Culture
Celebrating Life with Unfulfilled Desires
Aug 25th
After arriving in Boulder we found a good hostel very close to the venue where Andrew Cohen’s band Unfulfilled Desires was going to play. The gig they gave at the Shambhala Mountain Center had been great; the band playing in a large tent and a crowd dancing in the sun, celebrating life after the retreat that left a deep imprint in our souls. So we were very much looking forward to this concert in the Rock n Soul Cafe to groove on the flexible jazz. The place was filled with fans, happy to meet up with each other, and the band kicked off right away. Playing straight from the soul in perfect unity, transmitting a profound joy to the public. It didn’t take long before people start clearing the floor, moving tables and chairs in the coffee-place to create room to dance. It was a joy and an inspiration to see how each band member pushed their own edge and supported each other improvising, obviously having a blast while playing. It was thrilling to notice how every time the band plays, they have evolved. The cafe exploded with good vibrations, leaving everyone in rapture. It was hard to leave the place, as it almost turned into a sacred space to celebrate life and being together.
Watch the video.
UD at Rock n Soul
Fate, Synchronicities and Volitionality
Jun 11th
For some strange reason, perhaps because I’ve always lived very close to my dreams and authentic creative impulses, I’m someone who’s become accustomed over time to experiencing synchronicities on a regular and ongoing basis. It’s baffled me at times, thinking that there might be something out there talking to me and telling me what to do, yet over and over again, when I try to follow whatever these messages seem to be telling me, I’m usually left even more confused than when I started when I’m left empty handed in the end. Luckily I’ve developed the maturity and come to a place now where I generally just leave these events alone and let them pass, which is the same position that I cultivate in relationship to my thoughts while meditating (a practice I’ve developed through Andrew Cohen’s teaching of Evolutionary Enlightenment).
You can see the postmodern (individualistic ‘everything is about me’ way of being) conditioning I carry in those earlier responses, when I’ve thought synchronicities seem to be telling me something about myself. Within those interpretations, there’s also a sense that I am the star of a surreal mystery movie and everything that is happening is just part of a film I’m starring in. When I’m constantly faced with the fact that my imagination in relationship to these events simply ran wild into no man’s land, I’m confronted with the fact that everything actually isn’t about me at all, not even these synchronicities.
Read the rest of this entry »
What does it mean to be my age?
May 20th
What is it to be me, a Gen Y? What do I see in myself and others who share my age that is not found in those who fall outside of that specific category of our experience and perspective? What do I share with my other generational siblings, be they culturally, nationally, different, at another value based stage of consciousness (at a primary traditional, modern, postmodern or more integral stage), or of a different sex or subculture.
If I take a look around, trying to see beyond all of our apparent differences, what comes to mind is “adrift.” No solidness. A “being adriftness.” And also a freshness, but that must come from being as young as we are, no different from the freshness that boomers expressed and experienced when they were twenty something.
But my question about“adriftness” is whether this is just an expression of postmodernism’s relativistic personal experience? Is being GenY just a specific type of the ‘green meme’ value system, of the relativistic, pluralistic, sensitive experience? So what is it distinctly like to be GenY? Read the rest of this entry »
Rebels Without a Cause
Apr 30th
Hipsters have been on my mind lately. Not because I’m particularly interested in the edgy, ironic music and fashion trends that these millennial generation rebels are known for. I’m curious about the deeper cultural predicament that this strange youth movement seems to represent—one that I think has some serious implications for the future of humanity.
So what is a hipster anyway and why should you even care about this back-to-the-future cultural trend? Read the rest of this entry »
Sex and the Media
Apr 7th
Have you ever noticed how many billboards with some kind sexual content or reference we pass every day?
Yesterday, I took the time to count them: 7 in total. But it’s not just billboards, sex seems to be everywhere these days, be it TV commercials, newspaper columns, music videos or just about any other form of media. In fact, it is so omnipresent, that I noticed I wasn’t really paying attention to all the sex in the content. I shut myself down to all the stimulus around me, and apparently I’m not the only one.
Two generations after the sexual revolution and free love, when 11-year-olds walk around in mini-skirts and an 8-year-old sexually abusing a 6-year-old makes the headlines in Switzerland, we’ve reached a point where sex is a public matter. Promiscuity and sexual prowess are highly held values in the minds of many growing up. At least, that’s the image the media conveys.
This leaves our generation with a pretty heterogeneous and confusing picture of sexuality coming from society.
Is God Coming Through a Gen-Y’er and Fueling Obama’s Speeches?
Apr 2nd
Recently I saw a fascinating documentary about a real example of someone to admire and look up to. And someone our age no less!
The documentary is about Jon Favreau, and he is the 27-year-old writer of Obama’s amazing speeches. We don’t get to see Favreau live in the documentary, but on account on what we know he has done together with President Obama, and going by what others have said about him, a Gen-Y’er can’t but feel proud and humbled.
The documentary is in Dutch, but all of the people speak in English, so it’s worth it for anyone to watch.
Jon is a Christian, and you can’t help but get the feeling that he must be inspired by, or get his inspiration from God or Spirit him, her or itself. The inspiration definitely comes through!
From X to Y: Tracking the Evolution of Gen Y Consciousness Through Music
Mar 27th
One of the things we are trying to investigate with this blog is the question, who are we? And because all of us writing on this blog are 30 or under, we’ve naturally been interested in what it means to be Gen Y– how the time period and cultural context we’ve grown up in have shaped the way we see and live in the world than someone who was born earlier.
One of the most illuminating ways to look into who we are as a generation that I’ve found is through music, so I thought I’d give you my take on the evolution of Gen Y consciousness through the popular rock music of the last 20 years. This is just the beginning, but hopefully it will open up some larger questions about who we are as a product of Gen Y culture. Read the rest of this entry »
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