The Right Way to Flourish

Today I am reposting a message from a group I belong concerned with making a great transition to a world that works. The current topic is big history and the great transition. The post is from Riane Eisler for whose work I have great respect. She writes that modern cultures are largely systems of domination, which is hardly arguably, and that “partnership systems” should replace them. Well written and grounded. I see this as a call for caring, which is why I posted it here. Her case could be made much more timely and likely to happen if she was… Read More

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All recovered, but was inspired to write another poem. An Ode to Covid John Ehrenfeld January, 2023 I’m now about seven days infected. Which variant has me I do not know. I cannot say; it came unsuspected Though for weeks I’ve waited for it to show. For three years, Covid has honored my age. It has kept itself very far away, While my immunity erected a cage That has kept the worst of its scourge at bay. The virus finally slipped through my screen And took hold of some vulnerable cell. Hungering for a most desirable gene, Its spikes penetrated… Read More

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In McGilchrist’s new book, The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World, he spends a considerable number of pages discussing the relation of mental illness and other pathologies of the brain to the hemispheric balance. Schizophrenia and autism share a chapter. He provides lots of evidence that the loss of reality and related symptoms in schizophrenic subjects is due to an imbalance of the hemispheres with th left strongly dominating the right. That makes sense as the affected person is operating largely out of the disconnected hemisphere, and had limited connection to the actual… Read More

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Again, I apologize for the erratic posting schedule, but this time I do have a reason. As I was composing my to-be-my-next post, I realized that I was almost certainly misinterpreting McGilchrist’s work. I had been reading his new book, but only casually because I found it so daunting. But as I started to read it more closely, I realized it offered more clarity for some of the issues I was concerned about. Nothing much new about the general differences in the way the two hemispheres attend to the world and produce subsequent actions, but lots more about how they… Read More

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For those who haven’t been following closely, I will repost the table containing the several behaviors associated with the right-hemisphere. I have rearranged the rows in the order in which I discuss them in this series of blog posts. * Russell Ackoff’s ways to deal with messes. Right-hemisphere-dominant behavior types Caring is an especially important category because it has existential implications and is also partly constitutive of flourishing. Caring acts incorporate inputs from the contextual world presented to the right hemisphere. Empathy, sensing what is going on with another person and acting in accordance, guides much caring. But not all… Read More

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Good-bye to a tumultuous year. A new war. The Jan 6 findings. Horrible performance of the stock market. Covid hanging around. Elections better than expected, but still upsetting the already fractious Congress. Starting to downsize in anticipation of moving to a “retirement community.” But not all with negative ramifications. Halfway to being 92, and in good physical and mental health. Still gifted with a loving spouse to keep me company and warm at night. Busy family, but still no great grandchildren on the horizon. My children haven’t tried to take away the car keys yet, so am happily getting about.… Read More

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Turning to the other side of the brain, the story is quite different. All the entries reflect the dominance of the right hemisphere and all are situation specific. The context of the setting is important, as any action is fitted to the immediate circumstances, unlike routines or habits, which are based on already established (in the left) patterns. The left hemisphere plays a part in most of these types of behaviors, offering up suggestions of responses it believes fit the situation, including options that may not. The right side can either accept or reject these inputs. The ability to say… Read More

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Before you read this, you should read the prior post, if you haven’t already. What I say below requires that you have looked at the two tables and the previous discussion. I do believe that the categorization of the behaviors is consistent with the brand features of the divided-brain-model (very left-hemisphere comment). The idea of self (singular) would signify some unitary being, acting metaphorically like a machine, run by a program that can produce a variety of distinctive behaviors. Distinctive according to some criteria that an observer might use to describe an action, but arising from a common mechanism. One’s… Read More

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I have just completed a course at the lifelong learning institution I belong to about three novels of displacement. Basically they are about how people respond after suddenly being transported from a world in which they have been acculturated to a completely different one. One was The Hunger Angel, by Herta Müller, a Nobel laureate in literature. It’s about an ethnic-German Romanian man who is removed to a Russian labor camp during WWII, and describes how he survives there during the 4-5 years he is interned. Another is Primo Levi’s, Survival in Auschwitz, an actual recounting of his experience. Other… Read More

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I can’t escape, but can reflect. Election Day Fears (A Villanelle) The evening news is full of doom and gloom. Our country may be coming to an end. Each founding father bestirs in his tomb. It doesn’t help to sit around and fume And get disturbed by the latest trend. The evening news is full of doom and gloom. My rising angst pervades the living room As I think what does that report portend? Each founding father bestirs in his tomb. A new forecast shows up. My spirits bloom, But I need be careful and not pretend. The evening news… Read More

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