That was just great Mary! I too loved that book and loved reading it to my kids. Well, I had no idea of the depths and truths right there on them pages. Thank for that beautiful rendering of simple wisdom.
I agree with you - Mother Bear getting ready to take it all back, and that's okay.
You do a knack for finding wisdom in so many places.❤️ Such a pleasure to read.
Mar 3·edited Mar 6Liked by Mary Poindexter McLaughlin
My first response to this was a deep sigh. You often elicit that from me, Mary. A sense of all being right with the world because you're in it, and you're making a soft sense of it--not soft-thinking but thinking softly, with love and care. And later in the piece, corny as this is, my eyes teared up, wondering what I had done in my life to have this perceptive, well spoken woman responding to my thoughts and completing my sentences.
There's something deep in me that sings in resonance with this. There's also a particular timing that makes it especially significant (and isn't that always the case?) I'm going to post an episode in response after the relevant person in the story wakes up, so I can ask permission to tell it. Thank you for this! And someday, I'm hoping you and my oldest daughter will meet. You'll give me so much street cred with her, as another person off the scale in emotional intelligence.
What a profound reminder of how technology of all kinds can mask our true self and make us dependent upon outside sources for perceived safety. Our reliance upon such impermanent stuff leaves us feeling ever more unsafe in a hostile environment, desperate for a gentle and wise cosmic mother to hide within.
Paradoxically, we can find profound safety in a desolate landscape after a mirage we’ve clung to dissolves. Like trampled grass, we spring back into life after death, disaster and disappointment and somehow we rise up to greet a new day. Resilience is our superpower, but as a condition of life, we must accept that we will meet death again and again.
Impermanence will topple all of our dreams eventually, even the beautiful and inspired ones. But it’s by the trustworthy light of the soul shining through the cracks in a flawed human vessel that we can navigate to relative safety, secure in the knowledge that the maps we need were installed at birth and get updated in real time.
I love the usable gems of inspiration you mine from the simplest things, Mary!
Haven’t come across that book yet, but if it’s as warm and cuddly as you describe it, I suppose Frankie and I will have to read it. I see my local library has it. 🤗
I loved this, Mary, and I loved "Little Bear" back in the day! I think Else and Maurice would approve of your wise words, as well. So would Mother Bear. :) I find myself aware of needing less, especially technology-wise. Simplifying my life as much as possible.
It's a balmy 55 deg.! here and I'm headed outside. Who knows, maybe I'll meet up with a Bear coming out of his or her slumber. 🐻 XOXO
Well...I think that maybe Klaus Schwab is the embodiment of Mother Bear, and that when he says "you will nothing and be happy", he is giving humanity a great gift! It's hard to imagine Klaus as altruistic though. Running alongside the Klaus narrative I have noticed a different emerging narrative that looks a lot like like Mother Bears offering of love. I experience this emergence as an undercurrent to the Klaus like dominant narrative, and this appears to me as an awakening of love and connection; a realization that we have what we need and have always had what we have needed, and it was and is our birthright that no one can take from us. I am blessed to be able to swirl in this undercurrent with you Mary. I so appreciate your offerings of connection and love!
Wise words. I do think certain thoughts can be helpful. Two substack blogs worth exploring for new ideas going forward: the whole social and threefolding.
Beautiful articulation of the modern dilemma. Tech safetyism has always been a parenting challenging for me. Two smart, eccentric kids who live a lot in their heads and don’t find socializing easy unless it’s with their “tribe” of likeminded friends. As kids it was too easy for them to fall into texting with their buddies as opposed to getting out in the real world and seeing them in person — or even better, making friends outside their circle. And now I watch them trying to find romantic partners with these $&!@ apps! Ugh. It all seems designed to insulate from those awkward moments and rejections you have to go through to find meaningful relationships.
Mar 3·edited Mar 3Liked by Mary Poindexter McLaughlin
Yes & no. We have forgotten how brutal life was before technology.
The primary drive is to just plain survive. This is true of all life forms.
Technology reduced infant & child mortality dramatically. We needed more than "an heir & a spare" just to maintain population levels. Early on, humanity spent considerable time on the brink of extinction.
Technology has taken us so far from that reality that we have forgotten.
And I've also forgotten where I read something ..somewhere in substack most likely, about the deliberate creation back in the 1800s or early 20th century, of formal sports & entertainment by the elites to channel & subdue that drive.
That was just great Mary! I too loved that book and loved reading it to my kids. Well, I had no idea of the depths and truths right there on them pages. Thank for that beautiful rendering of simple wisdom.
I agree with you - Mother Bear getting ready to take it all back, and that's okay.
You do a knack for finding wisdom in so many places.❤️ Such a pleasure to read.
Thank you.
My first response to this was a deep sigh. You often elicit that from me, Mary. A sense of all being right with the world because you're in it, and you're making a soft sense of it--not soft-thinking but thinking softly, with love and care. And later in the piece, corny as this is, my eyes teared up, wondering what I had done in my life to have this perceptive, well spoken woman responding to my thoughts and completing my sentences.
There's something deep in me that sings in resonance with this. There's also a particular timing that makes it especially significant (and isn't that always the case?) I'm going to post an episode in response after the relevant person in the story wakes up, so I can ask permission to tell it. Thank you for this! And someday, I'm hoping you and my oldest daughter will meet. You'll give me so much street cred with her, as another person off the scale in emotional intelligence.
What a profound reminder of how technology of all kinds can mask our true self and make us dependent upon outside sources for perceived safety. Our reliance upon such impermanent stuff leaves us feeling ever more unsafe in a hostile environment, desperate for a gentle and wise cosmic mother to hide within.
Paradoxically, we can find profound safety in a desolate landscape after a mirage we’ve clung to dissolves. Like trampled grass, we spring back into life after death, disaster and disappointment and somehow we rise up to greet a new day. Resilience is our superpower, but as a condition of life, we must accept that we will meet death again and again.
Impermanence will topple all of our dreams eventually, even the beautiful and inspired ones. But it’s by the trustworthy light of the soul shining through the cracks in a flawed human vessel that we can navigate to relative safety, secure in the knowledge that the maps we need were installed at birth and get updated in real time.
I love the usable gems of inspiration you mine from the simplest things, Mary!
I loved reading Little Bear books to my son in the mid 90s ! He about to turn 30, still some valuable lessons.
Haven’t come across that book yet, but if it’s as warm and cuddly as you describe it, I suppose Frankie and I will have to read it. I see my local library has it. 🤗
I loved this, Mary, and I loved "Little Bear" back in the day! I think Else and Maurice would approve of your wise words, as well. So would Mother Bear. :) I find myself aware of needing less, especially technology-wise. Simplifying my life as much as possible.
It's a balmy 55 deg.! here and I'm headed outside. Who knows, maybe I'll meet up with a Bear coming out of his or her slumber. 🐻 XOXO
correction..."You will have nothing and be happy"
Well...I think that maybe Klaus Schwab is the embodiment of Mother Bear, and that when he says "you will nothing and be happy", he is giving humanity a great gift! It's hard to imagine Klaus as altruistic though. Running alongside the Klaus narrative I have noticed a different emerging narrative that looks a lot like like Mother Bears offering of love. I experience this emergence as an undercurrent to the Klaus like dominant narrative, and this appears to me as an awakening of love and connection; a realization that we have what we need and have always had what we have needed, and it was and is our birthright that no one can take from us. I am blessed to be able to swirl in this undercurrent with you Mary. I so appreciate your offerings of connection and love!
Brilliant!
Lovely to revisit this beloved childrens' classic.
What do I think? For me, first of all, it brings to mind all the jabbing.
Wise words. I do think certain thoughts can be helpful. Two substack blogs worth exploring for new ideas going forward: the whole social and threefolding.
Beautiful articulation of the modern dilemma. Tech safetyism has always been a parenting challenging for me. Two smart, eccentric kids who live a lot in their heads and don’t find socializing easy unless it’s with their “tribe” of likeminded friends. As kids it was too easy for them to fall into texting with their buddies as opposed to getting out in the real world and seeing them in person — or even better, making friends outside their circle. And now I watch them trying to find romantic partners with these $&!@ apps! Ugh. It all seems designed to insulate from those awkward moments and rejections you have to go through to find meaningful relationships.
Yes & no. We have forgotten how brutal life was before technology.
The primary drive is to just plain survive. This is true of all life forms.
Technology reduced infant & child mortality dramatically. We needed more than "an heir & a spare" just to maintain population levels. Early on, humanity spent considerable time on the brink of extinction.
Technology has taken us so far from that reality that we have forgotten.
And I've also forgotten where I read something ..somewhere in substack most likely, about the deliberate creation back in the 1800s or early 20th century, of formal sports & entertainment by the elites to channel & subdue that drive.