“… to be human is to become visible while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others…â€� ― David Whyte
Continuing with my theme of articulating a word, I want to return to the question of loss.
What is it we fear losing?
Our health?
Our sanity?
Our loved ones?
Our jobs?
Our status?
Everything…!
I see that.
But what about the earth?
No, I don’t mean a cataclysmic, in-one-foul swoop end. I mean the way it’s sliding off the edge of a cliff to the point where it can no longer support itself and every living thing.
Right now, it doesn’t matter where you look, loss is everywhere. Oh sure, the zeitgeist is writ large apropos climate change and biodiversity, but even in your backyard, if you’ve lived for any time, you’ll have seen far fewer birds and insects; and as for f* plastic, well, you can’t escape it. I mean we’ve created trillions of pieces; and as much as I know anything of these things, it’s far riskier to human health than hitherto we’ve accepted. Just imagine it: being poisoned by the cumulative effect of plastic ingestion. Yikes…!
OK, so what. The world is screwed. But it’s that sense of a slow, inevitable decline that I’m struggling with. I look at everyone and can’t understand why we’re forthwith (and irreversibly) not changing our behaviour?
Nah. That would be far too easy.
If I’ve a theory for our gross negligence in holding tight to the status quo, it’s this. We’re addicted to competency. You know, the ‘be all you can be’ variety. To what end?
So, we can climb the tree of self-actualisation.
And then what?
You suddenly realise in a profound moment of self-recollection that true self — the apogee of life — means being part of and connected to everything? In other words, there is no this or that, there’s just everything. But of course, as ridiculous as it sounds, there’s nothing left…to be part of.
What a farce.
And the solution.
Accept that you and me are the problem and that no amount of meditation, praying or being tutored by another expensive Guru is going to make a jot of differene to the amelioration let alone that abatement of our ‘let’s-screw-everything’ mentally.
The only way we can stop things, is to grow up and accept personal responsibility for our actions.
Sorry for another mildly depressing read but if you don’t feel the profound sense of loss in simply living, then, respectfully, I think we’re on a very different page.
Photo by Karim MANJRA on Unsplash