5.3
August 13, 2013

My thoughtful Response to the Recent Controversy.

Apparently constructive criticism (whether we agree with it or not) is horrible, a reason to boycott and leave and cancel subscriptions to this tabloid outfit I run. For more: a reminder of elephant’s mission and morals and ethics and goals.

But it’s perfectly okay for the offended to repeatedly criticize and give space to angry rhetoric.

Are we so fragile that we break under crticism, or can we bend like bamboo, strong, and hear it?

Does not art invite criticism? Food? Music? Life? Love? Do we not learn from criticism, whether it’s right or wrong?

Also, has this former friend and his troops not noticed my comments stating that I, for what little it’s worth, don’t fully agree with the criticism, and admire the art? elephant is not an entity. It’s a community. We’re after truth, not PR, promotion, or positivity.

What the world needs now is for us to relax enough to allow our hearts to hold, and let go of, and breathe through, good or bad, happy or sad—so that we might step through the wall of flame into service.

PS: We don’t need to push away so-called negativity. That’s what I call “Gated Community Spirituality.” Keep all bad out, cling to good. That’s what ego does. Rather, we can, rather, we must learn to take it all personally, take it in, but breathe through it, and don’t sweat the small stuff if it doesn’t ring true. Just take what’s useful and helpful and use it to improve. Be open to criticism, but don’t take our own failings or others over-seriously. Here’s how we can practice reversing the ego’s desired flow of clinging to what we want or think we want, and pushing away what we don’t want.

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