Circle 005, 16 September 2020

Two teenagers arrived for todays session. There was much laugher and they were committed to see the task to the end. Later that evening one of the girls repeated the entire process by herself at home!

I am deliberately keeping participants identity anonymous especially the younger ones. I only mention people by name if I have their permission to do so. A huge shoutout to Sören for his facilitation, attention and presence. His commitment to Service is inspiring.

 

To paint a picture of how these sessions have been.

Epic, the youth center, where the last three session have been, is very noisy. As a result participants strain to hear me. Coupled with English as a second language, talking is awkward and frustrating. The teenagers did give me some lessons in Swedish! Not much verbal communication takes place. Visually, most of the time, from my side, I look into a vacant screen, as the participants are out of viewing range! In spite of this, I did sense togetherness and presence.

This has led me to reflect on the broader scope of the Distancio project. My take on the project is...'The vision of Distancio draws people of disparate [global] and specific [local] places together. Art is used to navigate ways through the dis-location and tensions arising from globalization and its chafing the local.'

Technology has been a major force in the 'globalising' of humanity. What gets lost or sacrificed in the process is the local. I define the local as the specific locality/geography of my physical, cultural and psycho/spiritual centre of gravity. This is anchored in my body and a specific geography. By beaming ourselves into tiny bits through the cyber-sphere not only do we sacrifice our locality, we loose our bodies. We become disembodied. Without my body I loose my Self.

Identity politics seems to attempt to address this. But by attempting to create belonging through socio-political means, a terrifying form of tribalism has been created. It's attempting to address things from the outside. Real change only happens from the inside. This is why culture and spirituality is so very important. Unfortunately the commanding general of I.P. is Political Correctness, a cultural strategy which effectively snuffs the psycho/cultural/spiritual spaces were Humanity's immune system is rooted. I have found identity to separate and not include, hence Untelling Stories.

Currently there is much critical discussion in the media about the effects of technology and especially social media impact on our psyches. Maybe a deep dive into the Prometheus myth can guide us.