The Bridge #74
in which we soothe ourselves with the reminder that everything has at one time been ON FIRE, and though we might feel like things are today "on fire" again, the fact is we are not without options
Hello
& Welcome!
Soon, we will have again a guest writer, someone who reads The Bridge, cultivates wisdom in her life, creatively explores new domains and territories, seeks (and finds) friends. I like to imagine that everyone I meet has that sort of potential in them, and that the primary obstacle isn’t so much their efforts but my perception. Until I have experienced more of life and understood more how they work, I can’t see clearly.
Here’s to having more experiences and knowing better wonderful people!
Something to Consider
Shock and horror, fires burning, looting in the streets, the end of days.
A little less than two thousand years ago, the people of Rome were experiencing exactly that. It may not have been the end of days (if it had been, we wouldn’t be able to read the histories), but it certainly felt like it to many.
Rome was captured and burned more than once, and still it remained a powerful city for centuries to come. Many things change, when the fire comes, and many things remain.
We think that the past is the past, but when we zoom out a bit from the details, it is maybe not all that different after all.
Something to Listen To
“To Die Among Strangers” by ROME (album, Flowers from Exile)
A multimedia studio called Are We Europe helped expand my musical ‘color palette’ in Europe, introducing me to lesser known artists (or at least, not mainstream). ROME is a multi-lingual band based in Luxembourg. Jérôme Reuter is the principal singer / songwriter, and he is often drawn to poetic lyrics, alt/folk tunes, historic themes. Some have compared him to Jacques Brel, but I’m no music expert. I don’t know.
I do know that this song is featured on an album focused on the Spanish Civil War, which is a war under-studied, under-appreciated. The decisions we have made as a collective humanity to give relatively so little attention to the Spanish Civil War are in part cause for our political dilemmas of today. We do well to understand it better.
The song speaks of rebellion, freedom from oppression, only coming with great sacrifice, braving the fire.
Something to Explore
Post-Growth Europe — a manifesto authored by Timothée Parrique, Kate Raworth and Vincent Liegey, supported by 400 signatories
In Europe, a conversation is gaining traction these past years that a growth-obsessed economy is maybe not the only way to go. In fact, maybe “degrowth” is a way to have a healthy economy in certain contexts.
Instead of thinking that we always need more, bigger, stronger, faster — we might imagine further what it can look like to have a healthy world in which sustainability and well-being are central.
The authors claim: “The crises we face are also opportunities to create a new system that can secure wellbeing for all while allowing for a thriving democratic life and a slower yet sweeter mode of living.”
Whether or not the macro-economics will shift that way, I myself really like the ideas of thriving democracy and a slower yet sweeter mode of living.
Something to Say
Thanks to those recently supporting me, listening to me ramble, gently nudging me toward my better self. In times of stress, it’s friends we need. I feel very lucky.
Now the snakes curl up, the curtains part
Will you try to brave my fire?
🔥 JPC 🔥