War

I felt sad when I got up this morning. There’s war on European soil. First, I would like to apologize to our non-European friends if this sounds hollow to them. In some countries, every day means war, even if it is called something else. These conflicts take place elsewhere. That’s the only reason why they concern us less here. It’s as stupid and as simple as that. The horror of the situation in Ukraine unsettles me. It hurts me when innocent people are harmed. History repeats itself. The first bitter pill we Europeans had to swallow was the tragic Yugoslavian war in the late twentieth century. And now this. There will be refugees again, traumatized women, children, and elders. People intending to return to their country will have lost their homes again. We will pick ourselves up again and collect and donate and yet stand by helplessly again. And afterwards we will vow: «Never again!» again. Lately we have seen more of «us» against «them» the world over. I know things will eventually get better, but I feel like crying. Am I a ridiculous softie, a sentimental crybaby who has nothing more to offer reality than a few cheap tears? Ninety-five percent of all Europeans, from the Atlantic to the Urals, disagree with this war. We have to make the best of this situation and we want to remain confident. We will benefit Ukrainians the most if we believe in them and focus our energy on them! Ukraine is the recipient of international backing and worldwide expressions of solidarity. Countries that have never taken in refugees want to welcome Ukrainians. Elon Musk is providing Internet access via Starlink, which will keep the government and the people in touch with the outside world and give them courage. More effective economic sanctions than before are hurting more of the right people. The war has taken a different turn than anticipated by the aggressor. The population and the army are fighting back. They have many strategic advantages. Maybe our demands, prayers and wishes will help, and justice will prevail? Positive news in general: We will reopen our lounge soon; there are no more mandates. I am happy that I am no longer constantly asking myself where my mask is, that I can see the faces of the essential workers in our stores and that I feel a little closer to people. And even under sad circumstances, spring is coming.

Thoughtfully, Yours
Susanne G. Seiler

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nature’s first green is gold

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Robert Frost

In Praise of Boredom

Though we may not live alone, we have increasingly turned inward over the last two years. No matter if we previously described ourselves as spiritual or were committed to a more extroverted lifestyle, our inner lives have taken on a new magnitude. We had to get closer to ourselves because, collectively and individually, we were often at home, saw fewer people, slept more, loved more – or less – and saw, as if through a magnifying glass, what our individual lives are made of. Screen time. Family. Sex. Exercise. Shopping. Cooking. Eating. Maintenance. The confrontation with the essence of our inner landscape, our own nature, is not always pleasant. Not only because we may discover sides of ourselves that make us cringe or are challenged by behaviour that is hard to give up. We are used to being as productive as possible; even turning inward means ‘doing something’. Perhaps it is part of our nature, and we can’t help but strive for added value, or pleasure, whereas we would be so well served with a little boredom. Being bored is more than doing nothing. We could have many beautiful adventures of the mind, if we only allowed ourselves a little world-weariness from time to time! Staring holes in the air, our thoughts revolving around not knowing what to do with ourselves. Letting go, allowing the mind to drift, watching the clouds pass by. Letting go of the trivial as well as the significant thoughts that come to us, until they are boring too. Then we won’t be thinking of anything and delightfully unproductive. Until the next impulse arises and wriggles its way into our consciousness. When spring comes, new thought will turn into deeds.

Longingly Yours,
Susanne G. Seiler

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February Twilight

Smooth with new-laid snow,
A single star looked out
From the cold evening glow.

There was no other creature
That saw what I could see—
I stood and watched the evening star
As long as it watched me.

Sara Teasdale

how woke are you?

There are countless things that we, as supposedly informed citizens, must be aware of before we are allowed to have an opinion. Should we cancel everybody who doesn’t know about matriarchy and patriarchy, antiquity and modernity, colonial times, and industrialization, about slavery and racism, of weapons laws and genocides, parallel moons, and space missions, about responsibility and freedom, epidemics and murders, gender and sex, green hope and sustainability, the future, and mass extinction, and about how A leads to B? The problem seems to be that the conclusions we draw from our knowledge or lack thereof leads to lives in more than one reality, difficult as this may seem. There certainly is a plethora of beliefs and life models inside and outside of the mainstream that intersect, overlap, and run parallel, that align, clash, unite, fall apart, and reorganize. Is that why everybody needs a ready-made opinion about everything nowadays? To brandish it in front of them like a shield or a sword? How much power do I give others over my thoughts? How much am I influenced by what I – selectively – read, hear, or see? Do I need external mediators to know what is wrong and what is right for me? For the society in which I live? I trust myself to be able to distinguish between good and bad, truth and lies. But what about the others? To learn something about the state of the world in which I live, I must compare my opinions with outside insights. That is the practice. In addition, there are libraries full of theory. We want to stay in conversation with each other so that we can openly and effectively take responsibility for the world we want to live in.
Wishing you a blessed, healthy, and peaceful 2022

Yours,
Susanne G. Seiler

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Winter Lullabies

Winter speaks
in blusters
and lullabies fall
with the snow.
Some float
through the air
like flecks
of magic,
and some
settle like dreams
that didn’t want
to be caught.

Sabina Laura

legalize it II

The Celts already cultivated Cannabis in our latitudes, and it experienced a heyday in the 17th century, when European ships sailed the seven seas with their hemp riggings, bringing new stimulants to Europe. Due to the burgeoning chemical industry, cannabis cultivation lost importance. After the Second World War there was some increase, but as of 1982 the cultivation of cannabis was prohibited in Germany, until 1996, when hemp could be grown again as an agricultural crop. As a stimulant, cannabis experienced certain restrictions early on and remained illegal. This is about to change, as the new German coalition has taken up the cause of decriminalsing hemp, hoping that the introduction of controlled dispensing of cannabis to adults for the purpose of consumption, in licensed stores, will bring an economic upswing. Cannabis was already approved as a medicine in Germany in 2016, and it is also legal as such in Austria. There, cultivation is only punishable if one wants to obtain an ‘addictive substance’ from it. Anyone can plant hemp if the plants do not sprout female flowers containing THC. Otherwise, cultivation, processing, acquisition, possession, consumption, passing on and transport are still punishable. Germany intends to bet on a great variety of cannabis products as well, as witnessed in Switzerland in the nineties not only around the still fashionable hemp beer, hemp clothing or hemp bubble bath, but on hemp paper(s), hemp as insulating construction material, as sweets or lollipops, hemp seeds, hemp tea or hemp cookies. Hemp was on everyone’s lips, but the corresponding elections were negative seeing the proponents wanted to achieve too much at once, and the range of hemp products narrowed again. The time of cannabis as a stimulant had obviously not yet come. In the fall, we will find out whether this will change in Germany. In Austria, there is also a coalition of the willing regarding the legalisation of cannabis; CBD-containing cannabis is just as popular as in Switzerland and Germany, but whether Austria will follow Germany’s example remains to be seen. For older consumers it doesn’t make that much of a difference.
I wish you happy holidays – with or without cannabis.

Yours,
Susanne G. Seiler

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Our Lady of Outer Space

Reach down for the sun, reach down
for the stars, reach deeper for the secret
places of the body of her the stars adorn.
You are lost and found in her embrace.
There is nowhere else for you to fall and
no escaping from her love for she is
black and pulsating source,
her million nipples
nurse all life,
her jeweled ardent body
twines around you always
and there is no place
to go but
home
to
her

Arlen Riley Wilson

Legalize it! 

Switzerland intends to legalize the non-medical use of cannabis. For a pilot trial, certain pharmacies and CBD-shops will be allowed to sell it, in various strengths, to a select Swiss-wide cohort. The aim is to gain experience over a three to five-year period, “…that a regulated market be created for the cultivation, production, trade and consumption of cannabis”. One third of the adult Swiss population have tried cannabis at least once. A majority wants to see it regulated like alcohol. Luxemburg allows its citizens to grow up to four marijuana plants per household. Seeds are freely available for purchase and are taxed. Activists in countries like Spain (Catalonia) or Italy have experimented with growers’ clubs, another reasonable extension for the liberation of a plant growing naturally all over the world. In Canada, buyers need proof of age for legal purchase. The Canadian government estimates that legalization has led to a reduction of the illegal cannabis market by two thirds. A similar model is envisaged for Switzerland. So far, there are no provisions for letting users grows their own. Overall, market regulation is welcome, also for reasons of quality control. The Swiss Farmers’ Association has made sure only Swiss bio hemp is used in the upcoming pilot trial. All legal cannabis is to be grown outdoor, a pipe dream. How long it will take to achieve normalization for psychedelics is everybody’s guess. Big pharma is trying to make a decisive grab here. If they succeed, only licensed therapists will be able to administer genetically altered and patented psilocybin, for instance, within an equally patented set and setting, allowing for ‘replicability’. What could go wrong? Mexico wants to regulate traditional plant use. Individuals and groups pursuing spiritual interests will be controlled, do-it-yourself revelations actively repressed. Compared with a city like Seattle, where all psychedelics are legal, we have a long way to go.

Concerned, and with warm autumn greetings,
Susanne G. Seiler

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Eye Spin Out

It was another arty choke
That smoky asphyxiation
Your oxygen deprivation
One of my most favourite sensations
Give the bong’s cone a poke
I’m in need of fresh inspiration
Take me on a mood elevation
At times – a cause of desperation
The ritual can leave me broke
A huge problem across our nation
The government’s sadistic taxation
We must put an end to this situation
The time has come for another toke
Protest the man and this aberration
Change the dial on the radio station
We want to grow our own, no agitation

Leaf van Amsterdam

Language barriers

We Swiss are very fond of our dialects. We believe that they are ours to keep. We police them. To prevent anyone from learning them (though a few courses exist), we scrupulously make sure that our most vulnerable immigrants are not provided with enough lessons to educate them beyond a very basic linguistic level. More language classes are needed for the shy vendor of Surprise (a mag sold by the homeless) outside our local supermarket, who has no colloquial practice with natives like me. He was trying to tell me that my bike rack was not up. Very thoughtful. My friend Brigitte, who immigrated to Switzerland over forty years ago and has long since held a Swiss passport, complains that to this day she is always picked on because of her language. Her Swiss German is not Swiss German enough, her German not German enough. And where in Germany is she from? Quite impertinent, of course ‘without meaning any harm’. Even without an office or law to keep Swiss German dialects clean, Germans and Austrians must follow an embarrassing protocol if they want to make themselves at home with us. Swiss German is taboo! Please only understand, don’t speak our language, you wouldn’t be able to anyway, hardly anyone who didn’t grow up here can. There is a grace period, for reasons of civility, for German-speaking foreigners who do not live right on the border. The fact that Swiss work colleagues repeatedly fall back into their dialects with their countryfolk instead of using the German language is part of it. But we don’t want to impose ‘proper German’ on our former neighbours beyond what is necessary. What are they thinking? Brigitte asked me, in disgust. That their German is that good? Our fellow citizens from the north and the east have long opened to our dialects. They understand us well. So why strain the German language any longer? While they regale us with their own language, we speak ours, giving them a better chance to integrate and interact with us. And, as a bonus, we may be a little humbler. Or should we all speak English? Learning languages is worthwhile. Unless you live in Switzerland, where everyone automatically seems to think they know everything better than you do.
Too bad, that.

Linguistically yours,
Susanne G. Seiler

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Eternity

He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in Eternity’s sunrise.

William Blake

White privilege

Coming into Switzerland, only two foreigners were checked in the entire compartment of my delayed intercity train. They were sitting on the other side of the isle, right next to me, two Lebanese living in Germany, on their way to Lucerne. Since both men spoke some German, the two hulky Swiss border policemen relented. The Lebanese were worried about missing their connecting train, and I couldn’t convince them they were allowed to take the next one instead. “Switzerland is very strict,” said the man sitting closest to me, “we better buy a new ticket.” Fortunately, the Swiss conductor came on board and was able to help. Shocked at how sure I was of my rights, whereas the two foreigners preferred to cower right away, I got off. Once again, I was shamefully aware that I need not fear the authorities, the police, or anyone else, that I belong as a matter of course and can make myself heard any time. I don’t need to tread softly, to walk on my inner tippytoes, to pull myself together as soon as I enter the public sphere. The scruples of my friends who live here as secondos (2nd generation migrants) are unknown to me. As a natural born citizen, I’m not indebted to my country, and I do not feel pressured into doing more than my share. I don’t have to keep a low profile. Most immigrants prefer not to sign petitions or other neighborhood initiatives, showing how urgently we need to give them an official voice at the communal level. At my grandchildren’s school parties, which take place in Zurich’s multicultural 4th District, where forty-five percent of the population are immigrants, we eat delicious dishes that parents from thirty nations have cooked for us. Separate yet together, we sit by ethnicity, in a friendly and neighborly way, at long tables. We Swiss know that we can knock on our neighbors’ doors at any time if we need something, a cup of flour, an egg, to make a phone call. Unfortunately, for “the others”, it is not so easy. I am much looking forward to the next party, to be held soon, after a long break. I will talk with strangers and with my neighbors again for sure, no matter where they come from. They have a harder life than we do.

With urban greetings to the country,
Susanne G. Seiler

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Resolution

There’s the thing I shouldn’t do
and yet, and now I have
the rest of the day to
make up for, not
undo, that can’t be done
but next time,
think more calmly,
breathe, say here’s a new
morning, morning,
morning,
(though why would that
work, it isn’t even
hidden, hear it in there,
more, more,
more?)

Lia Purpura

Motivation and how to get it

My friend Max, a philosopher in his spare time, says what we need to motivate ourselves is a kick in the pants. Wikipedia defines motivation as what makes humans or animals initiate, continue, or terminate a particular behavior at a particular time. Drives such as hunger, thirst, and procreation define our hierarchy of needs, meaning we prioritize certain urges. Motivation is a mixture of inherent and libidinal behavior, an impulse of an instinctual, genetic, and mental nature. There are two types of motivation; science calls them intrinsic and extrinsic. Extrinsic is anything that comes from the outside and we do only because we get something in return, in our case money, love or status. Here, motivation is desire, and desire leads to slavery. We make ourselves dependent on the expected reward and omit or forget to do what brings us joy. Of course, we can undertake meaningful work, for which we are rewarded; most of us need to make a living, after all. That would be one motive. We can also accept a little slavery in return for doing what we want the rest of the time. The heart, that lonely hunter, is looking for true or intrinsic motivation, the desire to create, the spark or impulse that pushes us to do things that delight, satisfy, and liberate us for their own sake. And what if I am too lazy or indifferent? The ancient Greeks already knew that man seeks what pleases him and avoids what causes pain. Thanks to the close relationship between motivation and feeling, music, movement, dance, and – esthetic – pleasure have an arousing effect. They stimulate us but, coming from an outside source, they also lead us back to where we started. Science has no precise answers to the question of what drives us outside of the expected reward schemes either. The latest theories hold that the subconscious and its motivations cannot be deciphered, and it is the strength of the intention that matters. Our intentions serve self-regulatory purposes and help us develop a will, in turn leading to greater competence. But first we need that kick in the pants.

Dapperly yours
Susanne G. Seiler

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Maputo Olive

Your poem nails home horseshoes
wears hat, mounts steed
does not look back.
And longing strives but cannot cross
the field. Like Zeno’s arrow.

From now on, the miles
are marked with milestones
of sapphire and a bush
of flowers each
a different fragrance, each a note
from your music that wore a hat
and spurred my wistfulness

Into the terraced night.
  

Tad Ipadeopla

Critical Mass

How many Swiss citizens does it take to change a light bulb? (As you may know, we recently shot down a law involving CO2 that should have helped us on the way out of our environmental misery.) Now I wonder: how many active citizens does it take for a society to change? Really only six percent? Is that how many of us need to jump on our bicycles, take to the streets, demonstrate, march, hold up banners and call for international solidarity until we can make our demands more concrete? How many people would have to agree among themselves? And could they? (If two conservatives meet, they are happy; if two lefties or greenies meet, neither is left or green enough for the other.) And even if they agreed, would they be capable of creating the consensus needed for change to happen? The climate is everyone’s headache. Coastal cities, mountain villages and arid areas are bracing themselves, African and Asian climate refugees are on the run. Homeowners are worried, storm follows storm, heat wave follows heat wave, fire follows fire, flood follows flood, landslide follows landslide, eruption follows eruption, earthquake follows earthquake and still there is no jolt going through our society. I go on vacation by train (flying is even more ineffective now) and try to keep my footprint small in other ways as well. I express my love of nature and of the environment in many ways, but it is not enough, even if hundreds of thousands of us behave this way. Change doesn’t just happen bottom up, it must also come from industry, from government, from businesses, from manufacturers and farms. Is the climate perhaps not sexy enough? How critical is the mass? Where and how can people be turned around? Where are the advertisers and public relationists who’ll give the fight for Mother Earth and against mass extinction a more winning image? One that creates in us an urgent desire to invest large sums of money in the environment and to earn money from this project. Repeat after me: My weather, my climate, my world!

Heatedly, yours
Susanne G. Seiler

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A Vendor of Dreams
(After Ben Okri)

Vendor of Dreams
You are a recorder of rag-ridden destinies,
a pimp-impressario.
You sell us phantasies in cloud-packets.

Our favourite dreams are of incidents at
The shrine, masquing with masquerades,
Placating the jealous gods
After all, it is only Lactogen,
a quiet hallucinogen.

Night, and you must pay for the
murdered sleep of the world.
In your best nightmare
you unscrew your head
and hide it under your armpit,
to escape the wrath of creditors.
But you can’t keep away the flies.

Niran Okewole

Orthorexia nervosa

Besides anorexia and bulimia, a third eating disorder has been officially recognized, I recently read. You may well be familiar with it already. Orthorexia is about the obsession with healthy food, a relatively common disorder nowadays, though often unrecognized. Most of us would like to lead a healthy lifestyle. There is nothing wrong with that, although opinions differ widely on what that might entail. Some people cannot do without meat, fish and dairy, while others eat few or no animal products at all. I don’t need to explain to you what vegan means. In the past, people were obsessed with food because they did not have enough to eat; today we suffer from oversupply, often produced under questionable circumstances. For me, healthy food is locally grown, does not come from factory farming and is as natural as possible. I refuse to eat animals that were born just to die – for me! Though I have a sweet tooth, I try to avoid sugary stuff. I don’t always manage to drink enough, but I drink little alcohol and keep my psychoactive habits under control. Things turn unhealthy when people strictly investigate every bite to make sure that nothing «bad» goes down their throats. When all food can only be organic, and they have to decline when they are invited to eat at friends’ houses who don’t do as they do. Most likely because shopping at the health food store exceeds their budget. This I can well understand, because I too can’t afford to gold-plate every morsel of food I eat. Except for eggs and fish. They must be local and certified in order to reduce animal suffering. Since I eat healthy in general, I allow myself an exception now and then. Rudolf Steiner already said that it is better to drink a glass of wine than to think about it all the time. My motto: the secret of good health doesn’t lie in what you eat, but in what you don’t eat. Exceptions confirm the rule. To think that one can control one’s health through nutrition alone seems to me to be too short-sighted; enjoying your food is just as important, and enough movement and good relationships too, of course.

Healthily Yours
Susanne G. Seiler

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A Center

You must hold your quiet center,
where you do what only you can do.
If others call you a maniac or a fool,
just let them wag their tongues.
If some praise your perseverance,
don’t feel too happy about it—
only solitude is a lasting friend.

You must hold your distant center.
Don’t move even if earth and heaven quake.
If others think you are insignificant,
that’s because you haven’t held on long enough.
As long as you stay put year after year,
eventually you will find a world
beginning to revolve around you.

   Ha Jin