Well well Madelaine. I not only understand, but agree with much of this. Please continue with the podcasts - it is good to hear your thoughts in plain language.
Hey Madelaine! Glad there was life for you in those images from my Empty Hands post. And good to get reacquainted with Merleau-Ponty through your words and the connections that you're weaving here. He's one of those thinkers I've never engaged with directly, but who stands at the back of the work of others who have mattered to me a good deal. I'm thinking of David Abram and John Berger, in particular, both of whom have drawn on the well of his thinking.
About the ongoing presence of the past, one way I find myself thinking about this is that the meaning of the past remains up for grabs – not just in the sense of us projecting different interpretations onto the materials available, but because the significance of any event lies in its consequences, and consequences by definition tend to come afterwards, and so what happens now can change the meaning of what happened earlier, activating different lines of possibility, blowing on coals that looked as though they had gone out but turn out still to have life in them. So the rupture can be not simply a break, but a realignment of relation to the past, breaking the spell of certain causal threads, reanimating others that looked to have been dead ends. When so much has happened already – and, as Stephen Jenkinson would say, it's already too late for many things – I find a subtle hope in this way of approaching our place within time. All of which runs aslant of the threads you were tracing in the podcast, but was stirred up in any case as I was listening.
Dougald, yes! I’ve been thinking about this also, referring to it a sort-of “time travel” in my notes. I often think of time through a soil metaphor, where what’s happening atop also shifts what’s going on below (and also above in the air). And so what seems gone is never gone for good, but always hold within it the possibility to be transformed in some unexpected way.
And I love the coals metaphor. I, like you, find some hope in this. Thanks for listening :)
Oh, I love this line of thinking....'breaking the spell of certain causal threads, reanimating others".....yes, so hopeful, such richness of thought and possibilities, as you say. I am a gardener, so layers from the past working within the present makes so much sense. Big fan of Abram and Jenkinson, will have to look up John Berger, I am not familiar with his work. So many wonderful thinkers and writers chatting together, this is hopeful too, is it not? And their conversations - including yours - are living examples of these matters Madelaine discusses.
"Historical thickness", isn't that a good phrase? Loved this wandering podcast, Madelaine. Listened to it twice to get the full weight of it. When you speak of experiential philosophy, I hear, in my field, mystical spirituality, that is the intentional living out of one's spirituality in the day to day dog trot of life. And this is a sweet thought Merleau-Ponty - and you - bring to us - this idea of the atmosphere of a person's presence. I attended a recent retreat with Cynthia Bourgelault, and she was teaching on this very thing, the atmosphere that we gather around us, deep with all that we are, but rich in all the many who have interacted with us, taught us, affected us, given us life. We think of ourselves as solitary creatures, but we are indeed atmospheres, clouds, ribbons of being attached to so much than what is seen. Thank you for the time and thought you put into your posts.
Well well Madelaine. I not only understand, but agree with much of this. Please continue with the podcasts - it is good to hear your thoughts in plain language.
I look forward to the next offering.
A playful and artful philosophy is certainly in sight. :)
Wow words to wonder about and with this morning I feel I have been dancing with Maddy Mountain. Thank you for the Wisdom
Thanks, Connie!
Hey Madelaine! Glad there was life for you in those images from my Empty Hands post. And good to get reacquainted with Merleau-Ponty through your words and the connections that you're weaving here. He's one of those thinkers I've never engaged with directly, but who stands at the back of the work of others who have mattered to me a good deal. I'm thinking of David Abram and John Berger, in particular, both of whom have drawn on the well of his thinking.
About the ongoing presence of the past, one way I find myself thinking about this is that the meaning of the past remains up for grabs – not just in the sense of us projecting different interpretations onto the materials available, but because the significance of any event lies in its consequences, and consequences by definition tend to come afterwards, and so what happens now can change the meaning of what happened earlier, activating different lines of possibility, blowing on coals that looked as though they had gone out but turn out still to have life in them. So the rupture can be not simply a break, but a realignment of relation to the past, breaking the spell of certain causal threads, reanimating others that looked to have been dead ends. When so much has happened already – and, as Stephen Jenkinson would say, it's already too late for many things – I find a subtle hope in this way of approaching our place within time. All of which runs aslant of the threads you were tracing in the podcast, but was stirred up in any case as I was listening.
Dougald, yes! I’ve been thinking about this also, referring to it a sort-of “time travel” in my notes. I often think of time through a soil metaphor, where what’s happening atop also shifts what’s going on below (and also above in the air). And so what seems gone is never gone for good, but always hold within it the possibility to be transformed in some unexpected way.
And I love the coals metaphor. I, like you, find some hope in this. Thanks for listening :)
Oh, I love this line of thinking....'breaking the spell of certain causal threads, reanimating others".....yes, so hopeful, such richness of thought and possibilities, as you say. I am a gardener, so layers from the past working within the present makes so much sense. Big fan of Abram and Jenkinson, will have to look up John Berger, I am not familiar with his work. So many wonderful thinkers and writers chatting together, this is hopeful too, is it not? And their conversations - including yours - are living examples of these matters Madelaine discusses.
"Historical thickness", isn't that a good phrase? Loved this wandering podcast, Madelaine. Listened to it twice to get the full weight of it. When you speak of experiential philosophy, I hear, in my field, mystical spirituality, that is the intentional living out of one's spirituality in the day to day dog trot of life. And this is a sweet thought Merleau-Ponty - and you - bring to us - this idea of the atmosphere of a person's presence. I attended a recent retreat with Cynthia Bourgelault, and she was teaching on this very thing, the atmosphere that we gather around us, deep with all that we are, but rich in all the many who have interacted with us, taught us, affected us, given us life. We think of ourselves as solitary creatures, but we are indeed atmospheres, clouds, ribbons of being attached to so much than what is seen. Thank you for the time and thought you put into your posts.