It seems that very often when I pick up my pen or my keyboard to write, my message is about fear; how it guides us, teaches us, controls us, manipulates us. And I’m doing it again today because I can feel how many of us are clenched around fear. Two concerts I was looking forward to have been cancelled. An international trade show I plan to attend in Las Vegas with more than 300,000 attendees is teetering on being cancelled. And, over the last few days, in the wake of unfettered bombastic newscasting, several people whom I love have offered me an elbow bump in favor of our usual embrace. Another friend suggested I put off a visit to a lonely beloved living in an assisted living facility, citing risk and protocol. Is this the new normal? My friends, it is not spiritually sound to stop hugging people you care about, especially during times of great fear. This is when we need to hold each other closest.
It occurred to me that an epidemic like the one that is currently being co-created with us by the media, might feel like the perfect antidote or, perhaps, placeholder, for what most ails us; that is, the undercurrent of unnamed fear and anxiety that many of us walk around with. Is it possible that we experience a certain relief in finding a clear wide swath of shared concern to connect around, rather than simmering in our own murky discomfort? I wonder if this mutual attachment to specific fears then becomes a substitute for the intimacy we all crave. Of course true intimacy can never blossom through fear, only through love. And that murky discomfort we all try to avoid? That’s where our salvation lies. I know I am treading on dangerous grounds here. We hold our fears and worries sacrosanct and those fears and worries that are sanctioned by the government, the media, by our schools and churches and concert halls must be all the more valid, right?
Where is our perspective in all this, I wonder? And our discernment? In this 21st century life, having instant access to worldwide incidents, large and small, has not been going well for us in general. We don’t use the information wisely and it keeps us forever spinning in a loop of data that was never meant for us, and has little or no useful meaning for our lives. I think it keeps us from finding and holding our center. What many of us call “staying informed,” becomes an impossible task, and the constant hunt for what is true takes us away from the only place where what is true actually lives: inside of us - in our churning, beautiful, disturbing, anxious, joyful inner lives.
I have a feeling this post is coming across as super preachy. It’s not my intention. I am in earnest about getting and staying conscious and I am so saddened by everything that we let get in the way. I know we can make better choices!
Please stop a moment. Take a breath. Remember your perspective, the big picture. Remember what you love. And remember to take great pleasure in what you love. Try to release the clench of fear. Let love have its way with you.