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Archive Number 2426 | ||
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Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2003 09:33:29 -0600
----- Original Message ----- From: "Robin Bady" > What do I take from this quote? That there is time to let go, not of the > history or the reality, but of the complaints and the convolution of reality. > That in the moving on, the pain is transformed into some useful "things" (be > it stories, vision, ability to help others, creativity) All, We in Western culture do not like defeat nor that which in unproductive. We want people to move on from their chaos and there misery and to be well. We want this for ourselves and many of us in our desire to be well, hurry and either forget our own stories or try to reshape them before we even know what they truly are. We are bred to be successful and to be competent and those who cannot are seen as failures. We do not see that wallowing is a symptom not the problem. My sense is that the souls who wallow in their painful stories are stuck because most of our society, us, cannot take the time to listen to the stories and to really respond on the most basic levels of humanity. As a whole we do not listen to the stories of our children, we do not listen to the stories of those physically or mentally challenged, and we do not listen to the stories of those who are different. And because the stories are not really heard, embraced, and responded and because we cannot take the time to listen to our own inner stories. We find these people disgusting and weak and we try to avoid them and their stories beacause they are not productive. We do not understand they and their stories are symptoms and manifestations of that which we hide and run from everyday of our productive and powerful lives. It is only from a privilege place that we can bemoan the fact that some people wallow in their misery and chide them for doing so and for not becoming powerful and proactive. In the African American culture in the Blues,hip hop/rap life are seen as being lived in trouble and the storyteller as muscian tells us to expect trouble and if it doesn't come in the front door or the back door it will come through the windows. Now is this wallowing in the pain and the trouble or is this the story of a people who need to be embraced and responded to because in this culture we do not want to hear nor believe in the Negro spiritual "No one has seen the troubles I've seen." We do not want to hear the effects of racisim. We do not want to hear the pain in the music and in not wanting to hear we skip over the essence of much of Black music and only hear the rythm or the romantic sensual sexuality of the music. We do not embace the pain and the struggle for hope. It is why many White Americans want to ban rap music just as they did blues, jazz, and rock-n-roll until it is sanitized and covered over with European sensibilities. This is just one example of many in our culture. I believe that this is exactly what is part of the problem when we look at painful stories and are too easily swayed to turn them into empowering stories and success stories. It is why we so quickly wanted to dismiss painful stories as wallowing in pain when they have no real resolve . It is a sanitizing that fits our American/European sensibilities. So is the never ending expression of painful stories a wallowing or is it a symptom of a society that does not honor lives nor stories unless they are productive and successful? Is it a cultural perspective that does not want to accept that life is filled with suffering and defeat as well as success? Just some random thoughts... Andre ------ http://USFamily.Net/info - Unlimited Internet - From $8.99/mo! ------ | ||