America The Beautiful

                                                                       America the Beautiful

                                                                   “O beautiful for spacious skies,
                                                                    For amber waves of grain,
                                                                    For purple mountain majesties
                                                                    Above the fruited plain!”

                                

It is appropriate, in these times of great division and fragmentation, to return to certain cohesive principles and passions that have, and always will, keep us under a cultural and national banner of unity. This is dependent on us embracing our many many differences as many facets of one shinning diamond in the rough.

So this article is written to help us rise above our differences and see that we are trulyone people, one culture within a multicultural matrix (a unity within diversity), and ultimately one nation.

                                                                       Consciousness or Fate

Carl Jung wrote; “What is not brought to consciousness comes to us as fate.” This is most appropriate in these times where it seems as if a fatalistic, societal train is hurdling down the tracks, out of control, hell bent on a catastrophic outcome. This is the apocalyptic myth that we are enamored with in our collective unconsciousness, but it is only a mythic possibility (like nuclear war), it is by no means fate. That is, unless we allow the train to function on auto-pilot and fail to captain our own vessel.

To live consciously is to be open and engaged to your soul’s intentions. You cannot know what these intentions are unless you have the willingness and skills to listen and act, herein lies the need for good guidance and being around those that have journeyed the hero’s journey.

                                                                          Manhood In America

                                      

                                                         

In his book Manhood In America, Michael Kimmel explores three distinct archetypes that have greatly contributed to American social consciousness for males. These archetypes are still with us and carry some of the undercurrents of our social consciousness, one is the Genteel Patriarch;

“The Genteel Patriarch was an ideal of masculinity transplanted directly from Europe to the New World. The Genteel Patriarch defined manhood in terms of aristocratic landownership. He was an upper-class man who prized honor, character, and etiquette and had refined (i.e. European) tastes in clothing and food. The Genteel Patriarch sought to govern his vast estate with benevolence and kindness, and he spent much of his time doting on his children and ensuring they received the moral education they needed to be active and engaged citizens in the young republic.”

The next archetype relevant to our American heritage is what Kimmel refers to as the Heroic Artisan.

“For the Heroic Artisan, manliness meant primarily independence and self-reliance. His independence made him an invaluable citizen of the new republic: a man whose vote could not be bought or sold. Although fiercely independent, the Heroic Artisan also valued community. He was loyal to his fellow craftsmen, treated his customers/neighbors fairly, and embraced his civic duties. He was the patriarch of his family, and with his shop often located in or near his family’s house, was able to oversee his household throughout the day.”

                           

And finally Kimmel discusses the Self-Made Man;

“The Self-Made Man was the restless go-getter who constantly strove for success in the public sphere and the marketplace. Instead of basing his identity as a man in landownership, genealogy, or artisanal skills, the Self-Made Man rooted his manliness in personal achievement, status, and wealth.”

                     

The self-made man is closely related to the Biblical notion of God making man in his own image. There is a positive as well as a very dark shadow side of this archetype (and every archetype).

                  

We can see how these, and many other archetypal patterns have been woven into the very fabric that makes us who we are as an American culture. But archetypes, like stereotypes and myths, are only metaphoric, generic, possibilities. It is up to each one of us to live as consciously as possible, and to embody and enact our individual and collective values with our shared democratic vision. Otherwise we abdicate our power, others will make decisions for us, and we will live in the default mode like a herd of lemurs.

                                                                                                            

                                                                        

                                                                                     Potential

                                   

If we are anything, Americans are a people that seek to maximize potential. We are not satisfied with the status quo, we have a passion for excellence, and pursue education to continually help us to shape our individual and collective identity into ever “new and improved” versions; 2.0, 3.0, 1000000.0…

We are a people that have a deep seated sense of freedom. We are willing to fight and die for this principle. We interpret freedom very different, but we do not disagree that freedom is a fundamental value that all Americans share.

We have a faith in the value of popular government and believe in self-rule, “of the people by the people”. Our constitution, bill of rights, and declaration of independence are the finest political documents ever written (and also the most difficult to put into practice!), and we are the first democratic republic ever.

We have a willingness to experience and experiment with new things, and we value innovation, creativity, and initiative. We strive for excellence, want to be the best, and will train, learn, practice and compete to try and be #1. We believe that competition and self-interest also serve the greater good, and we are generous, charitable, optimistic and hardworking toward giving opportunities and help to those in need.

Our negative stereotypes and shadows we carry are that we are a "Gun-loving" culture of violence, we are materialistic, we over-consume, exploit, have extreme capitalism, that we are lacking in cultural awareness, that we are Racist, Environmentally ignorant, arrogant and boastfulness, and that we have an Industrial Military complex with a Hawk’s zeal, and believe we are "the world's policemen."

These possibilities and potentials are what we are always on the threshold of manifesting one way or another. Now is the time to choose the best version of ourselves that we can be, and consciously live this fully!

            

                                                                         This Land is Your Land

Each cultural matrix begins in the same place, which is the land and ecological web that we inhabit. Geography, climate, and the resonance of nature is the first imprint on a people and their evolving culture. But we Americans must first acknowledge that the first cultural matrix that was thriving in relation to the land were the Native Americans. Just as the Jews will never forget their Holocaust, we should never forget that our country and culture began with a Holocaust.

But once Europeans established a beachhead in this land, it was indeed the land that began to shape who and what we would become as a people. The miscalculations of weather and climate of some of the original settlements such as Jamestown were early lessons to not underestimate the power of the land and climate to facilitate life or banish it.

So the early New Englanders, and Northerners in general, became a very tough breed, introverted, having to contend with fierce winters and the tempestuous Atlantic ocean. Life was quicker, industrial, and more focused, so there were less amenities of cordiality. Whereas the warm, languid, and agrarian South developed a slower pace, and one more suited for hospitality and gentility. The South also had slaves doing most the work, so this makes one more amenable to receive gentleman callers and sip mint julips on the porch swing!

Then we have the Wild West, which is the land of milk and honey, gold, gunslingers, and cowboys. The mystique of the West was in some ways the same mystique that immigrants believed, namely “the grass is greener” syndrome.  Steinbeck’s “The Grapes Of Wrath,” helped to quell that illusion.

These few examples of land shaping a people are meant to show that we belong to the land, not the other way round. The land is something we American’s fight over, value, and believe that we can own it. This is something the Native Americans were taken aback by; the notion that European’s were deluded to think we could own, buy, and sell land.

But as much as we may delude ourselves about our relationship to the land, we American’s truly do value the land. Our National park system is the operationalizing of this National value.

                                                                                    Manifest Destiny

                                              

For much of American History, wilderness was viewed as an evil wasteland that had to be conquered. The idea of Manifest Destiny included the ideas that God is on our side and wants us to subdue the land and people and make them like us. This idea was highly contested even though there was much damage in God’s name. The land left untouched by man was described as “deserted,” “savage,” and “barren,” and it needed to be “developed.” I still cringe when someone tells me they are a “developer.”

By the end of the 19th century, backlash against a rapidly industrializing society ushered in a new fascination with the natural world. Writers like John Muir and Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau, as well as painters such as George Catlin and Thomas Cole were busy redefining wilderness as “the preservation of the world” where “nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.”

This is something we share as Americans, not everyone shares it, but I think a predominant number of conscious people do. And our National Park system is the embodiment of this shared value.

In 1832, Catlin was travelling the Great Plains to document disappearing Native American tribes when he penned the words credited for creating the concept of a national park. “By some great protecting policy of government,” Catlin argued for, “a magnificent park ... a nation’s park, containing man and beast, in all the wild and freshness of their nature’s beauty!”

A few decades later, in 1872, Catlin’s dream came true when a natural wonderland spanning Wyoming, Montana and Idaho became the world’s first official national park. They called it Yellowstone.

                                

                                              Visitors at Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone, in 1876.

In 1903, Muir convinced President Theodore Roosevelt to join him on a camping trip in Yosemite, and three years later the park was under full federal control. So a stamp of national unity directly related to the land is something we can all claim and “own” as what we hold to be fundamental to being American.

                         

                            View up the valley from the Coulterville Road, Yosemite Valley, Cal. 1861-1873.

                                                          

                                            

                                                                         Woddy

Another part of our national unifying heritage is music. America has put her stamp on several genres of music that we can be proud to call our own. These include jazz, blues, rock, country, and our own utterly American folk music.

Music, like land, conveys a resonance of the people that we incorporate and integrate like dialects of the soul. Our jazz conveys our spontaneity, our willingness to break the rules, and our ability to improvise. Blues conveys the depth of our soul, our tragedies, and our inhumanity to one another (listen to Billie Holiday’s “The Hangin’ Tree). Rock n’ roll gave adolescents the hip gyrations of Elvis, and enabled us to shake rattle and roll our way through being a teenager. And our folk music conveys our political savvy, our protests, and our visions and dreams of what we can and should be.

Woody Guthrie, and later Bob Dylan, are two of my favorite uniquely American folk singers. Woody’s song “This Land Is Your Land” is a perfect example of Americana at its best.

This Land Is Your Land" is one of the United States' most famous folk songs. Its lyrics were written by American folk singer Woody Guthrie in 1940 based on an existing melody, in critical response to Iriving Berlin's "God Bless America." When Guthrie was tired of hearing Kate Smith sing it on the radio in the late 1930s he sarcastically wrote "God Blessed America for Me" before renaming it "This Land Is Your Land."

Sarcasm, satire, protest and irony are quintessential aspects of our American wit. The original lyrics to Woody’s song included this verse: "There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me. The sign was painted, said 'Private Property.' But on the backside, it didn't say nothing. This land was made for you and me."

This is most appropriate considering the current political candidate that promises to build a big wall to keep Mexicans out of the U.S.

                                                               You’re Not The Boss Of Me!

                                  

                             

                                                                         

Another quality Americans share culturally is our stubborn, independent, self-reliant, and rebellious nature. Americans are often critiqued in this way as being adolescent (see Robert Bly’s book “The Sibling Society”), but I also think we have a mature side of our collective ego that is fiercely independent in a good way.

When the French political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville toured and lived in America in the 1830’s, he had great insight into our strengths and weaknesses that only an outsider could see.

“Tyranny in democratic republics does not proceed in the same way, however. It ignores the body and goes straight for the soul. The master no longer says: You will think as I do or die. He says: You are free not to think as I do. You may keep your life, your property, and everything else. But from this day forth you shall be as a stranger among us. You will retain your civic privileges, but they will be of no use to you. For if you seek the votes of your fellow citizens, they will withhold them, and if you seek only their esteem, they will feign to refuse even that. You will remain among men, but you will forfeit your rights to humanity. When you approach your fellow creatures, they will shun you as one who is impure. And even those who believe in your innocence will abandon you, lest they, too, be shunned in turn. Go in peace, I will not take your life, but the life I leave you with is worse than death.” 
― Alexis de Tocqueville

This is certainly a prescient message, as only a good study of history will teach us, to be warry of the dark sides to our democracy and to consciously actualize the best of who and what we are.  

We Americans are a contentious, feisty bunch, in this country, we are literally a microcosm of the world as the inscription on the statue of liberty says;

                                 “Give me your tired, your poor, 
                                 Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, 
                                The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, 
                                Send these, the homeless, tempest tost to me,
                                I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

But once our ancestors arrived in America and settled, we rolled up our sleeves, got to work, competed, collaborated, and conspired, as well as fought like hell for what we wanted and believed in. We still believe in those things. We are descendants of generations of oppressed and disenfranchised people and we will not bow down to authority without knowing and testing the depth of that authority. We explicitly wrote into our constitution the idea of overthrowing a morally corrupt government, so we definitely believe in accountability and checks and balances. This is what and who we are as Americans, and we are continuing to change!

Wanna Be Dog

                                                                         

                                  Wanna be Dog 

                                                          “Dog is Love.”

                           

                                                             

I’ll admit it, I’ve wanted to be a dog for some time now. I believe inter-species understanding and communication is among the most important areas to help our species to evolve and survive. The reason for this is because we are mostly inept at being what we are, namely human.

The rest of nature is pretty much completely at ease and magnificent in being what they are, dogs are consummate examples. To be a dog is to be (sounds like Shakespeare), for they are completely at ease and unpretentious in their being. This is one of the main reasons dogs are so therapeutic to be around; which is they are so relaxed in who they are that it is very calming to be around them.

                                                           Symbiotic History

                                       

Humans and dogs have a long history of interdependent, symbiotic relationship. Approximately 13-14 thousand years ago certain wolves came closer to humans in a quest to extend their potential food source. Also certain humans took chances in allowing certain wolves to come closer, eventually offering them food. This eventuated in domestication and evolution of wolves into our modern versions of domesticated dog. Our interspecies mammalian synergy was a win-win from the beginning (although surely there were some bad days in which wolves killed humans or vice versa), still, dogs and humans were made for each other!

Wolves and dogs are pack animals with very hierarchical dominance and submission roles, sound familiar? Dogs and wolves are very loyal, ambitious, territorial, independent, smart, and feel and express emotions constantly, sound familiar?

Semi-domesticated wolves were able to keep watch for predators, help early humans hunt, defend territory, and eventually play and provide some emotional currency which is essential for mammalian well-being.

This give and take symbiosis is the stuff of ecological niches that have a mutuality of win-win, and makes both parties stronger, smarter, and better all the way round. So our relationship with dogs is an example of what we’re capable of in terms of healthy relationships. Unfortunately, we don’t do so well with our own species, but our relationships with dogs can certainly serve as a reference for loving and getting along.

                                                    Knowing Another

                                  

                “The difficult task of knowing another’s soul is not for young gentlemen, whose consciousness is chiefly made up of their own wishes.”

                                        (from the Book Middlemarch)

One of the recurrent themes in my writing is the idea of knowing another. This quote sums up nicely the difficulty, as well as the chief obstacle of knowing another, which is our own ego. Dogs are good examples of almost ego-less beings, they certainly have their boundaries, pride, and dignity, but generally, they don’t have the pretense that the human ego does and hence are so very much themselves, which makes them so lovable and attractive to us.

When you give the time and energy to really know another, whether it’s a dog, a person, a tree, a book, etc., you are literally experiencing ecstasy, which is to be outside yourself.

My own journey has been a journey of self-discovery through compensating for my lack of a sense of self. Because I didn’t have a strong sense of self, I explored and took on other perspectives from a very early age. I developed a vivid imagination as a child, threw myself into books, movies, fantasy of all kinds, took on an entertaining, heroic, intellectual, athletic, comedic role, and of course, I had my dogs.

One time I was tripping on mushrooms, and my black lab Sophie ‘knew’ I was in a different state. She approached me inquisitively and playfully, and I felt she was pulling me down and into her world, so I followed her down on all fours, face to face, being at her level, and entering how she thought, felt, and moved as a dog. She was delighted and a little taken aback by how open and willing I was to enter her world, but she quickly made the best of it as if her best canine friend had suddenly shown up ready for play!

We played chase, hide ‘n seek, tug of war, and pretend fighting, all with a reckless abandon that engendered the trust and encouragement of the other.

Play is the operative word here, for that is the predominant mode I would describe, as well as a loving connection. But when you’re truly, spontaneously playing with another, you automatically have a loving connection.

I felt truly part of a pack, even though we were only two, I could imagine belonging and being held in a larger pack. We both gave ourselves over to the other, over to the play, over to the spontaneity of the moment, and it was blissful! I felt Sophie was excited and honored to have me as a guest in her world and that she felt seen and contacted.

                                                          Therapy

            

                      

The word therapy comes from the Greek therapos which means “to care for.” So dogs, are naturally therapeutic because if there’s one thing they care about its caring! Dogs care about food, play, love, going for a walk, a ride, and chasing squirrels. They are present at the moment they are about to jump in water, get a treat, or fetch, and they are completely alive in their caring.

Dogs are attentive and present in the moment, and this, by definition, is caring. Caring is not figuring out what to do or say, or how many times I fluff your pillow, caring is being open and willing to hear, see, touch, and make contact with a person place or thing, and see it for what it is, and to respond appropriately. Buddhist’s define this asright action, right thought, right meditation, etc. 

Unfortunately, people trained in the caring, “helping” professions, like psychotherapy, are conditioned to believe that caring means; thinking, problem solving, analyzing, talking, doing, and efforting. All this does, a lot of time, is get in the way. People like Carl Rogers, and Rollo May wrote a lot about things like unconditional positive regard and the person-hood of the therapist being the most therapeutic.

For people that are able to communicate with animals and nature, they know there’s a whole lot more to contacting another than talking or thinking. Animal whisperers of all kinds talk about non-verbal communication.

“Animals communicate regularly through telepathy.  It is the most basic form of communication, an ability we are all born with.  As humans, we learn to rely on verbal communication and our telepathic skills are pushed aside and become rusty.  Like a muscle, unless used regularly, these skills become weak and inefficient.  Humans, given the proper mindset and training, have the ability to communicate telepathically with all species.”

                           

Being therapeutic is about learning to pay attention to the right cues. When we were early on in our evolution, not paying attention to the right cues could mean death, but as we became more and more ‘civilized’ we have essentially lost the ability to attend to the most basic kinds of cues both internally and externally. These cues include things like; knowing when we’re hungry, full, tired, horny, threatened, safe, connected, and understood.

There are constant cues given and received between and among all species, but humans have learned to not pay attention to relevant cues and to pay attention to all the wrong cues, like text messages and tweets.

                                                                                                               

                               

Dogs are able to attend to human cues that we are becoming alienated from, so they can attend to human emotion, fear, loneliness, depression, and anxiety, they can even smell disease!

                                     

Our beloved Cocker Spaniel Joey (R.I.P.), was a therapy dog who was my wing man during psychotherapy sessions. He would sit on the couch with the client and put his paw on their shoulder when they would cry, or look at me in a poignant moment to provide reassurance, humor, and comfort.

He brought the raw, vulnerable, and exquisite sense of being alive to the sessions, and no matter how difficult and tense people’s suffering was, he offered a simple, kind, and loving presence. I would definitely say he was more therapeutic than I was, but we were really a team.

I also took him to my team meetings at the office, and he sat in his own chair (sometimes on my lap), as a bonafide member of a 12 person/dog team. He helped break up the monotony and seriousness of the humans and would go under the table to remind us of important things like sniffing crotches, or begging for food. 

                                                         

       

                                             Dog Nature/Buddha Nature

In Buddhism, we are taught that everything has Buddha nature, which is the idea that the fundamental, essential quality of pure being is Buddha like, meaning it is enlightened, awake, transcendent and joyous.

Dogs embody Buddha nature, and we can learn from them if we are open. To allow yourself to see deeply into the eyes of a dog is to see the face of God, to see and feel the face of love. You can tell that they also see you, so there is a mutual recognition, and it is mysterious, because it is a completely different species, and yet there you both are in oneness! 

This is the meaning of the word Namaste, I recognize God within you, and I couldn’t recognize it if I weren’t the same divinity!