there's some hope in an increasing number of people reaching this point of acceptance beyond despair... some of my favorite thinkers (Kingsnorth, Hine, Eisenstein, etc.) have all being echoing similar sentiments recently. God willing, there is enough momentum to take us past the point of terror and into something—if not happier—at least more determined.
it might be too late to patch the hole in the hull; maybe there's still time to launch the lifeboats effectively, if we keep our wits about us.
This piece resonates, Jack. It's a relief when someone just admits how bad/scary/intractable the problems are. And yes, most of the time I can tell that people don't want to -- or aren't able to-- hear that and so must act more optimistically to be socially tolerable.
It feels like a sort of stretching. This learning to love more deeply and more patiently. I still think that getting out to some farm land makes sense in a very practical way for our family but it seems no doors have opened yet. The one that appeared perfect was snatched up by a full price bid. We have also been needed here by extended family. I feel a sense like you describe that it doesn't matter if we never actualize this idea of a getaway. Maybe the hour is too late for any such efforts. The real tragedy would be if I failed in my opportunities for loving. I have failed in these many times, in fact. This is the project.
Thanks to Girard I realized how much I have allowed myself resentment for the extremely wealthy who are moving into my town and gentrifying it. I see that I must love them. This is a huge change. love them while refusing to join in their lifestyle and their culture. No dark corners where resentment is allowed. No scapegoating.
All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.
Thank you so much for bringing up (and reminding) me of Julian of Norwich's conclusio to it all.
Yes, it's all wrong, it's all horribly wrong, and seems to be a caleidoscope of whirling pieces of misery, each in its own shape and form - and yet, behind this relentless dance and whirl there stands the "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." It's THERE, I can feel it although I can't give it a name.
And it seems to me that if Julian of Norwich, who as a denizen of a less developed and affluent era has seen so many more of the caleidoscopic pieces, says that all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well - she MEANS it, and it must be true, and my own conviction that it's there must be based on solid ground, too.
Thanks Jack, you strike a chord, however desperate that feels. I hope things are not quite so dire for us all! During lockdown I decided to learn some psalms off by heart. Psalm 46 was one of those I did and it is one I love and repeat often to myself. I think my favourite lines are: The Nations rage, the kingdoms' totter, He utters His voice, the earth melts'. It is such a proclamation of His absolure power.
This was a difficult but important read. I too fall into the trap of reading and reading in the hope that truly understanding our predicament would be a way to transform it.
And when I imagine how I could help repair things, making art/writing leap first to mind.
But what I think would really help, even infinitesimally, would be to grow food and build community locally. This could involve some writing; it would involve a lot of doing.
Julian of Norwich! So deep and so difficult. I have read only the short text, though I've pulled the long text from the shelf it's been lurking for a few years at your reminder. Glancing near the start, I see 'and I longed to suffer with him'. What a line. It reminds me of that other great mystic, Weil, and how incomprehensible and extreme even the philosophers who argue she is significant seem to find her.
Her cry makes sense to me, yet my own longing to suffer is a muted shadowy thing. Am I better or worse than the philosophers? I have no idea.
Blessed freedom indeed. Thank you for this reflection and reminder to turn away from all the noise and clamor and attend to what truly matters. There are two things I keep coming back to that help pull me from the temptation to despair or to lose myself in abstraction. The first is a quote from St. John Chrysostom in a letter written to a spiritual child of his, St. Olympia:
"Therefore, do not be cast down, I beseech you. For there is only one thing, Olympia, to fear, only one real temptation, and that is sin. This is the refrain that I keep chanting to you ceaselessly. For everything else is ultimately a fable – whether you speak of plots, or enmities, or deceptions, or slanders, or abuses, or accusations, or confiscations, or banishments, or sharpened swords, or high seas, or war engulfing the entire world. Whichever of these you point to, they are transitory and perishable, and they only affect mortal bodies; they cannot in any way injure the watchful soul. This is why, wishing to express the paltriness of both the good and the bad things of this present life, the blessed Paul stated the matter in one phrase, saying, 'For the things that are seen are transient' (2 Cor. 4:18).”
And the other is this lovely blog post from Orthodox priest, Fr. Stephen Freeman, "Doing the Good You Can Do":
Or is there? As you say, maybe this just simply brings the folly of the last couple of centuries, give or take, into clearer focus.
You say "I can even love that I was born and came of age in an upside-down time such as this. " Speaking personally I doubt I'd be where I am now, newly liberated by my recently uncovered faith, had this not been the case (I say uncovered, you could say revealed. It's always been there, but it's been a long subconscious battle to stop turning away from it).
The current state of humanity just makes it easier to accept that those voices, those doubts, they were right all along.
No one knows how it will all unfold, but unfold it must. What's on the other side and whether any of us will experience it, I have no idea.
But accepting this, as another great mystery or journey, and going with the flow, has to better than stressing over the unfixable.
A friend whose husband had just died asked what happens after we die. I said “We are received.” She said “What about all the work we’ve done on ourselves?” I said “All of who we are is welcome.” This is where I’m at.
Just a quick comment on the opening paragraph, but what immediately leapt to mind was a LH stroke. I increasingly look out and see the same. It began with cars. For me it’s not ‘it is wrong’, but ‘it doesn’t make sense’. We destroy creation in and through which God Is, and make these machines which tear at the fabric of all that really matters, relationships and community and reduce our bodies even further towards utterly useless and meaningless appendages.
What comes to mind are three words from Paul in Ephesians; “having lost all sensitivity” . . . to what is. The LH isn’t involved in coherence or sense making and crucially has no concept of Livingness.
As we also face a ‘meaning crisis’ this is the other side of the coin. The fabric is that in which meaning coinheres. If everything is simply things there is no meaning.
We only truly know through contemplation and prayer. One of McGilchrist’s lacunae I humbly submit is reducing truth seeking to Science, Reason and Intuition. He overemphasises Science, which is very LH dominant.
If you or I were king of the world, would things be so much better? In some ways, yes. I believe so. If I thought my thoughts were wrong, I wouldn’t think them. But we must never forget how complex the world is. We must never forget just how much unintentional suffering I would cause should my vision be realized.
For I; at my best, am limited. Are we truly superior to those that got us here? Or is criticism in hindsight simply easier than perfection of foresight? Didn’t decades of hard work by those, not too inferior to us, lead us here?
Am I not also tempted to believe in a utopia that only exists in my head?
I agree that the days are evil. But now, just like always, we must do what we would always have had to do: give the world our best; and ask God for his mercy.
Thank you for writing this. I come from a Quaker / buddhist background and I’ve been interested In Christian and Jewish mysticism for quite some time. Finding threads of writing like this helps give me hope and stillness, knowing that other people are perceiving in this the same way. It serves as a reminder to myself that equanimity is paramount at times like these. I had a dream recently about the apocalypse occurring and I let go and felt that everything would turn out alright. I’ve been trying to keep this in my mind with meditation and prayer, even while trying to find a way to sustain myself materially.
“In this sense, it is becoming increasingly difficult for me not to see our current civilization as anything other than a lie, and a sociopathic one at that.”
And many of our citizens will have sociopathic and/or narcissistic tendencies, cultivated from the earliest age: a self-adoring attitude (despite the inner sense of hollowness); a sense of right/wrong that is superficial and merely externalized (e.g., something is wrong only if the surveillance cameras catch us); an eroded inner conscience (so we can unleash our inner appetites without remorse); a view of life and humanity as a material thing (to be manipulated for pleasure or profit).
All this might last a generation; it will crumble; children are destiny, and a society that cannot raise children – one that increasingly does not want to be burdened with self-sacrificing long-term relationships – will not transmit much to the future, except perhaps a dim memory of its despair.
This comfort you speak of, throughout this piece, is important. Important, because of the perniciously distorting effects it creates. I truly believe, the kind of comfort we see in the world is a form of isolation. It is the comfort of isolation. Which means, it creates the 'set and setting' for delusion, of every kind, to rise and take hold. Take, for example, money. The comfort provided by hardly ever needing to think about money. What that amount of money 'isolates' one from. Entire philosophies are spun out of the delusion of such comfort. In other words, such comfort has a disembodying effect. It removes you from the movement of life, isolating you in a world of your own making, choosing. So few people today seem capable of challenging their own status, their own comfort, their own routine. Everyone immediately sets up a marketplace within the isolation their own form of comfort provides, and attempts to sell their 'wares' to anyone passing near. Like cattle, people shuffle from the isolating comfort of their family, to the isolating comfort of their schooling, to the isolating comfort of a career, a family of their own, a mortgage, old age, having never tested themselves. Having never stepped outside of their self-inflicted isolation. Never stepping far enough beyond their self-centring comfort to feel the tug of the tether around their neck. To hell, in the isolating comfort of one's own handbasket.
You are right about our comforts making us weak and sick and dependent on medical workers. And that's just the physiological aspect. I met a young father once with three little "stair step" boys. Wanting to help them overcome weakness, and willing to join them in it, he insisted they all take COLD SHOWERS on a regular basis. This was in the Rocky Mountains and their water was really very cold! I'Ve not been able to do this myself... even my efforts at self denial -- a Christian essential -- are wimpy.
Taoism is always chuckling about its own demise or reversals of fortune. In a few passages in the Classics practitioners are reminded in easy times to serve the people in government, and in difficult or chaotic times to hide out as hermits in the hills. and practice quietly, somewhat as you are doing... The Warring States period when Taoist writing flourished must have felt like this: constant war, displacement, famines, uncertainty. I think it's why I often find it so apt.
there's some hope in an increasing number of people reaching this point of acceptance beyond despair... some of my favorite thinkers (Kingsnorth, Hine, Eisenstein, etc.) have all being echoing similar sentiments recently. God willing, there is enough momentum to take us past the point of terror and into something—if not happier—at least more determined.
it might be too late to patch the hole in the hull; maybe there's still time to launch the lifeboats effectively, if we keep our wits about us.
This piece resonates, Jack. It's a relief when someone just admits how bad/scary/intractable the problems are. And yes, most of the time I can tell that people don't want to -- or aren't able to-- hear that and so must act more optimistically to be socially tolerable.
It feels like a sort of stretching. This learning to love more deeply and more patiently. I still think that getting out to some farm land makes sense in a very practical way for our family but it seems no doors have opened yet. The one that appeared perfect was snatched up by a full price bid. We have also been needed here by extended family. I feel a sense like you describe that it doesn't matter if we never actualize this idea of a getaway. Maybe the hour is too late for any such efforts. The real tragedy would be if I failed in my opportunities for loving. I have failed in these many times, in fact. This is the project.
Thanks to Girard I realized how much I have allowed myself resentment for the extremely wealthy who are moving into my town and gentrifying it. I see that I must love them. This is a huge change. love them while refusing to join in their lifestyle and their culture. No dark corners where resentment is allowed. No scapegoating.
Clara
All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.
Thank you so much for bringing up (and reminding) me of Julian of Norwich's conclusio to it all.
Yes, it's all wrong, it's all horribly wrong, and seems to be a caleidoscope of whirling pieces of misery, each in its own shape and form - and yet, behind this relentless dance and whirl there stands the "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well." It's THERE, I can feel it although I can't give it a name.
And it seems to me that if Julian of Norwich, who as a denizen of a less developed and affluent era has seen so many more of the caleidoscopic pieces, says that all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well - she MEANS it, and it must be true, and my own conviction that it's there must be based on solid ground, too.
Thanks Jack, you strike a chord, however desperate that feels. I hope things are not quite so dire for us all! During lockdown I decided to learn some psalms off by heart. Psalm 46 was one of those I did and it is one I love and repeat often to myself. I think my favourite lines are: The Nations rage, the kingdoms' totter, He utters His voice, the earth melts'. It is such a proclamation of His absolure power.
God bless you Jack
This was a difficult but important read. I too fall into the trap of reading and reading in the hope that truly understanding our predicament would be a way to transform it.
And when I imagine how I could help repair things, making art/writing leap first to mind.
But what I think would really help, even infinitesimally, would be to grow food and build community locally. This could involve some writing; it would involve a lot of doing.
Julian of Norwich! So deep and so difficult. I have read only the short text, though I've pulled the long text from the shelf it's been lurking for a few years at your reminder. Glancing near the start, I see 'and I longed to suffer with him'. What a line. It reminds me of that other great mystic, Weil, and how incomprehensible and extreme even the philosophers who argue she is significant seem to find her.
Her cry makes sense to me, yet my own longing to suffer is a muted shadowy thing. Am I better or worse than the philosophers? I have no idea.
Blessed freedom indeed. Thank you for this reflection and reminder to turn away from all the noise and clamor and attend to what truly matters. There are two things I keep coming back to that help pull me from the temptation to despair or to lose myself in abstraction. The first is a quote from St. John Chrysostom in a letter written to a spiritual child of his, St. Olympia:
"Therefore, do not be cast down, I beseech you. For there is only one thing, Olympia, to fear, only one real temptation, and that is sin. This is the refrain that I keep chanting to you ceaselessly. For everything else is ultimately a fable – whether you speak of plots, or enmities, or deceptions, or slanders, or abuses, or accusations, or confiscations, or banishments, or sharpened swords, or high seas, or war engulfing the entire world. Whichever of these you point to, they are transitory and perishable, and they only affect mortal bodies; they cannot in any way injure the watchful soul. This is why, wishing to express the paltriness of both the good and the bad things of this present life, the blessed Paul stated the matter in one phrase, saying, 'For the things that are seen are transient' (2 Cor. 4:18).”
And the other is this lovely blog post from Orthodox priest, Fr. Stephen Freeman, "Doing the Good You Can Do":
https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/glory2godforallthings/2021/01/20/doing-the-good-you-can-do-2/
Lovely piece Jack and much to ponder.
Or is there? As you say, maybe this just simply brings the folly of the last couple of centuries, give or take, into clearer focus.
You say "I can even love that I was born and came of age in an upside-down time such as this. " Speaking personally I doubt I'd be where I am now, newly liberated by my recently uncovered faith, had this not been the case (I say uncovered, you could say revealed. It's always been there, but it's been a long subconscious battle to stop turning away from it).
The current state of humanity just makes it easier to accept that those voices, those doubts, they were right all along.
No one knows how it will all unfold, but unfold it must. What's on the other side and whether any of us will experience it, I have no idea.
But accepting this, as another great mystery or journey, and going with the flow, has to better than stressing over the unfixable.
A friend whose husband had just died asked what happens after we die. I said “We are received.” She said “What about all the work we’ve done on ourselves?” I said “All of who we are is welcome.” This is where I’m at.
Just a quick comment on the opening paragraph, but what immediately leapt to mind was a LH stroke. I increasingly look out and see the same. It began with cars. For me it’s not ‘it is wrong’, but ‘it doesn’t make sense’. We destroy creation in and through which God Is, and make these machines which tear at the fabric of all that really matters, relationships and community and reduce our bodies even further towards utterly useless and meaningless appendages.
What comes to mind are three words from Paul in Ephesians; “having lost all sensitivity” . . . to what is. The LH isn’t involved in coherence or sense making and crucially has no concept of Livingness.
As we also face a ‘meaning crisis’ this is the other side of the coin. The fabric is that in which meaning coinheres. If everything is simply things there is no meaning.
We only truly know through contemplation and prayer. One of McGilchrist’s lacunae I humbly submit is reducing truth seeking to Science, Reason and Intuition. He overemphasises Science, which is very LH dominant.
Apologies for rambling :)
I hope you are well!
If you or I were king of the world, would things be so much better? In some ways, yes. I believe so. If I thought my thoughts were wrong, I wouldn’t think them. But we must never forget how complex the world is. We must never forget just how much unintentional suffering I would cause should my vision be realized.
For I; at my best, am limited. Are we truly superior to those that got us here? Or is criticism in hindsight simply easier than perfection of foresight? Didn’t decades of hard work by those, not too inferior to us, lead us here?
Am I not also tempted to believe in a utopia that only exists in my head?
I agree that the days are evil. But now, just like always, we must do what we would always have had to do: give the world our best; and ask God for his mercy.

Thank you for writing this. I come from a Quaker / buddhist background and I’ve been interested In Christian and Jewish mysticism for quite some time. Finding threads of writing like this helps give me hope and stillness, knowing that other people are perceiving in this the same way. It serves as a reminder to myself that equanimity is paramount at times like these. I had a dream recently about the apocalypse occurring and I let go and felt that everything would turn out alright. I’ve been trying to keep this in my mind with meditation and prayer, even while trying to find a way to sustain myself materially.
“In this sense, it is becoming increasingly difficult for me not to see our current civilization as anything other than a lie, and a sociopathic one at that.”
And many of our citizens will have sociopathic and/or narcissistic tendencies, cultivated from the earliest age: a self-adoring attitude (despite the inner sense of hollowness); a sense of right/wrong that is superficial and merely externalized (e.g., something is wrong only if the surveillance cameras catch us); an eroded inner conscience (so we can unleash our inner appetites without remorse); a view of life and humanity as a material thing (to be manipulated for pleasure or profit).
All this might last a generation; it will crumble; children are destiny, and a society that cannot raise children – one that increasingly does not want to be burdened with self-sacrificing long-term relationships – will not transmit much to the future, except perhaps a dim memory of its despair.
This comfort you speak of, throughout this piece, is important. Important, because of the perniciously distorting effects it creates. I truly believe, the kind of comfort we see in the world is a form of isolation. It is the comfort of isolation. Which means, it creates the 'set and setting' for delusion, of every kind, to rise and take hold. Take, for example, money. The comfort provided by hardly ever needing to think about money. What that amount of money 'isolates' one from. Entire philosophies are spun out of the delusion of such comfort. In other words, such comfort has a disembodying effect. It removes you from the movement of life, isolating you in a world of your own making, choosing. So few people today seem capable of challenging their own status, their own comfort, their own routine. Everyone immediately sets up a marketplace within the isolation their own form of comfort provides, and attempts to sell their 'wares' to anyone passing near. Like cattle, people shuffle from the isolating comfort of their family, to the isolating comfort of their schooling, to the isolating comfort of a career, a family of their own, a mortgage, old age, having never tested themselves. Having never stepped outside of their self-inflicted isolation. Never stepping far enough beyond their self-centring comfort to feel the tug of the tether around their neck. To hell, in the isolating comfort of one's own handbasket.
You are right about our comforts making us weak and sick and dependent on medical workers. And that's just the physiological aspect. I met a young father once with three little "stair step" boys. Wanting to help them overcome weakness, and willing to join them in it, he insisted they all take COLD SHOWERS on a regular basis. This was in the Rocky Mountains and their water was really very cold! I'Ve not been able to do this myself... even my efforts at self denial -- a Christian essential -- are wimpy.
Taoism is always chuckling about its own demise or reversals of fortune. In a few passages in the Classics practitioners are reminded in easy times to serve the people in government, and in difficult or chaotic times to hide out as hermits in the hills. and practice quietly, somewhat as you are doing... The Warring States period when Taoist writing flourished must have felt like this: constant war, displacement, famines, uncertainty. I think it's why I often find it so apt.