One reader said I asked a stupid question last Sunday: Is Putin a Christian? (Everybody knows he isn’t! Why waste time on such a question?!)
Well, okay. Fair enough. But it was only a “hook” like today’s title to reel the reader in. Aren’t you a little curious about Putin’s grandmother?
Another reader told me I wasn’t qualified to say whether Putin was a Christian because only God sees what’s in Putin’s heart.
Well, okay. Fair enough. But I see what Putin’s doing. At this point, I don’t care what’s in his heart.
And one other reader remarked: Putin is indeed an Antichrist archetype, but he cannot exist without his counterpart. The rules of energy say so. Underneath his darkness are the buddings of light, and they are universally present. I have faith in goodness.
Well, okay. I get it.
If there’s an Antichrist, there must be a Christ. Both are archetypes like hero and antihero.
According to Jungian psychology archetypes are universal. We’ve inherited them like instincts from our ancestors. They reside in our collective unconscious. They’re present in literature. They’re present in every person.
No one is fully Antichrist or fully Christ. Each of us contains the characteristics of both.
I suspect there’s a bit of Putin in each of us—vanity, vengefulness, paranoia, an urge to dominate—most likely exiled in our shadow self. Out of sight, out of mind.
Light and darkness in each of us. Yin-yang. Christ-Antichrist.
The way of wisdom is not to destroy one or the other, but to learn from each. It does us no good to deny or suppress the shadow.
Hello, darkness, my old friend. I’ve come to talk with you again.
Putin’s dark side is plain to see. Still, I believe he has a light side. I believe in goodness. The light in him may yet arise. He may change.
But I’m not betting on it. I’m betting on regime change. I’m hoping he’s replaced with a babushka. I can’t imagine Putin’s grandmother or any grandmother invading Ukraine.
Men have ruled the world long enough. Over the millennia, old men have sent young men to be slaughtered in countless, senseless wars. Enough of that archetype.
It’s time to welcome the maternal archetype.
It’s time for grandmothers to rule the world.
Except they won’t.
They’ll nurture it.
______________________
See Paula’s photo (Always Face the Sun) on the home page. Posted March 2
Being a grandmother is the greatest! But I have no desire to rule. Just want to love and enjoy. And, oh yeh, find the laugh lines.
How about we all send Putin some brownies?
According to Buddhist psychology, human beings are not “sinners” but skilled or unskilled. Reframing it in that way means that skillfulness (or not) is a learned activity, a process in relationship with others, including family members like grandmothers. Reframing in that manner moves us away from judgment to humanity, from “black and white” to being nuanced. One might ask, “Did Putin learn much from his unskillfulness?” While the answer is obvious, a greater question, “What am I learning and how can I be peace in the world?” Alexander Solzhenitsyn wisely says: “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart.”
Past time for the women to take over. Angela Merkel leaves office, five minutes later, war in Europe. There you go.
Love this in particular and completely agree!
Another reader told me I wasn’t qualified to say whether Putin was a Christian because only God sees what’s in Putin’s heart. Well, okay. Fair enough. But I see what Putin’s doing. At this point, I don’t care what’s in his heart.
Fair enough, but I suspect that Pat speaks from a perspective of experience, wisdom, and temperament. Would that we learn the same. And Not all in either gender or age group fit neat categories. Even so, it would be nice to have a change in this old world. I would nominate Jesus to head of state, but he pretty emphatically rejected that role.
I smile to envision a babushka in place, leading from love instead of fear… I will hold that thot in my grandmother’s heart – nurturing it, along with the vision of Putin shrinking – smaller & smaller while TRUMP puffs up bigger & bigger until the ballon explodes…. Instead of bombs.
I needed this – and thank you all💕💓
As an agnostic, I find Man’s innate human nature to differentiate right from wrong as evidence of a higher power. That virtue can be overwhelmed by life experience, muffled by a lack of faith and good parenting. Putin deserves neither our pity nor any benefit of the doubt, as he has taken too much life to warrant the notion of redemption. The inability to comprehend that evil is driven by something foreign and unimaginable to the righteous mind is a detriment and vulnerability we cannot afford.
I love the photo of the babushka and cat. Skilled or unskilled (Larry’s buddhist psychology reference), killing and or torturing people, animals, any living thing, is evil. So is destroying people’s homes, people’s land, their communities. Putin needs to work in the fields with a hoe, a shovel, a pick-ax, eight to ten hours a day of hard work, tilling the soil, planting and weeding crops, watering, harvesting. Then he won’t have time, energy, thoughts, abilities, networks, power, armies, nothing to direct or control. Just a desire to eat a good meal, take a bath, sleep in a good bed.