I spent almost two hours last night with my headphones on, staring out the window at the leaves of the trees swaying in the wind. That was probably the happiest moment of my week, and I don't mean that in a sardonic way. Anyone who has spent the better part of an afternoon watching waves crash on a beach knows what I mean. And hopefully, all of us who live above ground have spent idle hours on our backs watching clouds turn into various projections of our imaginations and then back into clouds again.
The lava lamp is a charming invention, but it doesn't really hold a candle to nature. Fish tanks also fail to capture that atmosphere of relaxation, perhaps due to the dirty glass, filthy water and that whole captivity thing. Television crams heavy-handed values down our throats, and video games play off our inborn aggressive tendencies with headache inducing flashing lights. No, nothing mankind has invented compares to nature's radiating tranquility.
Barring of course, hurricanes, volcanos, sandstorms, stampedes, swarms of insects, flash-floods, wildfires, earthquakes, blizzards, landslides, and the eternal struggle of predator vs. prey.
But for the most part, nature, and not the city, is the perfect place to unwind. Of course, those of us who spend most of our time in the city never really notice the degree to which the constant noise, the polluted air, and the buzzing of thousands of perpetually discontented psyches are effected our thought processes. A sheen of grey creeps over our eyes, and even if someone drags us by the hands into a forest, we still just see the grey, the disappointment, the glamor not quite as glamorous as the advertisements promised us it would be.
In these extreme cases, one sometimes marches into the woods armed with psilocybin, mescaline, or at least a couple of joints. Dangerous thoughts follow: “Why am I working this dead end job? Why is it that the harder I work, the worse I feel? Why do all my short term goals revolve around purchasing objects that break or disappear within a year or two? Why do my social relationships seem so unfulfilling?” And society, as we know it, collapses into a heap of rubble and consumer goods still wrapped in their colorful packaging.
A human being is a composite of cells. When our cells refuse to co-operate harmoniously as a unified entity, our body develops indigestion, catches a cold, or gets cancer. An eco-system is a composite of organisms living in relative harmony with one another. When the balance is shifted, the displacement of energy courses through all the flora and fauna involved as if they were dominoes. Extinction, over-population, etc. Massive social groups are similar structures. Nations, corporations, religions, trends. Composites of human beings acting cohesively as a unit.
But there really isn't that much cohesion. The president's a jerk. No religion makes sense but mine. Other people's political beliefs will kill us all. A significant number of people go through life with their egos firmly planted between themselves and the rest of the world. Perhaps this is natural. The dualistic divides that result from this sort of behavior may very well inspire the constant cultural evolution of our species. Or impede it. Hard to say. When debating dualistic conflicts in my own mind, I find it often easy to see both sides of the issue. Abortion is a good example. Women have a right to their bodies and unwanted children are unlikely to get the support they need; however, it's really difficult for most of us to accept murders of convenience (unless it's for a beef patty, in which case most of you are all for it). Rather than coming to a resolution, I ultimately come to the conclusion that nothing really matters at all, and I'm just here for the ride. Good-bye, principles.
What that leaves me with is more attention to devote to my biological and spiritual needs. It leaves me with the moment, so to speak. And I choose to spend that moment with my headphones on, watching the leaves flow in the breeze. Spiritual needs, check. Perhaps eating a piece of fruit or a bowl of cereal. Biological needs, check. That leaves me a happy, functioning organism, and that much more ready to participate in society in a meaningful, yet largely spontaneous way. No premeditation. No political or philosophical stance. Just the actions I see as appropriate in the moment.
But most people seem to be wrapped up in an anxious, neurotic frenzy of desires, grasping constantly and never getting what they actually need. Instead, they settle for television, fast food, and lungfuls of cigarette smoke and car exhaust. In most of these instances, I am willing to bet that what the majority of these people need is a healthy light meal and a moment to relax. Maybe a picnic at a secluded beach. Especially strange are the individuals convinced that society will completely disintegrate without the immediate and global application of their political philosophies. They're half right. With people so fixated on themselves and yet unable to help themselves, they become ignorant of each other's safety. They project their frustrations onto their neighbors, while allowing corporations to treat them like livestock. Meanwhile, the corporations annihilate the natural eco-systems upon which we all thrive.
And the collective organism that is the human race, antagonizing itself from the inside out, collapses and dies.
With that, I become exactly what I am deriding, but with one exception: I welcome the change. I embrace the likelihood of society's collapse. Do as I recommend, or do as you feel, or do neither. Whatever happens happens. I learn the most from my most painful mistakes: public embarrassments, rocky relationships, serious physical injuries, etc.. I'm sure we as a people will be overflowing with lessons learned once our towers topple over. In nature, verdant lands become deserts. Deserts become oceans. Oceans become islands, and once again life finds a home.
Death is an incredibly short-sighted notion. We will all inevitably be subjected to that mysterious transmutation of our physical nature. In the meantime, what can it hurt us to live intelligently, at harmony with ourselves, with each other, and with nature? So I say, grab a few friends, a few handfuls of mind-expansion, enough fruit, nuts, and water for a full day, and spend some time in nature, far from the city, far from people's misguided antagonism, and re-learn what it is to enjoy oneself. Perhaps, if enough people do that, society will crumble. But whatever. The tower might fall from the left. The tower might fall from the right. At least, we can say we enjoyed the ride.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 comments:
Post a Comment