One day I’d like to write a series of blog posts engaging the intersection of therapy and theology. I’d take as a bouncing-off point this piece by Brad East, which I came across recently. So much to engage with here! A tentative outline of my own potential inquiry:
‘Therapy’ - what is it? How is it evolving?
My own experience of therapy - internal family systems/focusing/‘parts’ work
A theological anthropology of ‘parts’ [or ‘passions’: engage desert lit here] vis a vis IFS theory vis a vis a NT trio of ‘enemies of the soul’ [world/flesh/devil]: overlap and distinctions
Therapy and sin/evil (cf. ‘therapy beyond good and evil’ essay in New Atlantis)
Therapy as metaphor; God as therapist; minister as therapist
What a delightful conversation between Ezra Klein and Priya Parker, on ‘the art of gathering.’ Parker tells such great stories! Klein asks such good questions!
A couple of excellent, inspiring interview from Collective Tissue, with L.M Sacasas and Elizabeth Oldfield . Overlapping theme: cultivating human-scale community. Leaning into the ‘little way’ of love. Our perennial, creaturely calling.
Listening to: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcas…
Fun on the internet?
A good question: what does it look like for me to have actual, legitimate fun on the internet? I think it’s possible – even if the internet so readily affords itself to an experience of overwhelm (really, of over-everything).
Catherine Price defines true, authentic fun as that which combines play, connection, and flow - thus, fun = ‘playful connected flow’. That’s about as good a definition as anyone could hope for.
The word ‘connected’ stands out to me there, vis a vis thinking about how to have authentic fun on the internet. We all know the headlines: (a large, massively-funded part of ) the internet drives disconnection via algorithmic, division-promoting social media, disembodied and violent-tending pornography, addictive gambling sites and apps, and so on. The question I want to ask, though, is whether there are spaces that still hold hope of promoting connection on the internet - and thus, hold hope of promoting fun? Of course, for this, we should further define what we mean by ‘connection.’ I think what I intend to mean, at least, is something like:
-
mutual experiences of genuine openness towards others: actual back-and-forth conversations between people (animistically defined: trees and maybe even stones included!), where parties aren’t just shouting in all caps at each other, but actually taking the time to slow things down and listen to one another, patiently processing each person’s volley in the dialogue, re-phrasing things back to the other, being careful to understand an outlook on the world that is genuinely different from one’s own.
-
This genuine openess can also take on other sensory forms besides listening; there is openess of the eye – seeing the other – and openess of the hands – touching the other, ascertaining how the other wants to be touched or held, be them human or otherwise – as well, and other ways of being ‘open’ besides.
Are there spaces on the internet that afford opportunity for this kind of connection? I think so. This micro.blog site is probably one of them. What characteristics of this site allow it to promote connection? A notable one would the absence of an algorithm for posts. This is essentially a small little patch of the internet where people can dialogue with one another in a fit-for-purpose digital commons. Another notable feature would be the absence of ‘like’ or ‘repost’ buttons. This thing is built precisely to avoid virality and scale. Such phenomena are typically encumbrances to genuine connection. Genuine connection necessarily takes place at a certain kind of local, or ‘small’ scale. Micro.blog is a place where you’re less likely (or even unable) to get overwhelmed by an endless algorithmic feed of nonsense or by a cacophony of shouting voices taking something completely out of context – and thus, a place where one is more likely to find themself having genuine fun connecting with people who are blogging about interesting and meaningful things, as you also take time to blog about interesting, meaningful things. It gives you a simple writing interface as well - so that the act of writing is more likely to be one of attentive consideration of the various voices and sources that get incorporated into a post (whether they be explicitly cited, or simply alluded to).
Anyway. Some exploratory thoughts. I’m very much channeling Alan Jacobs here (see his Webpress blog posts under the tags ‘Indie Web’; ‘Open Web’; ‘Internet’; ‘Social Media’; and ‘Blogging’ for a staggering wealth of reflections on these matters).
Authors whose writing revolves around similar themes:
- Mary Harrington
- Leah Lebrescro Seargent
- Louise Perry
- Marilyn Simon
On the ‘masculine’ side
- Matthew Crawford
- Paul Kingsnorth
- Wendell Berry
- William Shakespeare
Finished reading: Eleven Twenty-two Sixty-three by Stephen King 📚
“Robert Oppenheimer, one of the physicists who developed the atom bomb, perfectly expresses the engineering, truth-seeking mindset, when he said in 1954: “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and you argue about what to do about it only after you have had your technical success.”
— Mary Harrington quoting Oppenheimer.
Things Im looking forward to as spring rolls in:
- Getting past the research process for my paper for school and into the actual writing process
- Completing my course and having more time for reading at whim and hanging out with my wife, with family, with friends! And probably some volunteering every once in a while on a farm.
- Sharing meals and more quality time with families and teens from church
- Getting my renewed passport and heading back down to Bellingham and the surrounding area for connection with friends and exploring hikes/landscapes in the region
- Celebrating 6 years of marriage between my wife and I with a trip to Salt Spring Island and Vancouver Island!
In summary: good conversations; good food; sunshine and fresh air and beautiful landscapes; good music; good books. The simple things.