Little Museums ([info]heartgut) wrote,
@ 2009-03-04 12:04:00
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"The future" is a Western concept, she said.

It is a strange habit-- trying to sum up a life, to abstract it into a compilation of opaque snapshots and frozen dioramas.

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[info]luxinthemachine
2009-03-04 11:39 pm UTC (link)
It's interesting how people turn the abstract into palpable with mindpower...to me, it's just a testament to how powerful a thought can be. lots of practice

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[info]heartgut
2009-03-05 05:02 pm UTC (link)
I feel like two parts of myself have been battling over the value of abstraction vs. direct experience. In part I blame it on the influence of primitivism, where symbolic mediation (numbers, language, time, art, agriculture...) is viewed as a point of severance from the lebenswelt that leads to alienated ethics.

I'm looking for the resolution-- there are different types of language, and not all types can be used to lie or obfuscate reality (e.g. to justify unjustifiable actions through abstracted logic). I can't blame the technology that language is, as if "culture" and "nature" are essentially separate rather than perceived as such, because I think the nuances of human consciousness include some experiences that seem only able to be expressed as emergent properties of abstract language, and these can be incredibly valuable (the interior world that can be furnished to enrich lived experiences).

Still a rough edge on that one, though...

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Talk about a misreading!
[info]object_holder
2009-03-05 01:26 am UTC (link)
Out of the corner of my eye I read:

"The Future" is a high-concept Western, she said.

If only!





P.S. How are you?

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Re: Talk about a misreading!
[info]heartgut
2009-03-05 04:46 am UTC (link)
If only, indeed! I'd check that out...

I am: a little overwhelmed & working a lot-- community gardening stuff (right now that includes greenhouse work, teaching a certification program for greenhouse management, and a lot of research and organizing), starting a non-profit, renovating a building, and thankfully some purely personal creative projects (Steve & I are collaborating on something, and I also get free painting classes through my second job).

I've been without a car in a sprawling, decentralized city with unreliable public transit, but luckily I have enough of a social support system that I've been able to get to where I need to when other people are going (I live with co-workers and treat them well) or otherwise convince someone who loves me to help me run errands. AND soon it'll be warm enough to bike most places.

I really need it to be nice outside soon! I've been cramped indoors and haven't been getting enough exercise... Of course, now that it's getting warmer I've also been given a free pass to a nice yoga studio (I'm not complaining, but I could've used it starting in November).

So I guess things are going well-- I like where I live, I have work I really care about, I'm around people I love, I'm meeting a lot of new challenges... I'm kinda broke but I'm paying off student loans & building "marketable skills" (makes my parents worry less if I put it that way). I don't see my family as much as I'd like, but part of me doesn't know if I could handle it-- there's just so much sadness and very little I can do about it. It is what it is.


Also, my housemate's cat is chock-full of kittens right now and ready to pop. And my boss is sort of obsessed with this:

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BTW
[info]heartgut
2009-03-05 04:47 am UTC (link)
HOW ARE YOU??

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