away or even co-sign the unthinkable. So much existential damage to our basic trust and sense of reality.
I have cried over this country more days than not since January, and other times I’ve just felt enraged or numb, and I know I’m not alone in that. But we know we have clarity and we aren’t alone, though it really feels like it in the darkest hours sometimes.
It can be really hard to keep hope alive in this wreckage without being seduced into dangerous complacency by our society’s addiction to American exceptionalism and magical thinking. But you don’t make that error in your thinking, unlike so many others despite their good intentions, because you have clarity.
We appreciate you. Your writing is wonderful in both substance and style. Your account is one of the very best on this entire platform in my opinion. I hope you have a good and restful holiday.
Yours is a beautifully written philosophy that speaks to your identity. Were we ever to see words like these spoken by a politician, ah... that would be reason enough to honor that day as Thanksgiving.
My dream growing up was to discover kindred spirits and live in such a community. My favorite author in younger times, Jack London, had such a community with his eclectic Bohemia Club. In the latter part of the 19th century, this arose with the Chataqua Societies. Those are gone. Nothing that I know of replaced them. The best we can do is to meet each other in cyberspace.
Would like to point out a thought to add to your many. "When friends chose positioning over principle, they gave me an unintended gift: the clarity to see that integrity isn’t just personal virtue but political necessity."
I use the word "integrity" in my medical practice in speaking to patients and to other physicians and scientists. Integrity is a Rosetta Stone, that philosophically extends to the Creation and the one-ness or whole-ness of all that is. It is the microcosms within the macrocosms that are repeated and repeated to arrive at what we call the uni-verse or one-story. Integrity is the basis of many religions and is inherent in monotheism. The most sacred prayer of Judaism is the She'ma. Literally it calls out as "Hear O Israel the Lord our God, the Lord is One," but metaphysically, and for me medically and in all life it is the interconnectivity of all, the world-wide web or more accurately the universal web, or inter-net.
Years ago, I broached the concept of SAIN medicine with the acronym spelled out as SAIN (Systems Analysis & Integrity Networking). This is being validated with all the tools to identify pathways of communication between cells and what they do. These are the "omics of medicine in the future, just arriving recently at our doorsteps. All of these "omics" brings together what cells do to communicate, to proliferate to thrive or to die. Here's a list of omics:
genomics, epigenomics. microbiomics, lipidomics, proteomics, glycomics, foodomics, transcriptomics, and God knows what other omics.
We are seeing now, in this Trumpian nightmare, the cost of losing integrity- in a multitude of arenas. Anti-integrity is Trump's calling card. He displays retribution, causes deaths (not peace), divides not unites, brings confusion rather than understanding. This is what occurs in the world of the ultimate malignant narcissist that only sees "I" or "Me" - both of which are antagonistic to Integrity. The truth of anything rests within its integrity and all the interaction and communications that integrity calls for.
You, Michael Brock, and I suspect many or most of your readers, are drawn to integrity, and espouse it, because you sense or feel that this feels good and right. Thanksgiving exudes when Integrity is expressed. And it's no surprise that when we accept and care for all the diversity in this world, we unite the world and one-ness and at-one-ment become are PRESENT.
Absolutely delightful!
I'm reminded of Graeber and Wengrow's Dawn of Everything, in which the standard narrative of human social evolution by the Enlightenment is overthrown by endless examples from around the globe. Humans have tried very kind of arrangement, many with tremendous success from a humanitarian POV -- far better than the predatory violence of our "apical civilization".
The upshot is that we could-should know that it's up to us to design how we want to live. Choose our values, cast aside the abominable, and try again. The "masters of the universe" are not even masters of themselves, to say nothing of their own fate! Ordinary people inherit, from our foraging ancestors, the brilliant insights to live lightly on the Earth, with joy, plenty, art, and modesty. The Hopi say we're at the anal end of our downward evolution, starting over, upward . Let's go!
So glad to know you and to share this journey with you. Happy Thanksgiving!
Lovely, Mike. Thank you. We, too, are grateful for you. Interestingly, I have found that the less power adjacent you are, the easier it is to give and receive unconditional love to all in your communities, regardless of shared, not shared, or absence of ideology. Have a beautiful Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving 🦃
Clarity comes with humbling and, very frequently, devastating force - the kind that precludes any potential for dismissing and rationalizing the truth away. Perhaps the most beautiful gift anyone could ask for, including the exquisite pain that comes with it. Thank you for your work. I shared your Entropy Budget piece with my Environmental Law class and professor. There are countless ways we can help make sure that what remains standing are the only things that can remain standing. Otherwise, there is nothing. I would say Happy Thanksgiving, but I honor those who have seen through the white supremacy, patriarchal lies their entire lives, for much longer than have I. Prayers (to a loving universe), Peace, and Power.
thank you for sharing your insights.
Thank you for living so transparently. You are an inspiration to this fellow truth seeker.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and it has been an enlightening pleasure to discover your writings. Cheers!!
Happy Thanksgiving Mike. I am grateful 🙏 for finding a kindred spirit here along the wire. The center will hold if we keep it together with each other. Thank you for your thoughtful voice.
The refugee status of the mind is the ultimate wilderness of wandering to find warm campfire communities sharing honest thought.
Thank you Mike for sharing your brilliance so generously. I’ve learned so much from your writing and I truly savor every word. Your work means more than you know, and this community has your back.
Welcome to the Wilderness, Mike. So glad to look up one day and find you here. Let's hold each other up as we keep going, celebrating new community, new strengths, new possibilities, and new allies. All hail the Hero's Journey.
Not a hero. A citizen doing what citizenship asks of me. I refuse to accept that speaking truth is heroic. It's a virtue to be embodied. A moral minimum one should strive for.