Do No Harm

 

Since I'm still on 'light duties' there has been little weaving (as in, pretty much none), so I haven't been getting my daily working meditation, which shuts my brain down and stops me from fretting about things I have little to no power to change or fix.

I have been reading Mark Carney's book (or trying to), to try and understand how we have arrived at this place in time.  The book is...scholarly...and probably beyond my ability to ken right now.  But I persist, even if I can only read a few paragraphs at a time.

I think I am beginning to understand the field of economics, although I'm not sure.  So I asked someone who knows more than I do about it and am waiting to hear back from them.

But it seems to me that economics is not so much a 'science' but a 'philosophy' and as such it comes in different 'flavours' (theories) with all the attendant baked in biases of each person trying to explain how *their* theory 'works'.  

After reading a last few pages last night, I must have continued to process the information because I had some dreams that I can't currently remember, but seemed to have been about current events.  And we *cannot* separate current events from the various economic theories that tend to shape and guide our societies.

This morning I woke feeling agitated (with little hope of weaving today, given I have massage at 1 pm and may feel like a truck ran over me - again) and somehow the phrase 'First, do no harm' popped into my head.

As I thought about that phrase it seems like very good advice for a society that intends to care for the people who make up that society.  And somehow, that approach to living in the 21st century seems to have gotten lost in the shuffle.

The phrase is oftentimes credited to the Hippocratic Oath, but it isn't written in the actual oath, and some people use the phrase to summarize the underlying philosophy *of* the oath.

I think it's just a great approach to living my life.

I try to do no harm.  Not always successful, I try to change my attitude or behaviour if I find that I have caused another person harm.  Which, as someone raised as a christian, seems the way it should be.

Someone on Bluesky asked yesterday what 'thing' are you most proud of.  I thought about that for a while, because I've been thinking a lot lately about what my life has 'meant'.  While I was thinking about that, I got an email from a student thanking me for my inspiration.  

The two thoughts collided and I realized that what I am most 'proud' of is my students - their accomplishments and their efforts to keep this craft I love so much and find endlessly fascinating, alive.

Talking with someone about Peter Collingwood recently, I used his example of keeping an open mind - how he learned - continuously - by not assuming he it knew it all, and was able to take in new information, different approaches, digging deeper, following his inclination to learn more and to learn from everyone.  I made it part of my approach to weaving to take the same approach, as best I can.

So, I try to 'do no harm'.  I try to celebrate the accomplishments of others.  I try to encourage others as much as I can.

In the end, I feel that is what I can be proud of.  Not that I am 'perfect' - far from it!  But that I made space for others, as much as I could.  I tried to lift people up, not put them down.  And to keep trying.

If you need someone to shake the pom-poms of encouragement, let me lead the cheers.