That means a lot. I've (obviously) been through a journey thinking about him, but he's one of my heroes as well so wanted to make sure I wrote this with generosity.
Jun 21, 2022·edited Jun 21, 2022Liked by Garrett Bucks
What a reminder and an invitation. I need a bursting heart emoji for this one!
(It also makes me think of several writer-philosophers I used to look up to who over the past several years have become ... people I wouldn't want to be anywhere near, all white men. Reading about Rennie I wonder if there's something about the frustration born of being someone who wants desperately to change the world and forgets along the way that it's about that invitation to connect and find solidarity, not about how completely people listen to or follow you.)
I think that's one of the questions that haunts me the most about his story-- for somebody who very clearly understood the value and necessity of real connection, what combination of impatience or hopelessness or self-aggrandizement or.... who knows what... made it easier to put that instinct on the back burner. I know what that pattern looks like in my own life, to be clear, but it's a puzzle that I can't quite figure out in his case.
I heard an interview with Matthew Remski (co-host of Conspirituality) some time ago, and he talked about what many activists or leaders or yoga teachers stumble into when "a lot of people start listening to you." It seems to trigger something in the mind or heart or ego? Maybe it takes a lot of resilience or at least awareness to *keep* it from happening.
Garrett! Such a wise reflection. Especially sitting with critical connections (which your work helps motivate me to make) and this: “We are all given a set of places to live and a set of people whom we live around and a world full of isolation in pain. If that’s not an invitation I don’t know what is.” Amen to that invitation. Thanks for helping us answer it!
Thanks for providing such an incisive and humanizing set of reflections on one of my heroes.
That means a lot. I've (obviously) been through a journey thinking about him, but he's one of my heroes as well so wanted to make sure I wrote this with generosity.
What a reminder and an invitation. I need a bursting heart emoji for this one!
(It also makes me think of several writer-philosophers I used to look up to who over the past several years have become ... people I wouldn't want to be anywhere near, all white men. Reading about Rennie I wonder if there's something about the frustration born of being someone who wants desperately to change the world and forgets along the way that it's about that invitation to connect and find solidarity, not about how completely people listen to or follow you.)
I think that's one of the questions that haunts me the most about his story-- for somebody who very clearly understood the value and necessity of real connection, what combination of impatience or hopelessness or self-aggrandizement or.... who knows what... made it easier to put that instinct on the back burner. I know what that pattern looks like in my own life, to be clear, but it's a puzzle that I can't quite figure out in his case.
I heard an interview with Matthew Remski (co-host of Conspirituality) some time ago, and he talked about what many activists or leaders or yoga teachers stumble into when "a lot of people start listening to you." It seems to trigger something in the mind or heart or ego? Maybe it takes a lot of resilience or at least awareness to *keep* it from happening.
Thanks Garrett!
I didn't know about Rennie, thanks for the history and also how you found your light to lead you away from hopelessness.
❤️❤️
Garrett! Such a wise reflection. Especially sitting with critical connections (which your work helps motivate me to make) and this: “We are all given a set of places to live and a set of people whom we live around and a world full of isolation in pain. If that’s not an invitation I don’t know what is.” Amen to that invitation. Thanks for helping us answer it!