Nurturing
The Making of a People
The touch-and-generalized-reciprocity concept isn't new; it's ages-old. Still, in its modern application, as proposed here, a slight twist plunges to the core of how this authentic collective might operate.
First, we must set the stage:
“There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter.”
Hemingway
Hemingway’s quote uncovers the dark side of humanity. Like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Jack London’s Call of the Wild, Hemingway’s On Blue Water adds another chapter to the monstrous Zeitgeist of Western man.
His analogy between hunting and war is a subtle yet powerful joke. The hunting of armed men and liking it is the finding of sadistic pleasure in extending the love of killing to include family members, committing Familicide. Since we are all part of the human family.
As psychologist Carl Jung points out, “war” represents the absurd idea that the conflict between good and evil, light and darkness, can never be reconciled. However, the "real war" is a psychic event, another drama within, that helps us get to know ourselves and learn the lessons of forgiveness.
Touch can take many forms to promote physical and psychological health. But one of the more potent aspects regarding war within the self and forgiveness is early childhood nurturing. It’s within this context that the foundation for self-knowledge and forgiveness is laid.
Through healthy caregiving, we unconsciously learn self-acceptance, which, as adults, gives us the opportunity to choose not to indulge in thoughts, feelings, and violence towards others that are characteristic of people projecting the devil in themselves onto the scapegoat.
