People often have different definitions of what wasting time means. I know of a lot of people who were told when they were younger that they were wasting time because they were doing something they enjoyed. Maybe they were day dreaming, doodling, or even reading a book, but if you think about it, the imagination of poets and writers comes from their day dreams, great artists began as doodlers, and reading is how we learn. We agree with Bertrand Russell that if you enjoyed what you are doing, then you’re not wasting your time.
Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, OM, FRS (18 May 1872 – 2 February 1970) was a British mathematician, philosopher, and public intellectual.
Today’s goals: Coffee and kindness. Maybe two coffees, and then kindness.”
– Nanea Hoffman
Nanea Hoffman (@NaneaHoffman) describes herself as the Founder/Principle of Sweatpants & Coffee and creator of the mental health mascot, the Anxiety Blob. Writer, dreamer, coffee lover, blanket fort dweller.
“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.”
— Booker T. Washington
I wish more people would remember this. Too many people only want to tear people down to make themselves feel better. They know that if they can keep people they deem unworthy down, they can stay in power. Republicans are currently doing everything they can to discredit people who cherish equality. They use their political positions to take away the rights of others, especially the right to vote and representation in the government.
Alabama has been gerrymandering the districts of the legislature and Congress to make sure they remain in power. Thankfully, the federal courts, backed by the Supreme Court, has ordered Alabama to create a second minority majority district. Growing up in Alabama, I lived in the 2nd Congressional district and have also lived in the 7th Congressional district, which has traditionally been the only minority majority district in the state. I am very happy that the courts seem to be ordering that the 2nd Congressional district be redrawn to also be a minority majority district. While I hope to never live in Alabama again, especially in either the 2nd or 7th Congressional districts, I am glad that they are very likely to both be represented by Democrats.
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud. Do not complain. Make every effort to change things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. You might find a new solution.”
— Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou said, “I’ve had so many rainbows in my clouds. I had a lot of clouds, but I had so many rainbows.” Within every cloud, there is a silver lining. From every patch of rain, somewhere there is a rainbow to be found. Have you ever had days, weeks, or months in your life when it seems as though the clouds won’t pass and the rain just won’t stop falling? It’s safe to say that at one point or another most of us have experienced this kind of difficult season. Perhaps you lost a lover or friend, or you experienced the pain of death, or maybe life just threw one too many curveballs at once, and you just felt sad for a while. Sometimes that sadness can be overwhelming and take over for long periods of time or may never go away. No matter how it happens, we can all appreciate that life’s moments are not always filled with sunshine.
With this knowledge in mind, there is a simple and powerful perspective that we can all choose to embrace; that each person you come across is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Whether it’s internally or externally, every person you meet is dealing with something that is challenging for them. Angelou wrote, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
While we certainly can’t save people from their pain, we all have the power to influence one another in positive ways. We each have the power to give to one another in a way that is meaningful and impactful. To be the rainbow in someone’s cloud means to cultivate loving kindness as a daily practice in your life. It means looking into your heart, practicing empathy, and using that empathy to connect to the people around you. We all have the opportunity to be someone’s rainbow. Probably the greatest part of adopting this practice is that our efforts don’t need to be overwhelming. Something as simple as a smile can greatly help someone who is going through a difficult time.
Maya Angelou said she always carried these “rainbows” with her to her speaking and teaching engagements, whether in a large venue or an intimate classroom. “I bring everyone who has ever been kind to me with me,” she said. “Black, white, Asian, Spanish-speaking, Native American, gay, straight, everybody. I said, ‘Come on with me. I’m going on the stage. Come with me. I need you now.'” Whether her “rainbows” were living or had long since passed, Dr. Angelou said she always felt and drew strength from their support. “I don’t ever feel I have no help,” she said. “I had rainbows in my clouds.”
She also encouraged people to apply the “rainbow in the clouds” philosophy to their own lives. “The thing to do, it seems to me, is to prepare yourself so you can be a rainbow in somebody else’s cloud. Somebody who may not look like you. May not call God the same name you call God — if they call God at all. I may not dance your dances or speak your language. But be a blessing to somebody. That’s what I think.”
To choose to live from a place of loving-kindness is one of the greatest gifts you can give to the world and to yourself. Not only will you impact others in a positive way but you also give yourself a purpose outside of your own needs, which brings fulfillment and ultimately happiness for you too. When we are kind to others, we learn that we matter, that we are powerful, and that what we do on a daily basis really does have an impact on the world around us.
Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud today and practice more kindness in your life.
The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.
—William Hazlitt
William Hazlitt (10 April 1778 – 18 September 1830) was an English essayist, drama and literary critic, painter, social commentator, and philosopher. In the above quote, Hazlitt makes a point that is relevant today as it was over 200 years ago when he was alive. As we see more and more right wing politicians striving for greater power by taking away the liberty of those they deem unworthy or a threat to their power. They attack those who are most vulnerable: transgender youth (and all other LGBTQ+ people), immigrants, minorities, and the list grows on and on. It’s not just Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, and their followers, but this trend towards a 21st century fascism is on the rise around the world.
Thomas Paine began his pamphlet The Crisis with these famous words, “These are the times that try men’s souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”
The right wing politicians are definitely “summer soldier and the sunshine patriot.” They wrap their undemocratic laws and policies in the name of protecting democracy, yet they are really trying to destroy democracy. The greatest threat is that if they come to power, their tyranny will “not easily conquered.” The more laws they pass and the more the courts side with these policies, the harder it will be to undo the damage.
“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness…
The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance”
― Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (1997)
In his 1997 book The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan warned us about the “dumbing down” of America. He warned of a time when our “critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness…” Sadly, Sagan’s prediction is coming true, and that time is upon us. We must do all we can to prevent that darkness from taking hold. In his book Cosmos, Sagan wrote, “Our passion for learning … is our tool for survival.” We will perish as a nation and lose any freedom we have if we allow this “dumbing down” of America to persist.
Last month, Montana withdrew from the American Library Association (ALA). A few days ago, a Texas state commission will disassociate with the progressive American Library Association following accusations that it pushes Marxism and gender ideology through children’s literature. A right-wing group of women in Alabama calling themselves “Clean Up Alabama” are advocating that the Alabama Republican party push to disassociate with the ALA. Republican officials in at least seven other states (Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Wyoming) are also pushing to completely withdraw from ALA.
The ALA provides member libraries with resources and benefits like discounts on professional development, insurance and employment aid, continuing education, and other programs. They also provide a code of ethics for librarians, and we all know that many Republicans, especially those loyal to Donald Trump, do not believe in codes of ethics. They are no longer satisfied with banning books and classes that teach about LGBTQ+ and other minority histories. They want to get rid of the libraries that keep and lend them, too. Right-wing extremists are on the march to destroy the intellect of America.
In the 1930s, the German Student Union began a campaign to ceremonially burn books in Nazi Germany and Austria. The books targeted for burning were those viewed as being subversive or as representing ideologies opposed to Nazism. These included books written by Jewish, half-Jewish, communist, socialist, anarchist, liberal, pacifist, and sexologist authors among others. The initial books burned were those of Karl Marx and Karl Kautsky, but came to include very many authors, including Albert Einstein, Helen Keller, writers in French and English, and effectively any book incompatible with Nazi ideology. In a campaign of cultural genocide, books were also burned en masse by the Nazis in occupied territories, such as in Poland. Today, the Far Right and Christian Conservatives are wanting to ban books that were written by African Americans, LGBTQ+ authors, communist, socialist, anarchist, and liberal, authors among others. They may not be burning books (although some actually are), but they are taking them out of circulation in libraries and schools.
Sinclair Lewis First published It Can’t Happen Here, in 1935, when Americans were still largely oblivious to the rise of Hitler in Europe. The prophetic novel tells a cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy and offers an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America. In the book, Doremus Jessup, a Vermont newspaper editor, is dismayed to find that many of the people he knows support presidential candidate Berzelius Windrip. The suspiciously fascist Windrip is offering to save the nation from sex, crime, welfare cheats, and a liberal press. But after Windrip wins the election, dissent soon becomes dangerous for Jessup. Windrip forcibly gains control of Congress and the Supreme Court and, with the aid of his personal paramilitary storm troopers, turns the United States into a totalitarian state. While today, Democrats hold the White House and the Senate, Republicans control the House of Representatives, though with a slim majority, and are firmly in control of the Supreme Court. The rhetoric of right-wing politicians, not only in the United States but across the world, are claiming that when in power they can save the nation from sex, crime, welfare cheats, and a liberal press. They will also suppress the ability to think as they are taking away the tools to learn to think.
Sagan was quoted in Lily Splane’s Quantum Consciousness as saying, “It is the responsibility of scientists never to suppress knowledge, no matter how awkward that knowledge is, no matter how it may bother those in power; we are not smart enough to decide which pieces of knowledge are permissible and which are not.” I will take that one step further, it is not just the responsibility of scientists but all educators, librarians, and museum professionals to never suppress knowledge. The far right has always vilified college professors and intellectuals because they fear the truth. They are so afraid of someone thinking freely, that they brainwash people with 24-hour news channels like Fox News and Newsmax. They even seem to be gaining ground with CNN, though MSNBC holds steadfastly to presenting opposing viewpoints.
Sagan also said in The Demon-Haunted World, “The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.” However, in the current state of America and many other countries with far-right parties gaining ground, fascist conservatives (though not all conservatives are fascist), are fighting to make sure people are not able to hear a better argument. Susan recently sent me a joke that went like this, “How many Trump supporters does it take to change a lightbulb? None. Trump says it’s done and they all cheer in the dark.” It would be funnier if it weren’t so true. For the first 234 years of the nation’s history, no American president or former president had ever been indicted. That has changed this year. Donald Trump has been charged in four criminal cases which include 91 criminal charges over a four-and-a-half-month span, and yet, he is still the frontrunner, and by a considerable margin, for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Supposedly, there is a “Chinese Curse” that says: May you live in interesting times. While seemingly a blessing, the expression is normally said ironically. The idea is that “uninteresting times” are times of peace and tranquility, and “interesting times” are often periods of great turmoil. There’s one problem with this “curse,” it’s not Chinese. No equivalent saying exists in the Chinese lexicon.
The “curse” is most likely a British invention and is really from the speeches of the British politician Joseph Chamberlain. Chamberlain was the father of Austen Chamberlain, who received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to reconcile the relationship between Germany and France after World War 1. By a different marriage, Chamberlain was also the father of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, who so erroneously declared after the Munich Agreement in 1938, “I believe it is peace for our time.”
Austen and Neville lived disastrously in “interesting times.” While neither man is seen in history as a great leader, Austen probably delayed World War II by more than a decade with his negotiation of the Dawes Pact, and some historians are even reassessing Neville’s reputation. Neville Chamberlain no doubt knew he was not preventing a war with Germany, but knew the British were woefully unprepared for a war with Germany, and he needed to buy time Britain to arm for the war to come.
So, the fact that this week is not very interesting is, I guess, not a bad thing. I have something exciting happening on Friday, but I don’t want to “jinx” it. I’m not going to discuss it just yet, just know that it could result in some changes in my life.
“The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention…. A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words.”
—Rachel Naomi Remen
Rachel Naomi Remen is a physician and educator. She was trained as a pediatrician but gained fame as an author and teacher of alternative medicine in the form of integrative medicine. In the quote above, she is talking about using empathy and listening to help heal a person. Isn’t that what therapists often do? They don’t tell their patients what they should do, but they listen to the patient and ask the right questions to guide them to realize for themselves what they should do. At least, that’s how I see therapy.
As some of you know, I am an oral historian. I rarely conduct interviews anymore because the primary responsibilities of my job have changed. However, I am often asked to teach others how to conduct oral histories. There are technical aspects, such as recording and digitally archiving, that can be taught to anyone. I teach the protocols of good manners when scheduling and conducting interviews. These are all important lessons that are necessary for conducting a good oral history. However, conducting a great oral history can’t always be taught. The reason is that a person must learn to listen. They need to listen to what the interviewee says, how the interviewee says it, the inflections of the interviewee’s voice, and the body language of the interviewee. This can be achieved through learning to be empathetic and listening with your “third ear.”
The “third ear,” a concept introduced by psychoanalyst Theodor Reik, refers to the practice of listening for the deeper layers of meaning in order to glean what has not been said outright. It means perceiving the emotional underpinnings conveyed when someone is speaking to you. You can’t listen with your third ear if you are speaking and not listening. As Remen said, “A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words.” You might not immediately see why I think this is great advice for an oral historian. After all, it’s used in psychoanalysis, but part of being an oral historian is using the same techniques as a therapist. You have to listen not only to what is spoken but also to what is not spoken. Notice I did not say “what is said” because we can speak in ways other than vocal words.
One of the things we learned, while I was at my retreat to Easton Mountain, was ecstatic dance. Now, I am not a great dancer, but that’s not the point of ecstatic dance. Ecstatic dance is moving in a way your body tells you to move and remove your inhibitions. During ecstatic dance, we were told to not speak vocally but only speak through body language. I guess you can think of it as a form of interpretive dance. You “listen” to the other person’s body language, facial expressions, etc., to understand what they are saying. Now, I will not be teaching ecstatic dance as a way to learn to listen to your third ear, but it would not be the worst way to teach it.
The most important thing to listening with your third ear is to have empathy. Oral histories are done for two major reasons that are intertwined. First, the oral historian is recording history from the mouths of those who lived it, and second, it is to let the interviewee tell their story. A lot of times, we just need to let our voices be heard, though we may not always know it. The oral historian’s job is to bring out that story in a person. Oral histories can tell us so much about the person and the history that person lived. The emotions and reactions, or lack thereof, can speak as much as the spoken word. Listening with the third ear allows you to read a person and to take clues from their body language and voice that will tell you: Should I continue with this line of questioning? Should I stop this line of questioning? How can I get more of the story? When have you gone too far? Etc. In oral histories, you have to know when to hold back, and that comes from listening with your third ear. If you push too hard at the wrong time, then the interviewee is likely to shut down, and it won’t be you who is silent anymore. It will be the interviewee. By not practicing empathy, you can ruin an interview.
These are lessons that we can develop in our everyday lives. People who have prejudices do not have empathy. They cannot understand why someone is different from them. They only care that the person falls in line with their beliefs. I often say that the central tenet of Christianity is unconditional love. Those who ignore the command to love do so because they have no empathy for others. They only have hatred. Empathy is so important in our lives. It allows the world to be a better place. So, I challenge you to be more empathetic in your life: to “give each other is our attention” and to offer “a loving silence.” Empathy can help cure the world of many of the ills that humanity often brings with their prejudices.
I could probably write a whole book on the importance of listening, but I’ll stop my ramblings at this point and just say, “Listen.”
Joe
The Closet Professor 