Winter Solstice: Working And Waiting In Humanity's Back Ward (Carolyn Baker)

[Tace]

O dark dark dark. They all go into the dark.
The vacant interstellar spaces......
I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.

--East Coker from "The Four Quartets", by T.S. Eliot

Dec. 20, 2009 (CarolynBaker.net) -- This afternoon I sit near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, reveling in the brilliant sunshine which pierces the dry, nippy air, knowing that in less than three hours, it will be dark. I count the hours until the shortest day and the longest night of the year signal that magnificent turning point of light and time when the days slowly become longer and the nights shorter. I can think about spring as much as I like, but it will be a long time before I see any definitive signs of it, and even if I do, those could be deluged with a late season snow storm that reminds me that winter has not breathed its last breath and warns me not to become deliriously wistful for warmer days and nights.

This winter solstice is particularly dark. I watch the blood drain from the faces of my progressive friends, disillusioned by their "yeswecan" poster boy who has accomplished little in his first term but the escalation of a despicable war for oil and drugs, and with the stroke of a pen, opened the floodgates for troops and military contractors to rape and pillage yet another piece of the planet. "Welcome to the Golden Arches of Kabul. May I take your order?" The "Hopium" wears off, and we're reminded that it's still winter, and it's still very, very dark.

I contemplate the word "apocalypse" which originates from the Greek word that means "the unveiling." The poster child wins the peace prize, but just hours beforehand, he unleashes hell on earth. Did you see that? The veil was lifted for a few moments and we saw who really owns him.

Humanity is committing suicide in a thousand ways. This week, they all shook hands in Copenhagen and agreed to throw a bone to the climate change militants while genuflecting before corporate capitalism as the supreme deity on earth. The gods have been appeased, but the veil was lifted briefly. Oh my, did you see that? Corruption, scandal, and one climate scientist, Jim Hansen, not only boycotts the entire spectacle, but hopes it will fail because he was able to see through the chicanery even as it was being orchestrated.

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[cliffordu]

1. Useless bit of writing.

Clever name calling is not insight.

I'm glad she can sit in her beautiful remote Rocky Mountain hideaway and pontificate, but really, what has SHE done but write a diary??

[Tace]

2. I'll Admit, She Can Be Depressing, sometimes

CAROLYN BAKER, Ph.D., was an adjunct professor of history and psychology for 11 years and a psychotherapist in private practice for 17 years. Her latest book Sacred Demise: Walking The Spiritual Path of Industrial Civilization's Collapse, is unique in its offering of emotional and spiritual tools for preparing for living in a post-industrial world. Her other books include: Coming Out From Christian Fundamentalism: Affirming Sensuality, Social Justice, and The Sacred (2007) , U.S. History Uncensored: What Your High School Textbook Didn't Tell You (2006) and The Journey of Forgiveness, (2000)

[Hekate]

3. Beautiful writing, especially beginning with TS Eliot. Solstice is all about going into the dark...

We go in as far as possible into the dark, before the Wheel of the Year turns, and we make the slow journey back to the light. But first, at the still point of the turning world, we must be in that dark and experience what it has to teach us.

This author is writing from a deeply spiritual perspective, and not from cynicism and despair, for despair is the abandonment of hope.

Listen to what she says next:
> I keep coming back to the dark-and the light. I can't forget how they need each other--like the North and South poles--like every opposite we can possibly imagine that is only truly defined and appreciated by what it isn't. After all I've written here, how dare I talk about the light? Isn't that all just theory? Where's the experience?
>snip<
> ... And even more frequently these days, I find individuals and communities that are discovering a deeper meaning and purpose in their lives that they are holding alongside the horrors created by an inexorably suicidal human species. I encounter in the most unexpected places people who are not just sitting and waiting, but working-working hard to contribute to the well being of the community of life. They wish to minimize the suffering that the collapse of empire will entail, but even more importantly, they are doing their work just because-because it makes a difference to others, because it empowers themselves and all the lives they touch, because they can't not do the work, because in doing whatever work they feel called to do, they are finding and fulfilling their purpose in being on this dark and scary planet.
> You see it isn't just about jumping off a cliff to end the anguish. It's about finding meaning, and even if we build communities that look like permaculture design on steroids, even if we return to steady-state economics and create burgeoning economies of scale based on cooperation, compassion, creativity-even if we fashion intentional communities that approximate heaven on earth, even if we were to forge a culture of nirvana, it is only by immersing ourselves in the inner transition process that brings emotional and spiritual transformation far beyond anything traditional psychotherapy has to offer-it is only there that we find the meaning and purpose that will move us through the evolutionary threshold on which we stand and make the current cultural nightmare a bit more bearable.
>snip<
> And so I ask, on this longest night and shortest day: What beauty did you create today?
> And in this very dark moment, are you carrying the fire?


"Are you carrying the fire?"

Thank you Tace, for reminding me that this is Solstice Night.

Hekate

edited to add: She begins with Eliot and ends with Yeats, who are two of my favorite poets.

[xchrom]

4. Longest night -- there are many good things found in the dark. Nt

[Hekate]

5. Kick

candles

[dcsmart]

6. snow is cold.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. I too find the winter solstice praiseworthy, it mean the days will now be getting longer

and my solar plant will will be more productive. That's a big deal to those of us into PV