We're off to a running start. The last few days, I've been thinking about animal stories. As part of the world around us, they figure in as characters in their own right in a lot of stories -- Aesop's Fables, The Odyssey (check out this article about the monsters in the Odyssey!), and countless mythologies.
We have been anthropomorphizing animals for a long time - reflecting our humanity into their actions and reactions. It seems to be one of the ways that we relate to the world around us. Or, sometimes we take the Cartesian model and then we end up with factory farms...
*Spider warning* (I'll tell you when I'm done with spiders!)
I think one of my favorite animal stories is Charlotte's Web. I'm not sure how many times I read that story when I was little. And now I'm the person who generally lets the spiders be in the house, except the really ginormous ones who run *toward* me when I'm getting into the bath. Those ones get a shriek and get taken outside (as soon as I can find a robe). There's one that lives under our bottom step going downstairs. That's Jaq.
Because we live where we live in the middle of a bunch of trees, in the Pacific Northwest, we get a lot of spiders August through early October. In late August, sometimes our yard is coated in webs. You might not notice it so much in the afternoon, but in the morning when the dew is still out, the webbing really stands out eerily. And sometimes in the early evening when the sun hits just the right position, you can see all of the webs that are strung between tree and fence, or tree and tall piece of grass, etc. They build webs across door ways, on screens, and windows. And horrifyingly, the big Giant House Spiders (yes, there are pictures on the linked page). On the upside, these are the spiders often used by arachnologists for spider education and phobia reducing because they are incredibly gentle and prefer not to bite (and their bite is harmless to humans and pets). These are also the spiders that compete with the also local hobo spiders which do bite and whose bites can be quite harmful (though it seems that there is some debate on that topic). And of course we have other spiders of all sizes including the beautiful orb weavers. So I just had to go look at spiders of Washington and I think I've seen most of these around here, which makes sense because they're local spiders. They are mostly harmless, but something about the way they move just brings out the shrieks involuntarily when they're big.
Ok. I'm done talking about spiders.
With two cats in the house, there's never any end to the animal stories in our house. The box turtle has a modestly quiet life, as does the solitary remaining fish, but the cats are our constant hilarious and occasionally helpful companions. Today as I was working in my office, GregTheCat pushed the door open and started talking to me and flopped down in the middle of the floor. This is, of course, the room we try to keep cat free for our occasionally cat allergied guests... So I walk over to him and he hops up and scoots back out, then turns around to see if I'm following, I catch up, pick him up, give him some pets and go back into my office. He pushes the door open again and repeats the talking and flopping and scooting back out of the room and waiting to see if I'm following. So I follow him. In the room with the printer, he looks to see if I'm following him still, I am, so he heads for the stairs. Again he waits to see if I'm following him, and when he sees I am, he goes up the stairs, pausing half way to see if I'm still following him, which I am. It goes on like this, through the dining room, until he hops up on the buffet where he and LissaTortilla watch the squirrels in the back yard, and perhaps more interestingly, the hummingbirds at the feeder just on the other side of the window.
It's been very cold here, so the hummingbird food is frozen solid. GregTheCat looks at the feeder, and then back at me as if to say, "Look -- I can't watch them because they keep flying away! DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!" And this is how I ended up making fresh hummingbird food and pouring boiling water on the bird bath in the front yard today. The steam rising off the ice looked really cool, so I thought I would take a video of it. Then the sun got in on the act and made everything extra super fancy! I couldn't have staged that shot even if I knew how, I think!
LissaTortilla likes popcorn. She's a ridiculous little cat, very food driven. Enough so that we had pondered whether or not we might be able to train her. Possibly not but it's entertaining to try. Lately we've been trying to teach her 'sit.' Tonight I made popcorn. She came running into the kitchen, totally unfazed by the sound of the popcorn maker and sat directly behind me as I was tending the popping and butter melting, staring me down through the back of my head. She sat there the entire time, getting up only once to examine and then nom a piece of popcorn that had flown past me out of the popper. And then she sat there. It sort of takes away from the fun if you don't have to request "sit!" because she's already sat and just staring with *that* look, like, 'look -- I'm sat, so give me popcorn already. And make them some of the buttered ones!' Cats. She was rewarded and I could see her little walnut brain rolling its eyes as I repeated "sit!" to try to associate the sound of the word with the action she was performing and the reward. LOLhuman.
So no long stories here, just bits and pieces of the things that catch my attention and entertain me through out the day.
With love and curiosity,
--Susan
It's Time To Boot 2016 To The Curb
TO THE CURB. You know what I'm talking about. We're done here. I genuinely hope that 2017 (and '18, '19' & '20) doesn't leave us pining for the good ol' days of 2016. I know I have some exciting things ahead in 2017 for me, I hope you have some exciting things to look forward to in 2017 as well.
“Let go of what was and embrace what to be.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind
As the year ends, I have my year end reflections and year ahead goal setting stuff that I like to do. 2016 was a strange year, so it should be interesting to work on the reflections. I am still in the midst of the changes that started in 2016, and anticipate more changes in 2017. It's weird to feel so in the midst of things while I'm trying to wrap up the year and put it to bed. I'm ready, so ready, but... there are some things that are still dancing around wearing lampshades that I can't put to bed just yet! And so it will be.
I hope the final couple weeks of the year have been treating you kindly, fortifying you for the coming year.
Errata from last week's newsletter: Hanukah has *eight* days, not seven. I knew that and it still slipped through. <facepalm>
With that may your hogmanay & your new year be fabulously wonderful & I'll see you in 2017! Thank you for joining me in 2016! <3
May you go forth under the strength of heaven, under the light of sun, under the radiance of moon;
May you go forth with the splendor of fire, with the speed of lightning, with the swiftness of wind;
May you go forth supported by the depth of sea, by the stability of earth, by the firmness of rock;
May you be surrounded and encircled, with the protection of the nine elements.
- Traditional Celtic Blessing of the Nine Elements (source)
With Love and Curiosity,
—Susan
'Tis The Season!
This time of year, more than almost any other time of year, is associated with stories and mythology, and mysteries. I recently got the HiveQuest Gratitude Cards. One of the things we do at the beginning of team meetings is we take a breath together and draw a card as a way to help us come together and center in on our work together and find the day's shared inspiration.
I drew the card Mystery just before the Solstice and realized that, besides the inclination towards extreme hibernation I experience this time of year, it really is a season of mysteries.
“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science.” --Albert Einstein, The World As I See It
From the dawning of Solstice in Newgrange in Ireland (does the sun return?) to the many mysteries of Christmas (virgin birth? stars guiding wisemen? angels? immigrants finding an unlikely place to stay? All of the above plus more!), to the mysteries of Hanukkah (how does oil for one night's worth of lamp last for seven nights?). Then there are the Santa/St. Nick/variations - how do reindeer fly? How does Santa make it all around the world in 24 hours at midnight? And there are other mysteries that I'm not as familiar with and/or am leaving out due to space constraints. :) There are so many amazing winter holidays with amazing stories that happen in a really compact timeframe over the winter.
Which makes sense, when I think of it. The winter months tend to be darker, the days shorter, the harvest has come and gone and everyone gathered inside to tell stories and pass the time. Now we are not so bound to agricultural schedules, but our holidays remain. They help us to recognize the passage of time, and find ways to celebrate milestones and memories.
When I was little, living in Calgary, the winters were obviously much colder than in the temperate Pacific Northwest. One of the things that fascinated me was the fern frost on the windows, always blamed on little Jackie Frost, coming to paint the frost on the windows at night. It made my windows look enchanted and I was always sad to see it disappear during the day, only to have reappeared in the morning when I woke up.
Bits and pieces of the poem by Laura E Richards and associated song by Eleanor Smith would be repeated to me about the frost:
Jacky Frost, Jacky Frost,
Came in the night;
Left the meadows that he crossed
All gleaming white.
Painted with his silver brush
Every window-pane;
Kissed the leaves and made them blush,
Blush and blush again.
Jacky Frost, Jacky Frost,
Crept around the house,
Sly as a silver fox,
Still as a mouse.
Out little Jenny came,
Blushing like a rose;
Up jumped Jacky Frost,
And pinched her little nose.
Another mystery! Who is this little sprite-like creature who paints everything with such delicate and beautiful frost every night!?
We have had a tiny bit of snow here this winter. For functional day to day life, it's a significant complicator in the PNW. We have many microclimates and hills that tend to ice and become impassible. But in the moments when one can step out of the day to day, when one is home safe, there is no denying the magic of the snow quietly drifting down, and for me, the joy of break from routine.
As much as I love Halloween, I really do love this time of year as well. In some ways, Halloween is just the start of the end of calendar year holiday season in our house. I love the joyful lights everywhere, I love the tree in the house, I love the stories, the mysteries, the memories... as much as life is a journey, it is also the joy, and sometimes discomfort, of uncovering the mysteries along the way.
Shifting gears, as I come to the end of this newsletter, and return you to your day, I wanted to briefly come back to the cards. I do work for HiveQuest so I'm not an unbiased party. I also have two promotional decks that I'm trying to decide how to distribute (more mysteries - do a lottery? just send them to two random people? some other method?). From the description on the site, "The cards are designed to help you explore the practice of gratitude in your own life, using the beauty of nature to catalyze your thought and action. We invite you to pick a card daily (alone or with others) and reflect on its message and what it might inspire you to do."
May your mysteries this season bring you joy!
With love and curiosity,
--Susan
Abstract Random
It's late. Some nights are like that. Listening to the rain on the roof, thinking of friends who are far enough away that I can't just pop in on them. Sometimes across the city may as well be across state and/or country lines in terms of scheduling time... The world doesn't seem to slow down for us, though does it?
It's the time of year when I want nothing more than to hibernate and reflect. It seems as though that is not going to be forthcoming this year and I feel the resistance to having to try to keep up the pace in my bones. It's like moving through molasses. But continue to move, I must. I'm trying to recognize and allow for the fact that I can't get as much done in a day right now as I'd like, and I'm also taking some precautions like extra vitamin D & magnesium, among other things to try to help.
Here it is 1am and I'm settling into reflecting the coming year. Can you reflect something that hasn't come yet? Perhaps anticipating is a better word. Reflecting on this year though. The story arc of this year has been... As the Merriam-Webster Dictionary Word of the Year accurately describes ... surreal. Nailed it - that's been the best way to describe pretty much everything! I'm looking forward to reviewing and wrapping this year up & sending it off. As apprehensive of this new world we find ourselves in as I am, there is no going backwards, so forwards it is!
And that's probably enough midnight rambling from me! I've been tired all day, I will hopefully sleep well tonight. And may you too sleep well tonight.
So Where Was I Before It Started Snowing Last Week? Oh, Right!
Elfreda Chatman's Small World theories of (dysfunctional) information seeking behaviors. The Small World is one in which people are functionally isolated in some way. As a result of the insider/outsider dichotomy, insiders develop either an enforced or situationally insulated world. This insulated, or small, world very often is characterized by a mistrust of information that insiders don't have and often perceive outsiders as having. Outsiders are not trusted or seen as understanding the insider group, however, and so even though they may have needed information, the association with the untrusted outsiders means the information itself is likewise not trusted leading to an environment of information poverty.
The thing that really jumps out at me is, as Chatman says "These behaviors are meant to hide our true crisis in an effort to appear normal and to exhibit acceptable coping behaviors." What we are seeing now, as a result of this election, has been the normalization of extremely unacceptable coping behaviors within the small world insider population. Their information poverty crisis has reached a breaking point where they have fallen prey to a swindler who doesn't even need a coherent message for the insider. Heavily excerpted from this week's newsletter.
You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it. --The Talmud
Elfreda Chatman's Small World theories of (dysfunctional) information seeking behaviors. The Small World is one in which people are functionally isolated in some way. Her primary subjects of study were minority groups, prisoners, retired women, workers such as janitors, and the like. Within the small world, perspectives, norms, and mores are developed and defined within a narrow context of relevance, creating groupings of 'insiders' and 'outsiders'.
As a result of the insider/outsider dichotomy, insiders develop either an enforced (in the case of prisoners) or situationally insulated world. This insulated, or small, world very often is characterized by a mistrust of information that insiders don't have and often perceive outsiders as having. Outsiders are not trusted or seen as understanding the insider group, however, and so even though they may have needed information, the association with the untrusted outsiders means the information itself is likewise not trusted.
This leads to an environment of information poverty. Looking at this election cycle, it's clear there is (among other things), a disparity of perceived experience creating a group of "insiders," (who may actually perceive themselves as the outsiders). Then we have the outsider group, perceived as 'liberal/urban/elites'. Who is "in a bubble" and what is "the real world" is a matter of opinion...
Within the small world, there are four characteristics that tend to indicate and reinforce information poverty - these are deception, risk-taking, secrecy, and situational relevance. Most of these are aimed at retaining a sense of control over one's own lived experience and sense of autonomy, protection from unwanted intrusion into personal life, controlling how others might perceive oneself, and so on.
The thing that really jumps out at me is, as Chatman says "These behaviors are meant to hide our true crisis in an effort to appear normal and to exhibit acceptable coping behaviors." What we are seeing now, as a result of this election, has been the normalization of extremely unacceptable coping behaviors within the small world insider population. Their information poverty crisis has reached a breaking point where they have fallen prey to a swindler who doesn't even need a coherent message for the insider. Which isn't entirely true. The only coherent messages that came through were of white supremacy & misogyny. The Republican campaign used (and are continuing to use) deception, risk-taking, secrecy, and situational relevance as methods of gaining the insider group's trust and exploiting their significant information poverty and continue to do so. Deception, risk-taking, secrecy, and situational relevance not only spring up incidentally causing and reinforcing information poverty, but can be and are now 'weaponized'.
So knowing this, and that there is much more in-depth, fruitful discussion and learning to be had from Elfreda Chatman's theories, what potential way forward can we draw from her? We must find ways of increasing trust.
...for people to benefit from information received from outsiders, there needs to be trust associated with this process. What appears to be conditional influences of information poverty is poor people’s desperation to shield the real state of need they are experiencing. I suspect that this is due to their perception that it is too costly to themselves to share and because networks of trust between themselves and others have not provided trustworthy opportunities.
Which means the hard work of having conversations across lines, presenting, as she also notes, as "a person who is honest, careful about claims, and disinclined to deceive," and to try to come to an understanding about what within the small world will be perceived as genuinely newsworthy - i.e., addressing their state of need within the context of having developed a trustworthy relationship.
Some days I despair that this is not an achievable goal, but change starts small and if we can build relationships in good faith, with those who can be reached, perhaps there is some hope.
For your more in-depth consideration and a starting place with these theories, more from Elfreda Chatman:
With hope that we can improve the situation, and curiosity,
--Susan
It's SNOOOOOOWWWWING!!!
As a result, I haven't spent this evening doing what I wanted to do for this newsletter, which was to talk about Elfreda Chatman's theories of information behavior that I'm observing play out across the US right now. Instead, because SNOW!, I put the Nutcracker on Youtube and accidentally landed myself on the Kirov version at the Mariinsky Theater, and even on my phone, found myself sucked in to the dynamic and precise dancing, the perfection of the colors... the size of that stage! It's ginormous! And all of this got me actually thinking more about the history of ballet, and the context of ballet in Russia and it's evolutions in this week's newsletter.
You are unique, and if that is not fulfilled, then something has been lost. -- Martha Graham
Since I don't have to worry about driving in it, I can get excited about it! We live at the top of two hills. One is about a half mile down, and the other is about a third of a mile down to the same elevation, both mean that there's a real possibility of car sledding which is not fun.
As a result, I haven't spent this evening doing what I wanted to do for this newsletter, which was to talk about Elfreda Chatman's theories of information behavior that I'm observing play out across the US right now. In brief, Chatman's theories are basically studies of dysfunctional information seeking behaviors. There's the Small World theory, information poverty, life in the round, and normative behavior. I want to come back to this topic in a future newsletter because exploring the life in the round theory and small world theory in particular explains so much of what I think we're seeing with the rejection of facts by a very vocal group of people. I want to re-read the theories in particular to see if there was a recommendation for overcoming these behaviors.
Instead, because SNOW!, I put the Nutcracker on Youtube and accidentally landed myself on the Kirov version at the Mariinsky Theater, and even on my phone, found myself sucked in to the dynamic and precise dancing, the perfection of the colors... the size of that stage! It's ginormous! And all of this got me actually thinking more about the history of ballet, and the context of ballet in Russia and it's evolutions.
Peter the Great really wanted to modernize Russia, bring it into the Age of Enlightenment from a feudal state. He (and no doubt a fair sized court) traveled all over Europe and learned things to bring back, technical and cultural. One of these things was ballet. I think most people think of Russia as a sort of extension of Europe, and it really is not. The Tzars were autocratic rulers. There was no Magna Carta type document outlining the rights of citizens. There were no rights for citizens. Any rights the landowners had were exclusively at the will of the state, which is to say the Tzar.
Russia even then was a shockingly large country. With Eastern Europe to the west, Kazakistan and Mongolia to the south (and for reference, Mongolia is north of China), and bordered on the east by the Pacific. I'm still boggled by its size and I knew that it reached to the Pacific, but to be north of China, and not just China but Mongolia, "the far East". Well. Big. It's just really really big. When one thinks about the disparity of identifiable cultures and languages in Europe (and, well, really any part of the world), how many did Russia have that are basically invisible to us because it's all encompassed by "RUSSIA" (or when I was younger, "The Soviet Union"). That Russia could stretch that far, even then, is nearly inconceivable & fascinating to me.
So Peter the Great brought ballet back from Europe, along with ship building and various other new learnings. One of the criticisms one will hear sooner or later about the stories in ballets is that they're fetishization of indigenous and/or cultures perceived to be 'exotic'. I think this is mostly wrong, outside of where one would see the "Spanish dancers/Mazurka" represented as part of the court scenes in the ballets. Only maybe the Chinese. Peter would have been using the European stylistic dances to show that they too were a country "of the world", the rest of the dances would be from countries that were distant enough from St. Petersburg that the nearest border might very well encompass Russians that had much more in common with the bordering countries than central Russia. Peter wanted to recognize and celebrate the breadth of the country. Sort of a pride in 'these are the extent of my lands'.
More recently, i.e., the beginning of the 1900s, with Ballets Russes (who, while comprised of Russian trained dancers primarily, never performed in Russia due to The Revolution), the 'primitivism' exhibited in pieces such as Rites of Spring, was not based on their exotification of the Native American indigenous stereotypes, but on solid classic Russian/Siberian shaman & folk traditions (hence the subtitle, "Pictures of Pagan Russia in Two Parts"). Claims of appropriation ring hollow when it is truly their own culture/s they're reflecting.
Funny things the Nutcracker makes me think about.
In other snow news, hot chocolate with a bunch of eggnog & a healthy splash of bourbon is really quite amazing. Much better than the too sweet but still tasty marshmallow.
I expect the snow to be gone by the time this arrives with you all, it was fun what little of it we got to see.
With love and curiosity, even when it takes me down a totally different tangent than I was aiming for,
--Susan
A Long Time Ago, In a World That Seems Very Far Away Now
Once I was a map librarian. Maps tell us where we've been, where we're going, where it's possible to go, and at least point us in the right direction of how to get from here to there. Within each map there is a multitude of stories - the ultimate choose your own adventure. Besides being guides, they are also often beautiful to look at with their contours of the land, the winding roads, the grids of streets... there's more in this week's newsletter.
“A labyrinth is a symbolic journey . . . but it is a map we can really walk on, blurring the difference between map and world.”
-- Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking
Maps tell us where we've been, where we're going, where it's possible to go, and at least point us in the right direction of how to get from here to there. Within each map there is a multitude of stories - the ultimate choose your own adventure. Besides being guides, they are also often beautiful to look at with their contours of the land, the winding roads, the grids of streets... They are found in glove compartments, on phones, in boats (and it's possible in a few goats), in books, suitcases, and planes... and apparently in chimneys as well.
This week a story came across of a 17th century map found stuffed in a Scottish chimney and restored by the National Library of Scotland. The video in the article is well worth watching, if only to witness the painstaking delicate care that goes into a restoration like this. It is amazing, with tweezers, mysterious liquids, microscopes, and the gentlest, most patient love as it all comes back together. I've often wondered if I should have gone into archiving.... and then I realize, I don't think I'm patient enough to do so!
Watching this map come back together reminds me that it's almost time for our annual puzzle. Every year under our tree, the New Year leaves us a gift to start on New Year's Eve - a puzzle. Maybe this year we'll find a map puzzle left for us to work on. Or maybe it will be something else. Puzzles are very soothing for my brain. Something about the intermittent reward of finding a piece that fits, and the process of putting things in their place, of making order out of chaos. It's possibly part of the wiring, given where I landed professionally! Information and stories are puzzles in and of themselves as well, a key character fits here, a little piece of information fits there, and together they open up a whole new part of the puzzle that wasn't available before.
Maps, even ones that haven't fallen apart, are a type of puzzle. A master skeleton key that leaves the decisions to you, the reader, to make a decision about. They are all about opening up possibilities.
When you look at the maps and puzzles in front of you, what possibilities and opportunities do you see?
With love and curiosity,
Susan
It's Thanksgiving!
Thank you for supporting me and reading these newsletters. It means so much to me that there are people who are interested enough in what I have to share, that they would subscribe to a newsletter I write!
I hope everyone is having a most fabulous Thanksgiving weekend! I will be back next week with our regularly scheduled newsletter!
💕 💕 💕 💕
With love and curiosity,
--Susan