There is actually quite a bit of hope in every "crisis" situation because that's normally when people get off their dead butts and do something, if they are ever going to.
We need to look maybe twenty years ahead and design that world today... that's where we need a vision for what that world could and should be like, given what we have available now or can gather to ourselves between now and then. The vision need not be futuristic, though. I personally believe that basic solutions have been around from day one and many good ideas have fallen by the wayside as "outmoded" or "obsolete" or have perhaps suffered rejection because they were either too simple or because they were too far ahead of the common curve.
Technological stuff like cell phones, high speed communications, electric cars, and "miracle" drugs seem to me sometimes to be a kind of churning of the waters of our society, which often give the illusion of progress, but don't really add to our quality of life so much as feed our impulses and distract us from our higher calling. I think that higher calling is to understand why we battle each other and stop doing it.
Sure, life is a struggle... that's the cliche. But if it is, we've made it one with fear and selfishness and an imprisonment of our spirit. Technology itself is frequently a cause of our unrest rather than a source of peace and satisfaction.
I think we each need to seriously start to identify those things we encounter which are disruptive of the spirit and make our position against those things known. But not simply by protest. We must suggest and support quality alternatives to the trash. And we must be patient and perservering in our resistance, not rash or volatile or caustic.
What to do? Make a resolution. Every day, encourage someone. Every day, meditate awhile on what your true needs for living are. Every being on earth will have those basic needs, the same as you. Only their outward frustrations are different. Only your reaction to those frustrations, if negative, keeps that cycle of frustration going. You can break the chain off at its weakest link by simply saying, "This ends with me... I'm not going to let this madness past this point."
In short....be a firewall for frustration.
If you try to operate this way........ you'll be doing good.
I am certain of nothing but the Heart's affections and the truth of the Imagination- John Keats
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1 comment:
Just a note: I took the Keats quote from the signoff Mary uses for her email. It just seemed to be particularly apropos to end this piece with his flourish.
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