Something I read today made me sad, sad for the person who wrote it and sad for myself. During an average day many things elicit a variety of responses from me but not many entice me to contemplate and write about it. Therefore, thank you for challenging me to momentarily leave my idiosyncratic daily grind for a brief contemplation and reminding me that I am human or perhaps more than human. Which we all are by the way, but then again let me contemplate that one.
So….
I was lounging on the patio one sparkly afternoon when a long strand of spider web popped into my vision. It was just there all of a sudden glistening in the sun whereas a second ago it did not exist at all. As the sun slowly lowered itself in the sky the spider strand disappeared once again and other than a memory the spider web strand no longer existed. I considered myself very lucky to have witnessed this mini lesson in timing, perspective, and impermanence just by communing with nature on the patio. But then again, nature tends to have many gifts for us if we are receptive.
Our views and opinions depend on our vantage points and as we move through our lives our vantage points change. Inevitably our views or perspectives change. Or do they? What we thought was our objective observation or assessment of a situation becomes a dissonant frequency and with any luck a new subjective objective emerges. The task is to accept the elasticity of the process and reinvent ourselves in the light of the new information. We think principles serve us well. At least most of the time. We believe in good and evil, up and down, night and day, heroes and cowards, and generally most of the time we believe that no matter where in the continuum we find ourselves we believe we have The Moral Superior guiding us. But if we are too rigid in our beliefs, if we fail to allow ourselves to change and incorporate the new subjective objective reflected by our new vantage point, then we deny ourselves the opportunity to grow. Yes, 1 plus 1 equals 2, right? Even if when looking at a sunset one sees the beginning of the night yet another one a dying day.
Life is a sublime dance. Some glide with the tonal waves and adjust seemingly effortlessly. Some blunder weighed down by the embarrassment of failed expectations of different kinds. Some subscribe to belief systems that regulate the dance, how much we dance, how we dance, whether we dance, and the music of the dance, religion comes to mind here. And maybe some decide that they would rather just march through it all to avoid any sort of dance in a total mental rigor.
The question is why?
Fast forwarding through psychological and philosophical theories, perhaps like the ouroboros the answer comes back to the concept of principles. When we decide to bask in our self righteousness as solid upstanding citizens, we may become stuck in a belief system/pattern that no longer serves our evolution. To admit that a strong conviction we had months or years ago is no longer valid threatens the concept of a stable identity, or a coherent self. After all, are we a mere reflection of our vantage points? Have we not spent countless hours examining our beliefs, or constructing arguments in their defense? How much change can we incorporate in our minds with grace? How much empathy can we reserve for that which we can not yet understand? On a side note, lack of empathy is usually deemed as a negative trait and when present a person on the receiving end may take it for granted, yet ironically empathy is not owed, it is a gift of our spirit, a whisper from our better self.
Back to the subject, what does it take to shift from the rigidity of the mind to a more elastic frame of reference?
So we can evolve.
So we can understand and have empathy for that which terrifies us.
So we are not afraid of our own shadows.
So we allow life to thrive.
So we can reinvent ourselves at the opportune moment and thank our old self for allowing us to reconcile, incorporate, and extend in peace and wonderment rather than judge and begrudge like our old and at times two dimensional patriarchal gods frozen in time with archaic images which fail to open new vistas to a vibrant world.
So….
I was lounging on the patio one sparkly afternoon when a long strand of spider web popped into my vision. It was just there all of a sudden glistening in the sun whereas a second ago it did not exist at all. As the sun slowly lowered itself in the sky the spider strand disappeared once again and other than a memory the spider web strand no longer existed. I considered myself very lucky to have witnessed this mini lesson in timing, perspective, and impermanence just by communing with nature on the patio. But then again, nature tends to have many gifts for us if we are receptive.
Our views and opinions depend on our vantage points and as we move through our lives our vantage points change. Inevitably our views or perspectives change. Or do they? What we thought was our objective observation or assessment of a situation becomes a dissonant frequency and with any luck a new subjective objective emerges. The task is to accept the elasticity of the process and reinvent ourselves in the light of the new information. We think principles serve us well. At least most of the time. We believe in good and evil, up and down, night and day, heroes and cowards, and generally most of the time we believe that no matter where in the continuum we find ourselves we believe we have The Moral Superior guiding us. But if we are too rigid in our beliefs, if we fail to allow ourselves to change and incorporate the new subjective objective reflected by our new vantage point, then we deny ourselves the opportunity to grow. Yes, 1 plus 1 equals 2, right? Even if when looking at a sunset one sees the beginning of the night yet another one a dying day.
Life is a sublime dance. Some glide with the tonal waves and adjust seemingly effortlessly. Some blunder weighed down by the embarrassment of failed expectations of different kinds. Some subscribe to belief systems that regulate the dance, how much we dance, how we dance, whether we dance, and the music of the dance, religion comes to mind here. And maybe some decide that they would rather just march through it all to avoid any sort of dance in a total mental rigor.
The question is why?
Fast forwarding through psychological and philosophical theories, perhaps like the ouroboros the answer comes back to the concept of principles. When we decide to bask in our self righteousness as solid upstanding citizens, we may become stuck in a belief system/pattern that no longer serves our evolution. To admit that a strong conviction we had months or years ago is no longer valid threatens the concept of a stable identity, or a coherent self. After all, are we a mere reflection of our vantage points? Have we not spent countless hours examining our beliefs, or constructing arguments in their defense? How much change can we incorporate in our minds with grace? How much empathy can we reserve for that which we can not yet understand? On a side note, lack of empathy is usually deemed as a negative trait and when present a person on the receiving end may take it for granted, yet ironically empathy is not owed, it is a gift of our spirit, a whisper from our better self.
Back to the subject, what does it take to shift from the rigidity of the mind to a more elastic frame of reference?
So we can evolve.
So we can understand and have empathy for that which terrifies us.
So we are not afraid of our own shadows.
So we allow life to thrive.
So we can reinvent ourselves at the opportune moment and thank our old self for allowing us to reconcile, incorporate, and extend in peace and wonderment rather than judge and begrudge like our old and at times two dimensional patriarchal gods frozen in time with archaic images which fail to open new vistas to a vibrant world.
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