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My mother did a lot to keep us fed, clothed, housed when we were growing up. She wasn't happy, but she wasn't sad either. I asked her once, decades later, how
by tetris11 2y ago
My mother did a lot to keep us fed, clothed, housed when we were growing up. She wasn't happy, but she wasn't sad either.
I asked her once, decades later, how she coped with it all, and her answer still freaks me out sometimes.
She said she didn’t know she was a person who had choices, or could think about the situation she was in. She just did as she was expected to.
She’s in her 60s now and is far more in tune with her emotions, thoughts and feelings than I remember her when I was a kid.
She was virtually in catatonic autopilot most of her life, because no one encouraged her to think.
There's a quote from Helen Keller in this vein, after she was taught to communicate, though I can't find the full text:
"When the sun of consciousness first shone upon me, behold a miracle!"
- jumping_frog 2y agoOperators and Things: The Inner Life of a Schizophrenic I think you should read the above book.
- tetris11 2y agoApparently it's free to read: https://selfdefinition.org/hearing-voices/Barbara-O'Brien-Operators-and-Things-the-Inner-Life-of-a-Schizophrenic.pdf https://selfdefinition.org/hearing-voices/Barbara-O'Brien-Op...
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- gnramires 2y agoVery touching ;) In buddhism (I'm not a specialist by any means), I think awareness and consciousness is a central concept too. "The light of awareness", "awakening" is seen as holy. I really think that awareness is essential to enabling us to have hope to improve and specially understand our life and our problems; besides making us more connected, participating in reality. I like Thich Nhat Hanh's saying of a "serene encounter with reality" he finds through meditation. Different, each in its own poetry, ways of saying the similar things. And I think the profound realization and awareness of the reality of others can bring no other outcome than compassion. That's why I think awareness is extremely important too for living in a society and enable living in a civilization.