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Economics of the Heart– Attics and basements

This week has been an evolving metaphor of the American heart– a confluence of the dark and light of it, the tangled roots of it, the long-unfolding karma of it. We can look at it piece by piece and realize how deeply intertwined the pieces are, like a great tangle of multi-hooked fishing lines, where even the smallest tug in one place triggers response and reaction in others.

We have mused for some years now about how the ubiquitousness of cell phone cameras has changed the balance of power between police and their prey. We have all seen the videos, more than we can count, where black men, women, and even children are murdered before our eyes by one, two, or many anxious, aggressive, and over-armed police officers in some American city or town.

This week the sheer weight of all these years of all those images finally cracked open long enough and wide enough that the whole world could see through to the truth and the depth of racial injustice in our country. In this particular case, the one cell phone video that documented the entire 9+ minute execution was overwhelmingly damning, and the individual officer was convicted of second-degree murder. That is one piece of progress to measure against centuries of entrenched deprivation and disenfranchisement that has brought us to the almost daily community killings by police.

The photo at left (click to open larger version) is a piece Pat did some years ago, with the names of many of the reported victims of police killings for that particular year. There is a lot of baggage stored in our collective Unconscious that is going to take a long time to process. This is a dark place and we are just peering through the crack in the door. Sobering stuff.

This week’s $5  wine tasting

Terre d’Oro Chenin Blanc/Viognier ’18        California      $13
Lively, refreshing and well balanced. Inviting aromas of honeydew melon, grapefruit, orange blossom and tangerine lead into flavors of peach and mango, and a midpalate of lemon curd, quince and nectarine.

Kanankopf Kadette Cape Red Blend  ’17      South Africa    $15
Pinotage, cab, cab franc blend; offers ripe raspberry, black currant and mocha on the nose with dark chocolate and blackberry fruit on the palate. The dominant pinotage adds rustic charm.

Townshend Cellars T3 Red      Washington       $17
Bordeaux style blend of  cab, merlot and cab franc; fruit forward with hints of black currant and vanilla, with layers of complexity and depth through extensive oak aging in French and American barrels.

(Some photos may enlarge when clicked)

Bread This Week

The Economics of the Heart – Pundit Fatigue

We didn’t notice it was or ever would be a lasting “thing” when it first started. Well, yes and no. It has taken many years to become what it is today, when we all can see clearly that yes, it IS a Thing, but now it is so commonplace that it is accepted as a fundamental aspect of Reality, like the color of the sky or the state of liquid water.

The “Thing” is everyday garden variety, Fact v. Punditry, which used to be called, in an innocent and parochial way, “News.” We elders can remember when the “news” was Cronkite or Brinkley describing events as they had occurred on a particular day, around a certain time, at a particular place. The news was what you clipped out of the newspaper, memorized, and took to class in case you got called on to talk about Current Events. It was the descriptive narrative that grounded us  in a common, everyday Reality. Remember that?

Of course there have always been editorial opinions trying to tease meaning and intention, whether noble or nefarious, from the day’s events. For some years now, however, the business of News has become the business of polarization as entertainment, reaching a crescendo in the now Bygone Tweetster Era that coined the phrase (we are not making this up) “alternative facts.”

All of this is to say that to be informed and useful, citizens need to know– and agree– on the essential parameters of the Reality we all share. Even though we acknowledge and appreciate different opinions on the Meaning of events, if we cannot agree on the factual parameters of the events we can’t communicate about them.

While we are all enjoying the comparative serenity of our new government, there is still a nagging feeling that our society may have become unmoored from a common view of Reality itself. Like the myth of the Tower of Babel, today’s internet Reality has become a cacophony of dissonance from 8 billion souls all talking at once, and we are all feeling the need for a quiet, soul-restoring anchorage.

This week’s wine tasting…!!

Ryan Patrick Rock Island Chardonnay ’18        Washington       $15
Golden straw color; aromas and flavors of wildflowers, crisp apples, honey, and freshly baked cinnamon roll with a round, crisp, medium body and a graceful finish of sumac-spiced croutons; an appetizing, full-bodied Chardonnay.

La Vielle Ferme Rosé ’20    France    $10
Classic and tasty blend of grenache, syrah, and cinsault from northern Provence;  fruity, dry, crisp, delicious, and smooth, and at a bargain price!

Flying Trout Grenache  NV       Washington      $15
100% grenache; dark burgundy in color, with aromas and flavors of ripe dark plum and blackberry with lingering notes of clove and cinnamon. Soothing and seductive, this wine offers a lot of value for its modest price.

(Some photos will enlarge when clicked)

Bread This Week

The Economics of the Heart

We are all familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It is usually shown as a pyramid with basic physiological needs for survival and safety at the bottom and higher up more complex social and hierarchical needs, like being seen and heard, appreciated and welcomed. And beyond these, human beings may seek more esoteric satisfactions like self-fulfillment or self-transcendence.

Another way of looking at these needs is contained in the acronym “SAAA,” which stands for Safety, Affection, Attention, and Approval. These represent the primary categories of nourishment that we humans need to thrive as social animals.

Safety is at minimum freedom from hunger, thirst, fear, and violence, becoming at best a state some call “the Ease of Well-being.” Without a sense of safety, there is no chance for rest and renewal, and it is difficult to achieve or even take in nourishment that comes our way.

Affection is a sense of belonging to a group that cares about each other. We crave a neighborhood, a tribe, a family, a community. We need to feel welcomed and accepted. We need to matter to others.

Attention is not just any attention. If all the other primates are jumping up and down and yelling at us, that’s going to hurt. Attention is more a matter of having a role in the community, a sense of value, maybe a kind of respect.

Approval in its most fundamental form is a sense of acceptance of us just as we are, a sort of unconditional love. Hard to imagine and hard to find. No one wants to screw up. Some part of us humans is always keeping score on ourselves and on others. Maybe the best we can do is to welcome and savor approval when it comes, and to give it wholeheartedly as often as possible.

We mention this things to remind us that these are things that everyone needs, over and over, just like food and water. We are all like little sponges, hungry to find these sources of nourishment, and sometimes challenged to be such sources.

In an early song, Leonard Cohen wrote,

I saw a beggar leaning on his wooden crutch
who said to me, “you must not ask for so much;”
Then a pretty woman standing in her darkened door
cried to me, “hey, why not ask for more?”

(Some photos will enlarge when clicked)

Bread This Week

The Economics of the Heart

The dominant story in the news this week has been the trial of the Minneapolis policeman who killed George Floyd. Whatever the outcome of the trial, what happened that day will remain infamous in the public consciousness for a very long time, partially because the entire world saw the video of the murder the day it occurred, and many more times since. Since the dawn of cell phone cameras, the world has seen large numbers of American police officers over-react and kill people over what turned out to be simple misunderstandings.

One of the most powerful testimonies came from Donald Williams, one of the witnesses to the event, who can be heard pleading, with increasing passion, for the officer to release the deadly pressure on Floyd’s neck. When the defense attorney tried to characterize William’s passion as “anger,” Williams discounted that interpretation by saying simply, “I stayed in my body.”  William trained for many years in mixed martial arts, and developed the ability to stay present in a confrontation. He demonstrated the same discipline in court in his reply to the defense attorney: “No, my words weren’t getting angrier that awful day in May…they grew more and more pleading — for life.”

This story spotlights the importance of training and self-discipline under duress. In the replays of the ever-increasing number of homicides perpetrated by police officers across America in what should have been routine and courteous stops, we have often noted the increasing tension in their voices, the shallowness of breath, and the higher pitch of voice that betray that  they are NOT staying present in their bodies. And without this essential anchor, they become anxious and ungrounded, and inevitably make the situation worse. People who cannot develop these skills are not qualified to be placed in such demanding positions.

Whatever the particular outcome of this trial, the big takeaway is that police training should include the same compartmentalizing mental discipline as the martial arts that allows us to stay present in our bodies. Indeed, there are many testimonials of famous martial arts teachers of defusing real-life confrontations by responding with open compassion instead of defensive hostility.

famous Aikido story