I'LL DO A DANCE INTERPRETATION ON THE LAWN and MS. VAGUELY DISSATISFIED

I once had a friend who, when I asked her what her religious beliefs were, said ennegrams.  She also said, with a shrug of one shoulder, she once attended the seminar (induction into) for Lifespring. In general, if you had to run a quote under her picture that typified her, it would be "No Bullshit. Just get it done." She was (and probably still is) one of the most productive people I've ever met.  But that also meant that she would cut you short when you need to talk. Single-minded.  Focused.  Busy.  Selfish. People always said she was "such a personality" because of her positivity.

I read a book about ennegrams and decided the 9 personality types were simplistic. I thought that she was probably into it because she felt that knowing what type of person someone was would help her communicate with them the best way.  She had the tendency to blurt whatever came into her mind, child-like, and had been offensive in general and had personally hurt my feelings more than once with the blurting. Maybe she knew it.  

I couldn't decide which ennegrams best fit her or myself. 

As for Lifespring. Well, here is an explanation from Wikipedia...  

The training consisted of a series of lectures and experiential processes designed to show the participants a new way of contending with life situations and concerns and how other possible explanations and interpretations may lead to different results. Some individuals complained that they felt harangued, embarrassed, or humiliated by the trainer during the training. A few individuals chose not to complete the training. Additionally, the trainer used many English words in a manner different from their usual meaning. "Commitment", for instance, was defined as "the willingness to do whatever it takes". "Conclusion" was defined as a belief. Also, words such as "responsibility", "space", "surrender", "experience", "trust", "consideration", "unreasonable", "righteous", "totally participate", "from your head", "openness", "letting go" were redefined or used so as to assign them a more specific meaning. "Stretch" was an activity that was outside the participant's comfort zone. During the advanced course the participants were sometimes sent out to perform certain tasks. If any participant did not complete their task the group was considered in "breakdown,"   ...

(How's that for a 'reveal' of applying new meanings and uses for words?  I hope that the following words, being misused in the media, will be rescued;  Deep Dive, Push Back, Down the Rabbit Hole. If you use these try Research, experiencing opposition or conflict, and Explore.) 

Ennegrams and Lifespring : Seems to me the point was to change your thinking and that such programs were about Self Actualization - an aspect of the whole New Age Movement in which instead of having a relationship with God and depending on Him , his Will, his Design for your Fate, a person dared to decide what they wanted for themselves and who they were and then strove to get just that. Such people in the past were burned as witches.

Ah, who was it that said, "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making plans." ?  or " That's Life." or "Go with the flow?" 

It seems to me that some people are better at applying the "Just do it" philosophy and most of them have no patience for others who have life happening to them or who experience life as it happens.

It seems to me that over time I've encountered many philosophies and religions, ways to encounter life, as well as ways to create - actualize - ones needs and desires - often as an encounter with other people who are trying on this or that. It seems to me that this search for a way to live life better is part of being in a rapidly changing world in which it's not always easy or possible to get your footing before you can dance. Self help books - especially about finding the Right One, dating, and relationships; who has not been tempted to write one?

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Positive thinking - which I tried earnestly at one point - brought me to the conclusion that I'd run smack into the Cement Wall of Denial.

It also seems to me that there are a lot of "thought" emphasis programs - Scientology being one of these - in which emotions are to be done away with - denied, discounted, eliminated. In these philosophies of how to best succeed in life on earth (and in space) we are supposed to rid ourselves of the essential humanness of feeling.  

I recall another of my friends, years ago saying, also with a shrug, "Who knows what's really true?" and "Do whatever you want."

We're supposed to be All Brain and No Heart. That in itself is an imbalance. So profound is the influence of these thought process religions, I dare say that few humans alive in California (I want to avoid saying "on earth") have not encountered the notion. We were to be the precursors of AI.

Emotions, particularly ones that are "negative' or 'difficult' are to be eliminated.  Even being happy is thought to be about one's thinking rather than what one is feeling.

I encountered a couple pre-Simpson's cartoon books by Matt Groening, the creator of the Simpsons cartoon. Square and thin, to fit in with record albums in cardboard covers, one called Love is Hell and another Work is Hell.  I thought these were funny. I bought them and then passed them along to friends, who also got a howl. 

In Love is Hell I encountered  the nine (or was that twelve?) types of girlfriends.  Like I had when trying to decide which ennegrams fit me best, I tried to decide which of the types of girlfriends typified me.  I decided it was between the two in the title of this post.  I was, at the time, some part the girlfriend who said something like "To show how much I love you, I will do this dance interpretation on the lawn" and Miss (make that Ms.) Vaguely DIssatisfied,  who said something like "I don't know, should I change my hair color?" (I never changed my hair color.  I did try to bring back my childhood blonde at one point, after all that had been all mine.).

Today I learned there's was (is?) club for those who could relate with Ms. Vaguely Dissatisfied harkening back to 2017.   A Matt Groening cartoon inspired club.  The rights to the cartoon belong to Matt and coming from Tumblr the Life is Hell archives, here is the induction:

No Problems? No Problems?  We still love you!

DO YOU SEE YOURSELF IN THIS CARTOON? 

 C 2023 Writing by Christine Trzyna 

Cartoon C Matt Groening - Found in Google Images

CHOICE and HUMAN RIGHTS

I'm for CHOICE.

It's not just about a CHOICE I, personally, might make, even if I can't imagine myself making that choice, or about my human rights.

It's that CHOICE is also about other people and their human rights. I believe other people should have rights to choose what I might not, determine their own life choices, rather than that I - or anyone else - should determine their life choices.

I think this is the definitive difference between a liberal and a conservative and overall a function of Democracy.

That is why I call myself a liberal, even though there are all sorts of things that 'liberals" are 'for' that I, personally, am not, or can't imagine wanting for my life. I'm liberal enough to allow that other people will call themselves Republicans and go against me.

*****

But also, it makes me crazy when some person, without sympathy or empathy, says "everything" in life is a choice, and therefore something is all a person's responsibility or their fault. I believe this attitude is some sort of corruption that is rooted in the "New Age" movement, in particular the "Positive Thinkers" who believe that Thoughts Can Make You Heal and just the opposite, that Thoughts Can Kill You. I think constantly restating, against your feelings, against truths, is denial. 

When I hear someone being dismissive of the lack of choice many of us have experienced, some far more than others, I wonder what is missing in them.

Think of all the people who were just living their lives a few months ago, civilians, who are now dead, or maimed and disabled for life, or who have lost family - children - in Ukraine. Think of all those people, mostly women, who have been raped by Russian soldiers - thousands, and try to argue that they had a choice. Those soldiers were not planning families with those women.  They were not loving. They wanted to use their bodies as weapons to ruin the enemy - not just that woman but every person in her life including her family - her existing partner and children - and try to tell me what is expected then of a raped woman who against her will becomes pregnant. 

Do we expect them to become loving mothers and celebrate a Happy Mother's Day someday?

C 2022 Christine Trzyna

POSITIVE THINKING and THE INABILITY TO EVALUATE - FICTION and NON FICTION by CONTENT CREATORS

I've been posting on self censorship because I can tell you that as soon as you start EDITING for the professor, the TA, the church, the "religious philosophy" of the school or the company you work for, or really anyone, you are out of flow. 

You have lost the ability to declare an alternative position. You may not be a radical. You may simply think otherwise. You may be capable of debate - of stating your opinion in a civilized manner without intent to create upheaval. You will be quickly shut down by someone with a more dominant status or bearing. You will perhaps decide it is no longer worth communicating with an individual because you can tell it will always be combative - if you are honest.  And you may hate your coworkers or your job because you're secretly so uncomfortable with the form or degree of political correctness involved.  But where you gonna go?

Imagine my friend who is volunteering for a nonprofit thrift store with a oversupply of jeans in sizes 7 and below for women. (i.e these are for such small hips one wonders how such a woman could give birth and survive.) She suggested they have a sale for these sizes - skinny people - and was told that would be DISCRIMINATORY!  I'm beginning to wonder if they will be able to continue to hang women's clothing separate from mens (that said, I'm sometimes partial to the unisex look and don't personally care if a man wants to wear women's jeans or visa versa but I can tell you, having tried it, that clothing patterned for the opposite sex rarely fits.) In actuality, it would be discriminatory to only sell those sizes to skinny people but it is not discriminatory to sell them to anyone who wants to buy them.

I've been thinking about these issues which have become increasingly prevalent in recent years.

People are expressing themselves all over the Internet but I wonder if this is because they cannot in their ordinary life? (What to call it? Personal Life (is there such a thing?) Real Life?  I suppose it is real if you are living it. Ordinary - as in NOT in the virtual world of the Internet?)

For those of us who remember life before there was Internet - or cell phones - we remember a certain feeling of connection with other human beings as well as overall, MORE TRUST that people would be honorable in their intentions.

I've TRUSTED a people who proved to be UNTRUSTWORTHY, and I understand.  But you have a choice in life to go around paranoid and to put everyone you meet on trial first, or trust them and let them prove themselves worthy of being hung. (It helps if you believe in karma and think you would not want theirs.)  There are so many con artists out there, for instance people who say they will pay you and then profit from the theft of your intellectual properties, that really we all need lawyers. (Now there's a thought.)

I would say that I meet few people these days who TRUST anything or anyone - not the government - and often, not even their partner they're having sex with. While being open minded to ideas and opinions and information in general, THERE IS A SEVERE LACK IN THE ABILITY TO EVALUATE THE SOURCE.  

Also I see that POSITIVE THINKING - combined with certain forms of religiosity - Christianity - can wipe out your ability to grumble to others as well because they won't hear you. Complain and someone will be negating your pain while telling you to BE GRATEFUL. Positive thinking or talking yourself out of what you're experiencing or feeling is a form of self censorship.

Gratitude is not for the things you earn or deserve. Gratitude is for the things you are given without earning or deserving. (Saying please and thank you can still go a long way.)

Following the Gabby Petito /Brian Laundrie case, I lost hours of my life clicking on YouTube videos with FAKE VOICES providing SPECULATION and THEORIES in search of information with some foundation. I wondered at these people who post these things - is it for hits - and eventual payout by YouTube?  Some of the more sickening stuff was a person who posted cartoonish videos of Brian being eaten by alligators. These people are called CREATORS or CONTENT CREATORS - and I wonder if their work should be labeled as FICTION. (How about it YouTube?)

i.e when it is the news  = journalism - it should be called NONFICTION.

VERY FEW OF THESE PEOPLE WHO WERE SUPPLYING CONTENT had the ability or reason to RESEARCH so they were basically supporting their take on the situation by leaning on others who also were not supplying content based on research.

A BUNCH OF LIARS.

SOME OF THESE PEOPLE WERE INDULGING IN NEGATIVE THINKING.  They indulged in character assassination.  They put Brian and his parents on trial.  They apparently do not endorse Americanism.  (OK, I get it that the legal process has not been trusted since the spectacle of the O.J. Simpson trial.)  They do not believe in the law or the legal process, or an individual's rights.

I know - I'm meandering and this needs to be edited.  But I'm in flow.  I'm letting my thoughts out.

C 2021-2026 Christine Trzyna