Change You Can Believe In

I sometimes feel overwhelmed with the "state of the world". I'm sure that I'm not alone in this. Years ago, I gave up watching the news after realizing it only brought me down. There's no mystery why given the over-reporting of murders, rapes, natural disasters, and the non-stop "entertainment" from the political theater. I've since learned healthy ways to cope with those stresses (exercise, meditation, reading), but I still strictly limit my news / TV intake.

I'm realizing that the stress I feel from being unable to "change things" is, in a way, a clash with reality. My ideals for the myself, the world, and my own ability to change things in a huge, sudden way are clashing with 'what is'.

I'm sure you're familiar with the Serenity Prayer. Reinhold Niebuhr's original prayer begins as follows:

God, give me grace to accept with serenity

the things that cannot be changed,

Courage to change the things

which should be changed,

and the Wisdom to distinguish

the one from the other.

This prayer has helped me a great deal in respectively accepting or addressing certain "wrongs" - those in my own life as well as those things which I would judge as "wrong" in the world. The prayer reminds me to address the things I can/should change, and not be weighed down by a self-inflicted burden for "the world". I'm only one person. I can only accomplish so much. That I should feel an overbearing or debilitating sense of responsibility for the world-at-large is some form of well intended grandiosity. Realizing one's personal limits is healthy, and it leads to focusing on what can be achieved and where a difference can be made. And what is more immediately achievable than working on one's own mind, heart, and soul?

I'm a big fan of viewing the individual person as a single cell in an organism. Maybe that one cell can't change the entire organism, but it definitely contributes to the health or sickness of the whole. The individual makes a difference. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi stated that the individual is the basic unit of the state of the world. He used the analogy, "It takes green trees to make a green forest".

My current philosophy is this: If you can't change the world, work to change your country. If you can't change your country, work to change your state. If you can't change your state, work to change your community. If you can't change your community, work to change your household. If you can't change your household, work to change yourself. After all, you are the beginning of all change.

What will it take for you to be the healthiest cell that you can be? What can you do right now, right where you are, that will lead to more positive change?

Life is the Event.

It recently occurred to me with greater intensity than ever that we define ourselves by making the distinction between 'me' and 'you', 'us' and 'them'. "I'm an American." "He's Iranian." "She's Indian." "We are Christian, they are Muslims." White vs Black. Poor vs Rich. Men vs Women. Democrats vs Republicans. I'm right, you're wrong. Of course, not all of us do this all the time toward everyone, but it's there - probably more often than you realize.

I've traveled a decent amount in my life, and I've interacted with all sorts of people. In South Africa it was the elementary and high school children, some with no shoes. In Greece it was the Iraqi refugees I met in a soup kitchen. In Jordan it was the Palestinian taxi drivers. In each of these situations, relations were friendly and, mostly, even fun despite coming from completely different experiences and realities. Underlying our interactions was a mutual respect and understanding concerning our shared humanity. That alone is enough.

As humans, we are quite susceptible to siding with the people, place, and ideas we happen to be born. We take pride in it. I had the privilege of being born into the US. Had I been born anywhere else, I would have pride in that place, I'd likely be raised with that location's popular religious and political ideas, and I'd be a completely different person. As it is, this is who I am, and I'm grateful to be me. But knowing this helps me to pause and at least try to see the world from another perspective.

I think back to soccer teams I've been on. You take 20 guys from different background, different races, different cultures, different economic situations, and you put them on the same team, make them work together, run together, sweat together, win together, lose together - they become like brothers. Those events connect them. Differences disappear.

I recently saw a TEDTalk given by Elif Shafak called The Politics of Fiction. Beginning at 7:20 minutes, she tells a story of how after an earthquake she witnessed a "conservative grocer" and a transvestite consoling each other on the sidewalk by sharing a cigarette. She states, "On the face of death and destruction, our mundane differences evaporated and we all became one, even if for a few hours."

Why does it take some external reason to wake up and realize that we are so much more alike than we can ever be considered "different"? Why do we have to be near "death and destruction" to realize how strongly our need for community is, or to realize our common humanity? Why does it take an external event to bring people together? Our shared humanity is enough. Life is the event. We're all in this together. You and me. Us and Them.