Adobe stock image of Asian woman with mask, licensed by Ravi Chandra

Dear all,

Thank you for staying connected, and I hope this message finds you well. My creative work as a writer is coming together more fruitfully with my work as a psychiatrist, compassion educator and concerned citizen. Also, I'm trying to stay really basic. My favorite line in Ozu's film The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice comes from a husband who says to his wife, our relationship should be like ochazuke: "intimate, familiar, primitive, and relaxed." I think that's true of all good relationships. By primitive I mean really resting in our common humanity.

 I have started a new blog series on the intersection of Black and Asian Lives. This first one has resonated with many, and I hope you might take the time to read and share. It begins and ends with reference to Audre Lorde’s 1978 essay, The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action. You can share as follows on Twitter or Facebook:

Read @going2peace’s Memoirs of a Superfan Vol. 15.1: The Silencing of Asian Americans, and the Murder of George Floyd - East Wind ezine https://eastwindezine.com/memoirs-of-a-superfan-vol-15-1-the-silencing-of-asian-americans-and-the-murder-of-george-floyd/

Also, There Will Be Blogs. And Videos and Audio :)

Blogs

Psychiatrist as Fly-On-The-Wall at Trump's Axios Interview (August 7, 2020)

How to Deal With the Cultural Overwhelm We Are Experiencing (July 7, 2020)

Dismissing Microaggressions Is Insensitive and Even Racist (July 1, 2020)

Is “White Privilege” the Best Way to Talk About Racism? (June 18, 2020)

Fighting Racism Against Asian Americans During COVID-19 (May 31, 2020)

also, my earlier blog now includes a 10-minute interview with a radio station in Dublin: PRGS: People Who Ghosted Us Are Getting Back in Touch

Videos and audio

On my YouTube channel I have a 15 minute video culled from my remarks at a Mindful Self Compassion Teacher Forum. There is also a 5 minute presentation for Kearny Street Workshop's Navigating Poetics class. Both have poems. The former has 'mudfire', a poem that has been described as overwhelming and powerful, and came from a deep place of pain and distress at the world's suffering and cruelty revealed. It's opening lines refer to Thich Nhat Hanh's words "no mud, no lotus.' There's a lot of mud around, and not much sign of lotus yet. 

On my SoundCloud, there are several items, including a 25 minute interview on "should racism be considered a mental illness?"

I also did interviews or moderated discussions with C. Pam Zhang (How Much of These Hills is Gold) and Akemi Johnson (Night in the American Village, about Okinawa) for the Brown Club of Greater San Francisco.

Hope you appreciate this. Please drop a line or tag me on Twitter or my Facebook page.

Warmly,

Ravi