Red Hot Draconian Summer
They call it Phoenix because the birds catch fire
We have quite the backlog. In the near future there will be posts about Saul Alinsky and whether his “schizoid organizer” fits into current political discourse anymore (and how it helped cause some of the current turmoil). We have a discussion of the Blake Lively + Justin Baldoni celebrity scandal and what we can learn about incels and self-disclosure. More on Dark Souls. There will be a discussion about therapists versus coaches, and a review of Lauren Southern’s new book, This is Not Real Life.
There will also be a piece about the “species of writing.” That one will hopefully be personally helpful to me, as I try to return to a regular schedule here again. I have noticed this past year of trying to be consistent that every time there has been an extended leave it is not because I forgot about this blog, am in pain, am traveling, or have no ideas, but rather it is because I am writing somewhere else.
(For example, in February, www.chromatypes.com was created, which describes five different dynamical systems for motivation and conflict. They are based on colors. Which color are YOU?)
And so if I am missing here you can be happy that something else is being created under some other auspices.
Perhaps differentiating one kind of writing from another kind of writing will help me use different parts of my brain for different kinds of writing. (Who knows how many species there are!) Then there is a hope that I can write here at the same time as writing other things in other places. (If you have ideas come message me.)
But! My stupor here had been broken now because I had been summoned. It is Friday, and many people have an ~*~interesting~*~ time on Fridays, and it is August, and enough people have messaged about having an ~*~interesting~*~ August that I thought I would write about how I’d been preparing for
RED HOT DRACONIAN AUGUST!
Yes. Good.
If you have read L'étranger (The Stranger) by Albert Camus in either English or French, you may remember that the entire setup for the novella is that our protagonist Meursault was walking on the beach in Algiers and then shot and killed an Arab because the sun was in his eyes.
There are paragraphs on paragraphs about how it was a hot day. Now, L'étranger is not enough of an American cultural focal point such that “so hot I can shoot an Arab” has ever become an idiom (and even if it was a massively popular book, there would be issues with this phrase!) — but it does set up just how much the heat can affect somebody.
The book falls under the genre of existentialist absurdism, which means that there are elements of it that are darkly funny, and elements that are meant to show something serious.
Regarding the ruthlessness of the sun, the inescapability of the ruthlessness,
“She said, ‘If you go slowly, you risk getting sunstroke. But if you go too fast, you work up a sweat and then catch a chill inside the church.’ She was right. There was no way out.”
Ah yes! such ennui, such inevitability. I can feel a phantom cigarette appearing in my hand.
I like this book because it treats the heat as a whole ordeal, the sun as almost a major character. I can relate to this very much. I am sensitive to heat exhaustion, I respect the siesta, I languish. I had a situation in Hanoi where my friends ordered more and more cups of water to pour onto my head at a restaurant, and I still managed to get heatstroke. And yet, I tell people summer is my favorite season. I always associate summer with summer vacation and fun:
But I can honestly say that the time from summer to summer went very quickly. And I knew as soon as the weather turned hot that something new was in store for me.
Summer as a call for adventure!
And yet we must also be careful because:
…the sweat in my eyebrows dripped down over my eyelids all at once and covered them with a warm, thick film. My eyes were blinded behind the curtain of tears and salt. All I could feel were the cymbals of sunlight crashing on my forehead…
Summer as an oppressive dragon!
I wouldn’t be as prepared for the heat at somebody from Florida or Phoenix, but I did catch myself being a tick more alert than some of my northern acquaintances this past July. It’s as if everybody was on my wavelength, finally, sleepy, and I was the sharp one in the room. It was a very strange inversion.
I ran a little workshop about preparing for the summer over three weekends in July. I will share its contents, in a slightly different format, below.
The basic idea of the workshop was that summer can have elements of flow, vibrancy, celebration, freedom, adventure — but also draconian control, oppression, rigidity, demands, offerings.
The “work” of the workshop was noticing what kind of flows feel nice to you, and what kinds of “control” you would be happy to make offerings to. What kind of discipline is the right price for what kind of freedom?
Then, with both the flows and the rigidity in mind as the extreme points on an axis, moving between them is easier and less startling, and lets both the freedom and the discipline express itself in ways that are purposeful, rather than peeking out and rearing their ugly heads when it is not expected.
(Perhaps being controlled by random bursts of the sun at noon, literally and metaphorically, rather than making a choice to take a little siesta between noon and 3pm, having some lunch, playing the piano, and then really owning your choices in the morning and in the evening.)
Ideally, the flow really feels like flow and the discipline really feels like grounding in between episodes of flow, to revitalize the flow for another round, and to “save state” of the flow in ways that make sense to you later.
A bad scenario would be the flow and the discipline interrupting each other too much, such that you never really have the benefits of either, and have the drawbacks of both.
Day 1 was “Styles of Flow.”
Day 2 was “Red Hot Draconian Summer”
Day 3 was “Species of Grounding”
In Day 3, we put the flow and the discipline together, and saw what it felt like.
We also charted varieties of various species of potentials for “ground states” and used those different species (Examples include: places attended, ‘homecomings’, people seen, tasks accomplished, deep moments of remembered introverted self-presence, packing/unpacking, drives in car…) to make small diagrams of “what things actually happened” over the past few months. We thought about which ground states create which kinds of remembering. What becomes “ground” and what becomes “flow” depending on which “ground” is selected.
The point of this is to reinforce that there really are points of choice around what “flow” and what “discipline” are selected, and to what effects.
SUMMER HEAT PREPARATION WORKSHOP
Day 1:
The different seasons can be associated with different kinds of energy. As the seasons flow into each other, so do the energies of the seasons flow into and affect the next season, in a cycle.
For fall, there is a feeling of slowing down from the summer, preparation, a movement of the mind. It is both the end of summer and the start of the academic year. Some associate fall with romance and movement, and others associate fall with a fear of the oncoming winter. Winter can be associated with internality, home, self-reflection, coziness, hygiene, and self-care. It can also be the season of rough batttles. Spring can be associated with rebirth, blossoming, as well as licking the wounds from the winter, clearing away of what was hoarded during dark trials, and sweeping away the stagnant energies. “Spring cleaning” comes to mind, and Supercycle’s Spring Cleaning workshop inspired this one.
"Spring passes and one remembers one's innocence. Summer passes and one remembers one's exuberance. Autumn passes and one remembers one's reverence. Winter passes and one remembers one's perseverance." — Yoko Ono
In nature, summer is a time of abundant fruits and vegetables, sunlight, and warmth. It can be a time of energy and creation. Many animals mate and give birth in the summer. Like every other season, it can have an integrated or a disintegrated form; the flip side of creation is destruction. Summer can be a time of draconian control, frenzy, or poorly spent energy that sets one up for a confusing fall and winter.
In theme with the summer, in this workshop, we will reflect on what kinds of energy can get “released” when we “unburden” ourselves from technology, and what we may like to do with that energy.
(For context, I can imagine the Spring workshop on technology refining and “clearing away” unneeded technologies from your life – while deepening and revitalizing your personal relationships to ones you like, the fall workshop involving creativity and inquisitiveness around trying new technologies or new ways of using existing ones, and the winter workshop reclaiming technology as a “tool” for work in the more pure sense.)
Warmup - 5% More Noticing
For these exercises, feel free to let your mind wander and find for you what feels relevant. The mind is often nonlinear and has a way of finding what is most important for itself. If a question feels tricky, and you feel inspired to do so, feel free to tell me about where you are at with it in the chat, and I can chat with you about it.
The questions are designed to loop back into each other, and so feel free to go between questions, if an answer to one question seems to be helping you with another question.
For the warmup, in the spirit of Alexander Technique, feel where you are comfortable and uncomfortable where you are sitting. In the spirit of Nathaniel Branden, make a slight adjustment to be 5% more comfortable.
Together - Guided Meditation: Movement
Remembering Movements
Pull up some memories of ways of moving that you’d enjoyed doing, perhaps for fun, with friends, or in times of stress to relieve the stress that have been successful.
Are there any specific memories of movements that you did, that you remember fondly?
Take a moment to choose one that feels like something you want to think about right now. For this exercise, it can be better if it is an uncomplicated one, emotionally, and something you are doing yourself versus with another person.
Perhaps diving into water. Doing a cartwheel in grass. Dancing under a dark sky. Reclining in a chair.
Feel it in your body, and locate it. Where in your body is it?
When you have one that feels good, stay with it. I will check that everybody has one. Once you have one, give out a sigh of joy and I will know you have it!
Let the anchor of what feels good flood your body, radiating outwards slowly.
Share with everyone how that felt, and what the anchor was!
Symbols for Flow
Summer, like Sunkist, is powered by the sun. The sun is powerful and can burn you. To prevent sunburn in summer, one can wear a lot of sunscreen – but this method is not foolproof. It helps to go outside in the spring, allowing yourself to be burned a little bit under less intense sun-power, which gives you some immunity later. In the summer, you should wear sunscreen sometimes, but it would not be fun or comfortable or “free-feeling” to wear sunscreen all the time. Rather it can be more like a dance; you can keep yourself cool while swimming, you siesta indoors during the brightest hours of the day, you enjoy the long evenings outdoors, you wear sunscreen when you need to, without being uptight about it or resistant to it, because you have structured your flows such that when you don’t wear it you will be okay, and when you do wear it it doesn’t feel like it encumbers your flow, but rather is fine and necessary defense.
Keeping in mind your library of movements, we will come up with personal symbols for flow that may be helpful to you
If you are feeling nice, what are some symbols you can use to come back to this feeling, when you want to?
Are any of them particularly summery, going with the motifs of summer? Are any of them particularly anti-summery, potentially serving as antidotes to summer?
Think of both personal symbols around summer, and more general, communal symbols. How may they relate and loop into each other?
Symbols for Ground
Enjoy the feelings of the symbols and flow in your body. In your enjoyment, notice if there are feelings of “ground” as well. Where do the feelings return “home” to, to rest, rejuvenate, or bounce back from with more energy? Does something come to mind immediately and feel good, or does ground feel conspicously absent or far away?
Consider natural ecosystems as a source of inspiration, if you feel you need it. Consider rivers and mountains, or a pond. Feel free to think of big images (lightning, growth and decay) if this is what comes to mind, or small images (a single lillypad).
Day 2 RED HOT DRACONIAN SUMMER
“The passions” are often seen as impulsive, flowy, wandering “with the mood, wherever it takes.” Often, there is an idea that with flow and creation, there can be messiness. This is pretty well-established as a meme in our culture.
Often less-talked about is the draconian side of summer. Draco was an Athenian lawgiver whose harsh legal code punished both trivial and serious crimes in Athens with death. The summer sun is harsh, and punishes those who do not follow the rules of the sun.
In different schemas, the “fun one” also has a draconian side. In the Magic the Gathering color schema, “red” can be draconianly calculating. In the enneagram, 7, the wild, fun one, also is a frustration type and a critical type.
Noticing archetypes for standards
We will take 6 minutes to brainstorm archetypes for standards that are meaningful to you, that you notice a lot, that you find interesting, or that you specifically do not like and do not want a deeper relationship with. Think about past teachers, superheroes, CEOs of companies, cartoons, characters from books, gods, animals.
We will then come together and discuss and create a library of the different kinds of “standard setters” before completing the next exercise.
Your own personal standards
In conversation with the above, we will complete a powerful exercise together in which we “say out loud” to each other “something that we feel is very true.” This will be both training in thinking about the “true thing” and voicing it aloud in a way where you are accountable to it with others. Spicy! And do not feel pressure to share if you do not feel up for this, or want to keep turning things over in your mind before the time runs out. Feel free also to ask for help from the group or in the chat.
Given the above, what are some things you want to go gently “hardcore on” this summer? I am thinking less about ideals in the broad sense, and more about a specific ideal. “Summers are for eating peaches - I believe that everyone who doesn’t eat a good summer peach is missing out, and I would be deluding myself and betraying myself if I do not live by this mindset myself and do not seek out at least one good peach for myself.” This level of granularity is what I am looking for here.
Feel free to play with different archetypes above and see what fits you. Do not go searching for “a correct answer” – the fun thing to think about will probably come. Rather do a wide search until something feels “sticky” as something you want to spend some time thinking about now, the next few weeks, or for the summer. Perhaps it is something you put off for a long time, and it is coming to you with renewed clarity. Or perhaps it is something that had scared you in the winter and spring, but is harder to avoid in light of the summer sun. Perhaps it is something that you were handwavey about before, but now you are excited to dig into a little more.
12 minute exercise, then regroup.
Consider different areas in your life for inspiration. Cleaning, cooking, relationships, reading, computer, technology, computer files, old photographs, time spent with friends, clothing, cutlery, musical instruments, fashion, sports, hats, benevolence, windows, architecture, cabinets, shoes, maps, symbols, programming languages
Day 3 Species of Grounding
***this one didn’t have a worksheet, it was all verbally explained, and so this is an explanation of what we did after the fact.***
12 minutes — write down ideas that you can use as “ground.” Think about lily pads, and a frog jumping between them. What abstract ideas can count as the lily pads? What concrete things can count as the lily pads? Make a list, go far and wide; we will share these. Let yourself feel open and creative, but if a direction starts to feel bad or trigger you in some way, feel free to go in an entirely different direction.
Examples can include, login cycles for different apps, work cycles, hours/days/weeks/months, check-ins with different people, check-ins with different projects. Things that feel like mental breakdowns that you then shrug off. Visits to a store. Books read. Showers. Time between sicknesses. Times between raving fun. Entering or existing your house.
Period of sharing
35 minutes — pick a few of these, either yours or someone else’s, that you like. Choose 3. Try to remember the past few months of your life (or whatever timeframe you feel like working with). Using one of your selected lily pads, what happened? What happened in between the lily pads? Do not worry if it turns out that the one you selected does not end up feeling like “real ground” for you — you can try on another one, or see what you notice. (For example, if work has a lot of workplace drama, you may notice that “work” isn’t working like a lily pad very well for you these days — it is acting more like “flow” — a site without much control. If you wish, you can then feel out what might feel like a “ground” that “matches” that “flow” for you in a way that feels good, and makes the flow feel better.)