[MD] Boromir's Journey

[Steve Peterson]

Hi Matt,

> Steve said:
> "Small self" can tell a story about the evolution of value
> patterns to give evidence that the world already has
> gotten better than it once was which gives me hope for
> the future, but for "Big Self" there is always only now in
> all its perfect perfectingness.
> ...
> For example, a mother cries with a smile on her face as
> she consoles her daughter who has just had her heart
> broken for the first time. Everything is wrong in the world,
> but will get better. Everything always is exactly as it
> should be.
>
> Matt:
> Ah--interesting.  But notice the condescension in the
> smile: "if you only understood," while all the daughter
> wants to give such knowingness is a big fuck-you.  Tell
> the people living in shit, literally in the case of Indian
> untouchables, and if they _don't_ give you a fuck-you, we
> might want to wonder why not--don't you _want_ things to
> get better?


Steve:
If the smile were condescending, the girl wouldn't keep going back to  
her mom for comfort. But she does. I know for a fact that she does  
because they are my hypothetical people, and they do whatever I say  
they do! But I also think that people like the made up mother really  
exist and that people are drawn to such people--people who are  
completely engaged in the world (with hope) and also have a sense of  
an imperturbable calm about them (faith). They can sympathize with  
us, and we don't need to worry about dragging them down by our  
sorrows. I think we all know people like that, and the words  
"condescending" and "arrogant" don't come to mind when we think of them.

Best,
Steve