Comments on: the value of not speaking…

By: Weekend Link Love « The Feminist Texican

Weekend Link Love « The Feminist Texican — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:03:10 +0000

[...] Flip Flopping Joy: The Value of Not Speaking… [...]

By: Nora

Nora — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:27:29 +0000

This post makes me think of two things:
*Natalie Goldberg talking about her Zen teacher telling her that writing IS her practice (I think in “Writing Down the Bones”)
*the lojong slogan, “Self-liberate even the antidote.”

By: Ahianna Nia

Ahianna Nia — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:11:17 +0000

I was a practicing Buddhist back in the day and it seems you’re at the beginning of that journey. So, I don’t want to say too much, because discovery is a wonderful thing. I will say that after a long time of practice I still had questions about how to be. I found the answers in Martin Buber’s I and Thou. Ultimately, it is about right thinking, right action, right intention, and so on. Good luck on this journey.

By: Amapola

Amapola — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 05:36:21 +0000

there is so much in here, bfp.

it makes me think back the post you wrote a while back this summer about surrender/subjugation… as folks who’ve been silenced, speaking and writing are such vital, powerful tools, and so damn needed. they are ways to cope, ways to fight back, ways to survive. (all the stuff you said & more…) and especially for folks to whom speaking out & telling their truth did not come easily or naturally, it can be such a fundamental reclaiming, affirming action. but where it makes me think of your old post… it’s like, same as you have to know you can resist for submission to be something other than oppression, you have to know you can speak before you can choose silence as an empowered choice.

but then that’s such an amazing, powerful place to be– even though sitting with feelings is hands down one of my least favorite things to do– because it really is opening up this whole new world of options for how to cope, how to live, how to feel (not the emotions themselves, but the way we experience them)… i’m not sure how coherent i’m being. but reading what you wrote i can see this whole process of unveilings (it’s very colorful cartoonish video in my head) & i relate. & seriously admire your ability to sit it out in the quiet and wait. it’s not something i have been able to do very many times in my life, & it is damn hard & painful. but you learn a lot…

much love xx

By: D. Potter

D. Potter — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:30:17 +0000

Wow.

That was powerful.

By: Chuckie K

Chuckie K — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 03:59:45 +0000

I’d say part of the point is being concrete and immediate. The question would not be is “writing” whatever, but is ‘this particular writing’ an effective response and intervention.

By: K

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:37:56 +0000

is writing an act of running away

Ooh. Ouch. Mmmaybe, sometimes.

On the one hand: Sometimes I feel like I need that distance from it; I have to have it out of me and onto something else in order to cut it down enough so it’s not all BIG SCARY INSURMOUNTABLE; I have to have it scaled down to human-size to deal with.

On the other hand, that’s a distancing mechanism, right? And the more distance, the more potential for distortion. It’s like a game of telephone: Sometimes what I think I’m confronting when I write is not actually what I am/need to be confronting. Say I’m pissed at my mother but can’t deal with that, no no no, so BOOM! it must be that I’m pissed at some woman on the internet! I’ll write about that! Whereas if I sat with it more there might be that confusion.

Fuck, bfp, you go some deep places. And I’m sad to learn there’s still no kitty.

By: bianca

bianca — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 02:13:20 +0000

i think we (or at least many of us) do a lot of important work silently and quietly. My belief is that there is a balance we can find without losing our voice. this is important to share so thank you for starting this reflexive reflection.