Hope you are recovered soon from your injury. Your remarks here about the way in which physical injuries articulate emotional distress are very wise. And I love the snails! I had one for a pet, and they taught me so much.
Credentialism will soon go by the way of the dinosaur. It’s mostly “experts” to blame for almost all tragic unfolding and panic responses, covid being no exception. People who wear their degrees and labels on their sleeves signify how indoctrinated they’ve allowed themselves to be. Not that you can’t get something out of higher learning. It’s just that if I had graduated from Oxford, I wouldn’t be going around telling people that, making it a part of my pretext for my knowledge.
I consider myself well read, but like you, Rhyd, I never got any kind of degree. I always try to keep in mind the quote from Ptahhotep, the Egyptian philosopher: Do not be arrogant because of your knowledge, but confer with the ignorant man as with the learned. For knowledge has no limits, and none has yet achieved perfection in it.
The University / bastard intellectual thing: I have ideas about this. From the outside, it seems to me that what Universities offer above all is a kind of protective structure; a framework to inhabit. To be as we are (Eula Biss calls it 'an essayist, a citizen thinker') is to be solitary, or at least to exist intellectually within webs of connection that are more organic, less formal; and with fewer / different rules. (It's a jungle out there, and when one's ideas or selfhood are attacked, there's no fortress to fall back to.)
The counterpoint- the benefit- is that the wild mind is more diverse. The autodidact's perspective, the true outsider's voice, is freer and stranger and often just as interesting, if not more interesting. Please forgive the self-promotion, but I wrote a tiny essay about this phenomenon, more or less the first thing I wrote on Substack:
I’ve found practicing somatics to be a great way to relieve tension and pain in the body. And you’re absolutely right about the psychological aspects to holding your body in this posture! (along with the chronic computer slouch that many of us have). Hope you feel better soon!
Hope you are recovered soon from your injury. Your remarks here about the way in which physical injuries articulate emotional distress are very wise. And I love the snails! I had one for a pet, and they taught me so much.
Credentialism will soon go by the way of the dinosaur. It’s mostly “experts” to blame for almost all tragic unfolding and panic responses, covid being no exception. People who wear their degrees and labels on their sleeves signify how indoctrinated they’ve allowed themselves to be. Not that you can’t get something out of higher learning. It’s just that if I had graduated from Oxford, I wouldn’t be going around telling people that, making it a part of my pretext for my knowledge.
I consider myself well read, but like you, Rhyd, I never got any kind of degree. I always try to keep in mind the quote from Ptahhotep, the Egyptian philosopher: Do not be arrogant because of your knowledge, but confer with the ignorant man as with the learned. For knowledge has no limits, and none has yet achieved perfection in it.
The University / bastard intellectual thing: I have ideas about this. From the outside, it seems to me that what Universities offer above all is a kind of protective structure; a framework to inhabit. To be as we are (Eula Biss calls it 'an essayist, a citizen thinker') is to be solitary, or at least to exist intellectually within webs of connection that are more organic, less formal; and with fewer / different rules. (It's a jungle out there, and when one's ideas or selfhood are attacked, there's no fortress to fall back to.)
The counterpoint- the benefit- is that the wild mind is more diverse. The autodidact's perspective, the true outsider's voice, is freer and stranger and often just as interesting, if not more interesting. Please forgive the self-promotion, but I wrote a tiny essay about this phenomenon, more or less the first thing I wrote on Substack:
https://rosiewhinray.substack.com/p/the-pupu-tarakihipaper-nautilus-method
Congrats on the book! I look forward to reading it!
Your description of your injury correlates with the Red Light Reflex as described in Clinical Somatic Education: https://learnsomatics.ie/neck-and-shoulder-pain-and-the-red-light-reflex/
I’ve found practicing somatics to be a great way to relieve tension and pain in the body. And you’re absolutely right about the psychological aspects to holding your body in this posture! (along with the chronic computer slouch that many of us have). Hope you feel better soon!