Man to Man
It’s not often that I include a photo of myself here. Why? Well, since they are usually not photos that I took, I think that I overlook the photos. However, this photo is worth including here as it about relationship. The man with me is another teacher. His name is Arjun and he was my guide in Jaisalmer, India for two days. For whatever reason, we became friends and have maintained communications since my visit to his city sixteen months ago. I will be going back for another visit in order to spend more time with this man and his family. He sends me stories of growing up, stories of his family, as well as thoughts he has about his homeland. These stories are being included in a book that I have been writing on-and-off for the past few months.
As you can tell, I am a writer. For some reason, I have to write in order to feel more present in life. I have two books on the go at the same time. With the SoFoBoMo book, it was three. My book which is getting some exposure here, the one I thought would be the SoFoBoMo book is now half done and will be finished before summer is here. Like the SoFoBoMo book, it will be about eighty pages in size. The book on India will be significantly larger. My hopes are for that book to be finished by sometime in the autumn before I head off to another country. I have thousands and thousands of photos taken while in China for two years and have stories from there to tell as well. I don’t know when I will write those books. I don’t even know why I have delayed those stories as they pre-date the India experience. Oh well, I trust my instincts and listen. Perhaps I should say “muse” instead of “instincts.”
Man to man. How can I explain the relationship? There is something about the “I-Thou” relationship that comes about from time to time that defies logic. Probably everything about it defies logic as it is outside of the norm. Both of us are teachers. But that is not enough as I have worked with many male teachers, none of whom have “connected” in this way. My colleagues have ranged from acquaintances, to friends and to antagonists in the workplace. I can’t explain it, nor will I try. It just is. Man to man.
I have begun reading another book, Celebrating Soul: Preparing For the New Religion, by Lawrence Jaffe. I had read a previous book by Jaffe a number of years ago called Liberating the Heart: Spirituality and Jungian Psychology, a book which I found rather interesting. So far, and to be fair I have not read much of the book, I am not impressed. I actually feel uncomfortable with some of his ideas which essentially boil down to Jungian psychology becoming the next great religion with Jungian analysts as the high priests. I get the feeling that there are a core of older analysts such as Edward Edinger who are party to this notion. I will comment here in the future about more thoughts on this book and this idea. Needless to say, somehow I think “transference” has played a number on hime and “hubris” has turned Jaffe from analyst into prophet.
