Grounding in Tradition

[@ElectricUnicycleCrew]

Algorithm

[@Maisel9]

Great video, boost!

[@bragestensen]

Very interesting video. Really enjoyable to watch, and gave me thoughts to work on.

[@JCFinlay]

Loved this one! Comment for the algorithm

[@williamchristensen7354]

I think you have a good point about whiteness being a spiritual void and one of the ways of deconstructing that is by reckoning with our ancestors and our actual, historically-situated ancestors. I'll be thinking about this for a while.

[@shurazeryck1345]

This sort of thing haunts me, as someone who is completely disconnected from the Jewish side of their ancestry. I want to learn more about Jewish tradition, but I always feel like I'm "not Jewish enough" to "claim" that identity and the struggles that come with it. I think coming to terms with the privileges of my white ancestry will help me learn how to connect to my Jewish roots in a way that makes sense. Thanks for putting your time into this video!

[@natkutcher5150]

This video is very interesting and helpful! I'd love to hear any thoughts you have in the future on continuing to heal ancestral trauma for white folks. A quick technical comment: it's difficult for my brain to focus on your voice with the music in the background. For me personally, just your voice with no soundtrack would be my preferred format for these videos.

[@Dorian_sapiens]

There's a lot to chew on here. I was brought up with evangelical Christianity, stopped believing, spent a long time looking for something to replace it with, and eventually realized I was happy without a spiritual tradition. Still, it is something I've been thinking more about lately. This is a valuable perspective. Thanks!

[@sjh3217]

I was kind of frowning at this because while I do believe that spiritual alienation is a core factor of whiteness, it sounded like you were essentializing a need to reconnect to tradition even if we can't resonate with it. But on second thought I feel like the core point is that the assumption that we can pick and choose our spirituality based on personal appeal is both a denial of how spirituality actually works, and an extension of the idea that freedom = everything being for us. But in actuality we're not really our own, since the self is constructed from a history of experiences that transcends our own life which we do not control (if there's one thing in Buddhism that hits the nail on the head, it's Anatta). I don't personally consider myself an evangelical Christian anymore, but for the rest of my life part of me always will be because of how much it shaped who I am. And, for better or for worse, being white means being in a position where I am by default the "bad guy", and need to own a very long and dark history of it in order to find out who I am outside of that default, as I do what I can to heal the Earth. At I least I think that's what you're trying to get at.

[@СвеБожилова]

Oh, I love that your dress is specifically made for a flat chest 😭. I really want to wear dresses like that once I get top surgery but I can't sew or anything lol

[@felicorvid3602]

I feel like this stuff is really interesting to think about, but I also don't quite vibe with the idea that the reason most of us are opposed to being a part of/associated with a tradition like Christianity is driven by guilt or a feeling that it's associated with oppression. When I left Christianity it was because I no longer felt I could believe in any sort of deity or supernatural things. I've contemplated going back to a progressive church to regain a sense of connection with a community, but since I don't have any belief in the supernatural I can't do it in good conscience. I do agree that humans need some sense of spirituality but I have struggled to find it for myself in a context without deities or supernatural. What has brought me solace however are things that connect me to nature (gardening) or traditional manual skills (knitting). You did mention researching things like traditional food and flora, and I like that. It might be worth looking into. This video leaves me with a lot of conflicting feelings, but I'm happy to think about and engage with these ideas. Thanks. :)

[@CircleATattoo]

thanks for your comment! ftr i wasnt trying to say and im sorry if it came across as saying that the reason people distance themselves from christianity is/only because of this, just that sometimes people coming from this mindset distance themselves from christianity as part of that

[@felicorvid3602]

@@CircleATattoo I haven't really interacted with the ideas presented here in a meaningful way before. I have encountered the sentiment of Christianity being colonialist/supremacist and I do see racist groups associating heavily with Christianity so I think I see where you're coming from. However I haven't personally encountered people saying they don't want to associate with Christianity for those reasons so it's not really something I've thought much about. Most likely I haven't spent much time in circles where this sentiment would come up. Thanks for responding!!

[@natkutcher5150]

Hey there. I don't know if this will be helpful to you or not, but I identified with your comment, and I wanted to share my experience. I recently joined a Unitarian Universalist Church. The UU Church is from Christian traditions, but in the present day, in the US, there's a lot of openness about the concept of God, and lots of members are atheist/agnostic. It's been very helpful for me. Things are different, but I believe similar in Canada, where it's just the Unitarian Church. Unitarian and Universalists Churches in other parts of the world are more traditionally Christian, I think. Your mileage may vary.