This is the last paragraph of this post. I?m putting it up here so you won?t miss it. I don?t like to close threads before they archive, but I?m sensing that everyone would welcome the respite that closing this particular thread might offer. So I?m closing the thread.
I?ve been getting email from club members recently. One member said that some recent threads have been like seeing a horrible car crash and being unable to look away. In other words, he would like to just ignore the controversy, but can?t. And my guess is that it?s hard to ignore because it?s a community issue. And when you are a member of a community and a problem arises for that community, then it is understandable that the problem will get your attention. You become concerned.
Each of us has a different perspective on this controversy, and this perspective is informed (given form) to some extent by the particular threads we?ve read and/or participated in. In other words, each of us has a different context within which we are watching or participating in this controversy. How each of us observes the unfolding of this controversy is unique, and thus how each of us reacts is unique. And how each of us reacts, and responds, is within the context of our own unique perspective.
At this point it seems to me that continuing to react to what others have posted in these controversial threads only serves to fuel the fire; that each post only elicits an escalation. Thus, it seems to me that continuing these exchanges is not accomplishing much in the way of solving or ending the controversy.
I have been in off-board correspondence with a number of members recently, and I have spent a good amount of time trying to resolve this issue. It is clear to me from both the posts I?ve been reading and from the correspondence that I have received that there are many members of the Alembic Club that care about our community.
From childhood each of develops ways of reacting to, surviving in, making our way in the world around us; and for each of us these survival strategies are unique and have been informed by a lifetime of events. But they are not required.
These conditioned responses to external stimuli, these conditioned ways of reacting to the world around us may have been helpful to us when we were younger, but they are not required. We tend to think of these ways of dealing with others as who we are, as our self. The self is a great survival tool, and one of the ways it tries to survive is by convincing you that it?s right, that you have to react.
But you don?t have to react. Well you need to react if a truck is coming at you in your lane; but quite often we are in a position as adults to take a moment and breath. We are not in any immediate danger. Immediate reaction is not required; quite often breathing, coming to center, opening the heart, allows us to see the bigger picture, to bring understanding and compassion into our interactions with others.
You do not have to question everything someone else says. You do not have to react and respond. You do not have to demand that someone explain their position.
Quite often we don?t really know how we arrived at a particular position, and we couldn?t really explain it fully because that statement we posted has a whole lifetime of events behind it.
And what I may post right now at this very moment is only a reflection of what I?m thinking about at this very moment. And my brain isn?t drawing on the entirety of information available to it to form the opinion that it is stating in this very moment.
So demanding that someone explain their position so that you can understand what it is that they are trying to say might not really be entirely helpful; especially if such a demand serves to exacerbate an already contentious exchange.
So breath.
Right now, while you are reading this, while you are reacting to what you are reading, while you are forming opinions about me and what I am saying; just breath. Have compassion for me. Because I am only drawing on a limited amount of the information available to me gathered over a lifetime of experiences, the flow of causes and effects that has brought me to this point in time and space, to be here with you in this very moment. So it?s not going to be perfect. And that?s ok. In fact it?s entirely understandable that I?m going to write things that don?t make sense to others. I do it all the time.
Breath.
When you just breath, when you focus on the breath, watching the movement of air into your lungs, watching the movement of air out of your lungs, thinking of nothing else at all, just turning your attention to the breath, watching the air move back and forth at the tip of your nose, nice easy relaxed breathes, when you?re just breathing, when you notice the occasional thoughts forming, and just let them drift away as leaves floating down a river, returning your attention to the breath, when you?re just breathing, when you?re just present with what is, right now, in this very moment, not thinking about tomorrow or yesterday, not thinking about this or that, when the seemingly ceaseless chatter in your head dissipates and you?re just breathing, just breathing, then it begins to become clear that we are not separate one from another. Our love and compassion for one another grows and becomes deeper with the realization that we are all interconnected. Our love for this planet that sustains us grows stronger with the realization that we are not separate from this earth. When we are just breathing, when we are fully present, when we fully open our hearts, we are not separate from that which informs us all, that which gives form to everything.
We are on this planet, we are sharing this experience, but for a very short period of time. Each of us has the opportunity to choose how we take our next step, how we place our foot on the path. Each of us has, right now in this very moment, the opportunity to make a change in our lives, to change the direction we are moving in, to discover our selves and our world in ways we have been too busy to notice. It is not easy, but it?s just one step. All we need do for the moment is take a single step.
