THE STRUGGLE
I am reading about Dunkirk, the new movie just out, and it is such a story of selflessness. To have so many risk everything to save those stranded soldiers, is quite amazing. I wonder if we would do that now. Not as a military effort, but as a civilian effort? Of course, there are those around us that do extraordinary things for people they do not know, but as a human system, are we moving away from this?
At times, it feels like we are moving into our own little world of individual focus, individual concern, and more separation. Is the rising of the personal electronic devices, creating a new kind of separate existences? Is this shift beginning to block out our empathy and sense of the other? Have we lost the ability to feel another’s pain? I know that is an exaggeration, at least I hope so, but I wonder.
So maybe the political realm is about all this. We have a President who seems so completely self centered, and there seems to be a lot of people who think that is great. (besides himself). Have we lost that struggle of the 60’s to join people together and find commonality? Do we now worship the striving of the individual, ala Ayn Rand? Has compassion become a weakness in this world?
Is all the technology and the quest for “personal” information, created a world where anyone’s bit of data is as good as anyone else’s? Is a personal need to be right, more important that an understanding of a broader picture, of human connection, of a sense of being in this together? Are we in a major transition to a world of complete separateness? Are we raising children who only live in their head and not their heart?
All this makes my personal struggle seem even more distant and difficult.. For 40 years, I have been teaching that all is “one”, not in that way, but through getting people to see systems, connections, and the dance of human living. Now, I feel further away from that. Partly because I retired from my work in the business world, but also that I don’t interact much with the world now.
You may say that I am what I protest here. Maybe I am. But, when I worked in organizations, it was easy to make the connections that we are in this together. And I wanted to go beyond that system to help create a personal transcendence of being separate. Maybe I have not tried enough.. Maybe I am too content to let my writing do that. Maybe I am too old to start that process in a new realm.
Without a doubt, we humans are in a struggle of being separated by so many factors, and the difficulty of discovering our human connections. I do think it is beyond any individual effort to shift this. It is in the hands of what the broader dynamic will bring. And some will take that as “giving up”, but the issue is not of effort, but of conscious awareness. No one’s efforts will change a lick of that in someone else. We need to do our own work, and me saying that is just “blowin’ in the wind” tlane 8/1/17
8/8/2017 – Well Tom, I am coming to your blog from the link that Jon Wendell put out there. I must say I find it very interesting. I don’t really know where to start to comment. You throw off so many ideas that I feel overwhelmed in my ability to respond in a cogent manner. I thought I would scroll down to the beginning of your blog and start there but I could not get to the beginning. It just keep scrolling and scrolling. I think you have been at this for awhile (ha ha). My first thought was you must have been influenced by Eastern religions and thought and after sampling a few of your blogs that becomes apparent. My life at this particular time is very busy with things and people and it is hard to find the time to respond. Time is the most valuable commodity at this stage of my life. My second thought is we need to talk more when we see each other next but on reflection I know that that is not always possible. I hope we do get a chance to talk but at that time we will be “in the world” and with other people around and it is not the same as writing as we are doing now. Both are good but different. Would you agree?
Anyways, I will try and read your blog in the future and try to comment in a concise manner if I get the time to throw my 2 cents worth of ideas out there. Keep the faith and keep on keeping on.
Hey Jim, so nice to hear from you. And yes, I do resonate with most Eastern ways of viewing life. There are 806 essays here, so you may not have enough time to get to them all! It is hard to get enough space to discuss things like this at our HC meeting. I have with a few, but not many. Art and I used to talk about this stuff. My approach in all this is to speak to the “process” of thought and not the “content”. The how more than the what. Look forward to your future comments and to see you in Oct. BTW, you can do a search and I have written on many topics.. Again, good to hear from you. Tom