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Tilted Cat Head
Administrator
Location: Manhattan, NY
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Quote:
Originally Posted by abaya
Right... and that's a lesson that was passed on to me via counseling, and I've intellectualized it pretty well, but still have a hard time internalizing it emotionally. I can give other people great advice about this kind of thing, of course--but for myself, not so much. I notice it so much more in Iceland than anywhere else--and I do think that's the major reason why I don't have a real drive to stay here. That sense of failure from my (perceived) responsibility exceeding my (perceived) authority.I am indeed a big fan of rituals, even religious ones, for this reason--I think it's wise to allow the human spirit to grieve for a set time period, and then to decidedly move on, even if you aren't quite feeling healed up yet. How to create these kinds of rituals in a secular setting, where no single culture dominates? I think that it is for reasons like these that organized religion isn't going out of style anytime soon.
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Do you mean you notice it more in Iceland because you see it more in society or yourself? Is this because there is more "down time" than when you were in the US? Personally, I found myself weakest in suburbia because I was confronted more with myself for more hours of the day than any other place. When we moved into the city, it was gone for along time, but eventually winter set in and we spent more time at home. Boom! It came up again because I had to sit with myself.
With regards to rituals, I also agree that organized religion rationale. I'll even extrapolate it a little further and say that people are so desperate for something and for rituals they look to self-help books which some co-opt other religions and belief structures and repackage them with fancy glossy new names. The lessons are the same, the authors different.
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