“Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard.” — Anne Sexton
Who cares about the planet?
Who cares about nature?
Who cares about stopping wars between nation states?
Who cares about unmitigated greed?
Who cares about living a life half lived?
Who cares about loving, deeply?
Who cares about their soul, i.e. living an undivided life?
Who cares about all the lies we tell ourselves?
No, I mean it.
Do you care enough, as many people do and have done, to lay down your life in pursuit of something bigger than your egoic self?
You might think these questions tendentious, and, yes, they are, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t, just once in a while, stand on the precipice and ask if this is how life was meant to be.
You might reconcile your position by saying that just ‘living’ is hard enough — I’m reminded of the Plato quote: “Everyone is fighting a great battle” — but when you survey your landscape, is going to work to earn a living really all that challenging when set against those people who have no home, no land, no food, no clean water and wake up every day with the possibility that this could actually be their last?
I’m on a journey. I used to think its apogee was self-actualisation but what I realise is that without living a life according to the Twin Trail — thank you Mac — we’re doomed as a species. But more than that we have to start challenging what we see and what we stand for. If nothing else, we owe it to our children and theirs.
Before you set out on another ordinary day, ask yourself what do you care deeply enough about to risk it all?
PS. Having just gone through another dreary general election, we have to realise that if we wait for the politicians to take action or agree a programme that might disrupt the status quo for the benefit of the planet and all those who inhabit it, we’ll be waiting a very long time.
PPS. Apologies I’ve not written here very much but going forward you will see me writing here more regularly, and on topics other than social media.