[JUST ABOUT NOW IS A COLLECTION OF THINGS HAPPENING IN OUR SPACES & PLACES, PHYSICAL & DIGITAL, intersecting past, present, future, CREATIVITY, CULTURE & COMMUNITY INTO the NOW. STITCHED TOGETHER BY GEROME FOR WSKRA.COM]
“The Yoorrook Justice Commission, represented by the design at the centre of the logotype, is central to the truth telling for injustices for First Nations people, and in turn is central to making recommendations for healing, system reform and practical changes to laws, policy and education.
“The circles represent meeting and community and they are connected through the songlines of culture and understanding.”
An Open Heart
That’s what I’ve felt this week — an open heart. That, more than any particular policy or analysis, is what’s called upon right now, I think — what a friend of mine, the writer Marilynne Robinson, calls “that reservoir of goodness, beyond, and of another kind, that we are able to do each other in the ordinary cause of things.”
“That reservoir of goodness. If we can find that grace, anything is possible.”
From Barack Obama’s remarks in Eulogy for Clementa Carlos Pinckney, who was one of the victims of the Charleston church shooting in 2015. Barack Obama cited Marilynne Robinson, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005.
Pinckney was killed on the night of June 17, 2015, in the Charleston church where he was the pastor. He spent the earlier part of that day campaigning with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in Charleston. The shooter specifically asked for Pinckney and later opened fire on the congregation, killing Pinckney and eight others. While the FBI investigated the mass shooting as a hate crime, NBC 5’s Eric King considered the attack a racially motivated act of terrorism, and criticized law enforcement and the media for not labeling it as such.–From Wikipedia
“Blaktivism brings together pioneering and emerging voices in First Nations music and art celebrating Blak Cultures+Activism on the Hamer Hall Stage. Artist Baker Boy is headlining Blaktivism on its fourth year.
“In December 2022 Arts Centre Melbourne presented its second Blaktivism, an event centring on Blak voices and First Nations musical activism. Curated by Gaba Musik Artistic Director Deline Briscoe, Blaktivism began as an Australian response to the global dialogue around the Black Lives Matter [#BLM] movement and its impacts on Indigenous sovereignty.”–Arts Centre Melbourne | Jody Haines (April 2023)
ART. THEATRE. NOW. Topdog/Underdog by Suzan Lori Parks, directed by Labonté | Melbourne Theatre Company, 23 August–26 September 2024, The Lawler Southbank Theatre. “An iconic piece of contemporary writing that won the Pulitzer Prize, Suzan-Lori Parks’s vibrant, energetic and sincere work Topdog/Underdog follows two brothers as they wrestle with the realities of the American Dream.”
DOCUMENTARY. SPORT. 2020. Freeman by Laurence Billier | ABC iView. “The story of a nation coming together around Indigenous athlete Cathy Freeman who delivered when it mattered on the greatest stage on earth. Over 20 years on, Freeman sheds light on one of Australia’s proudest moments.”
COMMUNITY. LEGEND. On 25 September 2000 Cathy Freeman wins Gold at the Sydney Olympics
Cathy Freeman was warned not to carry the Aboriginal flag at the Olympics. She did it anyway | Mamamia | Belinda Jensen (September 2020)
COMMUNITY. CELEBRATION. Indigenous Literacy Day, Wednesday 4 September 2024. “Indigenous Literacy Day is proudly produced and presented by the Indigenous Literacy Foundation in collaboration with the Sydney Opera House.
“It’s an annual celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ Stories, Cultures, and Languages.
“Indigenous Literacy Day is held on the first Wednesday of September ‑ this year Wednesday 4 September. We’re sharing the diversity of First Nations languages and cultures with audiences across Australia.”–ILF
MUSIC. 2020. Jessica Mauboy, ILF Ambassador, performs Warumpi Band’s My Island Home. “The Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) is a national book industry charity, focused on improving literacy levels in remote and very remote Indigenous communities. ILF provides culturally appropriate books, supports early learning, and empowers communities to write and publish their own stories, in the languages they choose.”
GLOBAL COMMUNITY ANNIVERSARY. 13 September 2007 | UN Declaration On The Rights Of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP)
“(…) Affirming that Indigenous peoples are equal to all other peoples, while recognizing the right of all peoples to be different, to consider themselves different, and to be respected as such,
“Affirming also that all peoples contribute to the diversity and richness of civilizations and cultures, which constitute the common heritage of humankind,
“Affirming further that all doctrines, policies and practices based on or advocating superiority of peoples or individuals on the basis of national origin or racial, religious, ethnic or cultural differences are racist, scientifically false, legally invalid, morally condemnable and socially unjust,
“Reaffirming that Indigenous peoples, in the exercise of their rights, should be free from discrimination of any kind, (…)”
“The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was adopted by the General Assembly on Thursday, 13 September 2007.
“The Declaration is the most comprehensive international instrument on the rights of Indigenous peoples.
“It establishes a universal framework of minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of the Indigenous peoples of the world and it elaborates on existing human rights standards and fundamental freedoms as they apply to Indigenous peoples.
“The Declaration is particularly significant because Indigenous peoples, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, were involved in its drafting.”
From the Australian Human Rights Commission Publications UNDRIP
COMMUNITY. DEFINING MOMENT. The Redfern Park Speech, 10 December 1992. Prime Minister Paul Keating at the Australian Launch of the International Year For The World’s Indigenous People, Redfern Park, 10 December 1992 (16mins) | National Archives of Australia. Transcript PDF
“(…) Just a mile or two from the place where the first European settlers landed, in too many ways it tells us that their failure to bring much more than devastation and demoralisation to Aboriginal Australia continues to be our failure. More I think than most Australians recognise,
The plight of Aboriginal Australians affects us all.
“In Redfern it might be tempting to think that the reality Aboriginal Australians face is somehow contained here, and that the rest of us are insulated from it. But of course, while all the dilemma may exist here, they are far from contained. We know the same dilemmas and more are faced all over Australia.
“That is perhaps the point of this Year of the World’s Indigenous People: to bring the dispossessed out of the shadow, to recognise that they are part of us, and that we cannot give Indigenous Australians up without giving up many of our own most deeply held values, much of our own identity and our own humanity.
“Nowhere In the world, I would venture, is the message more stark than it is in Australia. We simply cannot sweep injustice aside. Even if our own conscience allowed us to, I am sure, that in due course, the world and the people of our region would not.
“There should be no mistake about this: our success in resolving these issues will have a significant bearing on our standing in the world. However intractable the problems seem, we cannot resign ourselves to failure any more than we can hide behind the contemporary version of Social Darwinism which says that to reach back for the poor and dispossessed is to risk being dragged down. That seems to me not only morally indefensible, but bad history.”
Why Paul Keating’s Redfern Speech still matters | SBS | Em Nicol (December 2022)
PERFORMANCE. DANCE. 2018. Aboriginal Dance Show (Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia)
PERFORMANCE. MUSIC. 2020. William Barton and Sydney Symphony Orchestra | 1–Birdsong At Dusk, 2–Petrichor
COMMUNITY. The Indigenous World 2024: Australia | The Indigenous World 2024: Philippines
From The Indigenous World 2024 on Australia:
“As of 30 June 2021, there were 984,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, representing 3.8% of the total Australian population. The most recent available data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics indicates that, among Indigenous Australians, 38% (337,400) live in major cities and 18% (154,900) live in remote and very remote areas combined. The proportion of the total population who were Indigenous increased with remoteness, from 1.8% in major cities to 32% in remote and very remote areas.”
From The Indigenous World 2024 on the Philippines:
“The country’s Indigenous population continues to be estimated at between 10% and 20% of the national population of 109,035,343, based on the 2020 population census. The Indigenous groups in the northern mountains of Luzon (Cordillera) are collectively known as Igorot while the groups on the southern island of Mindanao are collectively called Lumad. There are smaller groups collectively known as Mangyan in the island of Mindoro as well as smaller, scattered groups in the Visayas islands and Luzon, including several groups of hunter-gatherers in transition.
“Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines have retained much of their traditional, pre-colonial culture, social institutions and livelihood practices.”
COMMUNITY. ANNIVERSARY. 21 September 1972. “Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos imposed martial law in the Philippines, beginning a period of harsh authoritarian rule.”
“One of his first actions was to arrest opposition politicians in Congress and the Constitutional Convention.”
“A series of important new concessions were given to foreign investors, including a prohibition on strikes by organized labour, and a land-reform program was launched. In January 1973 Marcos proclaimed the ratification of a new constitution based on the parliamentary system, with himself as both president and prime minister. He did not, however, convene the interim legislature that was called for in that document.”–Britannica
The Legacy of the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution | Human Rights Foundation | Felicity Salina (February 2024)
The Martial Law Chronicles Project. “The Martial Law Chronicles Project is an undertaking by a non-partisan group of individuals against historical revisionism, particularly efforts to recast the late dictator, Ferdinand E. Marcos, as a hero.”
50 years after martial law, Filipino activists seek justice for abuses | NBC | The Associated Press (September 2022). “Survivors of torture and other atrocities under Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos are demanding an apology from his son, who is now president.”
The oligarchs likely to benefit most under Bongbong Marcos | Nikkei Asia | Alvin Camba (June 2022)
“The Marcos family, a political family in the Philippines, owns various assets that Philippine courts have determined to have been acquired through illicit means during the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos from 1965–1986. These assets are referred to using several terms, including “ill-gotten wealth” and “unexplained wealth,” while some authors such as Belinda Aquino and Philippine Senator Jovito Salonga more bluntly refer to it as “the Marcos Plunder”.”–Wikipedia
The Trump Building, 40 Wall Street. “Donald J. Trump acquired this building in 1995 after watching its volatile history for decades. In the 1980’s it was bought by Ferdinand Marcos, the former dictator of the Philippines. A revolution in the Philippines then demanded his full attention and 40 Wall Street fell into chaos and decline. The fiascos continued, with the future of the building remaining unstable. The New York real estate family, the Resnick’s, partnering with Citibank, briefly stepped in but got nowhere.”–40wallstreet.com
2020. What We Don’t Understand About Fascism–Using the Word Incorrectly Oversimplifies History—And Won’t Help Us Address Our Current Political Crisis | Zócalo Public Square | Victoria De Grazia (13 August 2020)
2021. America is now in fascism’s legal phase: The history of racism in the US is fertile ground for fascism. Attacks on the courts, education, the right to vote and women’s rights are further steps on the path to toppling democracy | The Guardian | Jason Stanley (December 2021). “”Let us be reminded that before there is a final solution, there must be a first solution, a second one, even a third. The move toward a final solution is not a jump. It takes one step, then another, then another.”
“So began Toni Morrison’s 1995 address to Howard University, entitled Racism and Fascism, which delineated 10 step-by-step procedures to carry a society from first to last.
“Morrison’s interest was not in fascist demagogues or fascist regimes. It was rather in “forces interested in fascist solutions to national problems”. The procedures she described were methods to normalize such solutions, to “construct an internal enemy”, isolate, demonize and criminalize it and sympathizers to its ideology and their allies, and, using the media, provide the illusion of power and influence to one’s supporters.”–The Guardian
2024. Silence Is Dangerous in the Current Age of Rising Fascism in the US: Social movements are creating powerful new languages for confronting tyranny. We must resist the plague of silence. | Truthout | Henry A. Giroux (January 2024)
“This week’s revelation that Donald Trump is already plotting new ways to try to put himself permanently above the law is just the latest reminder of the looming threat of lawless and emboldened right-wing forces in the United States. Trump’s new scheme to expand a Nixon-era policy memo to prohibit the Justice Department from prosecuting presidents, even after they leave office, is just a tiny hint of the greater threat. In recent months, several scholars have sounded the alarm that the United States is “sleepwalking towards authoritarianism.” The concern is not unfounded given that in his run for the presidency in 2024, Trump has boldly telegraphed his aspirations to impose an authoritarian future on the United States. He has repeatedly injected authoritarian language, extremist ideas and threats of violence into the mainstream. Moreover, he has done so to “create a climate of trepidation and powerlessness that discourages mobilization by the opposition,” in the words of scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat. Forecasting his authoritarian intentions, Trump has openly stated that he intends to terminate portions of the U.S. Constitution, calls his political enemies “vermin” and boldly proclaims he will make himself a dictator “on day one.” On Truth Social, he claimed without irony that a president should have blanket authority and total immunity “even for events that ‘cross the line.’” He has repeatedly stated that if he regains the White House, “it will be a time for retribution” and revenge.”–Henry A. Giroux | Truthout
MUSIC. Return to Ancient Egypt | Egyptian Instrumental Music
ART | ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ART. NOW. Pharaoh, until 6 October 2024 at NGV International
EXHIBITION OVERVIEW. Melbourne Winter Masterpieces® 2024: Pharaoh
ART | AFRICA FASHION. NOW. Africa Fashion, until 6 October 2024 at NGV International
“It’s official: Africa Fashion is a sensation. The first month of the exhibition at NGV International has been a celebration of colour, energy and enthusiasm. Get down to NGV to experience the joy of 50 groundbreaking designers from across the African continent. Created by the V&A – touring the world. Victoria and Albert Museum“–NGV
AFRICA FASHION Africa Fashion at the National Gallery of Victoria tells the story of African fashion through political history | ABC Arts | Abbir Dib (June 2024)
MUSIC. 2021. Diamond Platnumz | IYO ft Focalistic, Mapara A Jazz & Ntosh Gazi (Official Video)
AFRICA FASHION. 2019. How Paris got a taste for second-hand style from Africa | BBC News | Ijeoma Ndukwe (September 2019)
AFRICA FASHION. 2024. How luxury African fashion has wowed Europe’s catwalks | BBC News | Wedaeli Chibelushi (March 2024)
MUSIC. 2024. NOW. Diamond Platnumz x Jason Derulo ft Khalil Harisson & Chley – Komasava Remix (Official Music Video)
MUSIC. 2023. Aya Nakamura | Concert acoustique Lancôme au Domaine de la Rose
MUSIC. 2022. Diamond Platnumz | Gidi (Official Music Video)
MUSIC. 2023. Aya Nakamura | 40% (Live Paris 2023)
INTERVIEW. 2023. C’est pas Aya Nakamura qui fait la guerre à Beyoncé, c’est Beyoncé qui fait la guerre à Aya Nakamura | Quotidien (August 2023)
MUSIC. 2019. Burna Boy | Tiny Desk Concert | NPR Music. “The Nigerian singer and songwriter is one of the biggest African artists in the world. He’s also a pioneer of Afro-fusion which incorporates sonics and influences from a myriad of genres, laid on an Afrobeat foundation.”–Bobby Carter | NPR
MUSIC. 2024. NOW. Burna Boy | Tshwala Bam ft. Omah Lay, Victony, TitoM & Yuppe
MUSIC. 2024. TitoM & Yuppe | Tshwala Bam ft. S.N.E & EeQue (Official Music Video)
MUSIC. 2022. Dadju | Ambassadeur (Clip Officiel)
MUSIC. 2022. The Blaze | Dreamer (Official Video). Featuring Birane Ba from the Comédie Française
MUSIC. MUSIC VIDEO. 1978. Earth, Wind & Fire | September (Official HD Video)
MUSIC. LYRIC VIDEO. 2024. September by Earth, Wind & Fire | Robot Dreams (Traducida al Español + Lyrics)
COMMUNITY | HEALTH & WELLBEING. Thursday 12 September is R U OK national day of action
“R U OK? is a national suicide prevention charity and registered public health promotion that encourages people to stay connected and have conversations that can help others through difficult times.
“R U OK? contributes to suicide prevention efforts by encouraging people to invest more time in their personal relationships and building the capacity of informal support networks – friends, family and colleagues – to be alert to those around them, have a conversation if they identify signs of distress or difficulty and connect someone to appropriate support, long before they’re in crisis.”–R U OK?
COMMUNITY | SPRING EQUINOX. 22 September 2024 10.43pm AEST. “A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun crosses the Earth’s equator, which is to say, appears directly above the equator, rather than north or south of the equator. On the day of the equinox, the Sun appears to rise “due east” and set “due west”. This occurs twice each year, around 20 March and 23 September.”–Wikipedia
What’s the Difference Between a Solstice and an Equinox? | Cosmo Verse
COMMUNITY. HEALING. Third Eye AirDrop For The Equinox, hosted by Liz Millar, Saturday 21 September 2024, Studio 14 St Kilda
COMMUNITY. HEALING. St Kilda Peace Festival | Planetary Healing Arts, Sunday 15 September 2024, Victorian Pride Centre. “The St Kilda Peace Festival with the theme Healing The Community is on again on Sunday 15 September 2024 at the Victorian Pride Centre Theatrette, 79-81 Fitzroy Street, St Kilda, celebrating the International Day Of Peace. It is a multicultural healing arts festival aspiring to build a more inclusive and harmonious community.”
GLOBAL COMMUNITY | CULTURE OF PEACE. United Nations International Day Of Peace. “Peace Day is observed around the world each year on 21 September. Established in 1981 by unanimous United Nations resolution, Peace Day provides a globally shared date for all humanity to commit to Peace above all differences and to contribute to building a Culture of Peace. This year [2024] marks the 25th anniversary of the United Nations General Assembly’s adoption of the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace.”
“As defined by the United Nations, Culture of Peace is a set of values, attitudes, modes of behaviour and ways of life that reject violence and prevent conflicts by tackling their root causes to solve problems through dialogue and negotiation among individuals, groups and nations. Since its founding over 60 years ago, UNESCO asserted that:
“Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed.”
The sign that stands for global peace: A brief history of the peace symbol — from its design in 1958 to Now. | BBC Ideas | War and Peace
MUSIC. 1994. Work For Peace by Gil Scott-Heron
MUSIC. 2023. Peace Now by Udo Jürgens (Folamour Remix Lyric Video)
MUSIC. DANCE. CELEBRATION. CULTURE OF PEACE. Ministry Of Sound: Testament at Timberyard Port Melbourne, Saturday 7 September 2024, 3pm–11pm. “Clubbing has always provided the antithesis to the normal, expected & mundane. A place to escape, connect and enter an alternate reality — tucked away safely in dimly lit, often secretive locations around the country.
“From Australia’s acid house infancy to the many reinventions of rave through the 90s and the peak of 00s nightlife, late night communities were formed on the dancefloor. Lifelong friendships cemented over deep 4am conversations, soundtracked by pure euphoria.
“This unmatched era of nightlife has become a mythical moment in time, preserved only in patchy memories (…).”–Ministry Of Sound | songkick.com
MUSIC. COMPILATION. Best House Music Tracks Of All Time | YouTube | Pedro Leal
What Is House Music? | Armada Music. “Four-to-the-floor beats, infectious grooves, a soulful vocal here and there. You know what we’re talking about; it’s house music. You’ve come here to find out exactly what it is, where it comes from and where you can find more of it. And we are happy to supply all the answers in this all-inclusive rundown of house music.”–Armada Music
POST-SCRIPTUM:
“True happiness is based on peace.”―Thich Nhat Hanh, The Art of Power
Mo’Ju: the family trauma behind ‘Native Tongue’ | SBS News | The Feed. “Being who I am is intrinsically political.”
The Personal Is Political | Carol Hanisch (1969). “One of the first things we discover in these groups is that personal problems are political problems. There are no personal solutions at this time. There is only collective action for a collective solution. I went, and I continue to go to these meetings because I have gotten a political understanding, which all my reading, all my “political discussions,” all my “political action,” all my four-odd years in the [feminist] movement never gave me. I’ve been forced to take off the rose colored glasses and face the awful truth about how grim my life really is as a woman.” I am getting a gut understanding of everything as opposed to the esoteric, intellectual understandings and noblesse oblige feelings I had in “other people’s” struggles.”—Carol Hanisch
Suffering, authenticity, and meaning in life: Toward an integrated conceptualization of well-being | PMC | Wojciech Kaftanski and Jeffrey Hanson (2022). “Most conceptions of well-being either ignore suffering or assume an ideal version of human life in which suffering would be eliminated. This trend is especially emblematic of positive psychology. Recent research on well-being indicates a mediating function of meaning in life between suffering and well-being demonstrating that making sense of past experiences is significantly correlated with high presence of meaning in life. Hence, meaning-making serves the role of an active coping mechanism that alleviates suffering. This and related strategies of defining, measuring, and augmenting well-being however overlook a form of suffering that is ineliminable and in fact essential to personal growth.”
“Meaning is an important quality that humans attribute to such different elements in the world as natural disasters, art, relationships, financial assets, but also to sentences, judgments, values, and nature. Meaning is considered to be a great motivator in such different fields as public health, work, education, politics, and leadership. Experiencing meaning is an important contributor to well-being and health. In relation to life, philosophers and psychologists developed theories of meaning in life (which often have an individual dimension) and the meaning of life (that look at life in a more general sense. A widely accepted tripartite definition of meaning in life comprises “purpose (having goals to work toward or finding benefits from a specific event), significance (a sense of feeling value or mattering), and coherence (the feeling that the world and one’s experiences make sense)”
“Striving to realize the ideal of one’s project of existence is marked by suffering. While this paper builds a positive vision of suffering in relation to despair and a project of individual becoming, it is important to indicate that Kierkegaard acknowledges forms of despair that are pathological. Indeed, suffering caused by despair is meant to be ultimately eliminated by love and faith. Despair is the condition whereby an individual does not want to be herself or desires to be someone else. These can be caused and maintained by trauma, social comparison, resistance to seeking help, defiance in relation to the transcendent, or clinging to the twisted meaning-conferring role of despair that forms one’s identity around their suffering.”—Wojciech Kaftanski and Jeffrey Hanson
Sam Harris on Mindfulness & Meaning, from the series on Mind & Emotion | Waking Up App (Excerpts transcribed by Gerome)
“What does it all mean? What is the meaning of life? What is our purpose here? These are, in my view, the great pseudo-questions of religion and philosophy. We need not ask them.
“It’s often imagined that in the absence of answers to questions of this kind there’s a massive void in our lives that must be filled by something — myth, superstition, agonising doubts. This is an illusion. It’s an imaginary problem. It’s a pure confection of thought.
(…)
“You don’t have to believe in free will or in some higher purpose to existence or some overarching plan to see the wisdom of removing your hand from a hot stove, or to prefer loving relationships with other people to hostile ones.
“The quote ‘meaning in life’ isn’t found by coming up with answers to badly posed questions like ‘what does it all mean?’ It comes from finding good enough reasons to be deeply immersed in the present moment and to create or discover new and interesting things and ideas and to connect with the people around us.
“No one has ever found meaning by brooding over his past or future. And if you do become immersed in the present, you won’t find any evidence for free will here, but neither will you find a reason to worry about its absence. Rather what is there for you to notice is the intrinsic openness and freedom of consciousness in each moment.
“Everything is simply appearing, and you are the condition in which these things appear. And it’s important to appreciate the power of thought and concepts here. Our thoughts seem to determine the character of most experiences.
“We’re all intimately familiar with the four general states of consciousness. In the first our bodies are comfortable, and yet our minds are making us miserable. In the second our body is maybe quite uncomfortable–perhaps we’re engaged in a strenuous workout–but our minds are happy. In the third our bodies are uncomfortable, maybe we’re in pain and we’re also miserable. In the fourth we’re enjoying some state of physical ease or pleasure, and this is attended by happy thoughts.
“So, mind and body are separable here with respect to the valence of experience. Now people who are living ‘meaningful lives’ generally have a story to tell themselves and others that puts their pains and pleasures in a context that they feel good about. So, the search for meaning comes when we’re in state 1 or 3, that is, however our bodies feel, our minds are troubled. We’re trying to get to states 2 or 4. We’re trying to get to a place where we feel good about what we’re doing and experiencing, whatever the character of our sensory experience at that moment. And the difference between being wise or foolish lies in how we attempt to do that.
“We have thousands of years of literature–and collectively many billions of years of human experience–that attest to the difference between good and bad decisions in that area. And to make these decisions well it’s important to find a positive relationship to uncertainty. And here, there really is power in certain thoughts.
“The conceptual frame we put around experience matters. How you think about uncertainty and risk matters. So, in some level it’s useful to believe that whatever doesn’t kill you can at least potentially make you stronger. This happens to be true. There is very often a silver lining in difficult experience. So, it’s important to realise this in advance. It cuts down on worry and it allows us to take smart risks that will very likely pay off.
“Even bad things offer an opportunity for growth. This is a belief that is worth having. This is an algorithm that produces resilience and changes your conception of failure. Failure is not always bad, and therefore is not worth fearing in many cases. It’s also important to realise that the things you want or are afraid to lose are rarely as important as you think they are. This is a very widespread observation in behavioural economics. We’re well known to be terrible in predicting how much good or bad things will affect us. The truth is, they don’t affect us nearly as much as we hope or fear.
“Now, realising this and finding ways to be happy in the present before things happen is in large measure in what it means to be wise. Wisdom is understanding that you don’t have to hold your happiness hostage until some future time where your desires get gratified. But that doesn’t mean it’s irrational to plan for the future. Yes, none of us know how long we will live, but it’s generally rational to assume that you have enough time to devote to long-term projects, to building a family or a career. You need not live every day like it might be your last in order to be wise. But the trick here is to remain process oriented.
“Whatever your goals, the quality of the journey has to become more important than those fleeting moments when you actually arrive at your destination… because most of your life is the journey. Most of your life is the process of solving problems. It is not and will never be a condition of basking in the absence of all problems.
“There will always be something to do. The frame of mind in which you do it determines the quality of your life. You can’t wait until you’ve solved your problems to be happy. So, the question of how to live a meaningful life is fairly simple to answer. In each moment we have an opportunity to connect with the contents of consciousness, with the sights and sounds and sensations and ideas that constitute the actual character of our lives.
“Or we can be lost in thought, that is, thinking without knowing that we’re thinking. Then we are fully at the mercy of whatever thoughts arise. And as you know, the character of so much of our thinking is unhappy. The mind becomes that kind of theatre of doubt and anxiety and regret. And it is only in this theatre that one can be concerned about ‘what it all means’ and then get lost in the false questions of philosophy or religion.
“This moment, simply this, does not, cannot and need not mean anything or have any purpose. One can only think otherwise. And thinking otherwise seems to introduce a crisis of meaning.
“Mindfulness is the capacity to break this spell and actually connect with experience in the present moment. But it doesn’t come naturally as you’ve probably noticed.
“So that’s why we practice it.”
R U OK? Really OK? Just OK?
“Wellbeing is not just the absence of disease or illness. It’s a complex combination of a person’s physical, mental, emotional and social health factors. Wellbeing is strongly linked to happiness and life satisfaction. In short, wellbeing could be described as how you feel about yourself and your life.”–Better Health Victoria
Thursday 12 September is R U OK national day of action
“J’ai décidé d’être heureux parce que c’est bon pour la santé.”–Voltaire
You too, decide to be happy.
Gerome Villarete, Secretary
Art Saves Lives
From the Waking Up App:
James Low | Clarity & Equanimity (27mins)
Joseph Goldstein | Identification With Thought (23mins)
Sam Harris | Ceasing Identification With Thought (48secs)