lqb2weekly #163 (7 dec 2021)

Dec 07, 2021

hey,

so! i’ve been sitting on this edition for a while and i think i’m waiting for the perfect time to spend lots of time writing this opening section. but it’s the end of the year and that time probably isn’t coming til like dec 22 so i’m just gonna hit send on this and pray that yall can wait for all the juicy updates til next newsletter. :D

here’s a few quick things though:

looking for a coach? check out my CHJL cohort-mate, carola (her website)!

carola_secada

A post shared by Carola G. Secada (@carola_secada)

petro pete. wow. this is so fucked. if you wanna see some petro companies indoctrinating children, see here. ht angela davis. https://oerbhomeroom.com/ebooks/

lastly, are you in the boston area and looking to try out a men’s group? or know someone who is looking for one or needs one? check out this opportunity to try out a men’s group, led by me and jon barry in jan-feb 2022.

on to the things!
(!!) pick of the pack

writing

some things i’ve written since the last newsletter:

Dec 7, 2021 | book review: set boundaries, find peace by nedra glover tawwab
Nov 30, 2021 | book review: zen spirit, christian spirit by robert e. kennedy
Nov 25, 2021 | top 3 uncle tips

quotes

there is nothing new under the sun…

…settlers cannot be considered immigrants because immigrants are expected to obey the laws of the land when they arrive, while settlers make their own new laws of the land. — edgar villaneuva, decolonizing wealth

you want to hear? or you want to be right? [if you want to hear] you’re gonna maybe have to not be so right. — ester perel

The skillful use of conflict can produce trust, connection, life-affirming possibilities, and intimacy while minimizing violence. — richard strozzi-heckler on generative conflict, somatic coaching

You know, no one can be dismissed as a total monster. I’m sure he [the racist Mississippi sharecropper] loves his wife, his children. I’m sure, you know, he likes to get drunk. You know, after all, one’s got to assume he is visibly a man like me. But he doesn’t know what drives him to use the club, to menace with the gun and to use the cattle prod. Something awful must have happened to a human being to be able to put a cattle prod against a woman’s breasts, for example. What happens to the woman is ghastly. What happens to the man who does it is in some ways much, much worse. — James Baldwin

imagination is seeing the world differently. creativity is bringing imagination to life. — michael bobbitt

oppression will only disappear when people that hold power are willing to cede privilege. — michael bobbitt

Doing it right is hard. Doing it over is harder. — James Clear

I tell my kids, what is the difference between a hero and a coward? What is the difference between being [cowardly] and being brave? No difference. Only what you do. They both feel the same. They both fear dying and getting hurt. The man who is [cowardly] refuses to face up to what he’s got to face. The hero is more disciplined and he fights those feelings off and he does what he has to do. But they both feel the same, the hero and the coward. People who watch you judge you on what you do, not how you feel. — Cus D’amato

Not every problem needs to be overcome, just the ones stopping you from getting where you want to be. — Ann Hill
attention is the currency that you pay for the life you want. — cyndi suarez

poetry

unknown title

Deluded, a Buddha is an individual being;
Awakened, an individual being is a Buddha.
Ignorant, a Buddha is an individual being;
With wisdom, an individual being is a Buddha.
If the mind is warped, a Buddha is an individual being;
If the mind is impartial, an individual being is a Buddha.
When once a warped mind is produced,
Buddha is concealed within the individual being.
If for one instant of thought we become impartial,
Then individual beings are themselves Buddha.
In our own mind itself a Buddha exists,
Our own Buddha is the true Buddha.
If we do not have in ourselves the Buddha mind,
Then where are we to seek Buddha? —

THE PLATFORM SUTRA OF THE SIXTH PATRIARCH THE TEXT OF THE TUN-HUANG MANUSCRIPT with TRANSLATION, INTRODUCTION, AND NOTES by PHILIP B. YAMPOLSKY (sorry for the caps, it was a copy-paste job and i’m too lazy to change it)