“We’re not trying to be right. We’re trying to see if we can see clearly.” In this agile and authentic episode, returning guest Stephen Jenkinson offers a lucid view of the world. How might our understanding of the world change if we approached life with a willingness to see things as they are rather than a need to only affirm that which we desire? Stephen reminds us “meaning is not as scarce as we would make it out to be,” explaining that even though the muck and mire of our existence may not be the meaning that we search for, they are meaningful nonetheless. We all have the chance to make meaning out of and within each other’s lives. How can we pay reverence to the consequences of this responsibility? 

Ayana and Stephen journey together to consider what had brought us to this modern time – prompting vital questions about the value of tradition, the importance of strangerhood, the possibility of reckoning, and the meaning of ancestry. Stephen asks questions that disrupt and unsettle the status quo, and perhaps these questions will lead us to the lessons we so deeply need. Who are we beyond the shorthand of familiarity? Calling out our culture’s addiction to mastery and self-determination, Stephen dares us to consider what our culture truly is, and simultaneously offers us the opportunity to dream towards what it could be.

STEPHEN JENKINSON, MTS, MSW is an author, culture activist, ceremonialist and farmer. He teaches internationally and is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, founded in 2010. With Master’s degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work), he has worked extensively with dying people and their families, is a former programme director in a major Canadian hospital and former assistant professor in a prominent Canadian medical school. He is the author of several books including Reckoning, A Generation's Worth, Come of Age, Money & the Soul's Desires and the award-winning Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul. Stephen is the subject of the National Film Board of Canada documentary Griefwalker and Lost Nation Road, a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the wheelhouse of a mystery train. Nights of Grief and Mystery world tours, with singer/ songwriter Gregory Hoskins, are odes to wonder, love letters for the willingness to know endings. 

♫ The music in this episode is “Roar at Dawn,” “Bittersweet,” and “Love Affair” by Nights of Grief and Mystery.  

Episode References

Orphan Wisdom

Reckoning

A Generation's Worth: Spirit work while the crisis reigns 

Beowulf: An Anglo-Saxon Epic Poem

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