2018.06.11 - Day 89

Storm: when I studied creative writing in 2013, a woman called Maureen Boyle was the tutor. Her thing was poetry and I think that because of that I suspect that she was particularly critical of our poetry writing attempts. https://twitter.com/BoyleMo
She was a good tutor though. She also had a strong leaning towards Irish writers and made us read a lot of James Joyce. I did best at life writing and I remember her telling me to try to find an Irish connection when I was writing about time spent in outback N.West Queensland. Sure enough, we camped near a small town called Cloncurry near a river called the Curry, named by an early explorer, an Irishman called Burke. He had a relative, a Lady Curry of Galway!

Tart finishes his chapter on group work: ‘Group work, then, is a powerful amplifier of individual aims and energies. When it works correctly it can enormously assist your individual efforts. If it is distorted by unresolved psychological problems like transference, though, it becomes another form of entrancement, not the road to awakening.’

Tart, Charles T.. Waking Up: Overcoming the Obstacles to Human Potential (Kindle Locations 5088-5090). Fearless Books. Kindle Edition.

He lists so many pitfalls of working with teachers and groups that I wonder if it is worthwhile. But we can be stuck in places that we ourselves will never realize.
‘…the student avoids facing crucial things in himself or stays away from situations that might force him to face these things.’


Tart, Charles T.. Waking Up: Overcoming the Obstacles to Human Potential (Kindle Location 4810). Fearless Books. Kindle Edition.

I admit that I'm becoming a bit bored with Tart's morning exercise. Since my RL small group is beginning a new chapter of Eckhart Tolle's book, A New Earth, I am going to shift my focus for the rest of the 99 days to working with Tolle's suggestions for bringing awareness into the present. His idea of sensing the inner life of the body is especially interesting to me because it seems akin to parts of both Tart's and Eugene Gendlin's approaches. All of these practices seem to overlap in certain ways. I still think that the most essential thing is simply making the choice to "show up" and willfully place attention on what is present.

Are we going to have some kind of in-world session (or party) to celebrate the completion of 99 days, and share final thoughts and impressions of the journey? :)

Happy to see Wester! :::waves:::

This morning I woke with a dream so strongly remembered that I thought something like, "I wonder if I could forget this if I tried." It was vergy-lucid, but no idea of any meaning (yet). Related, once I stepped from the bed, there was an almost tangible sense of being taken over by a recurring loop/storyline, like a scooter coming to sweep me off my feet. But I felt it, and let it keep going without me.

At some points I've tried to make 'waking practice' a thing, but I've never taken it on consistently. So I'll do that for the rest of the time, if I can. It is one of those things I tend to remember as an oops - something I meant to do - in the middle of being already on with the day.

Morning practice is to linger a little before taking on thoughts of what the day is supposed to be/what needs to get done, and allow it to kind of bloom a little first. That sounds funny - closest I can get for now. :)

@Alma, a friend took me through a Focusing session once. Quite surprising, the level of rest and release that was starting to emerge by the end of the session.

Party session sounds fun - what a good idea! edited 18:35, 11 Jun 2018

Eliza, Gendlin's Focusing and his Philosophy of the Implicit have figured importantly in my life, off and on, over many years. I met him a couple of times and participated in sessions that he led (including one on dreams). After the 99 Days, I think I will be turning back in that direction and re-engaging with that whole approach.

Thank you for that Zen! I see Maureen is local to you. Of course, her suggestion of finding an Irish connection is somewhat of an American pastime!

I neglected to add a fourth thing to yesterday's "what have I done about it?" list. I joined a bunch of writing groups in Second Life. I started off by joining the ones Eden is a member of. Then I went to one of the meetings I got a notice for, and joined more groups that some writers there were members of, and so on.

I was starting to run out of available group slots when I realized I hadn't been to some of the science group meetings for nearly a decade and that it was time to shed them.

And I do get duplicate notices posted to multiple groups, but that's just a fact of Second life.

Writing group meetings are very popular in SL it seems. I had no idea. If I went to them all, there would be more than 30 different meetings every week! That's more than we had with Play as Being. I guess the idea is to visit the ones with doable times, see which readings I enjoy and which workshops are most useful, and go back to those.

How strange not to realize that Sl would have lots of writing groups. Now that I get the news, it's as I am debating what to do about SL which is less about doing and more about letting go, not of Sl or Pab but of my land investment. Encouraging my husband to join a rl poetry/prose group quite a few yrs ago, I watched the various consequences and discovered that there's a vast spectrum of talent. So many people think because they can write sentences- that's all the qualification they need to claim to be a writer. I remember long ago, that even when I was in print, the nature/quality of the publications was small potatoes: I would not call myself a writer. Even now, after years with the LA Times, I don't think of myself as a "writer". I'm fine with "journalist". It's more accurate. My daughter told me as long as you write, you're a "writer", it's the word "author" that you should not claim. Ah ha. Omg what silliness.(ps here's a tip for avoiding age discrimination--if you send out a cover letter or resume with a double stop (two spaces) after a period--it's a dead give away that you're "too old". Seriously? Unfortunately, true. I used to specialize in placing older career candidates in admin support spots. That's a battle I am glad I don't fight anymore. Sorry to see not much progress made against ageism.

Raffie - Writing seems barely to exercise the potential of the medium of Second Life, so I didn't expect so much of it, despite my being here 12 years, and notwithstanding its reflecting real life.

Hmm, your daughter's silliness... I wonder what her reason for rejecting author is. Too pompous, or too limiting maybe? Too high a bar to reach? Journalist would be too specific and I've only ever contributed to letters pages of national or international magazines and newspapers. ('Twas a hobby of mine 20 years ago. Target a journal. Write until published. Move on.)

And the two spaces versus one. Yes that's a real ageist phenomenon. Though my ex, who was 12 years younger than me, insisted on two while I kept with one. Sadly your daughter is right.
https://web.archive.org/web/20110710211507/http://www.executive-resumes.com/2009/07/dont-date-yourself-by-using-two-spaces.html

Bow to the water coming out of the tap. Readily drinkable water, so easy that it's too easy to forget what had to happen to make it so, and the dangers that it may not stay that way. Bow to the coffee beans, to the milk, to the walnuts. Breakfast.

Reading what you all wrote over the last weeks reminds me of so many books I still have to read. Homo Ludens, which I bought just a few weeks ago. Focusing, which would really be worth a re-read. And I'm already reading too many books at once.

Happy to hear that writers groups are still thriving in SL. I tried one that had an offline component as well, but never gave it the time and attention deserved. When my computer(s) were working at capacity, there was also a meeting that was like a study hall where people came to work independently together, which would sound silly to someone non-immersive in SL, but I liked it a lot. edited 13:31, 12 Jun 2018