Ian Somerhalder Foundation Book Club discussion

Kim Falconer

Contrast

What is contrast and why is it important? Or is it important?

Is there an Upside to Darkness?

Ruby’s sword master at Treeon Temple teaches here about judgment and contrast. Pg. 190

‘. . . We don’t know what effect our
life journey has on consciousness. I suspect we need
the peaks and the valleys, the challenges, the fears, the
exhilarations. We need the contrast just as a child longs
to know who the “good guys” and “bad guys” are in a
story. Pathology — disorders — may be better seen as
adventures of the spirit.’

Ruby tells Loni about Gaela, pg 399

On Gaela there isn’t the desperation or oppression. Earth is
saturated with it. Here, everything mourns its own death, even
while it’s still alive. There, everything celebrates, even if there
is a death. It’s so beautiful. Life there is … magical. I wonder
if it was ever like that on Earth.’

There is a fundamental difference between Earth and Gaela. It boils down to two perspectives, it and thou. On future Earth all but ‘man’ is an it. Object. Expendable. On Gaela, everything—people, animal, rock, tree, river, storm—is a thou. Revered. As Joseph Campbell said, our whole psychology changes when we see the world as a thou. The contrast in POTS helps demonstrate the difference between a world of it consciousness and thou. By recognising this, it expands the mind and changes how we see our Earth, the one that’s under our feet.
Note: It turns out the brain can’t tell the difference between a dream, a memory, a fantasy or ‘reality’. If we are emotionally engaged with the story—seeing it unfold through the eyes of the main characters, frightened

when they are in danger and uplifted when they find safety—it’s the same, to the brain, as if those events are really happening to us.
This is the magic of storytelling. It doesn’t just talk about what was, or what is, it takes us to a place where the question what if becomes true. By going there in the mind, new neural pathways form, connecting the experience of things like gender bias vs. equality and reverence for all life. From the darkness of future Earth and its contrasts to Gaela, we may gain a deeper understanding of ourselves and where life as thou can lead. From that point a different future becomes possible because we have, for a moment in time, lived it.

Light and Dark Nature

Where is the love? Sometimes we have to turn out all the lights to find it.

You get a totally different civilization and a totally different way of living according to whether your myth presents nature as fallen or whether nature is in itself a manifestation of divinity, and the spirit is the revelation of the divinity that is inherent in nature. –Joseph Campbell

In Path of the Stray’s Earth, Nature is seen as ‘fallen’. On Gaela, Nature is one with all life. Divine. Consequently there is a totally different way of living in each world.

Janis arguing with Cheng about nature, pg 83

‘Women are the embodiment of nature, Cheng,’ she
said. ‘If the female gender is marginalised, so is the
environment.’
‘That’s ridiculous. A woman is no more of nature
than a man.’
‘As individuals perhaps, but I’m speaking
symbolically. It is a connection seen throughout history,
in all places and times. Cultures that honour the sacred
feminine do not defile nature.’

* * *


Janis and Luka explaining the origins of the ‘Hammer of Witches ‘to Celia, Pg 170.

‘The god, their God, mirrored the culture,’ Janis said.
‘Every woman on the planet became a target — an Eve,
Lilith, Pandora. Read the myths.’
‘It was nothing new,’ Luka said. ‘Patriarchy by its
own dichotomy fears its wild side and so denies it,
represses it. As soon as nature strikes back — as soon as
there is a plague or a storm or an earthquake — the
scapegoat is sought. Ironic, isn’t it? Nature brings a
catastrophe and women are tried, tortured and killed by
the tens of thousands.’
‘It’s not ironic, Luka,’ Celia said. ‘It’s heinous.’
‘That too,’ he said. ‘But with the sacred feminine, the
dark feminine mystique of Mother Earth, deleted from
the major religions, the energy emerged from the
collective unconscious as witches. Patriarchy’s first
response was to stamp them out.’
‘Emerged from the collective?’ Celia asked. ‘Explain
what you mean.’
‘Blasted through the floorboards is more like it,’ Janis
said. She turned to Celia. ‘Whatever we push under
gains power simply because we resist it. In those dark
centuries The Hammer of Witches was written as a
manual — instructing magistrates on how to identify,
interrogate and convict “witches”. Effectively, it was a
licence for gendercide, a way to keep the sacred
feminine repressed.’

Discussion

How do you respond to contrast, in the story and in life? Does it feel expansive or restrictive? Can you suspend judgment and see events as ‘part of the journey?’ If it were a film, would you close your eyes? Why?
How do you experience life around you? As a thou or it? When you feel connected or disconnected to Nature, what happens in your body? mind?

Contrast is what we need in order to know what we want. From that perspective, I can value and even appreciate it.

As the poet Rumi says, "We can’t help being thirsty, moving toward the voice of water.”

Without thirst, water means nothing to me. How delicious water is when we are coming from thirst; and how boring it can be when we are replete!

It's true that contrast can involve huge pain and distress.

The trick is to take a big enough step back from that pain and distress so that we can begin to appreciate it. If we can only detach for a few moments and find some relief from that pain, we can begin to use it.

For me, that means either finding a better thought about the subject ("I don't have to figure this out right now"; or "it will work out, it always does") - or distracting myself with something unrelated (immersing in a good book, going for a walk, playing a video game for 15 minutes).

Getting a little wiggle room around the contrast gives me a big shift towards letting in what I really want. In that situation, how could I NOT appreciate it?

One day, perhaps I'll master the art of remembering this every single time I experience contrast LOL! Something to aspire to..... ;-)

Love this approach, Janette. Appreciating contrast is an amazing place to get to.

Every opposite is also its only true equal. You can't genuinely know what it is to hate someone until you've loved them first, and vice versa. Contrast is important, even necessary, to life. How do you recognize light without dark? Harmony without cacophony? A gift without loss?

Contrast can create beauty -- while it works for some, would all paintings be beautiful without the bold contrasts in color? Would conversations be interesting if everyone had the same knowledge, the same opinions? Would people be beautiful if we all looked the same?

Personally, I relish contrast. It enriches my experience, and I seek it out in all things. I find almost all contrast beautiful, and recognizing the beauty in it - even when it's painful - is part of what helps me cope with difficult things. Recognizing an experience for what it is - a place marker that adds to and informs your perception of all future experiences - is one of the fundamental ways in which we learn, grow, and stay connected with our world, with Nature.

That said, it doesn't mean it's not frustrating sometimes. When you find yourself confronted with someone whose opinion or worldview is so 180 opposite yours that trying to find common ground to discuss *anything* is kind of like bashing your head against a brick wall repeatedly... then yeah, sometimes I just want to close my eyes. But that right there is the challenge of being alive -- forcing your way to common ground whenever possible, or at the very least finding your way around the conflict.

Capiz wrote: "Recognizing an experience for what it is - a place marker that adds to and informs your perception of all future experiences - is one of the fundamental ways in which we learn, grow, and stay connected with our world, with Nature. ."

Brilliant, Capiz. I love how you link contrast to art and beauty. How interesting would storytelling be if there were no conflicts? Darkness helps us recognize the light. Wholeness. Completeness. Balance. It challenges us to grow. So true!

In Path of the Stray, and the whole series, there are some serious contrasts! Some were very hard (confronting) to write but it's made the work more meaningful. Thanks for your input!

We've been talking about Forest Practices & how they have been changing. Selective cutting vs. Clear cutting. A Sustainable business vs. a Cut & Run corporate model. In the Mattole one of the saddest things was to watch them cut Old Growth Oaks, Madrones, Bay, many growing straight & 100' tall. Massive trunks, some Madrone branches we could fit 10 folks on it laying in thick moss with the Salamanders. Not all Wildlife live in Fir, some like Vultures & Eagles nest in these massive broken tops or splayed topped trees. With their Clearcut prescriptions they would cut & then make a humongous burn pile, they also 'hack & squirt' herbiciding to kill them standing. Imagine how much furniture, siding, flooring, etc such a waste. It's not worth the price of a truck driver to haul it to our pulp mills where the steam is used to generate electricity?

This is my favorite song written by my good friend Darryl Cherney. I always start singing this song to myself when I think of how it should be/how it could be. Sort of like our Blue Ox Mill in Eureka, which also doubles as a continuation high school, teaching hands-on skills.



The Ballad of Jan Iris

by Darryl Cherney (Em)

Now there's many kind of loggers in these (D) north coast woods
Some die (C) old (D), some die (Em) young
But there once lived a faller who (D) worked for the trees
And his (C) tale (D) will carry (Em) on
His (Am) name was Jan (Em) Iris
And he (C) mourned the mighty clearcuts men had (G) made (D)
So after (Em) coming home from the (D) bloody Vietnam War
He (C) knew a (D) debt must be re-(Em)paid (repeat)

Now there's many kind of loggers come to Briceland town
Some have gone, some remain
But big Jan Iris he'd come to settle down
And heal the forest from its pain
He'd seen the underbrush a-catchin' fire
And he'd seen the young trees reaching for the sun
So he fired up his chainsaw, he fired up a kiln
He'd found a job that must be done (repeat)

Now there's many loggin' outfits in these north coast woods
Some take half, most take all
But Wild Iris Forestry took one out of ten
Then limbed the rest up to grow tall
You hardly knew that they'd been in there loggin'
And the fire breaks were a blessing to us all
Then 'twas off to the kiln for a hardwood floor
Or a cabinet for the kitchen wall (repeat)

Now there's many kinds of changes hit these north coast towns
Some come easy, some come hard
But those big loggin' comp'nies with their big machines
Left us closed down mills and empty yards
But with a portable sawmill and a pick-up
Jan Iris showed us how we can make do
On just fifty acres ten folks could work all year
We could have our jobs and forest, too (repeat)

Now there's many kinds of lessons in this great wide world
Some learned fast, some take time
But those poisons of war that he'd worked with long before
Struck Jan with a cancer in his prime
And so they found a school to teach his wisdom
And in 1991 Jan Iris died
And though we all knew there was so much work to do
That day all of Briceland stopped and cried (repeat)



Copyright 1991 by Darryl Cherney, PO Box 34, Garberville, Ecotopia 95542. All rights reserved