The Proprioception of Power


Finding what needs to be said is a challenge. In large part it requires letting go of reacting to things and getting caught-up in complaining. Chasing disappointment… It requires allowing the force of what is not being said to make itself felt. This is a combination of internal listening with sampling what comes to usContinue reading “The Proprioception of Power”

Telling Strength from Power


A useful image occurred to me. Strength is what we use when we break free of a rut. Power runs us harder along the same old trail, bouncing through the ruts until we destroy ourselves. Strength is a capacity. Power is an external source of energy. Power seduces. It gets “results.” It’s just that theyContinue reading “Telling Strength from Power”

A hint concerning a relationship with power


What if the trouble with power is in our insistence that it can be accumulated, stored, and then controlled by will? If this were the case, the trouble with power dissolves when we accept that it exists. It moves through and around us, and we have access to it, and can influence its direction andContinue reading “A hint concerning a relationship with power”

Brené Brown, The Power of Vulnerability


Casting about looking for what to write about I found this talk by Brené Brown. I groaned at the start, with the quote about nothing being worth study unless it was measurable, then went on to find her expressing so much of the crux of our predicament and talking about it with clarity and aContinue reading “Brené Brown, The Power of Vulnerability”

Imagine that Power wasn’t a zero-sum game.


This should be easier than it seems, Power isn’t a zero-sum game, not real Power. Let’s set up the parameters of a conceptual equation. Power exists in an unstable relationship with Control and Faith. Those without Faith in anything beyond themselves – actual, not professed Faith – also, unsurprisingly, feel a strong need to maintainContinue reading “Imagine that Power wasn’t a zero-sum game.”

Investing in Trust


Investment is generally taken to mean following a strategy that allows us to siphon off value. A way of taking value from a living system and turning it into a quantity of abstract financial counters that we can then hold so as to use these at will to gain advantage. We strip a living webContinue reading “Investing in Trust”

Whiteness, a Community of Narcissists


This post was drafted in August of 2015. At the time I was concerned whether it was complete enough. Whether it said enough. On looking it over today I am struck by how this theme has continued to strike us day after day. And how little, outside of the works of James Baldwin and hisContinue reading “Whiteness, a Community of Narcissists”

On Reflection… part 2


There have been times when it has seemed appropriate to appeal to the metaphor of a snake shedding its skin. This last year brings to mind a different serpentine behavior, stupor induced by the effort to digest an enormous meal. An Anaconda at these times can be mistaken for a fallen tree trunk….