<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Wow, amazing. John Burbidge just sent me a note that we all should watch the movie<b> Living</b>- about what death releases.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large">Dick</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Jun 27, 2023 at 1:10 PM Alfrieda Wilkins via Dialogue <<a href="mailto:dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net">dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div style="overflow-wrap: break-word;">Couple of connections this post prompted that I wanted to share…the wellness center at Swedish Covenant Hospital was envisioned and came into being at the time I was joining Dr. JoAnn Cannon, and her company Inward Bound Ventures as I was moving out of 4750. JoAnn was a consultant there and we worked with a Dr. Tim ??? who managed the center. Our “What’s Right with Your Life?” self assessment formed part of the foundational focus for wellness there, as it was the first center of it’s kind.<div>Your emphasis of focusing on facing death as an important part of freeing us to truly live and make the best use of our end of life time coincides with other work I’ve been involved with, as I’ve just returned from Ashland, OR where Dr. Peggy Rubin lead a seminar “Facing the Bardo and Dance” using Shakespeare’s Act Five as the point at which really important work is possible. Second session planned for Oct. 19-22. And of course all your efforts Dick, with The Last Chapter to assist people in preparation for ending/beginning.</div><div>Alfrieda Wilkins<br><div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>On Jun 21, 2023, at 6:45 PM, Richard Alton via Dialogue <<a href="mailto:dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net" target="_blank">dialogue@lists.wedgeblade.net</a>> wrote:</div><br><div><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:large"><div style="text-align:center;margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><b><span style="font-size:14pt">Join Planet Fitness</span></b></div><div style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">I have been in the Chicago
ICA Community about a year and half. When I first arrived, I asked Terry
Bergdall about where the closest gym and he recommended the Swedish Hospital
and showed me how to get there. Great ride. A little expensive but great
service at about $73 a month. Because of inflation they just raised it to $83.
Anyway, I was talking to Martin a fellow community member about biking, and he
said he biked to his gym. Great ride and only $10/month. $10/month!! So, I go
to Planet Fitness and it is great and is a two mile bike ride. Joined.</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p><div style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">Love the name because I am
into PLANET fitness or maybe the lack of it. My Congregation has run a series
of sessions on sustainability after worship over the last 6 months. The last
session was on Palm Sunday and Dr. Michael Hogue, Professor of Ethics,
Philosophy and Theology spoken on Death and the Planet Earth. It turns out he
is writing a book on death. He proceeded to lead us in a guided exercise on
facing death: </span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0in 0.5in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Symbol">·<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-kerning:auto;font-feature-settings:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-size:14pt">What does facing death (our own,
and others) free us to know and conversely, what ignorance does death aversion
bind us to?</span></div><div style="margin:0in 0in 0in 0.5in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt;font-family:Symbol">·<span style="font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;font-kerning:auto;font-feature-settings:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:7pt;line-height:normal;font-family:"Times New Roman""> </span></span><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-size:14pt"> How does facing death help us to notice what
really matters, or what we ultimately value? And conversely, what
duties/responsibilities/obligations does death aversion lead us to evade?</span></div><div style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">This was an amazing
conversation with about 20 people for an hour and a half</span></div><div style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">Death aversion is big.
Especially ecologically. The earth is impermanent and when we discount the
future, we externalize the cost of what we are doing to the planet. This is why
Dark Ecology wants us to face the abyss. We can’t avoid the uncertainty of life,
the world.</span></div><div style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">And then I found myself
reading a section of the New York Book Review called “Hastening the End” “We humans, one writes,
are an essentially “parasitic” species, our growth and dominance has been a
uniquely disastrous process for the planet and for those other species who must
live on it”; “that the end of humanity’s reign on Earth is imminent and that we
should welcome it”</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p><div style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">Yes, so what does facing
death free us to know and do? Some say we are living the age of death- the
great extinction. This is why confronting death is most needed in our time. How
is facing our own death and civilizations so needed?</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p><div style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">First, death helps with our
life focus. What do we want to accomplish with this life? As Becker in The
Denial of Death points out, “this question gives hope, because it holds open
the dimension of the unknown and the unknowable, the fantastic mystery of
creation that the human mind cannot even begin to approach” But death also releases the great perplexity
of our time: ‘The plain debasing and silly heroics of the acquisition and
display of consumer goods, the piling up of money and privileges that now
characterizes whole ways of life.”.
</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p><div style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">Second, knowing you will die
helps you focus on the now. Death enhances the ability to live in the present. And
from being right at all costs. If one thing relatives our anger and conflicts,
it is death. You appreciate more fully our wonderful life when you truly know
that your time is limited. You don’t want to waste it.</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p><div style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">Third, dead tends to release
us from an inappropriate sense of self-importance. Death avoidance feeds human
hubris and our earth- destroying fantasies of conquest and consumption. The
antihuman revolt shares the convictions that the page has been turned on the
final chapter. Death releases us from the absorption with our life, out to the
big picture of life. It releases us from the immediacy of our life to embrace
the vastness of existence that we are part of. It is said that death releases
love. As one article titled: “Think about your death and live better.” It is
like self-emptying, making yourself nothing to make yourself available to all.
By leaning into the reality of one’s own death, one finds happiness- one loses
the trivial life sucking care of everyday life.</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p><div style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">In facing death, one finds
the marvelous, the absolute mystery of life.</span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt"> </span></p><div style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">Dick Alton</span></div><div style="margin:0in;font-size:12pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-size:14pt">ICA GreenRise since 2021</span></div></div><div><br></div><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div>Richard H. T. Alton</div><div>ICA Global Fund</div><div>Methodist Eco-Sustainability T/F</div><div>T: 773.344.7172</div><div><a href="mailto:richard.alton@gmail.com" target="_blank">richard.alton@gmail.com</a></div><div>Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2<br></div><div><font size="2">Won't you be my neighbor?</font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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</blockquote></div><br clear="all"><div><br></div><span class="gmail_signature_prefix">-- </span><br><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div>Richard H. T. Alton</div><div>ICA Global Fund</div><div>Methodist Eco-Sustainability T/F</div><div>T: 773.344.7172</div><div><a href="mailto:richard.alton@gmail.com" target="_blank">richard.alton@gmail.com</a></div><div>Make Plain the Vision, Habakkuh 2:2<br></div><div><font size="2">Won't you be my neighbor?</font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>