The May Collection
Carl Jung, James Hollis, religious devotion gone wrong, and adults gone wild
A recent review of The Way Home, available now:
If you want guidance on how to engage in meaningful self development work, this is the book for you. This book is full of practical considerations for both how to identify the path of personal and spiritual growth and useful tools and directions about how to stay committed to walking that path throughout the journey of your life.
Welcome to the weekly STILL newsletter. So glad you’re here. A special shout out to our new subscribers! As always I’d love to hear from you, and I invite you to give a gift to help make this newsletter possible by becoming a paying subscriber.
As you may be aware, in the last newsletter of each month I do something a bit different and share about articles, podcasts, shows, and other things that I’ve been getting into. Check out the collections from January, February, March, and April.
1. The Way Home turned 3-months old this past week! 🎉 🎈
In this short time, I’ve already heard tales of the book’s many adventures. The Way Home has traveled to Costa Rica, Columbia, Lebanon, Nigeria, Greece, Spain, Ireland, and Australia. It’s also been on a couple cruises, is available in public libraries in New Zealand, and is getting translated into Vietnamese.
Please join me in celebrating three months by:
Buying the book for yourself or someone else.
Rating and reviewing the book on Amazon.
2. I’ve been listening to Pearl Jam’s latest album Dark Matter.
Pearl Jam’s debut album TEN was the first CD I ever got. I’ve been a huge fan ever since. They are older now. I am too. But they continue to put out solid albums. Dark Matter features some fabulous tracks. My favorite right now is probably “Setting Sun.”
3. A story of religious devotion gone wrong
A article from the New York Times:
Ms. Payton didn’t think of herself as part of a larger story about the popularity of alternative spiritual practices in the splintering religious landscape of 21st-century America. She hadn’t yet parsed the borderlines separating willing self-abnegation, mental illness and abuse. She craved transcendence, and like an increasing number of Americans, she didn’t find it in Christianity or another historic monotheistic religion.
4. Adults gone wild in youth sports
You’re probably aware of the growing youth sports industrial complex with its travel teams, expensive fees, hyper-competitiveness, and many over-the-top parents. It’s a world I’ve gotten more acquainted with over the past couple years, both personally and from a research perspective. So much about it is troubling. This article, The new participants in youth sports: Adults gone wild, is case and point!
Welcome to the world of youth sports, where instead of the kids being cheered and celebrated the atmosphere is becoming more and more dominated by adults gone wild.
5. I’ve been on some podcasts recently.
I’ve been having lots of conversations about The Way Home over the past few months. I’ve noticed three main areas that I’m getting interest from: mindfulness/wellbeing, spirituality/religion, and personal growth/leadership development. I love the different themes each angle brings out. Here are a couple of the most recent conversations:
Check out the media page on my website to access the full list of podcasts.
6. The Spiritual Infrastructure of the Future
Love this feature in the Harvard Divinity Bulletin from my friend Sue Phillips:
We need only look to yoga, meditation, and psychedelics to see how ancient religious practices are thriving beyond traditional religious communities. TikTok is replete with creators who teach about “manifesting.” Instagram meditation teachers have hundreds of thousands of followers. Headspace and Calm each have valuations of more than two billion dollars. Spiritual innovators are creating new efforts to meet very old needs.
The problem is, none of the old infrastructure jobs are getting done. There’s almost no one to form new leaders, help innovators access health care, subsidize services in struggling areas, commission art, authorize leaders and hold them to account, uplift the wisdom of elders, or develop new physical spaces for new purposes. The community of communities—denominations and organizations—used to hold this center and provide these services, but there is no center in this new world. People still need water, electricity, and recycling, but the utilities are working with legacy systems. The infrastructure has broken down.
7. James Hollis on soul and purpose
James Hollis is a Jungian psychoanalyst and author of multiple books, including The Middle Passage—which Ted Lasso checked out. He also read my book and declared that it was “good work” and “fine” (as in art, wine, and dining, I hope, rather than simply “okay”!).
He was recently a guest on the Huberman Lab podcast. I’m not a huge Huberman fan for a few reasons (rigid, lifeless protocols, some questionable science, and promoting sketchy supplements), but I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to hear Hollis share his extensive wisdom.
It was also fascinating to listen to this highly successful neuroscientist-podcaster’s questions about ego/soul, complexes, and shadow in light of this New York Magazine piece, “Andrew Huberman's Mechanisms of Control.”
8. A Carl Jung quote:
“A creative person has little power over his own life.
He is not free. He is captive and driven by his daimon.”
―Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, and Reflections
That’s all for this week.
Thoughts? Feelings?
Would love to hear from you!