Here's the thing
without nuance there is no flux
no maypoles
no lifting of veils
no reliance on self
no fun at all
Who wants to live in a panopticon
where all you can see is what you have been told to see?
Do you know anyone living like that?
Someone who gets up in the morning
opens the NYTimes,
listens to NPR on the way to work,
winds down for bed by watching a talking head on the telly,
and thinks they know all they need to know about world events?
Who supports wanton murder in the guise of defense?
Are you living like that?
Hate is what is being peddled
no nuance there
This is my entry to @mariannewest's daily freewrite challenge. Today's prompt is no nuance.
I used e.ggtimer for four and a half minutes, then tinkered with it until it was close enough. Thanks for reading my words, all of you few but faithful who do. I love you.
While reading this I'm glad I know no one like that.
💕🍀
Lucky you!! I am surrounded by them! Both right and left followers. It's very hard to carry on conversations with them. They know nothing, and think they know, as the NYTimes boasts, "everything you need to know."
Surrounded by them. Me too.
They "know" so much more than those who listen to multiple news sources.
So many:
Who wants to live in a panopticon
where all you can see is what you have been told to see?
I'm haunted by "no maypoles" - it leaps out at me, in part because my Holy Day of Obligation is Maifest (May Day, weaving ribbons around the poles as the women yodel in their Dirndls and floral wreaths), and it brings tears to my eyes every year, every time, that I revisit this Germanic tradition in a town near me.
I suppose the Midwest farm folk, like the Amish and Mennonites, shut out the darkness and despair of the larger world, the ghettoes, the families in tin huts in Mexico, the sex-trafficked children, and they rejoice and praise God for their simple life on the farm (which makes me think of the William Carlos Williams poem, so much depends on the red wheelbarrow glazed with rainwater beside the white chickens) -
How small our world can be, if we live in that panopticon, seeing only what we want to see, and yanking the shades down over the view outside our window. Poverty. Injustice. War.
God be praised, WE are blessed~
Carol!
One of them is my dear sister, who calls me a conspiracy theory if I talk about anything outside what she has heard on NPR. Her family is wired to the internet any way a person can be wired to it: in the car, all over the house, at work, held in the hand or on their person at all times. Another is one of my dear daughters. I believe you have the same situation in your family.
I have no idea where the maypole came from, but there it is, right up front. Why the tears when you go to one? It sounds rejoiceful. Too much joy on the day of obligation? I love the weaving
There are many many Mennonite and Amish where I live now. They live in a completely different world than most Americans do. It can be done. Maybe the rapture is here, but we won't be leaving the earth, we will simply be leaving our slavery to some grand illusion.
Why would the joy and simplicity and sweetness of the May Pole dance move me to tears -
that is a loaded question, and it would take a 250-word essay or more to even start.
Draft horses (Percherons, Clydesdales) in a parade also bring tears to my eyes.
It evokes a world that is no more, but from photos and stories, I feel as if I had been there and known that world....
I'm very drawn to those Amish communities, but the excommunications and rules, no, not sure I could live with that, unless, the Apocalypse....
We needn't be Amish to live in communities that have little to nothing to do with the vast illusion we live in now. How I would love to get around by horse! No excommunications, you don't have to wear black dresses, or go barefoot. Unless you want to of course. I am grateful they are so nearby my home.
How many would be moved to tears by this. (The accordions!)
Well, I didn't get teary eyed, but I sure did enjoy it! I don't think I have ever seen anything like this before. So intricate, the voices are lovely!
I feel lucky and my wish for you is you achieve that too!
Have conversations with those who try to be open minded and are interested in different versions of the stories.
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I do, for sure. Problem is, many of these are close family. If I say anything outside of what they've been told by their government approved sources, they call me a conspiracy theorist. It is so bizarre!
I can count on one finger the number of people I know who are not like that. Everyone I know except my brother thinks I'm a raving looney, including a dear friend who took the needlecraft and is now dying of cancer. Beam me up Scotty!
Oh dear that sounds lonely. I have a few, and my new honey is surprisingly very much on the same boat I am, which is very hot! A man with a functioning brain!!!
Now, where have you been? Did Scotty beam you up again?
Livin' way out in the sticks has its downsides...our internet's been almost nonexistent for the last couple of months. I could barely get a page to open until yesterday despite weeks of complaining to the provider. I've been catchin' up on all your recent posts and Sam definitely sounds like a keeper. Don't suppose he has any male siblings who'd like a wee holiday in Ireland. 🙃
It's lovely whenever you do drop in! Do you get some relief when you can't get online? Sounds like you've been fine, despite. I imagine if only I could get away from being online, I would be happier.
Luckily, I'm a big reader, so I've no problem amusing myself, but then there's the damned FOMO:)
When I was in the corporate world I was in a "cage" with people without nuance... I chose that path after uni, so no complaints there. However I left that realm more than a decade ago and today I don't surround myself with peeps like that. Nuance -- what a powerful word!
Proverbial head in the sand - which is actually a ridiculous analogy. We raised ostriches for a number of years. And they are extremely curious (if stupid) creatures who do anything but stick their heads in the sand. Eat sand. Eat sticks, yes but bury their heads? Nope.
As far as people go. Sadly. The majority live the way you describe dear @owasco. It is a tragedy. Instead of questioning EVERYTHING most swallow everything. Gulping down in great mouthfuls whatever c..p is fed by whichever authority they choose to submit to