THE NEW NORMAL
• in 2020 , amidst the pandemic , the presidential election result is uncertain for 3 days , and is followed by lawsuits for another 41 days until the electors are selected .
• in 2021 insurrectionists attack the US Capitol attempting to overturn the presidential election , causing Congress to flee .
Beyond these specific events we are living amidst a revolution no less turbulent than the Renaissance and the Industrial Revolution . Our access to information ( and misinformation ) is as disruptive to humanity today as was the invention of the Gutenberg press that led to the Renaissance . Historians will look back at this time in 100 years and be better able to assess the impact and results of the Information Revolution , but just as in previous hinges in history , those living through these changes experience exponentially increased dislocation , alienation , and anxiety .
Living in this stew of chronic anxiety , is it any wonder that so many are on a hair-trigger over every issue ? How can we work to ease ourselves , and our classroom and school communities , through this seemingly endless liminal season ?
Bowen and the Buddha
Dr . Murray Bowen and the Buddha may have some answers for us , or at least some insights and tools to help us move forward
How can we work to ease ourselves , and our classroom and school communities , through this seemingly endless liminal season ?
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through this liminal season , given the uncertainty of life after COVID-19 .
Dr . Murray Bowen ( 1913-1990 ) was a psychiatrist and professor at Georgetown University , where he founded the Bowen Center for the Study of the Family . Working at the National Institute of Mental Health in the 1950s , he developed what came to be known as Bowen Family Systems Theory . Rabbi Edwin Friedman ( 1932-1996 ) expanded the ideas of Bowen Theory into congregational life , and more broadly into leadership . While it is beyond the scope of this article to thoroughly explore Bowen Theory and the relationship to pastoral leadership ( which is , after all , much of what we do in schools ), a couple of insights might be helpful .
Bowen saw that any two people in an anxious state would inevitably draw in a third , thus creating a triangle and lowering the anxiety between the original two by offload-
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CSEE Connections Fall 2021 Page 5