A View From My Handbasket
In troubled times - and every generation considers their time to be uniquely troubled - there is a line of thought that goes like this: "I have a bad feeling about what human civilization (out there) looks like to me. Therefore, I blame the state of human civilization (out there) for my bad feeling."
Thus the transaction is complete, but I haven’t really looked at the source of my passion. This is something I see in too many activists. What is really wrong with the world: not knowing what we are.
More and more, I look at "the state of human civilization (out there)" as the content, with my perception and relationship to that being the process;
and I concern myself more and more with the process, not the content. This moment of awakening exists independently of the socioeconomic arrangements under which I conduct my business.
My instinct can perceive and respond to any situation, no matter what that situation looks like. That awakening tends to look like "how can I help you?" and that awakening is reality. The reflection of our painful, suffering human civilization in our eyes is not reality.
That could be construed as hiding on the mountaintop; yet maybe it’s the opposite. Maybe that is a path down from the mountaintop and into the marketplace with an open heart. This open heart isn’t a polite heart. It doesn’t fear to tell the truth if that’s what the situation requires. Moreover, this open heart doesn’t make a difference in the world - it IS the difference.
