Allan G. Hunter's Blog, page 84

The Rewards of Writing

Working with writers, either on their books or on the deep exploration of the self, is what I'm all about. It's the individual's personal progress that interests me more than the 'rewards' of money.

All of which has to do with the email I've been receiving recently, where strangers have taken the time out to wing me a few words that have said, basically: the exercises in your books work really well, and have moved me forwards. I like these letters. They make me smile, because I know that the what has happened has been a genuine empowerment. My books are just objects on a shelf until someone comes along with a motivated, inquiring mind, and starts to use what's on the pages. And that's when the fireworks start to go off. People get free. They see joy in their lives. The sun shines again.

We are not here to pile up dollar bills. We are here to get free, and we can only do that by understanding how the locks on our prison doors can be undone. Then we can nudge others to decode their own locks, so we can meet outside the gates.

These are the rewards of writing.

Planting the Seeds

Yesterday a friend told me about working with some third graders in their school's designated garden, and she told me with pleasure about how some of the children volunteered to skip recess so they could keep planting.

Heartwarming, yes. Better yet is the message that is coming across, gently.

If we show our children where food comes from, and what it means to work the soil, wait for the seeds to grow, and then take care of the crop, we are doing something important. It's not just a science experiment. When children know how much effort it takes to grow food they'll be less likely to waste food. They'll look at food differently, and be thoughtful about what they choose to eat. They'll treat the earth, and themselves, with more respect. We'll help to move them, perhaps, closer to a real appreciation of our environment.

We're going to need that sort of knowledge in our new generation of citizens.

The Battle of Hastings

Yesterday a swarm of sturdy re-enactors gathered at Hastings, in England, on the very field where the battle was fought in 1066. The last Saxon king of England, Harold, died there, and William, Duke of Normandy, became king.

And suddenly the whole country had to learn medieval French. All the existing power structures were changed and handed over to French nobles, and England would never be the same again. The Saxons were, effectively, frozen out of everything.

The upshot was that England became a 'modern' country; the English language absorbed the French language and became unimaginably rich and varied, and an ancient way of life died out forever. Paganism was out, for instance.

In case you think that the re-enactors are just a bunch of 350 louts who would do anything for a punch-up I have a surprise for you. Many of the carefully costumed 'warriors' marshaled yesterday were in fact women, not all of them young, and that they were to a great extent taking part in a ritual that acknowledges the way things must change. In so doing they affirmed the hand-over, for better and for worse.

All Quiet on the Western Front

Yes, it has been a little quiet right here on this blog. Thank you, all those of you who wrote in privately to ask what was going on. The answer, as of course you know, is that writing was going on - still is, actually. The new book The Path of Synchronicity is all tidied away and ready to go. It discusses the way that literature assumes the existence of synchronous events, but these only appear when the main characters have achieved a certain level of awareness that allows them to comprehend the workings of fate. It then asks, if this is true in literature, why not in life?

While that's been going forwards I've also been working on a text about ritual and myth; a discussion how they function (or fail to) and what we might need to learn about ourselves and our needs from this. I'll call it Choosing Ritual, Living the Mythic Experience, I think.

Add in an article for Counseling Children and Young People magazine in the UK; a proposal for a psychology conference on how we make meaning, and you'll see I've been busy.

In fact, my poor little typing fingers, both of them, are feeling rather battered just now.

Fun, Fun, Fun

A colleague of mine, who has worked counseling mostly white middle-class students for some forty years, remarked that the most common complaint he has from those who come to him these days is 'I'm not having any fun'.

Closer inquiry reveals the lamentable fact that many students in college don't actually know how to have 'fun' without drink, drugs, electronic equipment, or some other consumer durable, or without going somewhere to 'do' something. Skiing, surf-boarding, roller-blading, and so ...

The Lilou Interviews #3

In this discussion we move to a consideration of how the Grimm brothers' tales look at the Shadow, the Animus and Anima, and how important it is to know about the descent into the self.

Grimm's Tales

This is the second of the Lilou Mace interviews (there will be three in total) about Princes, Frogs and Ugly Sisters. This time the focus is on Cinderella.

New Video - interview with Lilou Mace

Princes, Frogs and Ugly Sisters

Gunther Grass and Grimm

Grimm's tales and autobiography are topics close to my heart, so you can imagine my delight at today's news. Nobel Laureate Gunther Grass's new book is called Grimms' Words; A Declaration of Love. He says it's his last autobiography.

One thing he does, even before one opens the book, is acknowledge the brothers Grimm as serious and dedicated researchers; devoted lexicographers, passionate about words and history. That's such a relief when one discovers that even if 20% of Americans think...

Journaling

Tolstoy used to write his journal, excavating his inmost thoughts to commit them to paper, every day, He'd bare his soul about, well, everything. Then ,because he was Tolstoy, he'd leave the thing open on his desk so that anyone in the house who wanted to know what he was thinking could wander over and read.

It's an interesting example of 'open' communication. And yet - the gardener or parlor maid wound up knowing exactly what he thought of his wife, children, friends, and so on.

At what...