Front view of a sculpture of a falcon, with a human head and a sun disk on top.
Side view of a sculpture of a falcon, with a human head and a sun disk on top.
Ba Bird, Ptolemaic Period (332-30BC or later), Egypt (wood, paint, gold leaf)
#babird #ancientegypt #sculpture #art
A social post from @lifeboatacademy which says: "Our society loves to reduce everything to the level of the individual, because then we don’t have to look at the social factors." — Gabor Maté
When the same struggles appear across many lives, it can help to widen the lens.
Some challenges are personal. Others grow from the conditions people are living in.
Understanding that relationship restores perspective.
Full reflection:
emotusoperandi.medium.com/reflections-...
#SystemsThinking
Black and white photograph if a chrysanthemum floating in water with some of its petals floating around and the reflection of a barren tree in the water.
A Box of Ku #638, by Masao Yamamoto, 1998 (gelatin silver print)
#masaoyamamoto #aboxofku #photography #art
A social post from @lifeboatacademy which says: “The polycrisis is a metacrisis: it’s a crisis of meaning and understanding.” — Ben Kadel, Farmastery Steward
We're witness many pressures and the destabilizing erosion of shared meaning.
Understanding grows where attention and honesty are sustained.
Full reflection:
emotusoperandi.medium.com/reflections-...
#SharedMeaning
The work is a combination of sculpture and drawing of a crouching, muscular, almost three-meter-high figure that looks ready to move, described as a "crouching brute".
Baby by Thomas Houseago, 2009-2010 (Tuf-Cal, hemp, iron rebar, and charcoal, blends raw, plaster, sketched details)
#thomashouseago #scultpure #multimedia #contemporaryart #art
A social post from @lifeboatacademy which says: “If I were to remain silent, I'd be guilty of complicity.” — Albert Einstein
Silence is not empty.
It aligns us with something — just as speech does.
Where is your voice invested?
Full reflection:
emotusoperandi.medium.com/reflections-...
#Alignment
Ruptures shock, but can confirm what we already felt in our bodies.
January 6th wasn’t just an event, it was a threshold.
When false safety falls away, what remains is how we choose to live — with integrity.
Full reflection:
emotusoperandi.medium.com/reflections-...
#CollectiveMaturity
A social post from @lifeboatacademy which says: "I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo. "So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." ― J.R.R. Tolkien
The times are given.
Conduct is chosen.
Agency doesn’t require heroics — just integrity in motion.
Full reflection:
emotus.substack.com/p/a-breadcru...
#LivedIntegrity
The image displays the white roof of a Volkswagen Beetle embedded in the highly reflective white floor of an art gallery, creating an optical illusion that the car is sinking. The room is bright with large windows.
Hasta Las Narices (Up to the Nose) by Ivan Puig, 2004 (Volkswagen Sedan, undisclosed white liquid)
#ivanpuig #installationart #contemporaryart #art
An illustration by Victo Ngai depicts an adult giving a child a haircut in a domestic setting. The child sits on a wooden chair, covered by a newspaper cape, with a bowl upturned on its head, while the adult stands behind it, scissors and comb in hand. Hair clippings are scattered across the floor, alongside a broom, a fan, and slippers.
Bowl Cut by Victo Ngai, circa 2010 (woodblock printing)
#victongai #woodblockprint #art #illustration
Clarity isn’t forged in comfort alone.
Pressure can refine as well as distort.
If we stay present through the heat, something enduring can emerge.
Full reflection:
emotus.substack.com/p/a-breadcru...
#AdaptiveStrength
A social post from @lifeboatacademy which says: “Having a soft heart in a cruel world is courage, not weakness.” — Katherine Henson
A soft heart isn’t fragile.
It can feel fully and stay grounded. Adapt and remain clear.
Some strengths shatter under pressure. Others deepen.
Full reflection:
emotus.substack.com/p/a-breadcru...
#StayHuman
A painting showing a person, possibly a man, from the side, looking down at a chessboard with several pieces on it. The person is painted in warm brown and red tones, with a focus on their large arm and hand resting near the board. The background is a light, pale green and yellow wash.
Vizisakk (Water chess) by Pap Gitta, 2009 (mixed media on linen)
#papgitta #painting #art
A vibrant, large sculpture by Takashi Murakami called Flower Matango, featuring a sphere covered in colourful smiling flowers with thorny green vines extending upwards and outwards.
Flower Matango By Takashi Murakami, 2001-2006 (fiberglass, resin, steel, and oil paint)
#takashimuramaki #sculpture #art #contemporaryart
A social post from @lifeboatacademy which says: “Liberty, taking the word in its concrete sense, consists in the power to choose... The responsibility of human beings is to attend to reality.” — Simone Weil
Liberty is often asserted in moments of strain.
Less often do we speak of the discipline of attention.
But listening — to reality, to consequence, to what is unfolding — is what gives choice depth.
Full reflection:
emotus.substack.com/p/a-breadcru...
#AttendToReality
Photograph of a young man from behind, bare shoulders and brown hair disheveled in the sunlight.
Photograph of a young man from behind, bare shoulders in the sunlight, back and hair wet.
#4 and #5, extract from the series Regrets by Stefano Marchionini, c. 2018 and ongoing (photography)
#stefanomarchionini #photography #photodocumentation #art
A social post from @lifeboatacademy which says: “We face a spiritual, moral, and psychological crisis — not just a technical one.” — Ben Kadel, Farmastery Steward
We often describe this moment as institutional failure.
But if fear and disconnection are part of it, then repair includes how we regulate, how we speak, how we stay in contact with reality under strain.
Full reflection:
emotus.substack.com/p/a-breadcru...
#CollectiveMaturity
A social post from @lifeboatacademy which says: “First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not… Habit is persistence in practice.” — Octavia E. Butler
Inspiration is fleeting. Habit sustains.
Listening for guidance isn’t a mood — it’s a practice you return to whether the spark is there or not.
Full reflection:
emotus.substack.com/p/a-breadcru...
Sometimes guidance is a small, steady note beneath the noise.
The challenge isn’t believing everything you feel — it’s learning to tell fear from resonance.
Full reflection:
emotus.substack.com/p/a-breadcru...
#BreadcrumbForMyFutureSelf
A social post from @lifeboatacademy which says: “Once the illusion of external rescue falls away, what remains is the slow, learnable work of standing together — imperfectly, locally, and in real time.” — Ben Kadel, Farmastery Steward
When the idea of rescue falls away, what remains isn’t doom.
It’s the slow work of standing together — locally, imperfectly, in real time.
Full reflection:
medium.com/@emotusopera...
#StandingTogether
Artwork titled 'Sand on Table' by Gabriel Orozco, featuring a small wooden table on a beach with a pyramid of sand on top.
Sand on Table by Gabriel Orozco, 1995 (mise-en-scène photography)
#gabrielorozco #miseenscene #art #contemporaryart
Two forearms and hands resting on a pale surface oriented horizontally on the picture plane, with a bright, horizontal beam of light shining across both, roughly along the line of the arms' bones.
Bones Of Light by Helen Korpak, April 2010
#helenkorpak #photography #art
A sleeveless, light-colored textile artwork resembling a human torso, featuring dense black threads that look like blood vessels or roots spreading from a central, heart-shaped area. The piece is made of flax fiber by artist Raija Jokinen.
Poisoned Blood by Raija Jokinen, 2005 (linen paper)
#raijajokinen #fiberarts #contemporaryart #art
A social post from @lifeboatacademy which says: “The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.” — Ursula K. Le Guin
Uncertainty isn’t a glitch.
It’s the condition of being alive, and makes participation possible.
Not knowing what comes next is uncomfortable — and it keeps the future open.
Full reflection:
medium.com/@emotusopera...
#Uncertainty
A large, vibrant textile art installation by artist Sheila Hicks featuring thick, rainbow-colored bundles of yarn and fiber cascading from the ceiling into large, soft mounds on a gallery floor.
Atterrissage (Landing) by Sheila Hicks, 2014 (pigment, acrylic fiber)
#SheilaHicks #fiberart #textileart #art #sculpture #contemporaryart
A social post from @lifeboatacademy which says: “Capacity isn’t built in movements or moments of mass mobilization. Capacity is built in small, ongoing contexts where people have to keep showing up for one another.” — Ben Kadel
Capacity doesn’t grow in spectacle.
It grows in small contexts where people keep showing up for one another — especially when it’s inconvenient.
Full reflection:
emotusoperandi.medium.com/someone-here...
#RelationalCapacity
A sepia-toned photograph of a Parisian storefront from 1900. The building facade is ornate, with dark wood paneling and decorative carvings. Above the entrance, a sign reads "À L'HOMME ARMÉ". Above the sign is a sculpture of a seated, semi-nude man holding a staff, resting next to a small cannon. A mustachioed man in a suit and bow tie is visible peering out from the glass pane of the door. Ornate ironwork decorates the windows to the right.
À L’Homme Armé, Paris by Eugène Atget, circa 1900
#EugeneAtget
A social post from @lifeboatacademy which says: “The main task before us is to rehumanize ourselves.” — Ben Kadel, Farmastery Steward
Rehumanizing ourselves means staying grounded in reality without flattening others into caricatures.
Full reflection:
emotusoperandi.medium.com/someone-here...
#Rehumanize
A social post from @lifeboatacademy which says: “Freedom is only part of the story and half of the truth. Freedom is but the negative aspect of the whole phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibility.” — Viktor Frankl
Freedom is only half the story. Responsibility is what makes it meaningful.
Without connection to consequence, “freedom” becomes abstraction.
Full reflection:
emotusoperandi.medium.com/someone-here...
#FreedomAndResponsibility
