Doyle-Nature and the Human Soul

Contents

Chapter 1: Circle and Arc - The Wheel of Life and the Great Turning

Chapter 2: The Power of Place

Chapter 3: Overview of the Wheel of Life

Chapter 4: The Innocent in the Nest - Early Childhood (Stage 1)

Chapter 5: The Explorer in the Garden - Middle Childhood (Stage 2)

Chapter 6: The Thespian at the Oasis - Early Adolescence (Stage 3)

Chapter 7: The Wanderer in the Cocoon - Late Adolescence (Stage 4)

Chapter 8: The Soul Apprentice at the Wellspring - Early Adulthood (Stage 5)

Chapter 9: The Artisan in the Wild Orchard - Late Adulthood (Stage 6)

Chapter 10: The Master in the Grove of Elders - Early Elderhood (Stage 7)

Chapter 11: The Sage in the Mountain Cave - Late Elderhood (Stage 8)

CODA: The Eyes of the Future

I am reading this book because of VHIP Book Club. I bought the book late, so I'm behind the power curve... I listed the chapters for those who are not reading, but interested in hearing what the poor souls forced to read this thing have to say.

From the title of the book and the names of the chapters, I am making a presumption about the author. I think he is a hippy with a ponytail that does yoga in the mountains and talks about mystical energies of the body and soul. It does not help my opinion that he has lived in Boulder, Colorado. Living in Colorado for about nine years myself, I envision someone from Boulder as a nature loving, dreadlock wearing hippy. I left out the pot-smoking comment because I don’t think they all smoke pot, just a large amount of them... and I am trying not to be too judgmental.

I am only five pages into this book and already I am irritated. As a reader, I feel this dude is scornfully condemning my way of life. He must not know how to influence people... or maybe he assumes that only people who agree with him will buy his book. I’m really trying not to judge what he has to say—Why? I have not finished his book, so I should just shut up and read—but I’m having a hard time doing the shut’n up portion.

Page one starts with (skipping the hippy poetry) with a subtitle of: “Crisis and Opportunity.”

Within two paragraphs, he is preaching about the destruction we are causing, and how most of the destruction is because of the, “industrial civilization...relentlessly undermining Earth’s...life systems” (Plotkin, 2). I have to disagree with Mr. Plotkin. We started destroying the ecological balance of everything a million years of so ago. It doesn’t take a civilization with an industrial anything. All it takes is displacing flora and fauna to locations they do not belong.

Within another paragraph or so Mr. Poltkin says, “True adulthood, or psychological maturity, has become an uncommon achievement in Western and Westernized societies...” (2).

Now he is telling us we are not mature. For him to tell us this, however, he is saying he is mature. He would have to be better than us to have written a book telling us how we need to be more like him and his kind.

You know, my friends at work joke that I want to move back to Colorado so I can run around in the mountains wearing a loincloth while throwing rocks at people. If this were true, I would love to throw rocks at this guy. I would love to act a Neanderthal, a primitive ape-man—Uggg! The problem is, he’d probably love me for such a thing.

Next he starts to discuss his premise starting with, “a more mature human society requires more mature human individuals,” (Poltkin, 2). –See! Told you he was calling us immature... or did I say that, I know I was thinking it.

Later he talks about, “our current egocentric societies materialistic, anthropocentric, competition based, class stratified, violence prone, and unsustainable,” way of life (Poltkin, 3).

Last time I checked, materialism was a major part of Democracy. I also believe it is human nature to be materialistic, competition based, and violent.

Wow, I feel a little better for getting that off my chest. I’m still going to try and read this book. I’m going to try my best to turn my little voice off (the caveman voice prompting me to throw rocks). I really don’t think this guy understands though... humans care about self interest and less about virtue. A few people, those few who want a change, have to figure out how to make the rest of the world want to change in a way that is appealing to each individual. Don’t believe me... it took a war to end slavery and slavery involved humans. Humans who we can relate to because we are them—humans who can also be enslaved. Yet it took a war—Why? The self-interest of slave owners was more important than the virtue of human equality and ethics. Now we are asking a materialist society to change based on something they cannot perceive.

Plotkin, Bill. Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating Wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World. California. New World Library. 2008. 1-2.

NOTE: I'm posting this first draft with no edit...so I probably made mistakes. I'm also yelling at the kids everyother sentence, so I know I made mistakes. I'll fix them sometime later... Please excuse my mistakes.