Living Deeply as I Enter My Mr. Miyagi Era
I have not published anything in about three weeks because, like so many, I am still figuring out how I will not just survive these next years but thrive and make a positive impact on those around me and the world. Yes, I have a few projects in the works, but I have also been struggling with what I can offer to the discourse. In many ways, the strategy of the White House of raining down punch after punch has had the desired effect — overwhelming to the point of paralysis.
I trust we will each emerge from this initial deluge on our own time, but here are some of the barriers questions that I have been thinking about:
- How do I stay informed but not distracted?
- How do I amplify voices and information but avoid fetishizing trauma and feeding the rage cycle?
- How do I honor my rage, anger, and disappointment without dipping into the well of dismissal, dehumanization, and destruction of the other?
- How do I participate in reinforcing, building, and sustaining communities of beauty, belonging, hope, and resistance?
- How will I prepare to risk and leverage my bodily and socioeconomic privileges on behalf of those who are justifiably terrified for their lives?
- How will I resist in ways I believe God calls me, Bruce, to do so?
- How do I ensure that I am tending to my own body, mind, and soul without turning self-care into a justification for doing as little as possible?
I will write more about all of these, but as I reflect on how I have been living most, I acknowledge that I have entered into my Mr. Miyagi Bonsai Era as a way to tend to my own body, mind, and soul.
Your financial and viewing support makes The Amalgamation possible, so please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
PSA: First, unless you are AANHPI, tread carefully in your comments about my Asian-ness and comparisons to Mr. Miyagi. That said, there could be worse things than to be mentioned in the same breath of proximity to Pat Morita’s iconic Karate Kid character.
Speaking of Pat Morita . . . smooth name-drop segue . . . here is a picture of Pat and me in the early 80s at a friend's house in Sacramento.
As many of you know, I am a lover of the houseplant. It is the one thing I tried during the pandemic that stuck. Seriously, if you have ever been to our house, you might think I have a houseplant problem — which, BTW, is not a thing :-)
Yes, it takes me two hours to water my babies, but I call that love.
Knowing this was a passion, I was given a gift certificate to the world-famous Yamagami Garden Center for Chrsitmas. I had always wanted to try my hand at bonsais, so this was my chance to take the leap. While I didn’t need much more of a push, finding this picture of me and Pat Morita was obviously a sign from the heavens that I must do it — obviously.
So with the heavenly and Hollywood winds behind me, I fired up the Etsy machine and visited Yamagamis to get started.
Your financial and viewing support makes The Amalgamation possible, so please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
To be clear, I have no idea what I am doing.
This has never stopped me before.
But it has been different.
It has been deep.
It has been good.
I am not trying to make this into some colossal life hack, but what this has done is given me a small and beautiful distraction from the onslaught of greed-fueled terror that has been unleashed upon the world.
I hope you, too, will know the thing that allows you to live deeply.
For various reasons, we will all step in and out of our roles in collectively navigating the raging river of cruelty that threatens to drown us all. We will also all need to find ways to nurture our own bodies and souls, so we can, in turn, be part of spaces that allow others to do the same.
In deeply living that
which feeds our souls
we are beauty,
we are belonging,
we are the hope,
and we are resistance.
Peace.
I am working on a few pieces about having hope in what can feel like hopeless times, so I went back and reread this post, A Letter from My Great-great-great-great-grandchild, Cruz: An exercise in remembering that we fight for justice because we believe it's possible. Hope it helps.