I haven't feld much like writing anything related to Integral Theory, or Integral Practice, since Katrina hit.

But I want to talk about two things at the forefront of my mind -

1.  My own experiences of New Orleans

My brother lived 10 years in New Orleans, and as I grew up in Texas, I spent many a night there.

Strange, funky, magical place, New Orleans was.  I could stories, man, I could tell stories...

Stories like stealing away for a romantic tryst with my college teacher,  (a beautiful super-intelligent and fierce Green German girl, 6 years my senior, over in the US spending a year in the US teaching as part of her post-secondary.  She didn't have much use for the student-teacher rules, besides we were both adults!).  The explorations we did.

UPDATE - Of course, that was over 15 years ago now, but it is a primary memory of New Orleans. 

The crazy, stupid drunk Mardi Gras, the other wild women who always seemed to populate New Orleans.

Paul had opined (prophetically back at the end of July) that New Orleans was America's 2nd chakra. 

From my own experience, that is absolutely true. 

But more than that, New Orleans had an interesting dynamic of being a place where fear alternated with acceptance, with a large variance.  I could both feel completely accepted, completely free, yet at the same time, be watching my wallet, viewing the people coming towards me out of the dark, with large trepidation.

2.  It again hits me how apropos Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is, and how important the social structure - the "we" and "its" stability of economic and social freedom - for meaningful conversations about "Integral Practice" or "integral theory" to even occur. 

Because when it comes to the avoidable tragedies like this, I could care less about "integralism".

From Greg Nokes, comes a funny post.

Warning - despite the titles, the links ARE work safe...