“Discernment, Discernment, Discernment!” is a mantra of an old friend of mine, particularly when it comes to the world of the crop circles – and he is right. In an internet-age of instant access, reactionary comment and blogging the first thing that enters your brain, well-practiced discernment is essential.
But how should we exercise our discernment? It’s a good question. Perhaps you should start by exercising your judgement when reading this blog. Please don’t take everything I say as the ‘Gospel Truth’. I will write what I believe to be true, or about the facts as I have them, I will muse at length, speculatively, but there are going to be times when I will get it wrong. I may even from time to time (as it is my predilection to do as a member of the fairer sex) just decide to change my mind.
I have always found it useful not to have too many literal heroes, heroines, or gurus (particularly gurus). You see when you do, you often unwittingly set them up to fail, and in the process you set yourself up to fail too. Because when at some inevitable point down the line they say something you don’t like, you can’t agree with, or just think is plain wrong, “it spoils everything!” (indignant sob!).
I have long avoided the dreaded blog. I admit (with some embarrassment) to finding immediacy difficult. I’m a more of a plodder, a muser… a thinker. I like to sleep on things. I find the red-hot pace of comment on the internet frightening, it goes against my very nature. I can’t imagine publishing the first thing that pops into my brain and offering it up it as informed comment. The very thought makes me shudder.
I also wish to state for the record that I am not a crop circle policitcian, nor am I a gossip columnist. As one who has from time to time stuck her head above the metaphorical crop circle parapet, I can confirm what most of you must instinctively already know, that it hurts enormously when someone fires a bullet at you! This blog will not be the O.K. Corral of crop circle debate. If that’s the kind of crop circle exchange you enjoy – best you look elsewhere for it.
The other thing you are quickly going to learn is that I am not a crop circle fundamentalist. I will admit freely and openly that what has served me best in my approach to this subject has been an unfailing commitment to open-mindedness. It is often the first thing that I am asked when I talk to people about the circles, “What do you think makes them all?” or “What do you think they mean?” Gently and with great care I explain that I don’t know, then quickly move on to talking about things that I do know about.
So I hope to be able to offer you some musings about the crop circles, share with you what I’m currently thinking about, or researching, or offer some of my thoughts on specific formations. My blog won’t be a series of articles, rather a series of thoughts – some short, some longer. I won’t be enabling the comment button. I don’t want this to turn into another forum there are other places for that. Instead, if you would like to email me you can. Simple.
My one hope for this blog is that I may encourage you to think about the crop circles in a bigger way – to lift your thinking about them above the usual real/not real didactic way of thinking and to contextualise them. My doggedly open-minded approach has often allowed me to transcend these kinds of arguments and to reach for a deeper, more holistic understanding of the crop circles and their role in our culture at this time. In fact to try and let go of any attachment to a particular outcome or answer to this mystery has been enormously empowering as a researcher. I hope to both explain and share some of that with you as we go…
KAREN ALEXANDER – MAY 2011
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