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Wendy Vie@revwendyvie.bsky.social |
150 followers 162 following 1003 posts
Spirituality Guide & Coach • Mystic in Waiting • Creator of Inside Out Spirituality • 🏳️⚧️🏳️🌈•Queer
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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The most successful in our time count and compile while success is measured in numbers more than ever. The Replacements never sold as many records as projected and never had a hit. Someone said success was living so that even one life breathed easier. Joyful breathing as I sing along. 4/4
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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I called them “my boys” as I aged because they lived their shadow with self-awareness, as I seemed to. Neurodiversity, mental health, and addiction led automatically to self-sabotage, an inability to follow the rules, and failure to reach their fullest potential. But God, what a beautiful mess. 3/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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“God, what a mess on the ladder of success, Where you take one step and miss the whole first rung” succinctly captures their ethos, pathos, and logos. Their words, melody, and guitar noise displayed their gifts, and they played with a grudge but also with sentiment and camaraderie for their clan. 2/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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The Replacements are my band. Tim is my album. Bastards of Young is my song. I arrived in the Twin Cities in 1984, and my college pulsed with their music. Early in my sophomore year, my nascent identity joined theirs. They connected to hidden parts of me I’d spend the rest of my life understanding.1
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Transformation begins in the inner life. I’m working on holding my fear and hatred in wholeness. If I deny or project it outward onto others, it joins and further fuels the darkness in my country and the world. This inner work and self-responsibility give me something to do and creates hope. 4/4
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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As Warren sang, “The shit has hit the fan.” I’ve studied history and know the human condition and the darkness in the depths of every human, and still, I’m angered I’m living in these times. My country has always doubled down on its darkness instead of turning from it or transforming. 3/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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In 1978, Warren still called the Soviet Union the Russians. And here we are today, living the song. Lawyers, guns, and money dominate daily life, especially politics. The Russians are as dastardly as ever, and a solid forty percent of Americans look to a Daddy Don for rescue. 2/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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When Lawyers, Guns and Money came out in the late 1970s, I don’t think anyone knew how prescient it was. Warren Zevon’s story of a spoiled kid or dumb diplomat rocked with fearful desperation. The kicker was, “Dad, get me out of this!” followed by Warren's bewailing. 1/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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M.I.A.’s vision for humanity is one we have evolved to imagine but are probably eons away from living. A borderless world where all humans are simply citizens of Earth. 4/4
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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She throws the immigrant’s game in our faces: Fake visas, fighting the system, hustling, burner phones, drugs, packed trucks of people, life and death choices. She doesn’t ask for sympathy while arresting our respect. 3/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Paper Planes is incendiary. Gunshots blast, and a cash register rings in the chorus as M.I.A. mocks our collective fear of the humans she represents, “All I wanna do is - Take your money.” The song’s opening, “I fly like paper, get high like planes,” tells of transitory homelessness. 2/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Every so often, a song from the fringe arrives in popular music like a meteor and demands its reckoning. Its impact remains forever. British and Sri Lankan rapper M.I.A. crashed the mainstream in 2008 with her song Paper Planes about Western stereotypes of immigrants. 1/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Thank you!💕
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Thank you!💕
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Thank you!💕
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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My beautiful baby girl turned 26 today!
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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My daughter was born five months later. I wanted to name her after my aunt. But the stubborn Northerner in me couldn't name my girl for the Confederacy’s seat and general. So I took Vie as my middle name in honor of V. and creating a new life. 7/7
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Her life ended at age 50 in an American way. She tripped on her cat and experienced chest pain, thinking she had damaged ribs. V. was a hairstylist without health insurance and went to bed instead of seeking medical care. My sister found her dead the next day. A perforated ulcer, we learned. 6/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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There were gaps in her story and secrets she kept to herself, sometimes hinting at mental health hospitalizations. My sister was close to her, too, and invited her to a family event after a long absence. V. got me. In the 80s, she thought I was gay. Nope. I was trans and didn't know it. 5/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Virginia Lee Trittin was born in 1948 in Minneapolis. She was adopted into my father’s family of three boys, but not at birth. She arrived with her name. I knew her as a large and humorous personality, generous, too. She took me to Times Square for New Year's Eve. 4/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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As I brainstormed names for my new identity, I thought of Piaf’s song. La Vie en Rose means Life in Pink. I had new life as a transwoman, and the French word for life appealed to me as a middle name. I immediately thought of my maternal aunt and Godmother, who preferred to go by the initial V. 3/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Coming out as a transgender female in 2021, I remembered how much I loved pink. In the 1980s, brands marketed pink clothing to men, and I gladly added pink shirts to my wardrobe. One day, my old school boss looked at me and said, “Wow, that’s a lot of pink.” 2/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Edith Piaf and her song La Vie en Rose first came to my attention in the 1988 movie Bull Durham. The worldly Annie Savoy is a fan of Piaf as well as baseball. Her partner for the season is the hopelessly unaware Pitcher Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh, who refers to Piaf as “that crazy Mexican singer.”1/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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It’s life-altering to realize that the divine is light and darkness and that sometimes, mysteriously, our demons guide us to hidden and necessary parts of ourselves. Poets and playwrights know this. Tennessee Williams said in a 1973 Playboy interview, “If I got rid of my demons, I’d lose my angels.”
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Alcohol is known as spirits, which is the metaphor. Getting high is a substitute for engaging divine energies. I was under the sway of alcohol until I stopped in 2020. It was my elixir of extraversion and anxiety aid until I realized I was going to die. The soul works against ego if not engaged. 3/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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A symbolic meaning exists for our confounding actions. They aren’t accidents or traps we fall into. Family systems taught me to see symptoms like addiction as exaggerated attempts to adapt. I’ve also learned to see them as meeting unconscious demands, but sideways. 2/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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I think the Rolling Stones Sway is about founding member Keith Richards, his partner Anita Pallenberg, and others in the Stones family who were addicted to depressive drugs like heroin. Mick Jagger and guitarist Mick Taylor created Sway without Richards. 1/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Ouch!
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Lovely💕
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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I’m still challenged living amidst rising darkness after learning about this process. I’ve simplified it and merely released it into the ether while continuing my efforts to balance the light and darkness of my life in wholeness while also staying alive as one currently condemned by human gods. 7/7
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Further, letting yourself become over-identified with the divine and its energies is hubris. You’re claiming what belongs only to the gods without fear or respect, which will enable you to do evil in the world as if you were divine. Politics, religion, and spirituality all require humility. 6/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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I’m grateful to those who attempt to shine light into darkness and make some sense of the inner and outer human condition, such as Vladislav Šolc and George Didier. In their book Dark Religion, they write, “No deed is ever dark for the religious fanatic if it is done in the name of God.” 5/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Grasping this is complicated. Language and symbols are our only means of communication. Speaking about the realm of the soul and spirit automatically relies on esoteric words and concepts that function as metaphors. “The wind blows, and you don’t see it, only its effects. 4/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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It’s been getting darker my entire life. Born in the mid-60s, I’ve felt, if not always witnessed, 1968 and 1974. 1980, 1987, 1993, 2000, 2001, 2016, 2020 and 2021. As darkness continues to fall, I fear it’s still twilight. It’s easy to see this politically, but it’s also religious and spiritual. 3/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Van Zandt later called this the worst business decision of his life. But one hears a soul that can’t keep going along to get along in songs like Out of the Darkness. Knowing something is wrong and realizing you have a role in it is inescapable. 2/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Steven Van Zandt released Out of the Darkness in 1984 on the heels of leaving Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band. As his former boss but still friend was about to reach mega-stardom, Little Steven followed an inner calling to use rock music for overtly political messaging. 1/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Thanks, Anne. Here we are. Let’s be strong together. Peace.
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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When we live unconsciously, inner figures like Tricksters rise problematically in individuals and collectively in nations. I never expected to celebrate my nation’s 248th birthday under the sway of one. 5/5
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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In the stories of Jesus, Pilate asks him if he is a king, and Jesus responds that instead, he came to testify to the truth. The Roman Governor asks, “What is truth?” and walks away. Francis Bacon called him “jesting Pilate.” 4/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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The Trickster is often a charismatic manipulator who flaunts their disobedience of customs and authority. Dylan’s Jokerman is a powerful Trickster born with snakes in both hands, symbolizing the dark side of the divine. He describes the Trickster as one “with truth so far off.” 3/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Jokerman also represents the Jester or Trickster archetype. Archetypes are ageless and universal images in the human unconscious. We inherit them from our ancestors and embody them as we live. Archetypes are neither good nor bad - balance and awareness are necessary. 2/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Bob Dylan continued wrestling with his faith in 1984’s Infidels. Starting in 1979, he released three albums inspired by Christianity. Infidels marked a return to Judaism. The song Jokerman contains symbolism from both testaments. The song is a biblical prophecy of inevitable and rising darkness. 1/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Thank you, Martha. I’m grateful for your thinking and intuition. I hear and feel your words. The paradox of accepting darkness so it is also on the side of life is real to me. Peace
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Between good and bad is alright and okay. When we don’t know what to do, when life is not as we wish, when it’s terrible and getting worse, finding a way in between is our challenge. That’s what okay means. Let’s keep floating, alright, and okay. Peace. 5/5
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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20 years later, dark waters continue to rise, creating a dangerous current. Many faithfully recite, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” Float on is Scripture for me. I automatically pray, Alright, already We’ll all float on, alright Don’t worry Even if things end up a bit too heavy We’ll all float on okay 4/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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“Our president George W. Bush is just a fucking daily dose of bad news! Then you've got the well-intentioned scientists telling us that everything is fucked. I just want to feel good for a day.” 3/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Singer and songwriter Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse describes the creation of Float On. “It was a completely conscious thing. I was just kind of fed up with how bad shit had been going, and how dark everything was, with bad news coming from everywhere. 2/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Float On entered the world in 2004, a time of personal depression for me and when my country was under the sway of its shadow in the aftermath of 9/11. Richard Rohr says, “The shadow self is not of itself evil; it just allows you to do evil without recognizing it as evil.” 1/
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Wendy Vie
@revwendyvie.bsky.social
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Between good and bad is alright and okay. When we don’t know what to do, when life is not as we wish, when it’s terrible and getting worse, finding a way in between is our challenge. That’s what okay means. Let’s keep floating, alright, and okay. Peace. 5/5
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes