Powerful poetry and demystified tarot cards
Plus: good news on therapy availability, bad news on emu behavior
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Shane Koyczan is on the pod
I’m so excited that my talk with Shane Koyczan is running today on the podcast.
Shane was relentlessly bullied, mortally threatened, as a kid. As he points out, at some point, “bullying” is the wrong word and it’s just plain old “assault”.
But Shane’s grandmother gave him a notebook, telling him that words, journals, pages will always listen and will always take him in. Eventually, he became one of the top performance poets around.
We talk about his life, his bullies, his poems, his grandmother, and the people who believed in him along the way. We also talk about his depression, which goes way back, and the touring schedule (which is how he makes a living) that got blown up by covid.
You can go to Shane’s website for more about him or to buy stuff and you should.
This, also, is awesome:
I pronounce it TAY-rott for demystification purposes
So a while back, my kids gave me a deck of tarot cards for my birthday. They thought I needed a hobby and they know that I like paranormal stuff like UFOs and Bigfoot. Not that I’m a devout believer in that stuff, I just like the imaginative element of it, the idea of Something Else As Yet Unknown.
Of course, the first thing I did was realize that there’s nothing really ultimately all that paranormal about tarot cards. Not if you don’t want there to be. The cards are just cards. Pieces of paper. With pretty pictures on them sometimes. And then I noticed how easily this hobby fit into my actual work.
See, the cards and their meanings are really conversation prompts. And when you deal three out, you can have one mean the past, one the present, and one the future. In interviewing people - and certainly in therapy - I’ve become a big believer in things happening as a result of other things. You construct your present and future based on materials from the past.
So I started dealing these cards and developing a practice of it: the person I’m doing the reading for asks a question that’s on their mind. “Should I quit my job?”, “Should I move to a new city?”, etc. Then the definition of the card - non-mystically and by chance - prompts some introspection.
For instance: “Should I quit my job?” asks the person I’m talking to. Let’s see what we can learn about this person. I’ll draw cards.
PAST:
The Ace of Pentacles, we are told, represents “a new financial career opportunity, manifestation, abundance”. So what does that say for you, person?
“Well, I’ve always made career moves based on a jump in pay. I’ll work a worse job that pays better. I think it and it manifests.”
Cool. Okay. PRESENT:
The Tower: “Sudden change, upheaval, chaos, revelation, awakening.” What do you get from that?
“My current job is chaotic right now. I’ve been thinking that I don’t like it and want to change. That’s a revelation, an awakening to me.”
So you’ve made moves based on money before because you think it will make you happy. But we’ve learned that what makes you UNhappy is chaos. Enough to make you want to jump. Maybe your motivations have been misguided.
(The cards aren’t magic. The answers and fortune-telling are in the stories the person thinks of when prompted.
FUTURE:
Five of Swords: “Conflict, disagreements, competition, defeat, winning at all costs” Well, what can that mean?
“Does that mean I’ll be miserable?!”
No. These are randomly drawn cards. But what do those words prompt in you?
“Those are things I want to avoid. That’s what I don’t want my job to be.”
Cool. So we know already of a conflict between the way you navigate your career and what you respond to. It sets up a future where you guide yourself while ignoring the things you hate. That would invite disagreements and defeat and all that biz.
“So I should get my priorities straight and act on them?”
Seems to set up a good future, I think.
*
This is heretical to people who take tarot a different way than I do. I think it’s a way of prying loose some insight through personal reflection.
I’m going to start doing more of these readings for people soon. Maybe I’ll make myself available to the public.
Staying out of the office might be a better deal for a lot of people
Great article in Slate with a powerful headline:
I’m Black. Remote Work Has Been Great for My Mental Health.
Leron Barton is not eager to return to a place that often sucks real bad for people of color:
I have always been a Black person before any title, and the office space never let me forget that. When there would be discussions about race, I or other African Americans were often viewed as the experts on everything Black. On more than one occasion, if the police drove by with sirens while I was having lunch with colleagues, someone would joke that the cops were “coming to get me.” Nearly all my white co-workers thought it was funny, letting out a laugh. Only my Asian colleague looked at me and “didn’t get it.” Receptionists often questioned my credentials, such as my badge, position, and work status. While working at a telecommunications provider in Kansas City, Missouri, a white supervisor felt the only way he could communicate with me was to try his hand at slang. It felt like a bad Dave Chappelle skit. At one technology firm, the environment where I was one of the few Black tech support representatives became so untenable I was happy when I was laid off.
And now, things are different:
A July 2021 poll by the World Economic Forum found that out of the 12,500 employees in 29 countries around the world, the majority wanted work from home to be permanent. Thirty percent stated they would find another job if they had to return to the office. Future Forum, a firm specializing in employee engagement, produced a report on remote work and found 38 percent of Black men and 33 percent of Black women would prefer a fully “flexible schedule,” compared with 26 percent of white men and 25 percent of white women. Boris Moyston, founder and senior managing partner of Relentless Venture Partners, told me, “While there is something to be said about socializing and brainstorming with people, it’s not worth it when you’re facing workplace harassment and racism.”
The idea of a centralized office where everything gets done is a relic of a long-ago time in history. We don’t need the office anymore. Some of us might want it, some of us might enjoy it, but we don’t need it.
I’m against covid.
Yeah, this whole global pandemic? The one that’s killed millions of people? The ones that shone a light on very ugly fissures within our society? Mark me as a no.
It’s not that bold of a stance.
So I can’t quite get behind the headline in Psychology Today:
3 Positive Mental Health Outcomes from the COVID-19 Pandemic
I get it. I even agree with a lot of it. Just… that thinking though.
The author mentions that therapy and the need for it has become more normalized as more people get screwed up. I think that’s a net loss, though.
But I do agree with the good news about teletherapy being more widely available and easier, leading to more people getting help:
Online therapy is more convenient: Especially for people with busy schedules or mobility challenges. People who were previously unable to consistently attend their appointments found it more convenient to access care online, resulting in fewer missed appointments, and more sustained professional care.
This film, which I saw at a very young age, is why I thought for many years that all bands lived together. In whimsical flats.