Narrative Responsibility

Integrity is my unifying value. It is fundamental to my sense of self. But when someone acts toward me in a way that lacks integrity to my values, is that objectively negative, or even objectively a lack of integrity for them? Or simply hard for me to understand because it is a choice I would never make?

Or, Why Would You Want to Share Your Story, Anyway? Well, the tl;dl is that people both want and fear being seen as they are in equal measure. So, then, was Sauron's bigger sin making the One Ring itself, or looking right through everyone's egoic defenses? Is there an ethical way to navigate that power?

An ethical topic to consider in the age of social media and content creation: Does your story belong only to you, or do others have any rights over it? Under what circumstances might it be valid to honor – or ignore – those rights? Are there times when the rights of the society one belongs to might outweigh the rights of the individual person/s involved? 

Settle in for a double-length episode of Storytime with Auntie E where I talk about how I got diagnosed with ADHD in middle age, why it wasn't caught any sooner despite some pretty obvious-in-hindsight signs, and how it has shifted my view of both the past and my present experience of self. It's rambly. It spans a quarter century of living. It feels mildly self-indulgent to spend 45 minutes teeing up a 5-minute example of retrospection's endpoint but that is actually how retrospection works, so...sit back and trust the process!

Some thoughts about our cultural concept of innocence, specifically the innocence of childhood, and an outline of the authoritarian parenting style, and how these are playing out in current events. Bonus reminder of how reality paradigms are formed for individuals and cultures, and how they can be updated. 

A sort of companion episode to "The Frogs, the Poets, and the Fools." Is thinking a broad or specific verb? Should it be used only for analytical and logical tasks, or can it also be a more organic and integrated process? Come settle the debate between competing meanings and maybe learn a few new ways to use your mind…whatever you want to call them!

Some thoughts about comprehension, the inadequacies of language, and the fundamental pointlessness of generative AI for translating individual human experience into a form someone else might possibly be able to understand. Bonus content about what it means to understand courtesy of an ongoing debate with my yogi friend.

Did you know that fiction is one of the best tools we have for deeply understanding another person's experience of consciousness? Pull up a chair, it's story time with Auntie E, and she's got a tale of science fiction, splintered focus, and how Murderbot's view of its own system helped solve a problem that six years of test-iterating couldn't....

The mental load of CARING about the emotional and existential experience of everyone in a household is often carried by women. This invisible burden contributes to heightened stress and poorer mental health for women, functioning analagously to a "pink tax" paid in order to have a family. Let's dream of a future where that isn't true - and talk about some strategies to bring us closer to that dream.

Our relationship to our own MBTI type - as well as other type preferences - is often a result of the family and culture we grew up in. Those experiences impact what we seek in adult relationships and how well we can relate to different personality types. Type alone is never enough to answer compatibility questions. It is ALWAYS type plus context!