JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT IT WAS SAFE OR WHEN YOU KNEW IT WASN'T

Just when you thought it was safe or knew it wasn't

All vacations are just that, vacations. So I have been thinking about coming back to the blog as an active decision. I have been writing madly and vacationing in Italy and dealing with issues of age and kids and separation, all stuff of life.

However, or within it all, there is a premise here that needs to be stated out loud. The blogs I have written have tended to be politically oriented. On my other site, www.growingreal.com the essays have more of a general flavor; however
TO MY MIND THIS IS A SERIOUS QUESTION FOR ALL OF US AND FOR PSYCHOTHERAPISTS AS WELL. I FEEL STRONGLY ABOUT THE POLITICAL NATURE OF LIFE, AND THAT WHETHER WE ARE INVOLVED IN THE POLITICAL ARENA OR NOT, WE ARE INVOLVED: THERE IS NO WAY OUT.

NOT TO DECIDE IS TO DECIDE. So I am saying that if this blog is to be authentic it has to include the connection between the personal and political.

From time to time there will be op ed pieces, either designed for right here or originally aimed at the higher powers of big newspapers such as the New York Times. I welcome your input since I have come to feel dialogue is crucial for small or bigger amounts of progress anywhere. It is only dialogue if it doesn't come with character assassination for then it is assault only.

It will come as no surprise that the major focal point will involve the subject of distraction, which I have come to see as the most insidious and creepy and impossibly dangerous plague of our time. I have never claimed to have discovered it or that it is new or even all bad: in fact some of it is the grander work of creation and play which often come as oxygen. It is just that as of now, what with global warming, nuclear weapons, terrorists (within and without) etc, attention away from information towards manipulation of our senses as well as our own avoidance, have become too dangerous.

Parents often want immediate results rather than the cozy developmental orientation of trial and error, empathy and learning from experience and connection. There is peer pressure everwhere, so that it becomes hard to examine whether education bores or inspires, and we have been so overwhelmed in our own lives that there is not that much thought to major institutions such as education.

So onward....and as I have learned "Without laughter it would all be unbearable". It is just that I feel as in "Turn, turn, turn" that laughter when in the midst of tragedy is a tad distracting, if it turns our attention away from saving our lives on the planet.

And if attention comes in the form of humor, so be it. A friend in Italy said yesterday something like "You know, there are so many lies and so much of what we all say are lies, because it is all so subjective. However maybe it's good to look for the pieces of truth within the lies. We might learn alot".

So this is a blog in the spirit of taking the bits of flavor or sense or life that make sense, rather than to carelessly dismiss a potential addition. I've said this before, but I'd love to have comments from younger people whose outlook--angry or not--is often fresh and less tarnished by accomodation.

Ciao...for now, Carol