On Becoming...

...I was figuring out how to talk about all the Nazism and I didn't do the best job of figuring that out, lol.

This week, more music and levity with greater clarity and boundaries.

That's a win-win, so you should listen.

I do appreciate you being here and being with.

Love yinz.

-G

Marvin Gaye asked a simple question, linguistically, which carried with it the complexities and histories of his and his people's lives and experiences.

What's going on?

When we think about looking ahead (prognostication) or looking behind (retrognostication), we must consider what's going on in the "Me Now" and the "Here Now."

It's a question, and an endeavor, of simultaneously existing now... before... and after.

Nazis are all around us.

So let's prognosticate, retrognosticate, and breath in the moment as we explore... What's going on?

I appreciate you being here!

-G

Episode two of my fifty-first season on this globular rock hurtling through time and space with yinz.

Pretty miraculous, that.

I'm happy to exist with you here and now. My life and your life intersecting during the time of COVID as we navigate this massive paradigm shift out of several hundred years of masculine white supremacy and towards a more feminine-balanced, person-centered, intuitive, trauma-informed, and inclusively human species.

The shift is happening, but these jagoffs are going to go out swinging. They always do. No malignant narcissist just walks away having lost, and unfortunately these folks have almost all of the money and all of these tools, gadgets, and weapons of domination. They will not succeed. Which means the whole thing for us is harm reduction, healing, and preservation as we figure this out, moving forward, together.

Last week, we talked about a framework of three-perspectives for self and community wellness and nervous system care. Those perspectives are: MeNow (and for us... HereNow), The Time of COVID (and for you... perhaps a different salient timeframe), and MyLife.

This week, we begin to contemplate two other important perspectives. Namely, prognostication... or predicting the future; and retrognostication... or achieving the most accurate perspective of events and times before MeNow, before Time of COVID, before MyLife.

Plus? Some Driven to Drink room tone shenanigans at the end. For fun. A little levity to balance all this gravity.

Love yinz!

-G

P.S. Yinz is a contraction of "you" and "ones" used by native Pittsburghers and our Scots-Irish and German ancestors, 'n'at.

Along with several young people I serve, I've begun using a framework of three existential perspectives to create a mindset and setting for existing in 2025.

My three points, and the three points that inform this entire endeavor, are:

1. Me Now

2. Time Of Covid

3. My Life

Considering the spectrum nature of almost everything, there are finite, but overwhelmingly plentiful moments, experiences, and timeframes wherein I could stop and explore... between Me Now and the beginning of My Life.

And then, what of the time before My Life and the time to come after Me Now? Those questions, we'll explore in upcoming episodes. For now, we'll stick with the three perspectives and move from there.

Come hang out.

You are welcome.

-G

The Tower crumbles, leaving us exposed and raw. Vulnerable. A scab picked too early. And out of the rubble? Emerges the human. A pure expression of The World, or the Universe. Sentient. Reflective. Alive.

Season 50 of On Becoming... is done, and season 51 begins soon.

Thanks for traveling with me. Hang out. Sit a spell, won't you?

You are welcome here.

-G

Hi!

I’m calling this episode D2D2, or: Driven to Drink, Part 2.

I went back, listened to the D2D1 episode, and realized that I’d left quite a few unfinished thoughts and even sentences in my attempts to tell a fairly convoluted story involving real people and traumas… without disclosures or allowing my personal traumas to overwhelm and dysregulate me.

So… D2D2 has the answers!

A few additional important notes re: this episode.

1. The intro music is by a marvelous man whose music is on Bandcamp.  His name is Jason Belcher, or JB, and the song is titled “Hold 1.”  I love the idea of incorporating music from friends.

2. The closing music is “Party At the Airport” by Deck of Jack, which was the theme song from the podcast for which this and the previous episode are named, “Driven to Drink,” or D2D.  Jim made the song.  Jim is another friend.

3. After Jason’s piece at the beginning, my opening isn’t my typical, “On Becoming… an exploration of existence and paradigm shifts in the time of COVID.”  So… there’s the tag for you!

4. I’ve included, at the end of the episode-proper, some off-script banter and shenanigans, which is also a nod to my first podcast, Driven to Drink (D2D).  Lots of self-referential nodding, lol.  I nod at and appreciate you also!

K… everything good otherwise?

No?  Same.

But hey!  Let’s hang out a spell, recharge the wellbeing battery, and then get back at it.  Huh?

Cool.

Love yinz, y’all,and yous.

-G

I am calling this one: On Becoming… Driven to Drink. 

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Chronologically, and technically, it should be: Driven to Drink becoming… On Becoming…, which then becomes a confusing mess of wtf do I do with all that punctuation?  So…

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I am calling this one: On Becoming… Driven to Drink.

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Driven to Drink was a podcast I did for a hell of a long time.  How long?  I don’t specifically remember and I don’t want to right now, lol.  Age, experience, wisdom, several bouts with COVID, and relinquishing the trauma-informed fucks to which I used to cling desperately permit me that executive and editorial decision.

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My podcasts have always been… me.

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I have this shirt that a wonderful family gifted to me.  It reads, “I’m Greg doing Greg things,” and it’s a pristine encapsulation of… actually?  Of everything that “On Becoming…” is and desires to be.  Which is me.

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HOWEVER.  I am agnostic.  I define that as "the spirit of I don’t know but we can.”  I am also a firm believer that we are a species.  The human race, as it were. As it actually is.  And we are a social species.  That means connected. Definitionally.  That means the health and wellbeing of one actually does matter to the full disparate organism.  So, On Becoming… is also yours.  It’s ours.

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When I made Driven to Drink, I was drinking a lot.  When I started On Becoming…, I was in the process of shifting my drinking habits, particularly as they related to my trauma and desire to merely survive in an overwhelming time (...the tagline for this podcast is, "On Becoming, an exploration of existence and paradigm shifts in the time of COVID"…), in which we are all still VERY MUCH living.

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And “Drink” doesn’t need to mean alcohol.  To me, “Driven to Drink” is actually a phrase in conversation with the human desire to find homeostasis and nervous system regulation.  I am not here to moralize or place value on ANYBODY’S choices regarding finding homeostasis and nervous system regulation.  So… “driven to drink” actually does mean anything.  Any endeavor or thing that supports an individual human to regulate their nervous system in an existential moment of NEEDING THE HELP. 

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For many, existing is such a painful… a literally painful burden, that ANY WAY to experience homeostasis and regulation, even if for only several moments of bliss… I mean, it’s valid.  It doesn’t make that person amoral or less of a person.  You dig?

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Sorry, that got intense, lol.

Anyway, this episode also celebrates the 30th birthday of my beautiful cousin, serves as a meditation on grief and loss (in my case, Josie.  My Mom), and hopefully you laugh, feel validated, and unconditionally welcome.

Love yinz, yous, and y’all.

-G

p.s. you can find this on spotify and apple music or i pods or whatever tf it's called these days.

It's been four months, I know.

Three podcasts in 6 months is not the way to grow, I know.

And... the world being what it is at present? Growth isn't necessarily a goal at this point.

What is? Harm reduction. Survival. Finding ways to regulate the nervous system and understanding that my ability to "tap out" and regulated my nervous system... to even MAKE THIS POST... is a privilege.

That's the goal, here. Do my part. Embrace my intersections of privilege and use that tangible and real power to serve, protect, and reduce harm.

Also, this episode was recorded as I consumed obscene amounts of stool softeners in preparation for my first colonoscopy. (Colonoscopy?! I don't even *know* an Oscopy!)

You see where this episode is heading.

Earnest? Yes.

Silly? Yes.

Very Greg? I mean... that's the whole thing, right? Finding one's voice and then using it to express the human condition and maybe help folks.

Okay. Love yinz. Happy you're here.

-Greg

The tagline of all things On Becoming..., is, "Exploring existence and paradigm shifts in the time of COVID."

And the bottom line, at this point in history, is that we are the paradigm shift. We must be. There is no more critical time than now for species-sustaining paradigm shifts. Fascism, eugenics, genocide, kyriarchy, war, and an overwhelming ethos of compliance and forced assimilation are, at present, the status quo.

That must change. And it will.

How do I know that? I regularly interact and work with children and youth, young adults (i.e. approximately 35 and younger), and there is nothing BUT hope and faith to have.

And those of us who are elders, perceived experts, influencers... I continue to meet more and more who have been wanting, desperately, to contribute to these humane, inclusive, diverse, equitable, person-centered, trauma-informed, neurodiversity-affirming endeavors.

We are the paradigm shift.

It's such a pleasure to hang with you. I appreciate you being here.

-G

Hey.

It's been three months.

Three goddam months that feel like three years, or thirty, or zero.

So... hey. I'm thinking about the very moment in which we sit, looking out over the existential contexts in which it all sits, and I'm actually feeling... I can't capture the word. I'm feeling profoundly energized, and maybe that will deflate tomorrow. And I'm equally feeling deeply depressed, though I do have enough experience in this nervous system wash of sad, sad neurochemicals to know I'll get through this one, too.

Ambivalent? I like that word, though I don't love it. It's more akin to the Chinese construct of yin and yang. Non-duality. Mutual arising.

Anyway, I always feel better when I put on the headphones, set up the mic, and process into my own head knowing that I'll also be processing with other nervous systems asynchronously. That's really fucking cool to me. So yeah. If you feel so compelled to spend a few minutes with me, I hope it's a cool little trip.

-G