Hi,
I’m working heavily on my website these days. Part of that process has been to consolidate my website and blog. The blog now lives here:
http://leegertrained.com/blog
You can RSS that blog through the link at the bottom of the page.
See you there!
Every now and then, you’re standing in the bookstore, looking for something, and something else jumps out at you. This happened to me last week with “The Coming Insurrection.”
There I was, looking for a pocket-sized Moleskine 2010 calendar (yes, that’s exactly what I was looking for), when I turned to my left, and saw a small blue book staring me in the face:
Here it comes
Circles Within Circles
The title was catchy enough to grab my attention. Then I picked it up, and was revealed to the following table of contents:
What struck me about this is the concept of “concentric rings” that I was introduced to in Tom Brown Jr.’s tracker school. That concept was basically as follows – all of life is connected as in a series of concentric rings, and events flow among those rings, like ripples in a pool of water. If you’re walking through the woods, it’s possible to know what’s happening miles away from you by knowing the language of these rings – bird song, animal behavior patterns, etc. As something happens in one part of the forest, it sets off a chain reaction of predictable events. If you know that pattern, you can use it to your advantage – for protection/safety, for hunting, or for enlightenment.
The most recent iteration of this concept was in Dan Everett’s book “Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes.” One of Dan’s chapters (15) is entitled “Recursion: Language as a Matrioshka Doll.”
He discusses the concept of “recursion,” or self-referential nesting, in language. It’s sort of an involution of Tom Brown’s concentric rings.
Within The Coming Insurrection, each “Circle” represents a different aspect of society – self, social relations, work, the economy, urbanity, the environment, and to close, civilization. The final call is to the disruption/destruction of the existing system.
Fox News
Searching around for information about it, after I’d finished reading it and handed it off to a friend, I found this FOX News review of the book:
It reminds me a lot of this:
ANYWAY…
Not to get off-topic there…just figured it was worth a mention.
What’s All This “Insurrection” Stuff About?!
The book is a “call to arms,” for revolutionaries. It does recommend preparation for violence, and violent acts.
So why read it?
Well, I think there are a few good reasons.
First, it gives a very interesting look into the minds of revolutionaries. Whether you agree with it or not, it can reveal to you something about the world and your fellow human beings that you do not already know.
Next, it does give another perspective on change and how to create change.
Finally, it gives you your year’s supply of French philosophy jargon, Derrida- and Deleuze-style. I can’t stand French philosophy, but hey, expose yourself to new things. You never know what might happen.
Oh Jacques, we hardly knew you...
What Might Happen
Which leads me to the finale. What might happen is not determined by you, or by FOX News, or by any other one thing. It’s determined in large part by things we haven’t even identified. I think it’s largely determined by the structure of nature itself.
That being said, everything out there is a part of your world. Get to know it, or don’t. It probably doesn’t matter. Probably.
You can read the entire text of The Coming Insurrection for free here.
Circles within circles...
Just got back from the Exuberant Animal planning summit for 2010. It’s going to be an incredible year for EA!
Change it.
A few of the events are listed here: http://exuberantanimal.com/events/index.php, but I’ll share some others with you now.
There’s a Solstice Jam for those of you up in the Seattle area. The Jam will be a celebration of play, and of the change from Spring to Summer. Contact Frank Forencich directly for more details on that one.
A Trainer Certification Summit is going to be held in Washington state from September 17th-19th. If you’ve ever considered becoming a certified EA trainer, contact Frank for more details, and get your tickets for this event!
As more news comes out, I’ll definitely share it with you. The event was a huge planning success, though, and there will definitely be big news coming from EA this year.
Stay tuned!
Here’s one of the exercises we did at the NLP seminar I reviewed last week. I found it to be very revealing and helpful. I hope you do too. You’ll need a piece of paper or two and a writing utensil.
First...draw this picture... JUST KIDDING!
First, list five things you like or are happy about about regarding your life.
Right below that list, write down five things that you don’t like or want in your life.
Happy Sad
It’s interesting to note here the difference in time/effort spent on what you like versus what you don’t like. Do you spend more time/effort on the things you like, or on the things you don’t like? It could go either way. But now you’ve examined your life from a new perspective (time/effort spent on a thing), and can decide whether or not that is appropriate.
If it’s a thing that makes you miserable, and you’re spending a lot of time on it, maybe that’s a consideration.
I only do this 10 hours a day...
Now, next to the list of things you don’t like, list the ideal state for those five things – how you want them to be.
Once you’ve done that, you should examine the differences between what you like and don’t like, and what you have (are doing) and want (aren’t doing, need to do).
From there, focus on how to get to the place where you want to be. The how of it – the activity of being there, versus the activity (or activities) that sustain you in the place you don’t want to be in.
That’s it. You can use NLP to help you get “past” some of the things that might be blocking you. It would definitely help if you had an NLP coach to assist with that. Read Bandler and Grinder’s book “Frogs Into Princes” for more detail.
ribbit
Or, you can take a more traditional path, and create goals/outcomes from the “want” list you’ve created, and begin acting on that.
Good luck!
Ever think about it?
In my recent blog post, “The Circle of Excuse,” I opened some doors for some people. One of the replies I got, in particular, got me thinking, and I want to share those thoughts with you.
you're making so much money...buy more stuff
We all tend to rant about the “situation” we live in. No time for anything, no way to do what we love, locked into a job we don’t really like by “golden handcuffs,” or by ideals that say we should be “successful” and make a lot of money – at the expense of anything else (family, friends, health, happiness).
There are a couple of things about this “ranting,” though, that stand out to me.
The first one is – any energy put into a system, is used by that system.
So, if you get angry and rant about your troubles, that energy goes into your troubles. Another reason to deeply respect the Piraha assertion that anger is a sign of weakness, and that it’s better (and tougher) to laugh.
The next is – the “rant” is a part of the system you’re ranting about.
Similar to the above, but a little different, the rant helps one to “vent” about the problems their experiencing, while doing nothing about them – taking no action. It becomes a habit. Like exercise, smoking, or eating patterns, the rant-pattern is just as habitual, and just as difficult to quit.
Talking Heads...blah blah blah
Why Do We Do That?
For one thing, it is part of our culture. If you’re raised in the US, likely you’ve been “taught” (explicitly or implicitly) over the years to vent by complaining, and not by taking action.
The other part of our culture that furthers this attitude is the deep separation our society engenders between the body and the mind – and between thought and action.
Finally, it takes effort to do something about our problems. It isn’t easy. It’s hard work. Whether our culture values hard work or not is a little irrelevant here. Most animals won’t do something (except for play) unless they have to. It’s a law of nature – don’t waste energy.
Well, that’s all. I hope it’s enlightening. If you feel the urge to complain, root out the cause of the complaint in yourself, and then do something about it.
amen….
The LIFT Blog | Colin Pistell on The Coming Insurrection |
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