12 Steps and 8 More For Posterity
“When will I be loved”. There is so much wrong with this seemingly innocuous phrase and popular song title.
Rather than lamenting about the pain of the past, the expectations, and desires for the future, and the incessant need for validation, why not begin to fix some real problems.
This week, we look at how the 12 Steps and some beautiful dharma from the 11th Century can combine to give us a working plan of action. The Eight Versus of Training The Mind and AA’s Program of Recovery are so well-matched.
And far from looking for love in all the wrong places, we can use these proven formulae for the benefit of all (and ourselves).
Having Fewer Problems and Less Satisfied
As humans encounter fewer and fewer problems, they don’t get more satisfied—they lower the definition of what a problem is.
Michael Easter and Rich Roll discuss the nature of difficulties and pain in the context of thriving in this ultra-convenient lifestyle that middle-Earth people find themselves in today.
As both of them are in recovery, their perspectives tie in with maintaining sobriety. (You can find this podcast on your phone too if you search your podcast app)
Grave New World
I went to high school a long time ago. And I grew up in a traditional left-wing home that aspired to have remote controls, superannuation funds, and microwave ovens.
The school I went to was, apparently, one of the worst private schools in Brisbane. We raised the cream of the crap there.
This analysis of how the concepts of Huxley and Orwell have panned out so far is fascinating and topical. With yet another election looming in the Land of The Brave, the rest of the world watches and laughs through gritted teeth.
Hedonism, Hitler and Hades…
How will it end?
p.s. Grave New World, it seems, is also the name of a book written in 2017 by…wait for it… Stephen King, an HSBC top economist.
A Fellow Traveller
The Oldster and The Small Bow this week present an interview with Joan As A Police Woman — Joan Wasser.
“I am impatient to become the person I am not, and that is precisely the problem. This is one of the paradoxes of addictive and suicidal thinking. I want so much not to be me. But I will always only be who I am.”
We will always be only who we are. We are probably better now that we’re sober. We are not perfect; we are not saints. But patience is our greatest strength.
thanks for loving me