Digging through Dorthy's Basket: Wager, The Covenant, The Return of History, Zinn, Netflix's Alexander, The Emerald, Anthony Machuca, weird new hat
Dear Companions,
I’m fortunate that after all this time, people still ask me how I’m doing. My answer fluctuates. At times my accomplishments feel 'light' to describe. But they accumulate. I can’t run a marathon, but I can imagine one now. Life, an instrument with sharp edges, fits inside my brain again.
Perhaps the best response is to say: I am in the HEALINGVRSE, filling up at a gas station on neuron 457792388 (out of 86 billion). As L tells me when I’m feeling down—ya gotta keep lookin’ at the Delta.
In the past couple months or so that I have not put up Away Messages, a few have also asked what was going on with the HEALINGVRSE—a most precious inquiry. As my friend S said, I don’t have to write about the healing stuff, just the books and random thought shit.
Yes indeed there is healing stuff to be discussed—the Babesia Lyme treatments, energetic work, biofeedback, mold detox, self-administered lymphatic massage. I’m a month into a Carnivore diet. Here is a video diary on Tik Tok that I started while isolating with a stomach bug. I believe this all makes a positive dent, the Tik Tok notwithstanding.
But for now, perhaps we can sit around a simmering fire in the wintry woods at the edge of the HEALINGVRSE and share inspiration from sea-faring men as mesmerizing art, like this piece by Anthony Machuco, flicker across the sky.
Things I’m reading
History, insofar as it studies root causes, much like functional medicine, is a great resource in the healing journey.
In the HEALINGVRSE, expanding your POV to people thousands of miles away, past and present, will return back fragments of identity lost in a crisis, and ground you back in the world.
A Slew of History Books
Wager, A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder, is an adventure read and true story. For all those who love Robinson Crusoe, the story of the Wager voyage is in fact, the source material.
Out of the 1,988 men who initially embarked, only 188 managed to survive. Setting aside the shipwreck itself, life aboard these vessels proved to be excruciating. Incredibly many of the people who boarded as crew were already sick with life-threatening diseases to begin with—a pretty crazy way to start a voyage to round Cape Horn.
On the topic of death aboard one of the vessels:
Death is at all times solemn, but never so much so as at sea," one sailor recalled. "The man is near you at your side you hear his voice, and in an instant he is gone, and nothing but a vacancy shows his loss.... There is always an empty berth in the forecastle, and one man wanting when the small night watch is mustered.
There is one less to take the wheel, and one less to lay out with you upon the yard. You miss his form, and the sound of his voice, for habit had made them almost necessary to you, and each of your senses feels the loss.
So appalled was I to learn about the devastating effects of scurvy on crew, that I’m doing a follow up post on Vitamin C recommendations.
The Ark of the Covenant, is a great read on America’s connection to and varying degrees of support of Israel, empirically debunking the ongoingly moronic perspective of a Jewish Cabal given many non-Jews in America supported Israel for all kinds of reasons dating back to the Great Awakening in the early 18th century.
Another superb historical account, The Russo Ukrainian War: The Return of History, is detailed but accessible, going back to the mid-15th century.
On Russia, Yeltsin, her leader in the 90’s had this insane thing to say:
"I won't deny it, the powers of the president in the draft are considerable indeed. And what would you want? In a country that has got used to tsars or chiefs; a country in which well-defined interest groups have not coalesced, and their leaders have not been determined, in which normal parties are barely embryonic; a country in which executive discipline is exceedingly weak, where nihilism with regard to the law is completely rampant--in such a country, could one bet only or mainly on parliament? In half a year, if not sooner, the people are sure to demand a dictator. Such a dictator will be found quickly, I assure you. And perhaps in that very parliament."
-Yeltsin, 1993.
On the human tendency to downplay things, the author writes of the general apathetic reaction to the Crimean annexation in 2014:
The Anschluss of 1938 aroused little concern in London and Moscow, as it was assumed that Hitler's appetite for expansion was limited to German ethnic territories. German reaction to Putin's annexation of the Crimea was similarly calm--up to 40 percent of the German public did not disapprove of his action. In both cases, there was hope that the aggressor would not go farther. It proved to be wishful thinking at its worst.”
Reminds me of whatever warning signs my body might have sent me before the Big One that I hushed up.
An always worthwhile Lex and Michael Malice conversation also recommended several other historians, including:
Timothy Snyder’s Bloodlands
Victor Sebestyen’s 1946: The Making of the Modern World.
I also picked up Destined For War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap? mentioned by Musk in a separate podcast.
As my Dad would say, these are serious history books, as opposed to his response to Prisoners of Geography: 10 Maps that Explain Everything about the World, which I actually enjoyed recently.
For balance, I picked up Howard Zinn’s A People's History of the United States, which you might remember from Good Will Hunting.
To state the facts, however, and then to bury them in a mass of other information is to say to the reader, with a certain infectious calm—yes, mass murder took place, but it's not that important, it should affect very little what we do in the world…
-Howard Zinn
Also, not a book, but a weirdly styled history documentary, Netflix’s Alexander the Great is a show I enjoyed in spite of, or because of, the comical acting, overt efforts to liken it stylistically to Game of Thrones, and various other liberties.
It's setting me back down the Ancient Greek road, kicked off last year in part by this great book on Alexander, Hannibal and Caesar. I posted about some of their interesting hardships and ailments toward the beginning of Away.
Things I’m wearing
Last weekend, a pretty young woman with a wildly eccentric cat-themed hat drove past me. Suddenly, she stopped, rolled down her car window, and enthusiastically shouted, "Your hat is awesome! Your hat is awesome!" In response, I yelled back, "I got it at Mako's, a thrift store!” I absolutely love thrifting in the HEALINGVRSE.
A couple of hours later, it dawned on me that I had lidocaine patches on my cheeks too so I knew I looked extra ridiculous. But the true lingering question in my mind was this: If someone with an outrageously eccentric hat compliments your hat, does that mean your hat is equally as eccentric?
Things I’m listening to
So many podcasts. But the one I want to highlight as extra special in the HEALINGVRSE is The Emerald, which also comes with a Patreon monthly gathering.
The Emerald explores all things metaphysical, the spirt world, and the podcast below is the first one I listened to on Animism. It’s excellent and different.
If it’s dark and raining out, and you can cuddle up with a blanket to listen—bonus points.
As for music, here is a song that really cut to my healing core. It’s no surprise it’s in Spanish.
If I didn’t believe in the delirium
If I didn’t believe in the hope
If I didn’t believe in what I achieve with skill
If I didn’t believe in my road
If I didn’t believe in my sound
If I didn’t believe in my silence…
Art I’m beholding
Anthony Machuca’s piece on Ancestors reminded me of the 5-hour ART session developed by Dr Klinghardt, which I did with a healer and two functional doctors.
This piece below made me think of pleasure and pain.
With much love from the HEALINGVRSE,
Rebecca
Very good, welcome back. Would recommend Gordon Wood on early America (also name dropped in ol good will hunting)