Adam Blatner
Words and Images from the Mind of Adam Blatner
Table of Contents:
Wisdom-ing
Who’s Right
On a website, https://shar.es/16hs8Q , the writer of a blog criticizes a New York Times essay by Barbara Ehrenreich, a best selling author. The essay criticizes the “selfish side” of thankful-ness. The criticism suggests that she may have misread the research? My response is that this is a meaty topic for sociodrama. Of course there […]
Why History is Interesting
…and fun! Two reasons: First, it is an aesthetic and meaning-making function. We are a part of this stream of events and feel “rooted” in being for this and against that, and there are many roots, some thick and strong, others thin, wispy. Second, there is an accelerating process off communication and innovation, each building […]
Winding Down, Finishing Up (I)
A friend wrote me and was wondering what to continue with and what is to be regarded as a closing chapter. It got me thinking: Wow! Have I done enough? (I’m aware that the answer is a rousing YES! But I ask myself maybe for the first time: Can I stop now? I don’t want […]
Wisdom & Folly in Our Time
This blog was stimulated by my reading a recently published book by Howard Gardner titled, Truth, beauty and goodness reframed: educating for the virtues in the Twenty-First Century (New York: Basic Books / Perseus, 2011). I have become increasingly aware of the responsibility each person has for integrating the reality of his or her individuality […]
Wisdom-ing and Consciousness-Transformation
Hello, sports fans—er, well, if the sport is seeing how well we can penetrate the veils of illusion in which we live, or how well we can construct a more useful philosophy of life. Today I just posted on my website a couple of papers, both published in a now-defunct journal several years ago—or at […]
Wise-Eldering
Might there be a role for “wise-elders”? The word, “crone” has been used, mainly for a woman wise-elder, and some have included men in that role, but I think wise-elder is more inclusive of both genders. Anyway, at a certain age, gender considerations still obtain—such as for some in the realms of romance and sexuality—; […]
Wonder-Filled
A Negro spiritual song from the 19th century goes: “Oh won’t you sit down? Lord, I can’t sit down! (Repeat two more times) I just got to Heav’n, gotta look around!” It turns out that we have a bit of heaven right here for those who have eyes to see. Really, it’s not the eyes, […]
Word Meanings Change
The word, “mysticism” has changed over time, from something weird and magical and ultimately superstitious to an underlying set of assumptions woven into story form, the way Joseph Campbell has re-worked the word and the field in the mid-late 20th Century. The word “gay” has similarly changed meaning, from carefree to homosexual. Yet many people […]
Yet Another Myth: Why Specificity
In a severely multi-dimensional universe, possibilities multiply logarithmically, and that’s nice. But there is a lack of specificity, it’s all swirly and dream-like. So (in this myth) God created a three-dimensional realm with matter and gravity and other features more familiar to us, all of which conspire to generate specificity. Our brains and lives are […]
You Don’t Have to Know What You’re Doing
The other day it occurred to me that although I have high status in several areas, have diplomas and certificates and am generally thought to know what I’m doing, in fact, most of the time, I do not know what I’m doing! I sort of explore the world, improvise, get feedback, adjust, negotiate, feel my […]
Zen Network
My wife is on a Zen Buddhist study group e-network recently, and we were chatting about her spiritual journey. She’s impressed with the very fact that these new friends have sought to raise their consciousness; they’ve embarked on a journey that is in itself sufficient. (The Hebrew word for this is “dayenu,” meaning, “that would […]