Dead Man's Forest

This is the first part of my conversation with Joyce, who has some wisdom to share about why connection--to all things--is important, and how the disconnection our Western civilization teaches us is harming so many things.

Some mentions:

Grandmother's Counsel the World, a book Joyce is reading.

MK Nature Center, a branch of Idaho Fish & Game that teaches outdoor education and gives wildlife experiences only minutes from downtown Boise.

Steven Foster and Meredith Little founded the School of Lost Borders, of which the medicine wheel is an important conceptual piece. Their book, The Four Shields, describes in more detail the directions I roughly sketched in this episode.

I recently changed some of my ideas about science based on reading an important book called "The Beginning of Infinity," by David Deutsch. (Well worth the read, by the way.) I had what I now think are some misconceptions. I attempt to describe them in this episode. 

I also connect my new concepts to the idea I shared in a recent episode: that of love being the answer. I share my new definition of love: it is the will or desire for a thing to exist.

You can read about Saving Mr. Banks here:  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2140373/ (I misspoke on two accounts: the move is not called Saving Mrs. Banks, and the author's name is P.L. Travers rather than R.L.)

Check out The Beginning of Inifinity (and participate in discussion!) here:  https://beginningofinfinity.com/ 

Jared Jacobs, perhaps better known on the internet as Gold Yeller, makes stop-motion videos of sports highlights using Lego. Take a few minutes to listen to him talk about some of the lessons he's learned from his work and life. 

If you want to see more of Gold Yeller's work, you can check him out on:

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5EN6DhpzVZM0sYk1kIXFAQ

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoldYeller/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goldyeller/?hl=en

Twitter: https://twitter.com/goldyeller?lang=en

I couldn't record a full episode this week, but I've still been working on some thoughts. This episode will keep you abreast of two of them: first, that in the vision of the Dead Man's Forest that we are both the person AND the dead landscape--that we feed one another and are fed in turn; second, that our perceptual awareness relationship with the universe is perhaps better thought of as being a kind of inverse relationship to our physical existence--the latter happens in the space surrounding us, where we inhabit the universe, while the former happens in the space inside our minds, where stimuli from the universe produce our experience. A nuanced distinction, but I think it's important to be as accurate as possible.

The conclusion of my conversation with Emily Marvosh, where she talks about what classical music is and what continues to interest and excite her about it. 

You can read about and hear Emily's work on her website, http://www.emilymarvosh.com/

This week I speak with Emily Marvosh about her experiences and what she's learned from them. She shares several lessons that have been important to her throughout her education and career as a classically-trained singer. You can learn more about Emily on her website, http://www.emilymarvosh.com/

I suspect that love and its fruit--life--are the core goals of all religions. I find it sad that in religion we often lose sight of that, instead making our faith more about being right than being loving.

From the perspective of your relationship to the universe and to civilization, and from the universe's perspective of its relationship to life--including human life--it seems possible that love could be the thing that makes all this go. Let's discuss.

Last week we talked about how Michael sometimes gets emotional about his death as the ultimate goodbye. This week brings some ideas about how we can live in response to the fact that someday we will die.

An emotional episode today, recorded on a walk over very crunchy snow--an experiment that turned out a little noisier than I hoped it would. But, I'll get better at it.

I hope you get something out of it.