Decision On Comments Has Been Made

“We’ve been educated for quite a while to make violence enjoyable.”

—Marshall Rosenberg

OK—

This is my decision in advance of, in the absence of, reviewing your votes or comments:

The comments will remain open to all, paid or unpaid.

(Same decision as in 2023.)

The answer about all this came to me yesterday, 10 hours into a continuous immersion into Granada’s criss-crossing Good Friday processions, winding through her narrow cobblestone streets, even snagging once, on an electrical cable, causing the crowd to shout warnings. The procession stopped just in time.

(I have to defer to a future piece to relay all the important details of this moment.)

Decision was clear as soon as I checked in with the feelings that came up, when I envisioned a stark, slimmed down comments section…

I just felt I would experience it as more loss.

So against all wisdom, against all Substack trends—comments remain open to all.

I think we can ward off dark entities together as a pueblo. (Spanish word for town/village same as Spanish word for people. One of them.)

Attacks Are Always Expressions of Unmet Needs

When somebody shows up to sort of murder me, slay me, as totally abhorrent, stupid, and worthless, it’s very familiar gargoyle.

He and I go way back.

Now I can almost pray for “him,” this furious being who had counted on me being annihilated decades ago. He is a spirit that infects many, over time. What is his name? 😤

What made him like that?

I used to try to defend myself—twice in elaborate court cases, (Federal Court, State Supreme Court—)and endless, endlessly, in letters sections, online forums, whatever.

Now I just step out of the Gorilla Suit.

Who cares?

We are all right/wrong, warm/cold, good/bad, sane/crazy—

The evil thing is the quest for purity. The quest to stand atop a mountain named Mount Correct with everybody who was wrong dead and motionless on the steppes below you.

Doesn’t it sound lonely?

Gargoyles think “crushing” other people, rolling them in tar and feathers, behind mostly fake identities, will relieve them of their Gargoyle-ness. Their rage.

I just expunged a Gargoyle, from the MYHA thread, who venomously stated that my deceased father is ashamed of me and Christine Maggiore died of AIDS denialism.

(Both subjects now on the list to write about. Old chapeau.)

Make Yourself Healthy Again MYHA

The final step toward “health” is the hardest: Transcending our masochistic engagement with abuse, to become actual people. (Gente.)

Early childhood trauma, if severe enough, long lasting enough, will amputate “you” in order to survive. This “you” is what you’re seeking, then, at the bottom of so many hundreds or maybe even thousands of vitamin bottles and prohibitions.

How do you reclaim this vanquished “you,” at any age?

Does Joe Dispenza have the answer? Perhaps.

(Not dismissing him, at all. Intrigued.)

“Victim” is a scary word, and if anybody accuses you of it, they don’t like you. Walk away.

That said, I believe overcoming the victim consciousness is downright exhilarating, and the very camino* of true health.

(*How about if instead of “health journey” we borrow “camino” from the Spanish?)

Road.

Still the best video on the whole internet, I believe. With thanks to my friend Anna Powell, who first sent it to me 13 years ago:

“When you leave here today you will understand that there is no such thing as an insult.”

—Marshall Rosenberg,

Founder of Non Violent Communication

Coda:

“Are you aware that some people can bore you while they are attacking you?”

—Barry Farber

I forget the context of this but my father never got “hurt” by attacks. It helped that people mostly absolutely adored him, even the far left—his enemies. It was partly because, as a committed Southerner, he was opposed to hurting people.

(Apologies to my mother Ulla in heaven who would disagree, wall-shakingly.)

But truth be told, adoration bored him, maybe even more than attacks.

It all just meant “…time I’m not studying Albanian.”

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