Palestine, Face-Work, and Plato

Hi Friends- 

Here are a few things I found this week worth checking out: 

1. Clubhouse app, Palestine and Israel. While CH has its appeal, I quickly lost interest. Then a friend turned me on to the room "Meet Palestinians and Isrealis" in the Balance Club. The room has been nothing short of amazing. Here's an article detailing its impact. The dialogues are often raw and moving, and they are visceral examples of serious “face-work” in action.

2. Face-Work and Feedback.  Erving Goffman wrote about what he called "face-work," which are the rituals and behaviors nearly all social encounters use to keep harmony. People use face-work to reduce chances of humiliation and shame in both themselves and others. This is all well and fine until we're in social contexts (e.g., a work team) where we need to give and receive honest, critical feedback to reach shared goals. These contexts require setting aside face-work in order to build a culture of feedback. 

3. Ancient Philosophy. I've been reading Plato's Timaeus lately, and a teacher of mine recently turned me on to this edition, which has running commentary. An excellent running commentary typically reduces the amount of time I spend turning to other sources, so this is a welcome recommendation.  

4. Planetary Contemplations. I am currently a teaching assistant in a two-year meditation series based on the philosophical tradition of alchemy. Part of traditional alchemy is a deep regard for the planets. I downloaded SkView Lite to get a better sense of where planets are throughout the day. That simple awareness is delightfully consciousness expanding. 

Thanks for reading! 

If you know someone who might find these briefs interesting, please forward along. It's a surprisingly big help. 

I also post shorter content on IG and longer content on my website. 

Warmly, 

Jacob