Comments on: They http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/2009/01/01/they Contagious Thoughts, Mutating as Needed Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:43:00 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Scooper http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/2009/01/01/they/comment-page-1#comment-77353 Scooper Sat, 03 Jan 2009 00:09:23 +0000 http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/?p=2638#comment-77353 Well, sure. Finding one's true calling often requires pushing one's old boundaries in unexpected directions. Especially because that calling may change during a lifetime. One can be called to do that then and this now. But back to transgressive thought. It can start things, both great and terrible. The prophet Jeremiah was transgressive in a good way, Hitler was transgressive in a bad way. People delude themselves into thinking that Christianity is conventional, but at its core, Christianity transgresses all our cultural norms regarding social status. I have no problem with transgressive thought as long as it is done with mindfulness and compassion. Or as Paul Simon once sang, "Just give me some tenderness in your honesty." <abbr><em>Scooper´s last blog post - <a href="http://dogchurch.blogspot.com/2008/12/happy-new-year.html" rel="nofollow">Happy New Year!</a></abbr></em> Well, sure. Finding one’s true calling often requires pushing one’s old boundaries in unexpected directions. Especially because that calling may change during a lifetime. One can be called to do that then and this now.

But back to transgressive thought. It can start things, both great and terrible. The prophet Jeremiah was transgressive in a good way, Hitler was transgressive in a bad way. People delude themselves into thinking that Christianity is conventional, but at its core, Christianity transgresses all our cultural norms regarding social status. I have no problem with transgressive thought as long as it is done with mindfulness and compassion. Or as Paul Simon once sang, “Just give me some tenderness in your honesty.”

Scooper´s last blog post – Happy New Year!

]]> By: VirusHead http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/2009/01/01/they/comment-page-1#comment-77347 VirusHead Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:40:26 +0000 http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/?p=2638#comment-77347 Ahhh - I'm not an anarchist, and I do agree about boundaries, but that's more of a sociological question. That sort of interrogation is very important. But what I had in mind is the helpful nature of the transgressive thought. Suppose someone is trapped inside a mentality that is very wrong for them, and they can't get outside of it to know why? Then, a thought experiment: Suppose I were to react differently? In an unexpected way - maybe a way that is informed by my own deepest values? Suppose I didn't play out the script that has been written for me? Suppose I broke my habits, just to see? Suppose I surprised myself, and found a more authentic response, a more textured, real, richer way to be - one that starts to inform me from my own heart and spirit. It's not about just being different, especially in the knee-jerk way that some experiment with in youth - being "different" like the "different people" is just another form of conformity. But to start to pay attention and to honor your own heart and your own powers of discernment - to learn how to learn about that - is very freeing. And it's an experience that I fear is far too alien to many Americans. Ahhh – I’m not an anarchist, and I do agree about boundaries, but that’s more of a sociological question. That sort of interrogation is very important. But what I had in mind is the helpful nature of the transgressive thought.

Suppose someone is trapped inside a mentality that is very wrong for them, and they can’t get outside of it to know why? Then, a thought experiment: Suppose I were to react differently? In an unexpected way – maybe a way that is informed by my own deepest values? Suppose I didn’t play out the script that has been written for me? Suppose I broke my habits, just to see? Suppose I surprised myself, and found a more authentic response, a more textured, real, richer way to be – one that starts to inform me from my own heart and spirit. It’s not about just being different, especially in the knee-jerk way that some experiment with in youth – being “different” like the “different people” is just another form of conformity. But to start to pay attention and to honor your own heart and your own powers of discernment – to learn how to learn about that – is very freeing. And it’s an experience that I fear is far too alien to many Americans.

]]> By: Scooper http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/2009/01/01/they/comment-page-1#comment-77345 Scooper Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:08:50 +0000 http://www.virushead.net/vhrandom/?p=2638#comment-77345 I was the kid in first grade who refused to color inside the lines. I wanted to draw my own lines. Now I've grown up and I can see that networks of arbitrary rules do indeed cover us, stultifying initiative, turning us into a nation of industrious sheep, of which government is the shepherd, as de Tocqueville warned. But freedom without any constraint is meaningless. If it is possible to do anything, then nothing is worth doing. Even in mathematics, a general solution to a differential equation is useless without the constraints or boundary conditions. We all need boundaries, psychological, social, spiritual, and physical to make a space for us to become who we are meant to be. The issue is not whether to have boundaries. The issue, never to be finally resolved in this world, is where the boundaries shall be, who shall establish and maintain them, and why. <abbr><em>Scooper´s last blog post - <a href="http://dogchurch.blogspot.com/2008/12/happy-new-year.html" rel="nofollow">Happy New Year!</a></abbr></em> I was the kid in first grade who refused to color inside the lines. I wanted to draw my own lines. Now I’ve grown up and I can see that networks of arbitrary rules do indeed cover us, stultifying initiative, turning us into a nation of industrious sheep, of which government is the shepherd, as de Tocqueville warned. But freedom without any constraint is meaningless. If it is possible to do anything, then nothing is worth doing. Even in mathematics, a general solution to a differential equation is useless without the constraints or boundary conditions. We all need boundaries, psychological, social, spiritual, and physical to make a space for us to become who we are meant to be. The issue is not whether to have boundaries. The issue, never to be finally resolved in this world, is where the boundaries shall be, who shall establish and maintain them, and why.

Scooper´s last blog post – Happy New Year!

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