We cannot do this alone. Watching the cruelty, the ignorance and destruction in our midst is unbearable alone. As it should be. We are all affected (whether we recognize this or not).
And if we are suffering together we can also help each other navigate this terrain. Indeed that is the purpose of this newsletter. And there are people in our midst, people who have come before us and endured unimaginable circumstances. And yet not only survived, experienced their lives to the fullest.
I mean, the Dalai Lama lost his country as a teenager, had to lead them out of exile and is ALWAYS laughing. Victor Frankel was in Auschwitz and writes “Say Yes to Life”. How were they able to do this? Don’t know. And, They DID, they DO. Without supernatural powers. Representative Jamie Raskin loses his son to cancer and the next day he begins drafting articles of impeachment.
And they all put on their pants (okay His Holiness, his briefs) one leg at a time. Like us. And so I put them on my altar. In the midst of my outrage, my despair, I bow to their courage, their equanimity. I thank them for their example. Their unfiltered humanity. And still, I doubt: “How DID You Do This?” You witnessed, experienced, torture, depravity, lost your country, (it has happened before). And yet you continued to live with fullness, appreciation, hope. Really, is this possible? Here and Now?
They do not answer me with an outline of next steps. And I recall them. Thich Nhat Hanh answering the same questions with “I have seen so much suffering, I have to teach joy.” His Holiness, “If you think you can’t make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.” I remember, sometimes reluctantly, we are interconnected. “Indra’s Net”, a vast net with a jewel at each intersection, where each jewel reflects all the others. Everything, no exceptions, exists in a web of relationships.
I feel their spirit. I remember. I take heart. I continue my day.
Bunyk, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
I am confident these reflections, and the writing that results, brings you joy. Thank you because it does the same for me, my friend.