The Thursday deadline for decision about the next Cafe has arrived. As there may be no consensus ’ I want to float an idea. Could we frame the tragedy of Anthony Bourdain’s recent suicide into something bigger that this particular sad event?
Depression and anxiety are rampant in our culture, some would say it is a norm. Teen suicide is a menace. Reckless behavior is a result of negative self formations. Social injustice arouses wide spread discontent. Illness and inevitable death awaits us all. We have been here before.
I came across an essay ( a bit technical but accessible) about the brain as time machine. Depression is when the past dominates, anxiety is produced by a fearful future. If we have an alien self image that is colliding with a public self image, disturbances can occur. We become increasingly disoriented.
Sometimes, when people get what they want, they acturally get sad. Success can create depression as has happened with many rock stars like Keith Cobain, for example. Depression strikes the old, the young, the rich, the poor and the physically healthy. We also have immense untapped potentials that could modify and transform depression into highly creative adventures.
Simultaneity_Temporal_Structures_and_Observer_Pers…----(8._On_Time_Experience_in_Depression_H._M._Emrich,_C.Bonnemann_and_D.…) - Copy.pdf (834.3 KB)
So I propose that those who know Bourdain ( I dont know him) could reflect upon their feelings and some of us who are inclined could skim the article, and perhaps refer to other recent Cafes that have been engaged with Time, such as the Rovelli discussion, and develop together something fresh about the terrible existential threat that we are having to deal with as global alarm continues to create really bad moods.
Creating compelling future(s) is what keeps people going in the midst of violent changes of circumstance. People can be wonderfully creative with Time. I imagine this can be an interesting area to explore. I can even come up with a clean exercise to demonstrate what I want to have happen! I am open to other ideas. Thanks!