Why subscribe?
We are living through a pivotal moment in human history when the civic, spiritual, and natural foundations of society are all breaking down together. At the same time, I assert that we have the collective wisdom we need navigate this moment, but this wisdom is scattered.
The goal of this space is to do that organizational work, framed as a process of negotiating reality, that is needed to help us work through our crisis era. We will reckon with and learn from our past, draw upon and honor what we know from science, philosophy, and the humanities, and do what we need to do to grow into a future where our children, grandchildren, and seven generations beyond can live in societies that grows from and nurture mutual flourishing.
This podcast will draw from and seek to honor, respect, and be in resonance with three broad sources of wisdom. First, philosophy, physical and social sciences, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or what I call “the objective way.” Second, spirituality, religion, and the humanities, such as insights from Christianity, Yoga (the spiritual practice), Buddhism, and Integral practices and insights from history, tragedy, and the arts, which I’ll call ""spirit’s way.”1 Third, practices in learning from, living in reciprocity with, and in gratitude for nature and life, with a particular focus on Indigenous practices and wisdom as I understand them, which I’ll call “nature’s way”.2
I hope that we can explore and come up with some common sense and shared natural, spiritual, and civic foundations that enable us to better attune to life, love, light, and mutual flourishing.
While that is the hope, I also recognize that this sort of activity can only be done with others, hence the title, “Negotiating Reality.” I’m not trying to persuade you or tell you what you should believe. Instead, I’m hoping we can engage in a discussion and negotiation to do this organizing and curating together.
What to expect
In this space you will receive the following types of posts:
Aphorism episodes: An aphorism is a pithy summary or insight that contains some deeper wisdom, such as the phrase, actions speak louder than words or never judge a book by its cover. In these episodes, I’ll propose a pithy aphorism, short phrase, or concept (henceforth called aphorism), provide background information on where it came from, highlight the ways in which the aphorism is resonant with the three ways of knowing, and then offer some ideas on how we might use the aphorism to help us navigate towards societies aligned with life, love, light, and mutual flourishing. The hope is that, over time, we will be developing a range of common sense aphorisms that we can draw upon in our daily lives.
Negotiation episodes. After I post aphorism episodes, I will seek to negotiate the aphorism with others. I will reach out to people I reference and ask them if they would be willing to join me in a recorded conversation. The goal will be to explore if we might come to some shared understandings, explore areas of disagreement, and explore boundaries on when, where, and for whom the aphorism might be appropriate as well as when they will not be and could even produce harm. While I will target people I reference, as well as people I have a hunch may disagree with me, I would also be very interested in staging negotiation episodes with audience members! If you are interested, send me a message and share a bit more about what you’d like to negotiate together and we can explore this as a possibility!
Supplemental materials. While this space is primarily a podcast, I personally always appreciate podcasts that offer supplemental materials for people who want to dig in more deeply. With that in mind, my plan is write text only posts of supplemental materials that audience members might find valuable, but with no real expectation that anyone will read these. I’ve already created some text only posts that you can read now about me and my background and papers about the process. I’m doing this so that you, the listener, can know more about the my “bubble” of reality (and, as a quick aside, I’ve also written a post about what I mean by the word, bubble, too, feel free to check it out!). I want you to know what my bubble is, so that you can gauge when I’m speaking from experience vs. those times when you might have a better grasp on reality than I do. If you do notice times when you might have a better grasp on some facet of reality than me, please let me know and share your wisdom! I am very interested in learning and growing together!
Scheduled Chats. From time to time, I plan to schedule staged chat times to be online with others and discuss the episodes or anything else coming up from the episodes. This will be used to support a low-burden way for audience members to jump in on the negotiation, if they want to!
Brief notes. I’ll use the notes option in Substack to explore contemporary ideas and concerns.
If this sounds good, please subscribe so you can listen in and join the negotiation.
Also, if you can think of anyone else who might be interested in joining the negotiations, please share this space with them.
I focus on these spiritual traditions because I have first-hand knowledge of them. In the spirit of negotiating reality, I would love to learn about other spiritual ways of being, becoming, and doing. Please do reach out and share so we can explore together, perhaps on one of the “negotiation” podcast episodes.
I recognize that I do not have deep wisdom and practice in this area and I’m very mindful of the risk of colonizing and cultural appropriation. With that said, in line with Professor and Citizen Potawatomi Robin Wall Kimmerer’s sharing of the Seventh Flame Prophecy, and given the inherent interconnections between Indigenous Culture and Western Culture in the United States, I feel compelled to listen, honor, learn from, and, hopefully, be able to eventually grow and be in kinship with Indigenous ways of being, becoming, and doing. With this, when I draw on Indigenous ways of being, becoming, and, doing, I will seek guidance from Indigenous friend, leaders, and Elders, including our Elders, the plants, animals, and other living, sentient beings that were here before us.
