I continue to be inspired by the interviews on The Great Simplification Podcast, by the host Nate Havens, and by his guests. It is rewarding to find support for ideas I thought were my own. So many thoughts have been swirling around in my head, and this podcast/blog/video channel is my attempt to integrate them. It is happening. Slowly, but surely. And the process has been expedited lately.
The Acid Test idea; that nature and her patterns can inform the big questions about humans and our purpose, is not new. I am truly inspired by curiosity and wonder about where humans are in the evolutionary cycle and how we relate to each other and our universe. At the root, this is philosophy, I guess. But it is also critical that we become aware of ourselves and that we ask these questions. Our future depends on it.
Yesterday I began the process of ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ and I started reading the works that inspired the authors I have recently discovered. I picked up “Consilience” by the great Ed (E.O.) Wilson. In about five pages I realize I have yet another tome that integrates what I have been thinking.
Validation is an incredibly important part of human life. To be seen by others for who you are, and to realize that you are seen, is a great step forward in personal evolution. Or, more accurately, the LACK of validation or of being seen is a huge detriment to living a full life. In these authors I feel seen. Maybe for the first time in my life.
So this is the pro-social element, which I learned from an interview with David Sloan Wilson on The Great Simplification Podcast. Release any pre-conceived ideas about the form of government known as socialism, and think for a minute about what it means to be social – and whether or not being social is a critical element of being human. Spoiler alert: it is. And the lack of social interactions is likely a major cause of the human suffering we see increasingly today.
Much of my work on KEW has revolved around this idea, and the idea that we have neglected the communal aspects of being human and have focused too much on being ‘rugged individuals’. Both are important and, in one of life’s great paradoxes, we are probably better off nurturing both our individual needs (e.g., the Uniqueness Paradox) AND our communal connections. Well, duh.
Finally, and the most epiphinal thing that has happened to me lately which I share in this Episode and in the next, I have started to experience a somatic feeling associated with this paradoxical simultaneous individuality and communal-ness. Love.
As cheesy as it sounds, my experience of validation and of deepening my understanding of what others’ have to say about humans, I have increasing experiences of what I can only call Love.
It is a feeling in my heart and upper abdomen. An experience of energy and light. And it comes in moments of flow, clarity, and enhanced awareness. Through meditation, my IFS work, and everyday mindfulness. I ‘get it’, that humans are connected by a feeling of attraction and, well, Love for each other.
Most importantly, I realize that this feeling, when absent, leads humans to repel one another. Hear me out.
When we interact with another human, we are looking for a glimpse of acceptance – an element of Love that lets us know the other person is on the same page. I think this actualization was around for hundreds of thousands of years among humans, but has slowly decreased over the past 200 – 10,000 years. Today, we see very little light in others.
This lack of validation, recognition, feeling of connection, or whatever, leads us away from each other. Rather than coming together, we move apart.
It is critical, then, that we rediscover how to emanate mutual Love. It starts with me. And it starts with you.
All the cheesy things they say about Love, as much as I hate to admit it, just might be true.
Hope you enjoy this and the following Episode, and all of this work on KEW.
Podcast audio stream:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/530563/12353141
YouTube video: