liminal_luke

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Posts posted by liminal_luke

  1. Posted · Edited by liminal_luke

    2 hours ago, Apech said:


    Have you read “Harry Potter and the Old3bob of Doom”?

     

    In a rare showing of inter-tribal cooperation, my town threw a big bonfire to rid library shelves of suspicious tomes.  Local trad wives made Youtube videos of themselves throwing copies of "Heather Has Two Mommies" into the flames, while drag queens, not to be out done, burned everything by that insufferable TERF, Rowling.  Alas, the last copy of "Harry Potter and the Old3bob of Doom" perished in the flames -- but I´m trying to get it through inter-library loan.

     

    (in case there´s any doubt, this is a tongue-in-cheek post)

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  2. Posted · Edited by liminal_luke

    On 11/7/2025 at 9:10 AM, old3bob said:

     

    true, along with not selling out our souls out to maniacal madmen of empty promise's for nationalistic glory.

     

    I´m of the opinion that if we´re gonna talk about Voldemort and his loyal band of Death Eaters, we might as well say the Name.  There´s no special virtue in cloaking words in a symbolic and easily seen through vagueness.  Which is not to say it is not a smart move, legally speaking. 

  3. Posted

    I remembered that Thomas Moore distinguished between soul and spirit in his book Care of the Soul.  Feeling lazy, and not remembering well, I asked Gemini (AI) about Thomas Moore´s distinction.  Although I´m loathe to quote AI (what kind of a creature am I turning into?) I´ll make an exception this once.

    ....................................................................................................................................................................................................

     

    Thomas Moore, particularly in his seminal work "Care of the Soul," makes a significant distinction between soul and spirit, drawing heavily on archetypal psychology (especially that of James Hillman, who was influenced by Carl Jung). This distinction is central to his philosophy and offers a different perspective than traditional religious or psychological views.

    Here's a breakdown of his distinction:

    Soul:

    • Emphasizes Depth and Complexity: For Moore, the soul is not an ethereal or purely spiritual "thing" that ascends beyond the body. Instead, it's about the depth, richness, and complexity of human experience. It's about how things feel to us, the nuanced textures of life, and the imaginative dimension of existence.

    • Rooted in the Ordinary and Mundane: The soul isn't found in extraordinary, transcendent moments, but rather in the everyday, the mundane, the imperfect. It's in cooking, gardening, tending to relationships, appreciating art, and even in our struggles, flaws, and suffering.

    • Imagination as its Organ: Moore argues that the imagination is the primary organ of the soul. It's through imagination, dreams, myths, and symbols that the soul expresses itself and reveals its meanings.

    • Embraces Pathology and Shadow: The soul is not about perfection or constant happiness. It embraces the "dark" aspects of life – sadness, melancholy, suffering, even neuroses. These are seen not as problems to be fixed, but as expressions of the soul that need to be listened to and understood, rather than eradicated.

    • Connected to the Body and World: The soul is deeply embodied and connected to the material world. It finds expression and meaning through our physical experiences and interactions with the environment.

    • "Care of the Soul": The concept of "care of the soul" involves paying attention to this imaginative, emotional, and embodied dimension of life. It's about finding meaning and depth in our ordinary experiences, embracing our vulnerabilities, and cultivating a sense of the sacred in the mundane.

    Spirit:

    • Tendency Towards Transcendence and Abstraction: Moore often associates "spirit" with a drive towards transcendence, purity, and abstraction. It's the part of us that seeks to rise above the earthly, the messy, and the imperfect.

    • Can Lead to Disconnection: While not inherently negative, an overemphasis on spirit, without the grounding of soul, can lead to a disconnection from the body, emotions, and the realities of human experience. It can foster an attitude of trying to "fix" or escape problems rather than understanding them deeply.

    • Associated with Certain Religious or Ideological Stances: In some contexts, Moore sees "spirit" as leading to rigid moralism, simplistic answers, or an avoidance of the complexities and ambiguities of life, precisely because it seeks to transcend them.

    • Can Be Disembodied: When spirit is detached from soul, it can become disembodied and lacking in depth, leading to a superficial or overly intellectualized approach to life.

    In essence, Moore's distinction can be summarized as:

    • Soul is about immanence: Finding depth, meaning, and sacredness within the ordinary, messy, and embodied experience of life. It's earthy, imaginative, and embraces the full spectrum of human emotions and imperfections.

    • Spirit is about transcendence: Reaching beyond the ordinary, towards ideals, purity, and a more abstract, often disembodied, realm.

    Moore isn't necessarily against "spirit" as a concept, but he critiques a modern tendency to prioritize spirit over soul, which he believes leads to a loss of meaning, emotional disconnection, and a shallow approach to life's challenges. His work is a call to reclaim and cultivate the soul, bringing depth, imagination, and a sense of the sacred back into our everyday lives.

  8. Posted

    5 minutes ago, Taomeow said:

     

    Didn't Hollywood movies portraying Russians teach you anything?  What critical thinking?  All they do is plot world domination while raising their glasses of vodka and toasting each other invariably in Polish ("na zdrovie!").  As for drunken grilling accidents, that part is not very different except Russians prefer shashlik (shish kabob) to burgers when celebrating whatever.  Critical thinking is for quiet conversations in the kitchen...  the greatest school of thought it used to be.  Mystery schools of Alexandria meet political dissidence over tea with homemade preserves and cigarette smoke.  Don't know about now...  that "social sciences" scene might be out of vogue by now.

     

    Oh how I would of loved to have quiet intellectual conversations in kitchens while enjoying tea with homemade preserves!  I was born in the wrong place and time.  Instead, I´m sitting here by myself while people half a world away threaten to out me (inaccurately) as "liking Trump."

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  9. Posted

    13 hours ago, Taomeow said:

    I may be bad at economy so it's a bit hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that to celebrate winning a war over 2% tax on tea, we pay a 7.75% sales tax on anything we might want to use for the celebration.  Not to mention the rest of taxes on... um... on being alive -- also on being dead, since the 7.75% sales tax applies to coffins too.    

     

    Well, you already know how it is.  The 4th is associated with fireworks, barbeque, parades, and beer.  Drunken grilling accidents?  Deeply American.  Critical thinking?  That´s more of a Russian thing. :D

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  10. Posted · Edited by liminal_luke

    7 hours ago, old3bob said:

     

    If or when many of our family members,  friends,  neighbors, associates and fellow citizens have betrayed the country for an evil cult leader of greed, malice, disgusting anti-humanity words and actions along with  forms of wanton disgrace there is not much to celebrate on this day, although there is that saying of "count your blessing", ok lets see....well many of us are still breathing. 

     

    23 minutes ago, old3bob said:

     

    it's very simple, trying (and in some cases succeeding) to destroy parts of the US. constitution, or recreate it in your own image is treason to the word, spirit and lawful norm of it as practiced and interpreted for a long time but a great many people,  (ancient cycles and stuff can be interesting but I'd say that context is a stretch for this)

     

     

     

    If I disagreed with you, would I be allowed to say so?  In the US I am not permitted to loot your businesses, graffiti your garden walls or spit on your security guards, no matter how strong my feelings, but I can still say my piece.  In this respect, the constitution still stands.  

     

    But this post of mine, like yours before me,  is current event talk, and the rules of this forum are stricter than the rules of the street.  I am willing to stop.  Are you?

    • Like 4

  11. Posted

    1 minute ago, Apech said:


    Said the man from Mexico.

     

    What can I say? Once a year I try to get in the spirit.  Besides, many of my adopted paisanos (to the consternation of some and delight of many) live in the US.  Vive Los Estados Unidos!

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  12. Posted · Edited by liminal_luke

    America is a vast patchwork of different cultures. We´re obscenely rich and heartbreakingly poor; rural gun-toting Texans and progressive rainbow flag-waving denizens of West Hollywood; black and brown and white like hulled rice.   I can´t help but think, despite all the problems and fighting,  that there´s something beautiful about the messy mix of it all.  Happy 4th!

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  15. Posted

    3 minutes ago, BigSkyDiamond said:

     

     That by simply broadcasting qualities  like joy and compassion and kindness, as I go about my day doing the things that i love (as I work in the garden for instance) then the kindness and the intelligence and the benevolence of the universe delivers that to people, places, situations where it is most needed and where it has the most benefit. 

     

    Brahma Viharas for the Win!  (or something like that)

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  16. Posted

    Human madness is overwhelming, so I recommend becoming a kindness specialist.  Maybe your heart feels an affinity for a particular issue -- poverty, environmental protection, racism...whatever it may be.  I think it´s enough to concentrate one´s change-the-world efforts in that one area.  Or perhaps you´re not drawn to big splashy issues at all, but you´re an excellent gardener: brighten the world with flowers.  Or lets say you´re an artist or a cook or the neighborhood extrovert who smiles and says hi to people walking down the street.  It all counts.  So many ways to heighten the vibe.

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  17. Posted · Edited by liminal_luke

    2 hours ago, liminal_luke said:

    It´s true, as Old3bob has suggested, that spirituality and politics are interconnected, because, well, everything´s interconnected.  It´s also true that a person can have an opinion on Trump or Gaza or gun control laws and decide not to share it in deference to forum rules.

     

    33 minutes ago, Apech said:

     

    I like the way you slipped the T word in there.  This is a bit like sending drones in to soak up the Iron Dome before hitting it with hypersonics.  Moderators sleep ... but with one eye open ;)

     

     

     

    6 minutes ago, old3bob said:

     

    people can have reams of hard proven, undeniable facts covering a wide array of issues from reliable and respected sources or from first hand witness's that a perpetrator has repeatedly gotten away with over for a long periods of time,  and such facts are far more than what should not just to be written off as opinions or tit for tat banter,  why - because a great number of people, places and things have been seriously harmed, yet the perpetrator has never really been held accountable!!

     

    Perhaps you´re right, Apech, perhaps you´re right.  

     

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  18. Posted

    21 minutes ago, BigSkyDiamond said:

     

    ah yes, the erudite tomes on the other thread.

    curiously there is no thread on how many hours a day a person spends on Netflix and how many shows are on the "my watch list."  There are 72 shows ready for me to watch.  My fun reading is not even reading, my fun reading is pure Netflix.  i love the post above !!!

     

    Don´t even get me started on my TV watching habits.  My tastes are decidedly low-brow, although in my defense I´ll mention that, try as I might, I couldn´t make it past episode two of Dating Naked.

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  19. Posted

    It´s true, as Old3bob has suggested, that spirituality and politics are interconnected, because, well, everything´s interconnected.  It´s also true that a person can have an opinion on Trump or Gaza or gun control laws and decide not to share it in deference to forum rules.

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  20. Posted

    39 minutes ago, BigSkyDiamond said:

     

      He sees this as a moral failing (he sees my entire life as a moral failing but that's another story, like i said we disagree on basically everything). 

     

    The way I figure, pointing out other people´s alledged moral failings is a moral failing.  (Oops!)

     

    I´m grappling with the enjoyment question in my reading right now -- should I try to read difficult books that maybe I don´t enjoy so much because they´ll stretch my mind or be somehow virtuous?  Or should I take the life-is-short approach and just read what makes me happy?  Curiously, I was a very literary teen.  In high school I read Moby Dick and The Brothers Karamazov and lots of Steinbeck -- for fun -- but now I mostly read crime thrillers.  There´s a popular thread on the forum dedicated to the books "on our bookshelf" and it´s chock full of erudite tomes on spiritual topics and great literature, not a Jack Reacher novel in sight.  Surely I´m not the only Bum who enjoys reading about street brawling tough guys?  

     

     

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  22. Posted 

    all my friends and I talk about is
getting rid of our phones—
a dystopian dream
dominating dinner conversation,
our phones on the middle 
of the table
  like candles
  like altars
        like tiny gods
we are trying not to worship

we talk about quitting
like smokers do—
        “next week”
        “after this trip”
        “when I found the love of my life on a dating app”

we make promises to each other
the way people talk
about leaving a bad relationship
while still keeping their toothbrush
ready by the sink

we dream of flip phones—
clamshells of another life
decorated with glitter and stones and
dangly 	  little charms
the pixels soft enough to
forgive our youthful acne
and ringtones we bought
by texting MTV

the only calls we received
were from our mother,
telling us to 
  come home,
  dinner was on the table
there was no algorithm
to drill us into compliance
no one to tell us:
  you are behind
    you are cutting your onions wrong
      you need to buy this thing (and this one and this one)
        you are a rat girl joan didion girl soft girl clean girl iphone face never enough girl

we say: let’s go camping
  just us
  and a map
  and maybe a knife
just in case
(but what if we lose our way
what if someone dies
what if I see something
beautiful?)

we delete tiktok but
never at the same time
so someone is always
missing out on 
the joke

we say
we cannot meet the modern world
without a screen
plastered to our hands—
this second self we cradle like a
  self-inflicted wound

and maybe we’re right
maybe we’re too far gone
maybe this thing
knows how to be us
better than we do

somewhere,
there is a version of me
who dared to take the leap
she knows the constellations
  by name
her eyes are soft
from looking
  outwards

i wonder what she wears
i wonder what her hobbies are,
and how she finds her way
i wonder
if she’s ever bored
  or late
    or lonely
      without the glow
to hold her

and i hate it—
     i hate it
this tether
this glass ghost
this thing too big to
understand

i’m tired and
my window to the world
has no curtains

    i want to close my eyes
    i want to become very
        very
           very
              small

    -- Quirine Brouwer

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  25. Posted

    Thanks, @Apech.  While I don´t agree with every mod decision, I trust that the mods want what is best for the forum and are doing their darndest to make it happen. 

     

    My own interest is not so much in discussing Current Events per se, so much as the emotional and mental health issues that swirl around the subject.  How connected do we feel to ourselves and the larger community?  Are ideological divisions wrecking havoc on families and friendships?  Is it possible -- or desirable -- to feel a sense of kinship with those who think differently than ourselves?  This is my particular bag.  Whether or not other people care to discuss these kinds of topics I don´t know.

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