“There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says “Morning, boys. How’s the water?”
And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes “What the hell is water?”
This well-known Buddhist story told by Alan Watts at the 2005 commencement address at Kenyon College have always resonated with me, in many contexts.
I had said, “I don’t like politics”, “I don’t do politics”, “I am not political”… and while the first remains true, I have come to re-consider my place in my mind, in my world about the latter.
I AM in water, rife with politics and I am impacted by it, like it or not. Perhaps I am at the lower end of the spectrum for the level of participation, yet there is no avoiding it. In fact, for every post, every tweet of gender equality, human rights, I am being political. I am glad to name it. Another self-awakening of a 40-something woman. 🙂
This realisation comes from recent events, namely the lead up to the now Trump Presidency and the Women’s March around the world. It is easy to say, as I have heard from others, that ‘they’ are about America thus none of our (Australians) business or the marches are anti-Trump rather than about women’s rights or they are exercises in futility. Hey, I even attempted to embrace these notions to arrest the listlessness and unease.
Yet it does not bring me peace.
There is a shift in global consciousness, signalled by the uneasiness and anger that I (and many others judging by the response to the Women’s March) feel despite being so far away from the source of the triggering events. The notions of ‘them’ and ‘us’, of ‘not this but that’ no longer hold water, we the people are connected, more so now than ever, and we in all we say and do influence and impact on each other, we are humanity as one.
So my response and the lessons from the recent events are these, expressed through those who came before:
Life is a circle. The end of one journey is the beginning of the next. ~ Joseph M Marshall III
We must recognize that the suffering of one person or one nation is the suffering of humanity. ~ Dalai Lama
Each of us is responsible for everything and to every human being. ~ Simone de Beauvoir
Careful the things you say,
Children will listen.
Careful the things you do,
Children will see and learn.
…
Children will look to you
For which way to turn,
To learn what to be.
…
Careful the spell you cast,
Not just on children. ~ Barbra Streisand, “Children Will Listen”
Oh, and I have no answer, and I suspect there is no ‘Answer’. We have done things in fear no matter what it is called, what not try love? What have we to lose?
Life is for living; it is movement, constant and every-changing. Let it be a movement inspired by love.
Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Do not despair if the answers don’t come immediately. Some answers are only revealed with the passage of time.
Try to love the questions themselves. Do not look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.
~ Rainer Maria Rilke
All along my denial of the political self, I now realise, is not about politics per se, but rather the politics of division, of hate, of exclusion… and even as I am reconciling to the fact “politics” is being played on me and vice –versa, this remains true – love and compassion, understanding and collaboration shall be my beacon. Though I may at times fail, these I strive to be.
One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion. ~ Simone de Beauvoir
One way or another, we all have to find what best fosters the flowering of our humanity in this contemporary life, and dedicate ourselves to that.
~ Joseph Campbell
I am in water.
Namaste!
~ FlorenceT
© 2016 FlorenceT Copyright reserved. The author asserts her moral and legal rights over this work.
MEANINGS AND MUSINGS 