Hello from the lovely Cowichan Valley. So a lot has happened since my last blog post (it’s been over a year, so yeah, lots can happen in a year). It was another year of topsy-turvy but at this point in my life I’m so used to it that nothing really phases me anymore. Ok, that’s not totally true, I’ve been phased, and traumatized, but I’ve also been really lucky to play some very rewarding gigs with “Cheko and the Pozitive Rebellion” and “Zionbell” in different cities on the Vancouver Island despite our governments best efforts to shut down everything fun over the last two years. Now that we are instead on the precipice of World War Three, I can finally relax?
The purpose of my blog might sometimes be to catch you up on what I’m doing musically, in this case, hoping to record a new single this winter, do an acoustic solo mini-album and play gigs starting next spring again as “Meagan Maria”. Community musicals might also be in my future.... However, although music is my first love, my passion, and luckily at least one of my jobs, there is something more urgent that needs attention. I won’t write much about music, but I am writing a lot of music, so come back and check my social media for new songs and concert dates.
In my previous post I mentioned a potential podcast, and this is still in the mix, but I have taken my research in a slightly different direction. The focus was wetiko, the mind-virus (or parasite) of selfishness and greed, or rather the need to “terrorize and consume” others. People have become aware of this virus though they haven’t figured that out yet. Reconciliation along with the war against whiteness is humanities way of skirting around the real issue. The issue isn’t the white man, though he has been the primary cause of the spread of wetiko. The real cause is unknown, and it could be anything from a physical or energetic parasitic entity, to a natural part of our physical being, a necessary part for the sake of survival. I had a hard time writing just on this topic, because I feel it’s better as a conversation. I also feel like people are in such a state of blame and victimizing right now, and it would just fuel the fire, so more on that will come in it’s own time.
What I have found most urgent to focus on in this moment is non-violent communication. I have read Marshall Rosenberg's “Non-violent Communication” several times over the last decade, slowly absorbing the concept. I have done this because I am a violent communicator. You wouldn’t think it by knowing me, because in person I’m normally described as “very nice”. I grew up around blue-collar small town workers who swore a lot, and since I had to keep up with my tough brothers, I took on swearing. I still do, quite a lot. My mom never swears, and I respect that! I also tend to judge and criticize others, probably just as much as any person, especially in traffic, and to those who have caused me pain. So now that Russia and NATO forces have engaged in armed conflict, and I have observed the deepest, ugliest parts of humanity over the last year (amnesty, no way), I have no choice but to deal with this in my life. I hope I can then help others deal with it in their life, and maybe we have a chance of dealing it with it as a global nation.
Violent communication is how the powerful keep the weak in line. It’s how we avoid responsibility for how we feel and it’s how we continue generational trauma. Over the winter, since it’s time to contemplate and be indoors, I will attempt to teach a bit of what I have learned about non-violent communication. I’m not doing this because I know anything about it, I’m doing it because I have to, and am hoping to learn along the way. I hope to meet people who will help me in this discovery as I feel like it’s the most important thing we can do right now.
Until next time, stay warm, stay sane, but don’t stay the same.
Love from Cowichan Valley
Meagan Maria
