Well, I don't quite remember what was going on in my head last night, but I do remember that it might have gotten interesting after the opium was introduced. Which reminds me:

today's movie review: Walk the Line

This movie sucks. Further proof of the decadent nature of U.S. culture and the unreality in which its citizens dwell...and the ongoing collapse of the empire. Still boggles my mind how people can produce such utter crap, so divorced from anything and everything real. Doesn't anybody read their Julio Garcia Espinosa anymore?
Oh, excuse me, I just read this week's horoscope. "Make your heart as innocent as possible. Suspend your opinions. Judge nothing." Hmmm. Two weeks ago, it was the myth of Tantalus, who got in trouble with the gods for spilling some of their secrets to human beings, and was condemned to spend eternity standing in a pool of water surrounded by trees full of ripe pears, apples and pomegranates, but whenever he bent down to take a drink, the pool dried up, and when he reached out for a fruit, the branch would recede out of his grasp. The horoscope said that there was a situation in my life with a certain resemblance to this, but luckily was ending soon. Not that I would be able to sip the water or eat the fruit (though it was a possibility), but at the very lest I'd be able to walk away from the accursed place and start fresh elsewhere. Last week's horoscope told me to say farewell to my old self. Apparently, I had urgent appointments with the unsettling but fascinating future, and it was best to part ways with habits that have dulled my initiative and comforts that have numbed my courage. I was ready for more change than I thought I was capable of. So this week it seems that all possibilities must be open at all times. So perhaps the message that the universe is trying to send through the medium of Hollywood Motion Pictures is "Say no to drugs, drink crappy soda water, get some church, and join the National Guard." But I suppose that would be assuming that U.S. Culture was simply a reification of the universe's bowel movements. Eh, food for though, anyway.

Discussion Topics

1) Burnout is considered one of the major factors influencing the high attrition and turnover rate among those working for social change/social justice. In your experience how much of a factor is burnout in the attrition rate of those working for social justice? (consider yourself and those you work or worked with)
What are the implications for the organization or movement's effectiveness?
Have you gone through periods of burn out and then come back to the work? If so what led you to leave and what brought you back?

2) How do you maintain a balance in your life between your personal life and your work? Do you experience challenges in making time for family/friends/significant other. If so how do you cope with those challenges?

3) Social change work, particularly movement work, can be completely consuming, what do you do for yourself to maintain your sanity? (such as yoga, meditation, kickboxing etc)

4) What resources could be utilized to support sustainability in social change work (at the personal and organizational level)?

5) What is the single biggest barrier to a life style of sustainability in social change work?

6) Can you point to a person you know, either personally or otherwise, who is particularly skilled at supporting sustainability in the context of lifelong engagement with social change work?
What practices, attitudes or philosophies do they espouse/utilize?