58 Comments

The craven desire for both epistemic certainty and an "other" to project our shadow onto is creating a sickeningly mechanistic Tower af Babel.

I very much agree with your sentiment. One can't help but see the upstream cause of the absurdities you highlighted, and our precarious situation at large, to be intimately related to our lack of connection. Our disconnection from other people. From place. From tradition. From ourselves. If all that meaningfully exists is a lonely "I" in a temporary meat machine, insanely neurotic safetyism and a childish interpretation of mean words as existential threats make total sense.

Perhaps things need to fall apart before our Machine illusions are shattered. Mass starvation in 1st world countries? Civil unrest? War? Fingers crossed things do not need to get too dark before the dawn.

Thanks for your writing ❤

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Perfectly said. I was just listening to an interview with Matthias Desmet this morning. I have his book and have heard him speak before but in this interview he was rebutting the claims of his critics. It was a very quick interview with the always enlightened, Ivor Cummins. Their discussion about the drive to enforce the ideologic view of life in a mechanistic, transhuman way echos your comment. You might like it, too? https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-fat-emperor-podcast/id1453181214?i=1000580407090

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Thanks 🙏 I have Desmet's book too but have yet to dive in.

Been reading "The Idiot" instead. "Beauty will save the world."

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Oh, Tara! You are such a bright light in all of this darkness. In speaking with a friend that visited me yesterday after a long time apart, I mentioned you and your beautiful gift of prose that you maintained, continued sharing with us after this dark year of deep loss to you. I told him that it there are more people that do NOT subscribe to this nonsense in the world than we think. I found you after hearing Nikki V read one of your posts on their THR show......I had to replay it several times. Then Heather H is the one that mentioned your trip to those blessed Canadian Truckers. It is amazing that we have many shared connections . I thank it is amazing that this old lady can be connected to yourself, Heather & Bret, Nikki & Rob etc......I too love Ivor Cummins. I have followed him for some time and he was very brave to dig into the real numbers very early on. When others in that world of the message of changing our dietary ways were quick to shun him and express disappointment with him, one of them even said they had lost all respect for some in our community (very disappointed with that). Ah....I ramble......Thank you for sharing your talents and love with us all. I shall count myself very blessed. Prayers, hugs and continued love for you and your family. THANKS!

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I like imagining a scenario of two old friends visiting and my name coming up. What an honour. :) You don't ramble, you shared some lovely things for me and I enjoyed reading every minute.

You know, I had someone unsubscribe the other day. That's okay, fair enough, it happens. But when she left, she left with a message to me. She told me she couldn't take my "perfection" anymore, that everything I did and shared just made her feel lousy about herself. I thought that was sad. Mostly, I suppose, because the last thing I feel like I am is perfect. I think I'm more flawed than the average bear. But more than that, I always want to connect with people, to be real and approachable and maybe share a thing or two about food or nutrition just because I learned these things at one time from another human, too. I understand we can't control how people receive us, but your message, that you feel connected here, was a nice balm on that bite. Thank you. xo

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Awe, you made me smile from the inside out.!!!!! Perhaps she will someday see that most of us just (myself, very much so) can self-deprecate way too much. I have always done that. It is a habit that I truly need to break. I am six and 1/2 decades into this ride (Yepper! That means I am 65, well almost, in December). It is difficult to not see a great message and can feel your gifts as if we are looking right out thru your eyes as you magically write your posts! AMAZING!!!!!!!

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I’ve always secretly felt that a zombie apocalypse would solve a lot of problems

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Amen sister! Quickies to mention: 1. I subscribed after inentding to for months. I am just so grateful for your beautiful writing and the window into a most special way of life. And i cant lie -- even while hating tech im so thankful for a "connection" to you and i dont even actually know you (thats the power of a great writer.) 2. Cmon down to the American South for a nice vacation after the baby arrives and the farm work is complete (bwah ha ha farmwork "complete" what am I thinking?!) I am a transplant from NY having married a southern man by the grace of God. We were the freest, most open place in the world in the height of it. Now you see masks and know that person is ill (mentally or physically- who knows). The cities were stifling (hello acearage) but otherwise, it's the same. The same. When I'm online, read the news in my cities, I nearly lose it because life in the American south is still rich in love of family and simplicity. I thank heavens for my husband and this life of southern freedom and grit all day every day. Love to you and yours.

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Thank you for such kind words, Pholiday. Oh I love, love, love hearing about the connection and love of family and ease in your part of the world. So hopeful and inspiring! 💕

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Ps. I tried reading the Nation article. I got to the phrase “ossified and alienated familial relations that make capitalism possible.”

Then I went and made my husband a meatloaf sandwich.

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Ha! Oh, Esther, that made me laugh out loud! That meatloaf sandwich has done more for the world than any ossified familial relation every could!

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Tara he was also installing a roofjack for the beautiful hood vent he is installing in the amazing kitchen he is building for me. I think we are participating in capitalism, traditional sex roles, marriage relationships, local food, and probably some private kind of modest foreplay. Works for us.

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Tara,

One of your best, I loved every word of it. And the last two sentences, a perfect fine point on your message for indeed nothing matters more. I’m grateful today as well for seeing your essay right before I hopped in the car, so I chose the audio version this time. A gift.

There are so many disturbing things going on in our world these days. Up here in Maine we are literally facing an existential threat with the government seeking to shut down our lobster fishery to save a whale that all admit will not benefit from the destruction of this way of life... not one whale has ever been documented as injured or killed by Maine lobster gear.

What an exasperating example of the uselessness and aimlessness of government bureaucracy, regulation, and political maneuvering to feed a narrative and interest groups.

It’s more than a way of life it’s a responsible and honest connection to nature, the past and to the feeding of generation after generation community after community. How do these people proceed, as they did with Covid, undeterred by logic reason or supportive data? How is this allows and tolerated? Where is the outrage?? It’s infuriating.

I will speak, I will raise my voice, I will donate and I will add this to the long list of things that I have taken on in the past two years. Because, ultimately, how can I not? Your essay speaks so directly to this today and I’m so grateful for it. Thank you again.❤️

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Thank you, Joe. It's just mind numbing to see what's being done to tradition and jobs and local economies while massive corporations continue on with the destruction and greed that furthers their interests and marginalizes the people. But still, one would always hope that local economies and communities could see through this - give their allegiance to the real flesh and blood people around them - their neighbours and friends. I'm grateful for your voice and your conviction. More! More! :)

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Honestly, I have too many things to say in reply to this, too many different directions to go in. But earlier this year I wrote a small essay on the perils of limited speech (which may or may not ever see the light of day) and I'll share a paragraph from it since we had a bit of crossover in our thoughts.

"By censoring ideas in public discourse, and showing that expressing such ideas come with a price, this will encourages people to stay in their boxes. And eventually, when one is in a box long enough, when we keep an entire populace in a box for an extended period of time, one might come to believe that the box is the real world, that the shadows on the walls of the cave are reality. And if they are so inclined, some individuals might even cement the door closed so that there is absolutely no way for anyone or anything or any idea to make its way in and tell them otherwise."

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Wonderfully said, Branden, and so true. This is what worries me about our younger generation, being raised as they are today, to believe that dissent is dangerous and humanity can only be expressed by following and echoing the party line. It feels like a great closing of the collective mind. A need to be kept limited and safe over risking anything.

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Tara, your writing inspires me to continue showing up for the things that call to my own heart, that I am moved to speak about. Thank you. You continue to be a gift in my inbox.

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Thank you, Janine. I like being a gift in your inbox. :)

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Thanks for being brave and honest and willing to speak it aloud. I will, too.

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Thank you, Linda. That’s where our power lies.💕

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Thank you. I am in total agreement with your thought-provoking words. I am not eloquent of speech but I do know right from wrong. Help me not be complicit in overlooking a wrong just because it upsets another and/or their view. That’s cowardice any way I slice it. Thank you again. I love being a part of your subscription. I was hesitant when I signed up and now I’m only grateful.

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Thank you, Willisa. Seems to me knowing right from wrong is an ever dwindling ability. I’m grateful your wisdom is part of this world.

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This was probably my favorite essays of yours to date (and that’s saying a lot, because they’re all my favorite). I struggle sometimes to put my thoughts and feelings to everything happening around me into words and time and time again, I read your words and I’m like “Yes, exactly that.”

I particularly liked hearing your thoughts on the current obsession with changing words describing biological sex. Or the attempt to eliminate it, I should add. As a mother of an 8 year old daughter, I worry so much about that narrative that her generation is growing up with, female erasure, and the confusing push for even young children to start identifying as “they”. It’s being taught (Encouraged! Pushed, even!) that it’s totally ok to identify as whatever you’d like, and if you don’t “fit” the sex you were born into (or even if you do) you should just be a “they”. And what boggles my mind is that parents see nothing wrong with this. Children don’t see anything wrong with it because it’s all they know and all they’re taught. But it’s beyond confusing. I hate that I’m considered narrow-minded or discriminatory, hateful even, to think these things. It’s scary to speak up about it, especially where I live. I have spoken up about many things these past few years, but this narrative is tough for me to have the courage to voice how I really feel, especially where I live. I can only hope that by teaching my daughter what is true and what is right, that she will always be unwaveringly proud and confident of her womanhood.

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Well that's about the best compliment I can get. Thank you, Renée.

I have such compassion for parents with young kids right now. A friend of ours recently told us that his sixteen year old daughter just came out as transgender. They have never seen any inclination that their daughter identified as a boy before, but in her class alone, four other girls have recently announced that they too are transgender. As Debrah Soh and Abigail Shrier so eloquently and beautifully point out, this is a case of social contagion. Are you familiar with their books? They're both excellent and might give you some language and resources that would be helpful in expressing your position on these things, should you wish to.

It is scary to speak out about these things. It absolutely is. I know of parents that are so horrified with what's happening that they're pulling their kids out of school to homeschool. I think it's wonderful that some people can do that but I worry about the kids left in the schools. Some people just can't homeschool and if we take out the dissenting opinion, what will be left in the schools?

If you get a chance, the article "What do Girls Do" by Heather Heying, linked in essay, is really good. She's such a bright woman. It's so reinforcing to listen to women, like the ones I mentioned here, speak about this issue with such genuine compassion and intelligence.

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Thank you so much Tara! I have heard of Abigail Shrier and have been meaning to read her book. I will check out the others. I homeschooled my daughter for the last 2.5 years to protect her from the madness of everything, but we just sent her back to our sweet Waldorf school, which so far has been going so well. Her teacher is more old-school and wonderful (I had a lengthy conversation about gender stuff with her before I agreed to enroll her in school). But there are plenty of parents and teachers there that are aligned with this harmful ideology and I worry it’s only a matter of time before I’ll have to voice my concerns loudly or have to pull her out completely. So I need to arm myself with as much knowledge as I can! Thank you again.

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👏 👏 👏 yes Tara. Very well said , and exactly what I have been thinking about lately too. You have encouraged me. I have been speaking up and out , since this whole Covid began ,but I get so angry with it and need to remember to show and speak with love. I shake my head in unbelief how blind people are every day. Thank you

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I get angry at times, too. But that also feels like they've infiltrated into parts of me I want them to have no access to. It is head shaking, alright!

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I really hope we have not gone too far from common sense...

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Good God. Perfect timing while I ghost yet another doctor who will not respect my polite decline of a booster.

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They're obsessed.

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And alienating. And do not see one as a person who critically thinks even if it isn’t what they think.

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I was so interested to hear what you thought of the concert because I really used to like her but it seems a lot of the art community are captured in that way and I am very disappointed. Thank you being out there and standing in your convictions. There are a few people who have stayed true and allowed others to not feel so alone and isolated! To me it feels like there is almost a desperation to much of it now and I’m hoping the chinks will burst out!

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I'm feeling that way, too, Jenelle. I also think it's telling that some of the doctors and proponents of lockdowns and mandates are now quietly switching jerseys. That's telling.

It's true, and very disappointing to me, that there seems to be this acceptance in the arts community, to adopt a very left wing political approach. What happened to the rebels and the misfits?

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Oh Tara, This essay is brilliant, spot on and inspired. It’s our foundation in spirit and truth as individuals that matters today and tomorrow, and you have explained how that should work so very well. God has blessed you my friend -

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Thank you so much, Guy. I shared this quick little podcast above and think you might like it too. You’ve probably already heard of Matthias Desmet but this interview with Ivor Cummins (such an admirer of that brave man) is quick and snappy and really gets into the guts of the matter. https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-fat-emperor-podcast/id1453181214?i=1000580407090

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I’m familiar with both Ivor and Matthias - me thinks we travel in the same circles. 😎

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That you, Tara, for a great essay. Thank you also for the link to Matthias Desmet' interview with Ivor Cummins. If you haven't seen it, I also recommend his interview with Tucker Carlson - truly edifying and inspiring.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZltdPfal5x0

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Thank you, Christiane. I haven't seen it but I will give it a watch. His book is excellent, too. I have a few people that will be getting it for Christmas presents this year :)

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Well done Tara ... well done. We had a very similar conversation to this one yesterday while having our morning coffee. We are definitely on the same page and are constantly shaking our heads at the theatre that is being played out around us.

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Thank you, Janice and Gerald. Theatre, indeed!

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Oh dear lady I could kiss you. And squeeze you in a big hug. Thank you for articulating so eloquently the boiling irritation and words I’ve been trying to find these past few years. Yes yes yes.

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I'll take that kiss! Thank you, Sonja. :)

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