Stay in what’s real
October 19th, 2008
Stay in what’s real
image: gothphil
There are times of relative quiet and times of relative busyness in world affairs. At the moment the world is behaving like a child with a behavioural disorder. Ominous clouds appear to be rolling across the horizon from all directions, the structure and shape of our world seems to be under pressure from every conceivable angle.
Lessons learned along the way are crucial here. Perspective and context are everything or the alternative is to be the plaything of opinion formers whose objective is to sell copy, win your subscription or whatever it might be. It’s an old cliche now, but I have learned that things only become cliches because they resonate somewhere within us all, they encapsulate a temporary truth almost in a crystalline form. The cliche? Today’s news is tomorrow’s fish and chip paper - if you’re younger or not from the UK, this refers to the time when fish and chips were wrapped in newspaper by the proprietors of the shops that sold these delicacies.
The lesson that grounds me always is to stay located in what’s real. Take a walk in the great church: nature. Immerse yourself in the natural worlds and you will see that despite the social Armageddon the Universe still works its magic. The leaves have just started to fall in significant amounts in this part of the world, the colours are resplendent, reds and golds, the Milky Way is awesome on a clear and chilly night such as we are enjoying here at the moment.
Be humble in the face of it, remember the old adage, people make plans and God laughs. There is no certainty in the world of men and women that is worth basing your life upon yet the natural worlds drip with absolutes and a sense of being-ness.
There’s always been a misplaced desire to master nature on the part of certain character types, show it who’s boss, conquer the wilderness and so on. This gathers momentum when we are going through a cycle of fullness such as we have just experienced and it is easy to forget just what the deal is here. This becomes a kind of collective narcissism, and we start to be seduced by our own feelings of superiority, believe our own hype. Don’t lose sight of it, we are guests here, we are visitors, we didn’t come here to challenge the natural worlds for supremacy.
Everything we need to live a fulfilled and meaningful life, the platform for something more substantial to build upon is here, provided for us by the natural worlds. Responsible stewardship is the way, not total domination.