Mind, Body, Earth, Community :: Essays On Attention Paid

What I learned from Ms. Federici is that capitalism is an organizing force of enormous consequence. Consequence that is brutal and harmful to the mind, body, earth, and community connections I began this post with. It has rearranged the relationships between men, and women, and the earth, in profoundly destructive ways. It has fragmented the world and its creatures into things that, in their thingness, are maximally exploitable. This includes you and me. Divided, everything and everyone is exploited and utility is the quality everything and everyone must have.

From yesterday…

sunrise sky with hazy thin clouds, bright linear patch cutting across vertical frame from left to right about one quarter of the way up from bottom of frame

wires and utility pole with trees on either side

plaid skirt and peasant print blouse and large brimmed straw hat on mannequin form in shop window

ice cream shop sign in shape of an ice cream cone

rectangular paper sheet laying on top of plywood and against concrete barrier

So, Verizon can disconnect your Fios service with a push of a button, but a technician is needed at the house to reconnect it? This makes no sense to me.

Mind, Body, Earth, Community :: Essays On Attention Paid

For the next few weeks, I periodically ran into her and would ask if things had gotten any better. She would say not really, and I would encourage her to hang in there, these runs of frustration and struggle do, eventually, end. I always wished her a better rest of her day as I walked on.

Mind, Body, Earth, Community :: Essays On Attention Paid

Another analog social media app is my daily early morning walk and photograph practice. Often, they are strictly mind-body-earth affairs. Occasionally, they are community affairs, too. I meet people I know. I see people I don’t know, but know them as regulars on the street. Every so often, I learn their names.

From yesterday…

Side of a pickup truck vehicle with rear bed enclosure and streetscape in the blurry distance.

Miscellaneous items in a novelty store, including a heart wit depth of space illusion, a Jack Skellington in a box, a pair of feminine eyes, and a male head form with beard, sunglasses and gold metallic hat.

Closeup of flower with pentagonal configuration, rips are green and rest is light pink.

Sunrise cloudscape.

Shop window with display screen showing a woman hand with red nails holding a diamond ring. Photographer is reflected in the window along wit a streetscape.

Sunrise cloudscape above a Key Food grocery store and neighboring shops.

Streetscape with Mobile gas station in background left, tree and part of a limestone commercial building in foreground, with red quarter hemispheric awning saying “355 Main” on it.

From a couple of days ago…

Shadows from a fence on concrete sidewalk.

Line between asphalt on the left and concrete sidewalk on the right, line runs from top to bottom of frame and there are joints in the concrete, one running parallel to the asphalt/concrete dividing line and the other running perpendicular about 1/3 of frame from bottom.

Sunrise cloudscape, clouds illuminated on right side, blue sky visible throughout.

Joint between two sections of construction fence with metal clamp holding them together.

Box with miscellaneous Christmas decorations and other items.

Mind, Body, Earth, Community

I have decided to focus on getting out of the house and going for walks (mind, body, earth, sometimes community) and winding up at local coffee shops, where I can have direct human-to-human contact (definitely community). Even if that contact is superficial banter with a barista whose name I know and who knows mine, it’s better than the social media app stand-ins we are plagued with. Even if I know no one, and talk to no-one, I am in a space alive with people interacting analog fashion. The coffee shops are my analog version of social media apps.

Judgment used to be the foundation of the idea of reasonableness–a concept you may remember, but which we are in danger of losing, if we have not already done so, in a mechanised, bureaucratic society.

— The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World by Iain McGilchrist

Acquiring a degree of judgment that can make these elements intelligently cohere is–or used to be–the whole purpose of education. It is why we study the humanities. What history and classics and literature tell us is not to be found in the sciences anywhere. Nowadays we seem to have forgotten this crucial insight, on which the future of our civilisation nonetheless hangs.

— The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World by Iain McGilchrist

I am discovering that the best calendar app for me may be Apple’s Reminders. It’s ability to apply a date and time to a reminder renders a simple timeline list of events and proposed actions that adjust to each addition of a new reminder.

Went for an early morning hike with the pack…

Woman and two dogs sitting on a boulder in a forest.

Boulder with lichen.

Closeup of boulder with lichen.

Primitive face in rock with moss.

Landscape of a forest.

Trail and stream in a forest.

From this morning’s walk…

Lines of lights extending from edges of frame converging at the upper left of center creating a tunnel effect.

Broken concrete slab and repair patch.

COB0047 metal identification plate on a metal utility pole.

Plastic pallet wrapping on concrete sidewalk.

Uranium glassware in an antique shop window lit with black lights.

Two equal length metal tubes on a wood slat bench.

Closeup of crown and brim of a straw hat.

We watched Red, White and Royal Blue last night. The movie is based on the Casey McQuestin novel of the same title. It’s a latterday fairytale with a plot only viable in fairytale land, but, it is amazingly frank about homoerotic male relationship and sex. Highly recommend.

From this morning’s walk…

Underside of red umbrella with streetlights shining through at top of frame revealing water droplets sitting on top.

Painting of woman in Colonial/Victorian dress. Oval frame and canvas. In an antique shop window.

Skirt and simple v-neck cotton blouse on a mannequin in a shop window. Sky and buildings overlay reflected by window.

Rapids in creek swollen by rain.

Water drops on blue car hood.

Sandbag laying on asphalt with concrete block in upper left corner of frame.

In the category of Wow! Just, Wow!

August 14, 2023 - by Heather Cox Richardson(https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-14-2023)

Today, U.S. District Court Judge Kathy Seeley found for the young Montana residents, agreeing that they have “experienced past and ongoing injuries resulting from the State’s failure to consider [greenhouse gas emissions] and climate change, including injuries to their physical and mental health, homes and property, recreational, spiritual, and aesthetic interests, tribal and cultural traditions, economic security, and happiness.”

Unfortunately, by being purely strategic in intent, the left hemisphere makes strategic mistakes, since it remains largely ignorant of the reality on which it relies. As a sophisticated computer would. And very soon, no doubt, will.

— The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World by Iain McGilchrist

a.co/5s779jp

From this morning’s walk…

Early morning cloudy sky.

Plant and flower shop interior.

Lace wedding dresses in a bridal shop.

M&M candies and macaroni in glass storage jars in a shop window.

Unlit neon sign in Chinese restaurant.

FedEx and UPS drop boxes on sidewalk in front of construction site.

Creek rapids swollen and violent after recent rains.

Today I deleted all social media apps from my phone. I will use my browser to access the accounts once or twice a day. Any service that doesn’t have a web portal is toast.

Today I tried to sit down and plan the week with my various digital apps. I came to a standstill trying to make them do what I wanted. I was so frustrated! Then I opened my paper journal book and wrote out a list of things I thought needed doing. My frustration disappeared. The week got planned.

This seems important…

August 12, 2023 - by Heather Cox Richardson

In Marion, Kansas, yesterday morning, four local police officers and three sheriff’s deputies raided the office of the _Marion County Record_newspaper; the home of its co-owners, Eric Meyer and his 98 year old mother, Joan Meyer; and the home of Marion vice mayor Ruth Herbel, 80. They seized computers, cell phones, and other equipment. Joan Meyer was unable to eat or sleep after the raid; she collapsed Saturday afternoon and died at her home.

I think of the conspiracy soaked far right… McGilchrist arguing society shows signs of schizophrenia… 📚📖

… the schizophrenic subject appears to occupy extremes simultaneously: both sceptical to the point of paralysis about matters that must be taken for granted if one is to function at all, and yet gullible enough to espouse enormously improbable belief systems that are clearly delusional.

— The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World by Iain McGilchrist a.co/20ZzSLa

From yesterday and today… 📷

Wispy cloudscape in early morning sun.

Trees reflected on a steel surface with circular polish marks running from upper left corner down and across to the right.

Back of a mannequin in a shop window with elephant ear plant in front of it.

Circular shadow on brick wall in a shop.

Chain link fence with green metal strips woven in a cross hatch pattern through the chain link. Two new segments of concrete in a stretch of sidewalk below the fence. Asphalt street at bottom of picture.

Abstract of construction fence, metal sheet and concrete slab.

Plastic takeout cup and empty brandy bottle on stone ledge.

About Habit :: Essays On Attention Paid

… our lives play out through this dance of individual and together habits… we live and love, hate and grieve, in our beautiful lake of habitualness… itself a splash and rippling of a glassy sea of continuity that engulfs every possible dream of our being…

Productive day!… laundry is done, floors are vacuumed, front garden is weeded and mulched, weed whacking is done both front and back, chicken thighs are marinating… oh, and i made progress on weekly blog post and started writing Devon, one of the lesbian characters in my nascent novella…