Couple of essays on safety, one from me and one from NLinStPaul.
See, I’ve been conditioned, and now seems to be a good time to confront that conditioning and knock it over like … well it’s like one of those bouncy dolls, you knock it over and it bounces right back up and gets in your face.
Every time I think I got a handle on the news of the day, something new happens and blows that handle all to hell.
So I’ve been thinking about this notion of safety, and through some conversations here have expanded my view.
First, the word itself, “safety,” has been corrupted almost beyond repair. After the actions of those in power we see “security” as a police state and “safety” as smothering our voice, our body and soul.
Now’s a good time to detour, for some body and soul, Coleman Hawkins (don’t know the personnel, and it’s not complete, but it sounds so nice), courtesy of YouTuber anvasquez:
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Anyway, I came to the conclusion that the reason I and others have negative feelings hearing the words “safety” and “security” is because we are simply neither safe nor secure here in the US of A. Those very words have been stolen and redefined in Orwellian fashion and our whole country has been mentally conditioned to believe safety and security means nasty power-hungry incompetents messing with our lives. Darn.
On the positive side, I learned that there is an entirely different way to view safety and security. To know that unless everyone is treated the same under laws that we all agree upon, there is no way to really feel safe. Even if I am now so privileged as to not be marked for hassel by the powers that be, during these turbulent times, even a small shift in my circumstances could land me right where those folks are with whom I suddenly feel the need to move towards solidarity! Heh. So anyway, what I’m trying to say is that you can’t have circumstantial security and safety, it just doesn’t feel right.
I also learned that perhaps we are now ready in the new Millennium to shift our gears as far as archetypes are concerned, that maybe we could focus on some of the Durga, Tara, Quan Yin, Mary, Marsha, etc. archetypes when it comes to restoring the words safety and security so that they don’t immediately bring to mind prison cells and waterboarding and uptight boring people who are way too bound up in safety and security in the old conditioned way.
Fact is, the SNAFU is so huge it has revealed there are no authorities and experts, for all the media crowing about ’em. There are heroes and villains aplenty, but that’s not what I’m getting at. There’s more to this story than just heroes and villains. Thus my archetype rambling above (inspired by the nefarious Jessical).
Apropos of nothing, here’s a funny story from the book “Jewish Wit and Wisdom,” edited by Nathan Ausubel:
The Farseeing Rabbi The rabbi of Odessa was deep in prayer one day when, interrupting himself with a wail, he announced that the rabbi of Warsaw had just died. Accordingly, the entire Odessa congregation went into mourning in his honor.
A few days later, some Jews from Warsaw arrived in Odessa. Asked for details of the sad event, they declared their rabbi was in the best of health.
“What a spectacle your rabbi made of himself,” one of them said, “seeing our rabbi die in Warsaw, when as a matter of fact our rabbi was–and still is–living!
“What of it?” answered the undaunted disciple of Odessa. “Isnt it marvelous enough that our rabbi can see all the way from Odessa to Warsaw?”
Happy Friday to all.
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… of the Hawkins piece (done in 1939, on the Bluebird label) from YouTuber MickeyClark69, who comments, “This is the classic by the Hawk – I’ve used a special technique to give a full spectrum sound – note the brushes in this one… ”
…who the majority of the people wish to be protected from, I suspect I have a different view of safety.
the connection between this conversation and the other one that goes on here about the need for justice and accountability with Bushco. Once again, jessical had some thought-provoking things to say about that.
cool. Beats the hell out of ‘that glum bitch who can suck all the air out of a room even over the innertubes’. Totally.
The protector sort of archetype isn’t a bad thing. It just isn’t everything :} I think NLinSP had a good handle on it…there are deep models for mutual regard and care, as well (sorta what you’re getting at here, I think).
Just woofed the ambien. Must go away now :}
The very fact of our existence subjects us to calamity, with the only certainty being that it will eventually catch up to us. At any moment you may drop dead or a comet may fall out of the sky and squash you to smithereens. Whatever safety there may be is fleeting and temporary. But there is no reason to be afraid for it could never (in this world) be any other way.
had a pretty vivid dream the other night, almost fell into the classic “dark man” dream category, but there were twists. have been mulling the dream since. it was about safety, protection, how there is no protection, and how i deal. ways underneath the gates, an enclosed porch that had one end wide open to the night, me telling off a stalker, which even in my dream i realized was stupid, but did anyway and the kicker was when i finally got inside a ‘safe’ place, there were doors and stairways all open to other areas. i sort of sighed and just sat down at the kitchen table, in the center of the house, and watched people come and go. we all ‘owned’ the kitchen, the ‘center.’
i can’t begin to understand what this election is going to do to the old ‘collective unconscience’ but it’s going to be fascinating, of that i am sure.