Everything is Connected...but I've had no tv cable connection the past 2 week. That fact plus more meditation, more work, and a reduced social media checking means I've been viewing things through this unintentionally altered state. I am aware of the news but it does not bombard and surround me. I hear about a Trump tweet, 100,000 coronavirus deaths, Breonna Taylor, Ahmed Aubrey, Chris Cooper, George Floyd and it is news that arrives at my doorstep. I let in the news and it sits in my kitchen, puts its feet up on the couch, fixes itself a sandwich, rants in the bathroom while washing its hands, and then -at a certain point- I say 'you have to go.' The news leaves behind a thin layer of slime, like a slug. By the time I clean up the goo, another knock at the door...more news. Maybe this time I say 'leave it outside.' I'll get it later. Maybe I let it talk to me through the crack in the door. But the reaction is different from when I used to let the news sleep in my bed, keep its toothbrush in my bathroom, put its dirty clothes in my hamper.
I do have a SMART TV so I've been logging on to Youtube and just selecting a channel and letting it play: nature, ESPN, documentaries about remote viewing. A few days ago I selected the TED TALK channel and I just let it roll on for hours and hours. If I'm using background noise, it might as well be from the viewpoint of 'knowledge' over 'daily news.' Last night the channel got around to a TEDTalk in Taipei titled "Everything is Connected." Astrophysics researcher Tom Chi was explaining how everything is connected. It's not only a spiritual belief but a quantum physics principle and biological system. Chi talked about breath, heart, and mind connection: the breath we are taking now is dependent upon breath other creatures took millions of years ago, and the breath creatures will take millions of years from now is dependent upon the exhale I am making right now. He went on to explain the heart connection and the mind synthesis. But the breath explanation struck me hard in light George Taylor being murdered through strangulation and the repeated anti-police brutality mantra of I CAN'T BREATHE. His last breaths went out into the world, mixed with the breath the cop who was suffocating him, and links to my breath which continues. My breath was dependent upon people who suffered and never knew that their stream would carry on to me so that I could breathe and keep the stream moving. Despite the violence, I do breathe today because of past sacrifices never known and this breath -sad, joyous, tragic, conflicted, black, American- continues on and will effect people I will never see. Chi said that the societies aware of the universal connection deepen their empathy and knowledge. The more societies ignore this fact, the deeper the suffering.
And then there is America: a bipolar manic society. We realize our connection through suffering and tragedy. And then we forget. We are shocked that a president who let thousands of ppl die in Puerto Rico while throwing a temper tantrum would act in the same manner when 100,000 people died. We are reminded of our connection and then we backslide into individualism and tribalism... the two 'isms' which might end this American society.
This isn't some enlightened state. I'm not claiming to be above the horror or removed from it. The news does impact my life. This is just a confluence of not having TV, less social media due to work, and more silence.
Don't let the panic and chaos and rage choke you. Breathe. Let the news in, be a social justice warrior, but breathe. Everything is Connected.
I do have a SMART TV so I've been logging on to Youtube and just selecting a channel and letting it play: nature, ESPN, documentaries about remote viewing. A few days ago I selected the TED TALK channel and I just let it roll on for hours and hours. If I'm using background noise, it might as well be from the viewpoint of 'knowledge' over 'daily news.' Last night the channel got around to a TEDTalk in Taipei titled "Everything is Connected." Astrophysics researcher Tom Chi was explaining how everything is connected. It's not only a spiritual belief but a quantum physics principle and biological system. Chi talked about breath, heart, and mind connection: the breath we are taking now is dependent upon breath other creatures took millions of years ago, and the breath creatures will take millions of years from now is dependent upon the exhale I am making right now. He went on to explain the heart connection and the mind synthesis. But the breath explanation struck me hard in light George Taylor being murdered through strangulation and the repeated anti-police brutality mantra of I CAN'T BREATHE. His last breaths went out into the world, mixed with the breath the cop who was suffocating him, and links to my breath which continues. My breath was dependent upon people who suffered and never knew that their stream would carry on to me so that I could breathe and keep the stream moving. Despite the violence, I do breathe today because of past sacrifices never known and this breath -sad, joyous, tragic, conflicted, black, American- continues on and will effect people I will never see. Chi said that the societies aware of the universal connection deepen their empathy and knowledge. The more societies ignore this fact, the deeper the suffering.
And then there is America: a bipolar manic society. We realize our connection through suffering and tragedy. And then we forget. We are shocked that a president who let thousands of ppl die in Puerto Rico while throwing a temper tantrum would act in the same manner when 100,000 people died. We are reminded of our connection and then we backslide into individualism and tribalism... the two 'isms' which might end this American society.
This isn't some enlightened state. I'm not claiming to be above the horror or removed from it. The news does impact my life. This is just a confluence of not having TV, less social media due to work, and more silence.
Don't let the panic and chaos and rage choke you. Breathe. Let the news in, be a social justice warrior, but breathe. Everything is Connected.
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