Everything Fragments
Even more innumerable than sand grains and stars
Have you noticed a proliferation of newspapers becoming magazines and magazines becoming newsletters, and none of this is on paper, it’s online and in your inbox, and too much? Like walk-on characters in a beloved series suddenly given full shows of their own, star writers are given entire weekly newsletters sent to your email. It’s a thing now.
Since my inboxes are already hyper-saturated I have to ignore these until I finally admit defeat and unsubscribe, much like leftovers kept in the fridge, then saved in the freezer until enough time has passed that they can be legitimately composted.
It is all more words than anyone can possibly take in. So why then am I still writing my newsletter to you - when it may not be opened or if read, barely scanned, or - best question - why should you read what I have to say?
Because we don’t want information, we yearn for connection. In my newsletter I’m not just taking all this in, I’m taking it into my heart, and reporting back to you on how it feels to me. I’m hoping that my words can help add vocabulary to your experience too, and that my exploring will yield some understanding somehow.
My words to you are my connection to you - like a vine sending out a tendril. (I heard it through the grapevine.) I try to keep this whole thing in little random sections, because I know that if you are at all like me, you just can’t read much when there are too many words in one go, even with a 2 minute, or 4 minute reading time notification. There are bound to be leftovers that you won’t ever get back to.
Everything fragments. As the proliferations become even more innumerable, ideas are floating around that we are not actually individuals, but instead are networks of a variety of beings all housed in this one seeming being/self.
This is nothing new. It is fully congruent with Buddhist philosophy and world-view. The 5 Skandhas were translated as heaps, aggregates, collections, or groupings. Perhaps we will now be able to see them as networks. It seems like someone is an individual, but look again. As Gertrude Stein told us about the Oakland of her childhood, “There is no there there.”
Some stellar templates
Our shared awareness of current global intensities brings us together on the inside, making us aware of ourselves and each other in new ways. But we have yet to decode the meaning of all these shifts and changes. I see my newsletter as part of that scanning, like a weather report, only on the inside. I’m reporting on the silent reach, subconscious contact, the underground river and some stellar templates.
I’m reminded of James K-M’s “Dippers”, the big and little dipper constellations shown as floor pieces made of spray-painted metal faucet handles. Hot and Cold. Is there a way to turn the handle and adjust the stellar flow?
Most obscure newsletter?
Driving on Google’s Memory Lane, something went rogue, and my car swerved off-grid, took an unexpected sharp turn off the map entirely. At the British Society for the Turin Shroud I stopped at an enigmatic image - a triangle of tape on their newsletter cover. Why? Were they scrying? And who would ever have guessed that there is something called “Shroud Newsletter”?
It’s a beautiful blue sky afternoon on Sept. 1st, 2021. I’m closing the laptop now. See you next time! If you wish, please add a comment below.
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Yes, you and I are sending out little tendrils of connection in very similar ways. Musing together when our hearts are connecting. Whatever way that happens, I'm for it!
Love the Marvin Gaye reference. Also a big fan of the Shroud of Turin. I like the way that sounds. Do you think there's more and more out there from people who are overwhelmed by incoming? There certainly should be. Thank you for articulating the overwhelm.