I have dear friends and family that are far right: up to and
including the conspiracy warrens and rabbit holes, avid Trump
believers, secure in doctrines of hope and personal salvation; and I
have dear friends and family far left: empathy for all, champions of
equality, defenders of earth and its creatures and fearful for our
survival considering our abject selfishness and disregard for
nature. Both sides claim moral superiority, intelligence and both
are self-righteously indignant of the other.
Unpopular Opinion: I think both sides are asleep.
When we dream, we’re fully immersed, we never question the irrational or nonsensical, we take everything at face value. We buy into our dream stories and take the ride. Without separation from our thoughts and feelings, that’s all we’re doing in so called “waking” life as well: taking the ride. We’re a product of limited, random and circumstantial experiences and most of us are sleepwalking reactionary machines. We don’t choose our thoughts, or our feelings, or much of anything really.
Until we at least get a little space and wiggle room between our awareness and the thoughts in our head, and the feelings that jerk us around, we haven’t really chosen our perspectives. Free will is not a given, it must be earned. Without choice we have no independent points of view. If —and it’s a big if— if we can free ourselves from our programs, then we may have something meaningful to contribute. Until then, I’m not holding my breath. Nor taking a position, though I might poke at yours. Don’t take it personally. I’m just trying to offer you a little space…
“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing
and rightdoing there is a field.
I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass
the world is too full to talk about.”
― Rumi
Let’s now return to our thoughts and programs already in progress. Surely they will guide our way home…