Hello Gents,
The details for the 2009 Mentone Mens' Gathering have been posted on their web page www.mentonemen.com. The dates are November 6 - 9 2009.
I have attended this event in the past and it is a wonderful time. Most the time is spent in a panel format with the speakers discussing issues with the whole group.
The drive from the Triangle area is a pleasure in itself. Mentone is a small town in northern Alabama.
Have a wonderful summer.
(Posted by Ethan)
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
I am still reading the book about passivity. I am struggling to find the right words to describe it. This morning I came by a poem by Bill Stafford that hits on this issue of passivity. In particular the idea that we become attached to certain emotional responses to life that we experienced as a child. These responses may not serve us and they may hide the truth and power that resides within us, yet we remain attached to these responses.
Turn Over Your Hand
Those lines on your hand, they can be read
for a hidden part of your life that only
those links can say – nobody’s voice can
find so tiny a message as comes
across your hand. Forbidden to complain,
you have tried to be like somebody else,
and only this fine record you examine
sometimes like this can remember where
you were going before that long
silent evasion that your life became.
If you are forbidden to complain then how are those feelings going to come out?
“silent evasion” – that sure rings true. I’ll just keep my mouth shut and move along.
Posted by Ethan
Turn Over Your Hand
Those lines on your hand, they can be read
for a hidden part of your life that only
those links can say – nobody’s voice can
find so tiny a message as comes
across your hand. Forbidden to complain,
you have tried to be like somebody else,
and only this fine record you examine
sometimes like this can remember where
you were going before that long
silent evasion that your life became.
If you are forbidden to complain then how are those feelings going to come out?
“silent evasion” – that sure rings true. I’ll just keep my mouth shut and move along.
Posted by Ethan
Thursday, July 2, 2009
John Lee
Greetings Blog readers,
I wanted to let you know what our friend John Lee is up to these days. He is doing a number of workshops and weekend retreats this year. Here is a link to his web site - http://www.flyingboy.com/
John Lee has been doing workshops of late about passivity. This is a curious topic. I am currently reading a book by Peter Michaelson, The Phantom of the Psyche – Freeing Ourself From Inner Passivity. I will write more about it later after it makes more sense to me.
Just to highlight some of John’s work –
He will be at the Unity church in Greensboro the weekend of July 11 and 12.
Friday, July 10, 2009, 7 - 9:30 p.m.
More Intimacy, Passion and Communication Whether you are single, married, divorced, gay or straight, man or woman you can acquire information, insights and tools to help you become the person you always wanted to be in relationships. You can learn to pay attention to your lover's longings in ways not taught to most of us until now.
I wanted to let you know what our friend John Lee is up to these days. He is doing a number of workshops and weekend retreats this year. Here is a link to his web site - http://www.flyingboy.com/
John Lee has been doing workshops of late about passivity. This is a curious topic. I am currently reading a book by Peter Michaelson, The Phantom of the Psyche – Freeing Ourself From Inner Passivity. I will write more about it later after it makes more sense to me.
Just to highlight some of John’s work –
He will be at the Unity church in Greensboro the weekend of July 11 and 12.
Friday, July 10, 2009, 7 - 9:30 p.m.
More Intimacy, Passion and Communication Whether you are single, married, divorced, gay or straight, man or woman you can acquire information, insights and tools to help you become the person you always wanted to be in relationships. You can learn to pay attention to your lover's longings in ways not taught to most of us until now.
Saturday, July 11, 2009, 8:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.
A day long workshop for men that will focus on enhancing and increasing the ability to identify feelings and express all emotions appropriately and at the same time be able to be attentive to the feelings and emotions others are expressing.
John has also written his first piece of fiction.
When the Buddha Met Bubba
This is the heart-warming story of Billy Bob (Bubba) Coker, a redneck who reached rock bottom, until a freak head injury results in the appearance of his own personal Buddha. From that moment forward, Bubba is led on a humorous journey of introspection through the backwoods of the deep South and through his own flawed preconceptions and relationships.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Independence Day weekend.
Ethan
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
W. S. Merwin
Last week on Bill Moyer’s Journal on PBS he interviewed the Pulitzer Prize winning poet W. S. Merwin. I admit I have never heard of him before. It was a joy listening to him.
He spoke of the power of poetry and what it has to offer to us. Of the many topics, they spoke about the magic of Shakespeare.
He talked about a poem ‘working’. He speaks about the idea that when a poem works then there are no words that can be changed. This caught me because words that don’t work often jump out at me in my own work. Not until I change that word am I happy with the line.
He talks about loss, grief and lament. They discuss a poem about a father and his grown son visiting. The father thinks that the son wants to leave and even though the son does not need to leave, he does. He laments that decision.
Here is one piece that he read on the show. The formatting is mine.
Youth
Through all of youth I was looking for you
Without knowing what I was looking for
Or what to call you
I don’t think I even knew I was looking
Would I have known you when I saw you as I did
Time after time when you appeared to me
As you did
Naked, offering yourself entirely at that moment
And you let me breath you, touch you, taste you,
Knowing no more than I did
And only when I began to think of losing you
Did I recognize you
When you were already part memory
Part distance
Remaining mine in the ways that I learned to miss you
From what we can not hold the stars are made
You can get Bill Moyer's show on podcast, either video or audio. That is how I listen to it since his show is on too late for me.
posted by Ethan
He spoke of the power of poetry and what it has to offer to us. Of the many topics, they spoke about the magic of Shakespeare.
He talked about a poem ‘working’. He speaks about the idea that when a poem works then there are no words that can be changed. This caught me because words that don’t work often jump out at me in my own work. Not until I change that word am I happy with the line.
He talks about loss, grief and lament. They discuss a poem about a father and his grown son visiting. The father thinks that the son wants to leave and even though the son does not need to leave, he does. He laments that decision.
Here is one piece that he read on the show. The formatting is mine.
Youth
Through all of youth I was looking for you
Without knowing what I was looking for
Or what to call you
I don’t think I even knew I was looking
Would I have known you when I saw you as I did
Time after time when you appeared to me
As you did
Naked, offering yourself entirely at that moment
And you let me breath you, touch you, taste you,
Knowing no more than I did
And only when I began to think of losing you
Did I recognize you
When you were already part memory
Part distance
Remaining mine in the ways that I learned to miss you
From what we can not hold the stars are made
You can get Bill Moyer's show on podcast, either video or audio. That is how I listen to it since his show is on too late for me.
posted by Ethan
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