I appreciate your writing and thinking. To be a slave to no man or thing is a worthy aspiration. To see and accept the utility of any given thing is also aspirational. Most of my reading is done on my phone, largely for convenience. I scan the news, respond to substack threads, read notes I follow. In a few minutes I will take my bicycle off the garage ceiling, lube the chain and ride 20 or 30 miles with friends. Tomorrow I will retun to renovating an apartment for my wife and me at our daughter's new home in the country. The hour and a half drive to their home will be accompanied by podcasts, provided by my phone. I will be in contact with several contractors through my phone. It is rarely not with me.
All that to say, it remains my aspiration to be a slave to nothing. The ascetics understood one could be naked and living in the desert and yet be a slave to their passions. By God's grace, Him will I serve.
I love your visual human creed. I am going to print it and hang on the wall, but if you happened to have posters somewhere I could buy, I would totally do that too.
How lovely! There are no "posters" available, but feel free to download the pdf and take it to your local office shop, which can likely produce a poster-size print :)
I have just finished listening to the recorded of your keynote address. Thank you very much for making the recording and sharing it. I have been reading your writing for a while and it was wonderful to hear you give voice to a rich and flavourful reflection. There is something extra special about hearing a reflection on embodiment spoken aloud in your own voices for those of us who could not be there.
I loved so much of this, including, the following: "Worldview is one of the few things in life we can freely choose. You can’t choose your genetics, where you were born, your parents. But you can choose how you think. You can choose how you think even in the worst of conditions."
That said, worldview is a topic that I've been wrestling with. There are many people in my life who seem to make their own lives more of a hell than a heaven -- it's easy for me to say it's due to their choices, but I can't help but notice how they keep making the same choices over and over that compound into more miseries and reinforce a sort of learned helplessness that almost becomes a destiny. If I try to trace it back to the beginning, nearly all of them had abusive/neglectful parents and an impoverished moral education (for lack of a better phrase). I've heard of people born into such situations who still manage to tranform their worldview. But it's been discouraging to me to see so many friends, in my own personal life, who struggle to use their agency to help themselves.
A determinist would probably tell us that the fact we have no "real" choice should make us more compassionate to the people who stay stuck. But that doesn't sit right with me, either.
I'm curious to know if you've met others who argue that things like parenting and genetics DO affect our worldview and agency, to the point that we don't actually have free will. Such a argument doesn't sit right in my soul, but I do think it'd be valuable to address.
These are deep-dive reflections, Brenna, and very good ones. I agree, as you suggest, that our choices have a compounding effect—and it works both ways. Good choices tend to beget good choices, and vice versa, and in the course of a life, an initial small divergence between two people can lead to vastly different outcomes. Your observation about early abuse/neglect is on the mark, in my view. So I certainly wouldn’t blame anybody for getting entangled in a negative-choice trajectory, especially if they had that early history. But to give up on a belief that we have a meaningful degree of free choice, is to give up on hope, and to neglect the possibilities of our agency. Therapists, priests, and wise people have always known this, which is why they often emphasize the here-and-now as an-always available starting point, a place where we can say, as many times as we have to, “And now I’m going to do it differently.” It can take a long, long time to break out of negative trajectories (as I’ve learned in my own life), and sometimes, interestingly, it can also happen in the blink of an eye (which I’ve also experienced). Either way, I think there is always hope.
Wow. You took the oft-repeated retort: "yeah but what should we DO about it" and just turned it into an infographic. That's amazing, I'll be sharing this in a couple of discussion groups.
The gathering followed "The Chatham House Rules", which means no recording, no names, no direct quotes from any of the attendants (unless given permission). We decided to record our talk after the fact to share it with paid supporters.
I’ll be interviewed at the online “Spiritual Renewal and the Creative Life” summit on February 20 (see Nicholas Kotar’s substack), on the topic of fiction writing. Ruth might also do an interview. Ruth is also spearheading/organizing a small in-person conference in May; details to follow probably in a few weeks.
I appreciate your writing and thinking. To be a slave to no man or thing is a worthy aspiration. To see and accept the utility of any given thing is also aspirational. Most of my reading is done on my phone, largely for convenience. I scan the news, respond to substack threads, read notes I follow. In a few minutes I will take my bicycle off the garage ceiling, lube the chain and ride 20 or 30 miles with friends. Tomorrow I will retun to renovating an apartment for my wife and me at our daughter's new home in the country. The hour and a half drive to their home will be accompanied by podcasts, provided by my phone. I will be in contact with several contractors through my phone. It is rarely not with me.
All that to say, it remains my aspiration to be a slave to nothing. The ascetics understood one could be naked and living in the desert and yet be a slave to their passions. By God's grace, Him will I serve.
Blessings to you both.
I love your visual human creed. I am going to print it and hang on the wall, but if you happened to have posters somewhere I could buy, I would totally do that too.
How lovely! There are no "posters" available, but feel free to download the pdf and take it to your local office shop, which can likely produce a poster-size print :)
Love this.
I have just finished listening to the recorded of your keynote address. Thank you very much for making the recording and sharing it. I have been reading your writing for a while and it was wonderful to hear you give voice to a rich and flavourful reflection. There is something extra special about hearing a reflection on embodiment spoken aloud in your own voices for those of us who could not be there.
Thanks so much as well, Anna!
Anna, thanks so much for your kind words! It’s so helpful (and encouraging) to hear that readers appreciate the voice recording.
I loved so much of this, including, the following: "Worldview is one of the few things in life we can freely choose. You can’t choose your genetics, where you were born, your parents. But you can choose how you think. You can choose how you think even in the worst of conditions."
That said, worldview is a topic that I've been wrestling with. There are many people in my life who seem to make their own lives more of a hell than a heaven -- it's easy for me to say it's due to their choices, but I can't help but notice how they keep making the same choices over and over that compound into more miseries and reinforce a sort of learned helplessness that almost becomes a destiny. If I try to trace it back to the beginning, nearly all of them had abusive/neglectful parents and an impoverished moral education (for lack of a better phrase). I've heard of people born into such situations who still manage to tranform their worldview. But it's been discouraging to me to see so many friends, in my own personal life, who struggle to use their agency to help themselves.
A determinist would probably tell us that the fact we have no "real" choice should make us more compassionate to the people who stay stuck. But that doesn't sit right with me, either.
I'm curious to know if you've met others who argue that things like parenting and genetics DO affect our worldview and agency, to the point that we don't actually have free will. Such a argument doesn't sit right in my soul, but I do think it'd be valuable to address.
Thank you, meanwhile, for such a wonderful essay!
These are deep-dive reflections, Brenna, and very good ones. I agree, as you suggest, that our choices have a compounding effect—and it works both ways. Good choices tend to beget good choices, and vice versa, and in the course of a life, an initial small divergence between two people can lead to vastly different outcomes. Your observation about early abuse/neglect is on the mark, in my view. So I certainly wouldn’t blame anybody for getting entangled in a negative-choice trajectory, especially if they had that early history. But to give up on a belief that we have a meaningful degree of free choice, is to give up on hope, and to neglect the possibilities of our agency. Therapists, priests, and wise people have always known this, which is why they often emphasize the here-and-now as an-always available starting point, a place where we can say, as many times as we have to, “And now I’m going to do it differently.” It can take a long, long time to break out of negative trajectories (as I’ve learned in my own life), and sometimes, interestingly, it can also happen in the blink of an eye (which I’ve also experienced). Either way, I think there is always hope.
You're right, it always comes back to hope! Perhaps that was the key concept I was missing. Thanks so much for this thoughtful response.
As always, a nuanced and practical analysis of what we face and ways to assert the good. Bravo!
Thanks for reading Amy! :)
Wow. You took the oft-repeated retort: "yeah but what should we DO about it" and just turned it into an infographic. That's amazing, I'll be sharing this in a couple of discussion groups.
Glad to hear that!
Out of Egypt but how to get Egypt out of us?
I am drawn to your Chesterton quote "the most practical and important thing about a man is still his view of the universe".
Are we looking at this from the wrong end of a telescope? Am I leaving Egypt (machine) but taking Egypt with me?
Is there opportunity to listen to the entire conference, recorded, and not just the keynote?
The gathering followed "The Chatham House Rules", which means no recording, no names, no direct quotes from any of the attendants (unless given permission). We decided to record our talk after the fact to share it with paid supporters.
That sounds so lovely. I would travel to attend a conference like that. Thank you for sharing about it (is another similar upcoming in 2026?)
Ashley Fitzgerald is the organizer for Doomer Optimism gatherings. If you give her a follow, you'll stay in the loop about upcoming events :)
Unfortunately not, Kerimae. Even our own recording was done after the fact, by ourselves.
Thank you...Ive always loved the symbol of the Lotus growing out of mud.....
So good! 👏🏼
Thank you.
This is excellent.
Ruth & Peco, do you have other events happening in the coming months?
I’ll be interviewed at the online “Spiritual Renewal and the Creative Life” summit on February 20 (see Nicholas Kotar’s substack), on the topic of fiction writing. Ruth might also do an interview. Ruth is also spearheading/organizing a small in-person conference in May; details to follow probably in a few weeks.
Hopefully :) We have some in mind…We’ll make an announcement once plans are settled.
Why even mention Sartre, a known supporter of pedophilia?