Hi, I'm Locksley! Ask me Anything.

More
5 years 3 months ago #329446 by Locksley
When you think back over your day today, what is the first thing that pops in your head that made you smile?


Good conversations with old friends, who, through the passage of time, are becoming new friends again. Laughter and good vibes -- even with an ear infection.

We are all the sum of our tears. Too little and the ground is not fertile, and nothing can grow there. Too much, the best of us is washed away. -- J. Michael Straczynski, Babylon 5

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
5 years 3 months ago #329447 by Locksley
What you got planned for the holidays?


A big gathering with all of our friends -- almost 30 people coming to our house to eat, relax, and generally have a good time. :)

We are all the sum of our tears. Too little and the ground is not fertile, and nothing can grow there. Too much, the best of us is washed away. -- J. Michael Straczynski, Babylon 5

The following user(s) said Thank You: Carlos.Martinez3

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
5 years 3 months ago #329448 by Carlos.Martinez3
I got the family drive to somewhere to meet more family we have married into. Should be a new thanksgiving here .

Happy holidays friend ! Sing loud dance hard and drink deep !

Pastor of Temple of the Jedi Order
pastor@templeofthejediorder.org
Build, not tear down.
Nosce te ipsum / Cerca trova
The following user(s) said Thank You: Locksley

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
5 years 3 months ago #329451 by Locksley
Aw, yay! You too, my friend!

We are all the sum of our tears. Too little and the ground is not fertile, and nothing can grow there. Too much, the best of us is washed away. -- J. Michael Straczynski, Babylon 5

Please Log in to join the conversation.

  • Visitor
  • Visitor
    Public
5 years 3 months ago #329476 by
What role does nature play in your jediism? What do you do to protect nature in return?

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
5 years 3 months ago #329985 by Locksley
Hi, Twigga, thanks for asking this! Apologies for the slow response, I must have missed the notification.

Nature is... everything. Intellectually, nature is the fundamental thing. I keep coming back to the sheer complexity of nature, of how interconnected it is; how resilient and yet how fragile; so fearsome yet so delicate. On this level, nature is first.

Nature is always first in other ways, too. From a young age I was taught to respect nature, but, even before these lessons took hold of a mind old enough to comprehend them, I remember carrying an innate instinct for the importance of life. Not necessarily human life. Gosh, how I despised those other children who would destroy snails! How angry was I, at being forced to play with the little boys who liked to build dams and kill the bugs left in the dry. Years later, I would find patterns of behavior in myself very similar to theirs. That was a wake-up moment for me; an "enlightenment" moment of sorts. That anyone can harbor these vicious natures -- perhaps there is a piece of our nature which is innately so. That's okay. I realized that this wasn't who I wanted to be, I got better, I moved on and became a different sort of child.

I take great solace from the natural world. Some people use petty logic to argue that "humans are natural, so what we create is too." This is a foolish argument. Human beings take a naturally complex system and impose our ideas, our simple-complex systems, over it. We pave away those things of which our ancestors were afraid; we pretend we've transcended those things which our ancestors were devoted to. Human architecture can be beautiful, magnificent, meditative; wonderful. But without nature? Concrete lanes, glass and steel towers, smoke and pollution, boxy buildings, architecture built for profit rather than the glory of our own inner joy -- these things cannot match the simplicity, the complexity, the magnificence of nature. The ocean on a gray and stormy day. The forest of redwood trees during a rain storm. The wild boar, fifty feet away from your tent in the middle of the night; there is something in the wilderness which we desperately need in order to be human. We need the wild places of the world. And, mostly due to our own carelessness, many of those wild places now need us, too.

Jedi should protect the wild places. There is nothing about this which is remotely "political," that only comes in when we start quibbling over "value" or when we try to decide which extreme we want to belong to. At the end of the day, a Jedi's life must include a sense of what it means to have nature in balance; a Jedi must be committed to ensuring that a balance in nature is maintained. Human beings can, actually, sustain themselves on the resources of our planet and solar system. We consume, yes, but we can find ways to coexist with the wonderful systems of which we are a part -- we must, actually, for without such coexistence we will all perish from this earth. Understanding that this is part of what the Force is has been important to my journey: the Force calls us into action even as it asks us to grow our perspectives and settle deeper into a place where our presuppositions are less strenuous and trapping. The Force is a lessening of our egos, of our ideas that we are superior to elephants or bees -- but also that our instincts to kill and eat are not "unnatural" or wrong.

So, what do I do? I do many things, including writing and dreaming up a sort of world that's better. I also always make certain to cut open the nooses of the six-pack soda can rings whenever I get them so that they, at least, won't strangle innocent beings quite as easily.

We are all the sum of our tears. Too little and the ground is not fertile, and nothing can grow there. Too much, the best of us is washed away. -- J. Michael Straczynski, Babylon 5

The following user(s) said Thank You: Carlos.Martinez3,

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
4 years 3 months ago - 4 years 3 months ago #345840 by Locksley
Hello, Temple!

A bit about me, as a reminder:
I'm Locksley, one of the Knights here and a member of the Temple's clergy.

During my day job, I work at one or more local bookstores, bake food to sustain my teacher partner throughout the week, and work hard to meet all the deadlines for my graduate degree (an MFA in Creative Writing). I'm fascinated by the wonderful ways this path and this Temple have helped me grow and remain stable in the last decade, and I'm more than happy to discuss any aspect of my experience with any of you.

My responses to threads can take a little time, but if you'd like to discuss something urgently please send me a private message. Otherwise, post here and I'll respond when I can.

May the Force be with you.

We are all the sum of our tears. Too little and the ground is not fertile, and nothing can grow there. Too much, the best of us is washed away. -- J. Michael Straczynski, Babylon 5

Last edit: 4 years 3 months ago by Locksley.
The following user(s) said Thank You: J. K. Barger, Carlos.Martinez3

Please Log in to join the conversation.

Moderators: ZerokevlarVerheilenChaotishRabeRiniTavi