Deena Metzger

[sparhawk]

Well, that's a face to remember.


In the process, Metzger has authored two novels, several books about writing and living, and she travels to places like Liberia and Botswana to hold peacemaking councils with people torn by civil war. She is a poet, a philosopher, a healer, a peacemaker, a cancer survivor and a sage. She believes that “the writing of literature is an alliance with the spirit,” and she knows the I Ching as well as a good minister knows the Bible. With her husband, writer and healer Michael Ortiz Hill, several rescued malamutes and an ever-shifting cast of “two-leggeds” (i.e., humans), she shares a house in the Santa Monica Mountains decorated with Native American art, animal fetishes and sage-scented pillows. (http://www.laweekly.com/la-people-2007/deena-metzger/16303/)

L

[listener]

She is one of my favorite people/writers. (She and Clarissa Pinkola Estes, storyteller par excellence.) The portrait of her... Tree ...is phenomenal. I am so sorry that in a fit of clutter-clearing feng shui madness, I took a book containing that picture and an essay about her life and donated it to the library.
Didnt know she was already 70. and the fact that she is a YiJinger is not a surprise. what does she mean when she says she is
"terrified of the mind that is commercially projected into the world" ? what does that mean exactly? Can someone give me an idea? (it is humid here and my brain turns into mush)

[getojack]

what does she mean when she says she is
"terrified of the mind that is commercially projected into the world" ? what does that mean exactly? Can someone give me an idea? (it is humid here and my brain turns into mush)

Not really sure, but I think it means she's opposed to crass consumerism and/or materialistic foofaraw.

[trojan]

. what does she mean when she says she is
"terrified of the mind that is commercially projected into the world" ? what does that mean exactly? Can someone give me an idea? (it is humid here and my brain turns into mush)

I don't think its your brain I think its a fuzzy sentence :confused: Whose mind is she talking about ? Is she afraid of her own mind being commercially projected ? Hmm well she can't be cos if she is published writer surely thats the very thing shes inviting ? Is she just commenting on others selling out for profit like jack says ?

Everything that is commercially projected comes from someones mind, absolutely everything, so does she mean shes terrified of everything that is commercially projected ? No can't be .

I guess she probably means she fears a mind thats become an object of consumerism - but is that possible ? Or a mind that calculates how much profit its expression will bring - but doesn't everyone have to do that in one way or another in their work ?

Nope, give in, I dunno what she means exactly, Luis cat should know hes pretty bright :D

[hollis]

her husband too:

http://www.gatheringin.com/index.html

[bruce_g]

She is “terrified,” she says, “of the mind that is commercially projected in the world.”

Interesting statement. I think she refers to much more than consumerism, though that is obviously part of a projection of mindset. I think she's saying we've been sold a big bill of goods, that our perceptions of what is real is sold to us wholesale, from our infancy right up to the most recent "reality show".

She's right. We "two leggeds" do live in a world of our own making. And I think she's saying that, since we do have that option to make our own world, that we can change it for the better. Something which is unique to humans is that we can think beyond our own immediate survival, and think of the survival of the planet and all her creatures.

[listener]

I guess the creative mind could be contrasted to the commercially projected mind. one is a garden and life-giving, the other is a blaring horn, making a lot of noise but deaf to what is inside, what could grow in the silence. I think of LiSe and Brad, both of whom offer their lifegiving "gardens" online for free...both are a work of the soul, an expression of a fullness within

musing on my own question...;)

[sparhawk]

Luis cat should know hes pretty bright :D

When it comes to that kind of questions, Cat-yi just sits, right next to me and stares me down. When I give up and take my eyes away, I realize that some issues, as some cat's stares, have no immediate solution... :D Wise cat, indeed...

L

[rinda]

http://www.mpip.temple.edu/gradmag/fall98/deenam.jpg

[rinda]

http://www.gatheringin.com/essays.html

there's one called "coyote's gift" .....

[sparhawk]

http://www.mpip.temple.edu/gradmag/fall98/deenam.jpg

Now, that is one powerful photograph. What a lady and what a spirit. I wish I could emulate half of that.

L

[listener]

"Coyote's gift" is such a beautiful story, thanks Hollis and Rinda for the links to Ortiz's site. It really touched me , that story. I worked with hydrocephalic children and to this day, I always had felt that I was in the presence of the Divine when i held them. and for the first time now I see it a different way. Holy People don't "give" us something we don't have, they open our own hearts so we experience the Divine already in us. it is a 41.5 experience. And that may make not sense to anyone else right now, but it does to me.
Deena Metzger said of that photograph: "this is what health looks like"

[hollis]

"Coyote's gift" is such a beautiful story, thanks Hollis and Rinda for the links to Ortiz's site.
yr welcome listener, it's always a joy to read your insights on these pages.

It really touched me , that story. I worked with hydrocephalic children and to this day, I always had felt that I was in the presence of the Divine when i held them. and for the first time now I see it a different way. Holy People don't "give" us something we don't have, they open our own hearts so we experience the Divine already in us. it is a 41.5 experience. And that may make not sense to anyone else right now, but it does to me.
Deena Metzger said of that photograph: "this is what health looks like"