2 Responses

1. Oh my gosh, what a moment. Before listening to this conversation, I had just read Patricia’s tender, evocative essay in “Aeon” on the transformation she experienced with her transgender son as he transitioned, and as she stood resolutely by him in that reckoning/experience/emergence. And, I will happily add, Patricia didn’t simply say “ok, let me know what’s next.” No–she “showed-up,” as the political activist community expresses its regard for authentic act-ors. She demonstrated her alliance with the larger lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender & intersex community by marching in the Chicago Pride parade, even though that entailed an ugly confrontation with religious fundamentalists.
   Patricia is a hero, a model parent and a great writer, I thought, as I absentmindedly clicked on her bio. That led to her podcast series, and this is the first one I’ve listened to. What a revelation! To consider ritual, both the bane and backbone of my Catholic childhood, as something worth revisiting, perhaps even worth reliving, in healthier forms, is a little unsettling, yet very restorative.
   In fact, 50 full years after realizing I am a gay, feminist, atheist socialist, I still venerate my 20 years of Catholic education, with its reverent rituals and humanitarian ethics, prior to that. We don’t need a supreme being to guide us, I easily concluded at the age of 20; whether for individual choices or society’s watershed decisions, we’re better off forging our way by dint of reason and inquiry. Yes, I found Kant!
   But we do need more than reasoned inquiry. We need each-other, irrationally or not, on this voyage called life. And as Caspar said, that is more true than ever as the world finds itself floundering in a crisis of meaning. Today my floundering was steadied by Patricia at the helm of change, her conversations serving as a vessel to navigate some of the contemporary confusions life likes to blithely throw our way, testing our survival with the bafflements of morality–right vs wrong–and of meaning–the who, why, when, where & whethers of existence.
   I had never been drawn to Jung or Freud, given my inclination to rationalize everything from the Big Bang to the Fall of Rome. But I know that rituals have guided those senses and impulses which, alarmingly, never seem to present their own rationale, valence, motive or effect.
   For a memorable example, lighting a single candle in a dark, lonely church after I lost two younger siblings meant more for me than a hundred counseling sessions or a fearless, but forced, moral inventory. Sometimes, I discovered, the simple gesture of kissing a noble prow, or pulling up a weary anchor allows us to launch ourselves, gently, with a contingent itinerary ~ on a tender, perhaps wordless, journey toward the distant shores of a more majestically manifest, meaningful world.

   Reply

   1. Dear Denny,
      Thank you! Even though we’re in the heat of podcast production, I couldn’t let another do go by without responding to your heartfelt comment. I’m honored that you took the time to share your thoughts with us. We never know who is out there listening and benefiting from Jung in the World, but we’re so glad you find it meaningful. Your comments are invaluable feedback.

      Thanks, also, for the comment about my personal essay in Psyche Magazine. I’m beyond flattered.
      https://psyche.co/ideas/radical-love-how-my-trans-child-changed-my-identity-as-a-mother

      Wishing you well, Denny.
      Patricia Martin
      Host
      Jung in the World podcast

      Reply

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