Present Time, and Reading
Present Time has been the quarterly journal of the RC Communities for decades. It started somewhat informally in the 1970s and developed into an important way to communicate among our far-flung Communities. It contains developments in our thinking, theory, and practice. It also provides an opportunity to learn from each other and to find out how RCers have been using what we know in the world.
A large and growing number of people have contributed to Present Time. Along with sharing their experiences and thinking, they’ve used Present Time as a way to learn to communicate widely. We encourage everyone to develop that capability.
Present Time is intended to give us views of the thinking and activities of many people, in many different places and circumstances. These views can help us find new perspectives and challenge us where our distresses have slowed our thoughts. Articles in Present Time can help contradict our recordings of confusion and discouragement.
Some of us run into restim--ulations when we read of the thoughts and undertakings of others. We may feel like we should have done what they did. That is never true. Those feelings are always simply an indication of the distress recordings that hold us back, and they are never to be believed, by us or by anyone else. If these kinds of feelings come up for you, simply take that issue of Present Time to your next Co-Counseling session, read the article aloud to your counselor, and use it to access that distress. The distress will discharge and stop confusing you about yourself, what you can do, and what you want to do. You can use the ideas expressed in Present Time to help you move forward with your own thinking and actions.
Many of us have a hard time reading, and learning by reading. The oppressive nature of our schools, and the way our societies target us as young people when we are learning to read, have left most of us with difficulties. Though we try to keep learning in spite of this, we often give up on reading and studying and try instead to get information orally from others. While this can give us good information and is an important way of learning, it is limited both by the amount of time people have to convey information and by the limits of their knowledge. It is important that we not give up on learning through reading, and on learning RC through reading and studying RC literature, including Present Time.
Our societies, and the heaviness of our distresses around learning, tend to make us learn just enough to get by, rather than working to acquire enough information that we are confident of our knowledge and capabilities. You are capable of learning everything! Only distresses, which can be discharged, stand in the way of your enjoying learning in every way, including by reading.
Please consider undertaking, with other Co-Counselors, some sustained and organized counseling on whatever gets in the way of learning by reading. It will take commitments between Co-Counselors to make this happen consistently. Community gather-ins on reading, and learning RC by reading, will help us to not battle this in isolation.
Tim Jackins