Words of Wonder: Facing & embracing change

“Everything changes,” so says the Dalai Lama, and every other person, learned, wise, seeking to be wise (as in skillful and responsive rather than reactive and destructive) and on the path/in the process of waking up to reality as an alternative to getting sucked into and staying stuck on the rollercoaster of resisting or clinging to pleasant or unpleasant experiences – which is the heart of the Buddha’s teachings, in a very digested form. 

Which is to say that by facing and embracing the reality of change, by accepting and adapting to the shifting and fleeting nature of all phenomena, feelings and experiences, we can give ourselves the chance of being free from despair and despondency.

It’s a process (hence a practice that we don’t master but keep working at) which requires attention. That’s the running theme behind the readings, podcasts and interviews I share in this month’s edition of Words of Wonder, which reveal and reassure us with the wisdom that we already possess but can benefit from being reminded of:

It’s a matter of shifting our perspective, of cultivating the qualities mind and behaviour that can help us not only deal with life’s invariable challenges, but learn to see – rather than dismiss, deny or decry – things differently.

In this round-up you can learn about (and maybe dive deeper into):

• the power of the creative industry and artists to change public opinion and influence socio-political change, via the televisation of the Post Office scandal, described by the UK Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) as "the most widespread miscarriage of justice the CCRC has ever seen", and the biggest single series of wrongful convictions in British legal history"; and also via this very platform, Ghost, as a more ethical and sustainable model of publishing that serves both writers and readers
• how our behaviour can positively impact others to break out of restricted and repressed modes of relating to ourselves and each other, via the magnificent and magnanimous actor and rapper Idris Elba, the actor Peter Capaldi, the brilliant writer Marina Hyde, and the drag performer turned Zen monk Issan Dorsey
• the inestimable potential of writing as an act of self-reflection to change how we see ourselves and show up in the world, via the neurologist and author Oliver Sacks and Zen teacher Natalie Goldberg

The power of art and creative impetus to instigate personal and relational change

I have a lot of time for Idris Elba and Annie Mac. Their conversation on Annie Mac's podcast Changes is rich with insight and inspiration; Elba talks about how experiences like being an only child and navigating racism growing up led him to discover the self-affirming power of acting and using his voice to find his place in the world, and encourage other kids to realise the same was possible for them.

Elba has spoken publicly about the need for greater diversity in the acting industry and during the podcast, speaks about the heart and soul that goes into life as a creative artist and the need to defend and uphold art for its own sake and the impact that it can have on the world, specifically in relation to the actor and screen-writers' strikes last year.

This rang true on so many levels and felt resonant right now in relation to the independent publishing landscape, particularly with regards to how and who platforms support from an ethical perspective. You may have read about the increasing backlash against Substack in the wake of leading tech journalists leaving the network over its failure to moderate extremist content. That played a part of my own reason to move over to Ghost, which was also motivated by a desire to reclaim/realign my own way of working in a way that is more sustainable and just - what we do and how we do it matters; the choices we make can change everything.

Peter Capaldi, another actor I have a lot of admiration for, touched on these very pertinent issues in his interview with The Guardian, in terms of challenging the politics and privilege of the television industry:

"People of all backgrounds are sophisticated, are interesting, are equally prone to tragedy and joy. Any art that articulates that is a comfort. Art is the ultimate expression of you are not alone, wherever you are, whatever situation you are in. Art is about reaching out. So I think it’s wrong to allow one strata of society to have the most access.”

Another podcast that caught my attention was The Rest is Entertainment, hosted by the wonderfully acerbically on-point journalist Marine Hyde and Richard Osman. This episode looked at how the TV drama, Mr Bates vs The Post Office, managed to facilitate a long-overdue inquiry into the psychopathically horrific treatment of sub-postmasters in the UK, too many of whom lost their lives and livelihoods after being wrongly accused of theft, fraud and false accounting due to a defective IT system. As Hyde and Osman say, while we might decry the impact of mainstream media, in this case, it took the media, and the televisation of this scandal, to bring this to widespread public and overdue political attention.

Change as a reminder of the precious opportunity of a human life

Street Zen: The Life and Work of Issan Dorsey, by David Schneider, is one of those rare, rich, enriching and awe-inspiring books that I couldn’t put down, didn’t want to end, and simultaneously wanted to know the ending of.