unfortunately, veronica mars is over. i've been debating whether or not i should start it again. BUT THAT IS RIDICULOUS, and i must move on. i have been meaning to "...blog" for the past while but it just has not happened. i hate the term "...blog." apparently i'm in oregon. once again. plagued with vicious episodes of nausea and romantic up-chucking. therefore i return to the motherland on wednesday. and then off to white sands my family and i go (including a mother who hates spending more than 5 minutes being with her husband and daughter)... WHOOOOOAAAA i am pushing the limit) but seriously my inner cosmonaut self beckons and to alamogordo we venture on. freeze dried food? hell yeah! i smell pizza.so i can pretty much get used to the region known familiarly as the pacific northwest. i cannot emphasize how excited i am to go to college. i went to the academic advising day. i'm taking a program called imagining the body. as shown on evergreen website:
"We do not have bodies; we are bodies. We do not move; we are movement." –Emilie Conrad-Da'oud
Our bodies are physically and socially constructed entities that influence our identities. The way we move, adorn, and utilize our bodies all reflect and also help shape our sense of who we are, most notably in terms of our gender and sexuality. In a way, our appearance is linked with our essence. But how have bodies been used and understood over time and across cultures? Throughout history, the significance of the body and its relationship to individual and group identity has been socially constructed in ways that have had profound impacts on power and gender dynamics.
This two-quarter program will take a historical and cross-cultural look at how our notions of gender and sexuality are embodied in our experiences through an examination of topics such as pain, pleasure, fashion, prostitution, body modification, aging, ability, standards of beauty and reproduction. We will primarily focus on the gradual creation of modern Western perceptions of the body from the middle ages to the present, using cross-cultural examples for comparison. Case studies might include the medieval Catholic cult of saints' relics, the rage for exotic costuming in pre-revolutionary France, the struggle between enslaved people and their owners for the physical control of slave bodies in the 19th century U.S. South, changing standards of masculine and feminine beauty in 20th century America and Europe, and contemporary attitudes towards body modification and transgender/transsexuality. Cross-cultural examples may include foot binding in early modern China, puberty rituals across eras and societies, and the relationship between adornment and ritual in selected non-Western cultures.
Grasping the significance of the body involves studies of personal psychology and physiology as well as studies of historical, social and cultural variations in experiences and identities. We must recognize how our own bodies and identities are located within a particular social, cultural and historical context. In this program, all of our work will be guided by our ability to develop a grounded understanding of our own bodies and internal authority. To that end, we will engage in regular, serious experiential movement workshops to begin the work of coming to know our bodies and our external reality through our bodies. Through an understanding and embodiment of somatic concepts such as awareness, intention, centering, authenticity, and the interplay of mind and body, students will have the opportunity to create an awareness of self from their own life processes, rather than from externally imposed images, standards and expectations. They will be invited to explore and enjoy the dance already going on inside their bodies, and to learn to perceive, interpret and trust the natural intelligence of intrinsic bodily sensations. Movement workshops will help us become more sensitive to our inner world by exploring breath, sound, and fluidity.
In addition to these experiential workshops, we will also develop our understanding of embodied identities through lectures, disciplinary workshops, films, and a series of guest speakers. Students should expect to engage in weekly critical book seminars, regular writing assignments, in-depth research and writing projects, independent and collaborative work, and regular
program discussion.
not sure what i want to do with it, but it is interesting to me.
i took a walk today. down by the river and then i found a perfect, plump and luscious meadow and proceeded to sit and ponder for an hour. it was really peaceful. but i'm always paranoid. i hear something crunching on the pine needles and my instant assumption is "OMG ED GEIN!" seriously i am scared shitless of a lot of people and possibilities in this world. i am also scared of odds. but nature was welcoming as usual. it would be nice to place some of the world's most powerful figures each in their separate piece of the woods for as long as it would take for them to pass some stupid act to promote sustainability. facts are terrifying. FACTS ARE NOT FICTION. fact / fiction fiction / fact ... i need some good ole' ECO-THERAPY:
Ecotherapy is based on the emerging field of ecopsychology, which looks at the relationship between our mental/emotional/spiritual health and our culture's increasing disconnection from the natural world.
Ecotherapy challenges what Steven Foster and Meredith Little call "The Big Lie"--the belief that we are somehow separate from and superior to nature. This belief leads us to fear those things that we can't rationally explain or control--and leads us to destroy the Earth, our only home.
We have plenty of information about environmental destruction. And yet it continues. Many of us walk around with a tremendous sense of guilt and despair as we watch trees uprooted to make way for another MacDonalds, as we drive along the highway littered with the bodies of animals who are losing their habitat.
And yet despair, guilt, even anger aren't enough to motivate the majority of us to make the radical changes that are needed to turn this around. It's when we're in touch with our love for the natural world that we can truly get moving. And of course, it's really self-love, since we're part of it all.
So how does ecotherapy address that? Ecotherapy helps people find balance, connection, guidance, and healing through deepening their relationship with the natural world. This could be as simple as taking a walk every day, paying attention to seasonal changes; or joining with others to clean up a local stream--all the way up to solo fasts in the wilderness.
The practice of ecotherapy helps us to see our personal needs and wants within the web of life--to find ways to honor all our relations.
dude totally just like the day i found out that global warming was happening, i ran straight into the bathroom with a bottle of valium
but ended up only touting it around like a salt-shaker to christen the linoleum floor
No comments:
Post a Comment