Let’s relive our most recent contemplative practice.
Imagine:
The state of the world is worsening. Feverish Earth and its subjects are drowning in corruption, injustice, and inequity. Children are hungry. Rich men govern from palace-sized homes. Industry of war is prospering. The future is dark, smoldering hot, and underwater. Run through the litany of traumas endured by Earth and its people. This reality is familiar. I know it to be true, so I sit relaxed, but with brow furrowed.
Things are improving. What an irritating delusion. Earth is drowning, and the human condition is a prophylactic against cooperative survival. Catastrophe cannot be overcome when progressive efforts are assaulted by division. But, indulge this narrative. The world is a bright, hopeful little ball of improbability. How curious. Head tilted, foot twirling, engage with this idea. Delegations from 194 countries are gathering in Bonn to make a pact to preserve our dear little Earth. It’s almost as though I’m a witness to something sweet. I almost smile. But, I don’t. The US, the second largest emitter of greenhouse gasses, is absent from the endearing Bonn engagement. More disheartened imagining this little ball of dystopia than drowning Earth, I am stressed.
Things are what they are. Deep breath. What is happening now will happen and has already happened; time is not linear. I am not in control. Relief. Life marches on regardless of me, my perception, or my actions. Deeper breathing. Life simply is. Recognizing truth, whether good or bad, is pleasant and intriguing. How complex and dynamic is this world? How fortunate am I to identify how affecting different perspectives can be? I am pleased.
This last worldview is the truest, most pure, and most relieving because it removes values and assessments. It simply recognizes existence – if not of us, then of something. Unfortunately, this perspective also requires its adherents to see the same objective truth in order to close divides, and what qualifies as objective truth is a point of contention. Two people can look at the same numbers, and while one sees fact, the other sees propaganda. Perhaps then, this scheme doesn’t solve for American political polarization, but it promotes unity to some degree: there is no disagreement as to whether or not our world is ending or blossoming. There is only our pale blue dot, floating in space.
Works Cited
YoutTube. “Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot OFFICIAL.” Online video clip. YouTube, 9 September 2015.
Dennis, Brady. “As Syria Embraces Paris Climate Deal, It’s the United States against the World.”The Washington Post, WP Company, 7 Nov. 2017, www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy- environment/wp/2017/11/07/as-syria-embraces-paris-climate-deal-its-the-united-states-against- the-world/?utm_term=.55099f3acc26.
Ge, Friedrich, Damassa. “6 Graphs Explain the World’s Top 10 Emitters.” World Resources Institute, World Resources Institute, 25 Nov. 2014. https://wri.org/blog/2014/11/6-graphs-explain-world %E2%80%99s-top-10-emitters
Haner, Coral Davenport And Josh. “The Marshall Islands Are Disappearing.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 Dec. 2015, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/12/02/world/The-Marshall-Islands-Are-Disappearing.html.
Hunger Notes. “World Child Hunger Facts.”World Hunger News, World Hunger Education Service, 2016, www.worldhunger.org/world-child-hunger-facts/.
Kenyon, Peter. “Turkey’s President And His 1,100-Room ‘White Palace’.” NPR, NPR, 24 Dec. 2014, www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/12/24/370931835/turkeys-president-and-his-1-100-room- white-palace.
NPR. “Ike’s Warning Of Military Expansion, 50 Years Later.”NPR, NPR, 17 Jan. 2011, www.npr.org/2011/01/17/132942244/ikes-warning-of-military-expansion-50-years-later.
Roberts, David. “America Is Facing an Epistemic Crisis.”Vox, Vox, 2 Nov. 2017, www.vox.com/policy- and-politics/2017/11/2/16588964/america-epistemic-crisis.