Woven Into Everything, Episode 422
How do we discover what is life-giving in us? And how do we find and name that which is destructive and nullifying in us? And how do we attend to the never-ending process of discerning with maturity and nuance to which is which, and what is what without falling into simplistic ways of looking, so we can bring ourselves to the complexity of our lives and one another with integrity and care? And what might we trust, lean upon, to help us do this well?
This week’s conversation is hosted, as always, by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace.
Episode Overview
00:00 Introduction and Context of the Conversation
02:57 Our Source for This Week, by Nick Cave
06:05 The Nature of Evil and Human Complexity
08:41 The Inherent Potential for Goodness in Humanity
12:00 The Cosmic Disposition Towards Goodness
14:47 The Duality of Good and Evil in Human Experience
17:45 The Responsibility of Attending to Sorrow
20:46 The Choice to Cultivate Goodness
24:05 The Power of Intentional Living
26:41 The Complexity of Human Relationships
30:01 The Importance of Slowing Down and Reflecting
33:01 Conclusion and Reflection on the Conversation
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Here’s our source for this week:
Woven Into Everything
I am inclined to believe in a form of intelligence within the universe, as I hold that consciousness or ‘intelligence’ exists throughout everything, that it goes all the way down to the fundamental atomic matter of things. This force, woven into everything - both living and non-living - is inherently good. If we choose, we could call this force God. I view this power as a kind of cosmic disposition that grows, understands, and empathises with us - suffers with us, you might say - and that humans are ‘fractal', as Cormac so beautifully puts it, exemplars or metaphors of the melancholic nature of this God-soaked universe.
I believe that evil exists not only within the human heart but also as an external energy separate from us, moving through the world - a nullifying, destructive potency - 'going to and fro in the earth and walking up and down in it’. We can see it, if we choose, all around us. Yet, we can act as the remedy to this existential predicament by directing our efforts towards the world’s flourishing and away from its destruction, in whatever way we can. It is our duty to attend to the sorrow of the universe - the sorrow of God.
Nick Cave
from The Red Hand Files Issue # 342