Minerva's Muse Vol. 27
Minerva’s Muse is a column of inspiration named after the Roman goddess of creativity, wisdom, medicine, and craft. I believe that inspiration and creativity belong to the collective and are meant to be shared, so if any of this inspires you, please feel free share it with others!
Listen…
Two fascinating podcast conversations I listened to recently might not seem related at first, but they actually compliment each other quite well. Bari Weiss speaks to Stanford trained physician Dr. Casey Means about just how fucked up our relationship to food and health has become. From warped self-image to the ongoing systemic corruption of the FDA and USDA, this episode reveals the extent of the damage caused by a society that strips its citizens of the tools they need to have a healthy relationship to their bodies.
A recent episode of This Jungian Life about Aphrodite’s shadow also speaks our culture’s toxic relationship to beauty and self-image. Jungian analyst and mythologist Arlene Landau outlines the shadow side of our personal and collective pursuit of unrealistic beauty standards, and how our unconscious embodiment and projection of Aphrodite’s archetype can lead to everything from eating disorders, to sexual abuse, to unattainable perfectionism, to a kind of “phantom” superficial existence void of self-awareness and self-love.
Read…
In college I read Michel Foucault’s History of Sexuality and it blew my mind. The book was excruciatingly difficult to read, and I vividly remember having to analyze and re-read every other sentence just to understand what was being said. Despite the complex wordiness and belaboring of points, I felt invigorated and inspired by Foucault’s theories, specifically those related to the intersection of sexuality and power. If I had to pick five books that shaped my worldview the most, The History of Sexuality would undoubtedly be one of them.
I’m honestly not quite sure how I stumbled upon this article from 2021 by Ross Douthat, but I’m so glad I did. “How Michel Foucault Lost the Left and Won the Right” is a fascinating and well-written piece that helps put our country’s political shifts into context, with Michel Foucault’s theories at the center.
Want yet another nerdy article about how Foucault’s theories intersect with our current political climate? This one was also a great read.
Watch…
Here are a few Youtube videos I think you might enjoy…
The first provides even more insight into the ways power is wielded on both sides of the aisle, how it’s shifting, and what we can do to address and heal the divide. Megan Phelps-Roper grew up in Westboro Baptist Church… you know, the “God Hates Fags” Topeka, Kansas-based church that flew its members all over the country to protest at the funerals of fallen soldiers and school shooting victims, blaming their deaths on homosexuality. Megan left the church in 2012 and is now the host of a podcast called “The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling” which examines the concerning similarities between both the right and the left’s witch hunts of J.K. Rowling. The accusations might be different, but the tactics used to criticize, shame, punish, and silence are virtually identical.
This next video speaks for itself…
And finally, here’s a little Hermanos Gutiérez to clean your palate after all that…
Look…
After a whirlwind, exhausting roadtrip to LA which featured more days of driving than days spent in LA, Chris and I were welcomed home to the San Luis Valley by this otherworldly UFO-looking cloud formation hovering above the Sangre De Cristo Mountain range.
Apparently this sort of cloud is called a “Lenticular cloud,” and is the same type of cloud that recently appeared in Turkey resembling none other than, well, you know…
Eat…
I’ve successfully kept a sourdough starter alive for three months now and have been baking with it constantly. I decided this past fall when we moved back to Crestone that we should eat bread only if it’s homemade, thinking that this would lead us to eating less bread overall, but this plan backfired, big time. Our bread consumption has undoubtedly increased, not decreased. Whoops.
I’ve decided the solution is not to stop baking, but simply to find more people to eat what bake, including this delicious homemade sourdough focaccia that’s become a part of my regular rotation. Who’s in?
