Wabi-sabi applied to the soft-shell membrane of human consciousness. Wabi-sabi is often associated with the Japanese art. In pottery form, it's expression yields Kintsugi, broken pottery re-formed with gold lacquer.
But the principle itself celebrates the impermanence, imperfection, and transient yet sacred nature of life.
I've read a couple of posts recently here on Uptrusting about holding to the past when letting go may be more appropriate. What if it isn't an either/or proposition? And what if even if it is an either or, does it ever make sense to choose the short-term less painful alternative when you can see that the long-term pain is likely much heavier?
If you know me in real life, you know that I recommend "Inside Out" (both 1 and 2) way more than an adult usually does. This post gets at some of the reason why.
When the emotional guardians of our self, (portrayed as Joy, Sadness, Anger, Fear, Disgust; and in IO2 we add Anxiety, Embarrassment, Envy, Ennui, Shame, and Nostalgia) fight it out in our memory, trying to highlight which tonal flavor best fits this moment of experience, it can rupture our existing frame, leaving us with fragments of what we thought we were going to get.
In huge life-transition moments, it can be completely overwhelming.
The first movie illustrates a kid version of this, with the collapse of the islands of personality as Riley attempts to fit her old values into a new environment. At the point of desperation, it is the attempt of self-rescue that tear down the apparent islands that are her refuge of self-concept. But it isn't tearing down the actual self, it is just reducing to rubble that which could not be raised any higher upon the foundation it was built.
Much of what I'm reading here recently resembles the collapsing of the Jenga tower because of the untenable nature of the load bearing assumption that got us to this point, and beyond the previous obstacles that required such an assumption to be built upon.
Has anyone else noticed the similarity in themes?
If so, you may enjoy (or at least benefit from) this YouTube video that several months old now between John Vervaeke, Jordan Hall, and Jordan Peterson. This one is dense enough to take slow, but worth the effort.
https://youtu.be/xOIzDA99xAg?si=F5q0d3zrP-ew2P0t
cultural analysis
It's too intimidating for men to be men. Alright, here’s one of my most controversial opinions, and I’m gonna try to take the filter off as much as possible:
Feminism has played out as retribution instead of solution. The Barbie movie is an entirely thorough example of what I’m talking about. You suppressed us, so we’re gonna use any means necessary to take over.
And then they recreated the same imbalance in its opposite.
I see most social movements do this too. True solutions to imbalances aren’t fair because they don’t have human-enacted payback. You suppressed us, so we’re going to move toward balance.
I’ve been spending about 2 years trying to set aside my learned default into my masculine energy (having grown up in highly feminist orange/green) and learn how to root in my feminine. But my feminine longs for a tether to something rooted. Masculine energy feels rooted, solid, grounded, and my feminine very much doesn’t (though it is held by a spacious ok-ness, but it’s so airy it easily gets chaotic when not balanced in connection with a grounded masculine.)
But I’ve had a hell of a time finding grounded healthy masculine men. Many of them can do it for a time, but then flee to an extreme, like angry resentment at one end and non-binary softness at the other end. And I think it’s because the culture has become super aggressive to men who are solidly men.