Hope and Other Nonsense

At least in the ways we’ve been taught to be virtuous.  We’ve made virtue a thing of the saints and it’s not. And we’d really be screwed if it was. If we had to rely on the saints, or the most saintly among us, for something like patience, we would not be enduring this social distancing even as tenuously as we are. It wouldn’t work if we did not already possess the virtue of patience in some measure within us. But we tend to elevate those who demonstrate patience as somehow especially gifted. If we did not have generosity already within us, where did it come from so quickly as soon as we knew this coronavirus would take hold of our lives? Generosity didn’t show up in everyone, but there was a considerable wave that swept across the planet nevertheless. And in large part, the wave of generosity is one of the things making this quarantine bearable. Without it, we’d be in a very different kind of mess. It can be exasperating that it seems like there’s nothing like a  cri...

How much fear do we need to keep us safe? This depends on how well each of our amygdala's are functioning and what we mean by safe. The amygdala  is the fear center of our brain. It is wired into our nervous system for the purpose of recognizing and evaluating threats to our safety, security, and survival. It would seem the greatest barrier to understanding where to place our fear during this once-in-a-century pandemic is that what’s being asked of us is not likely to make our amygdalas catch fire. Therefore we cannot rely only on our body’s fear-response system to do all of the work for us. We are not all going to die from this novel coronavirus. Nor will even a majority of us die from it. The question is how many of us will die and how many of those deaths will truly have been preventable. The amygdala behaves like the gatekeeper to higher brain functioning that some say define us as humans - reason, compassion, empathy, imagination. Everything we encounter...

We are forgetful creatures. We have forgotten our traditions. We have forgotten our potential in complexity. We have forgotten the truth found in nuance. We have forgotten the wonder of our imagination. We have forgotten the depth of our humanity. And somehow, simultaneously we have forgotten we are simple creatures, still subject to our environment. We have forgotten we are creatures of the Earth and bound by her rhythms. Neglecting our interdependence with the Earth has not made us independent, but helplessly dependent. Technology’s “progressive” march has lulled us to sleep believing we have subdued her - we would not, could not, will not be overthrown. The spiritual traditions have always known we are not masters here. Even science is now begging us to again discover reverence for the Earth before she has no other choice but to be rid of us. We have forgotten the rhythms of the Earth are not only around us, but also within us. Fetishizing quick-fixes, immediate pleas...