"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with this one wild and precious life?"
Mary Oliver
I just returned from the Wisdom 2.0 conference, held last weekend in Mountain View, CA at the Computer History Museum. Hoping to discover more about wisdom, I came away with a new understanding and appreciation for the amazing role technology is playing in helping humans know and understand each other better, even though we may never meet face to face.
I also came away with a deeper connection to the plight of being human and the challenges we face as the world unfolds in a way that threatens our very existence. Witness the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf last week, quite possibly the largest ecological disaster in the history of the world.
And at the same, I became aware of the enormous opportunities we have to come together as a species and save ourselves. We could turn this thing around if it was our collective intention to do so.
Technology will play a major role in our collective transformation. This much is clear. Technology may be creating some of our greatest challenges, but it also holds the solution to them. Transformation will come about in large part, because of the connectivity available to us now that never was available before. Sooner or later, we humans are going to figure this thing out. The only question is when? Will we come together to save ourselves before it's too late?
Now, it seems, we're too divorced from ourselves to know that in order to save ourselves, we must come home to ourselves. We must see ourselves as members of this human "tribe," knowing that the plight of each of us is dependent upon the plight of all of us and the plight of all of us is determined by the plight of each of us.
Who are you in the family of things in this world?
Is it not easier to lose sight of your place in the world and end up thinking it doesn't matter if you even have a place in the world? Is it not easier to do that than it is to remain always aligned and forever attuned to the voice and the rhythm of your higher nature? Is it not?
And based how you see the world unfolding, would it not be easier to think that what you think and what you do makes no difference in the matter of things? Wouldn't it be easier to think that than it would be to live in the awareness of your inherent unity with all that is? Wouldn't it?
It would, or so it seems. Yet, please let us think again.
Think about the 7 billion of us, who, if you looked beyond skin color, national origins or cultural backgrounds, you would discover "they" turn out to be a lot like you. And you might discover that most of "them" are thinking the same thoughts about themselves as you, carry similar worries and burdens of the heart as your own heart holds.
In other words, there's really only one of us here, manifest in 7 billion different ways. Each one of us uniquely different, while being inherently the same.
Therein lies the conundrum of being human. We are many, yet we're one. How do we travel with a foot in both worlds?
We live as though we have no knowledge of our collective condition, human beings traveling together through space, sharing a small ship called Earth. We live with little or no awareness of our connection to the whole and our part in it. Yet we do so at our own peril.
We look at each other as "other." There's "me" and there's "you." And we're separate and different, yet we're the same. Or there's "me" and there's everyone else. And everyone else is "them."
What is your place in a world like this?
What is your place in a world in which "they" think they're just one person and who really cares what "they" think? Who really cares what "they" do?
"They" think they're just too busy taking care of their own business to worry much about the business of anyone else. "They" think it's better to leave well enough alone and let everyone fend for themselves.
"They" think they have a lot of problems and so does everyone else. So how can anyone help anyone when everyone needs help?
"They've" already decided it isn't going to get any better, so why not do the best you can with what you've got and hope it all turns out?
"They" don't see many alternatives.
And then a brilliant human creation appears, leaving instructions for living life, and everything feels different:
Instructions for living a life
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it."
-- Mary Oliver
Could it be this simple? Can we do this?
What is your place in a world like this?
Mary Oliver lays it out:
#1-It's your place to be among the awakened. How do I know? You're reading this. That's enough evidence. Your slumber is over, wake up.
#2- It's your place to look around and pay attention to what you see. It will astonish you. When you look with the eyes of an awakened one, you'll see the beauty and wonder of what's going on here. You'll see beyond the appearance of separation to touch the oneness that is life. You'll be amazed! Pay attention.
#3- It's your place to tell others, to awaken them from their slumber to have them join you. You wouldn't want to keep this good news all to yourself, now would you? Of course not! It's your place to help spread the word that this place of ours, this one precious life on this one precious planet that we share, is sacred. We are sacred. It's all sacred.
#4 - It's your place to behave accordingly, to honor the sacredness of all life. As if your very life depended upon it. For it does.
Mary Oliver invites us to take a deeper look:
"You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
call to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things."
-- Mary Oliver
And suddenly this big world feels almost cuddly, warm, and familiar. It seems smaller, more doable, like something you could wrap your arms around and cozy up to. Oliver invites us to remember that the world is offering up a place for each one of us, no matter who we are, no matter what burdens we carry.
The explosion of technology both expands our reach in the world and brings it down to size.
It gives us access to the creative output that 7 billion uniquely different, yet wonderously alike souls are bringing to the planet in 2010. Our collective wisdom is becoming available for all and once this reaches critical mass, game over. We win.
Let's declare the game already over and we've already won.
What would be your place in a world in which you and everyone else has already won?
Will you be a placeholder? Or will you wake up, pay attention, be astonished and tell everyone?
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One of the examples that I use when trying to convince my three children of their own strength and power is the story of Alexander Solzhenitsyn. In many ways, this one man made a crack in the power of the great Soviet empire with his book, "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich."
I see that the greatest place I can be is to serve and be at peace. If I/you are at peace there is one less person suffering
In seva,
Ed
It really comes down to our individual choices, doesn't it? One less person suffering is a big deal. I'll sign on for that.
Many blessings my friend,
Judith
This time, I have two reasons to thank you: for your own thoughts, of course, but also for introducing me to Mary Oliver. Somehow I had missed her before, but she sounds like a poet I *need* to have in my mental library. I foresee a trip to the local (physical) library in the near future!
So glad you came by and definitely pay her a visit. There is a lot of her work online.
It's true that some aspire to greatness. Some even achieve it. But that might not be true for all of us. Nor does it NEED to be true for all of us. For every great leader to achieve, there has to be a lot of hard working role-players doing their part to make it happen. Think Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.
Maybe that's your "purpose." To be a role-player. Someone who aspires to serve mankind by playing their role and being happy with it. Maybe you're supposed to be a mom or dad who takes care of your children and passes your wisdom, experience and knowledge on to them so it can continue to be passed on after you're dead. Maybe you're just supposed to do whatever it is you do, be happy doing what you do, and pass what you do on to the next role-player.
It might sound like a small thing, but it's still the foundation of every civilization. So maybe we shouldn't be so hard on ourselves when people try to convince us that we NEED to pursue a "higher" purpose. Maybe you already found your place in this world.
For example: Stay-at-home Mom vs. Career Mom
Each has made her own choice according to her own beliefs, circumstance or desires. Yet, that's not good enough for "them." On one end of the spectrum, they look at stay-at-home mom as wasting her life and her talents. Meanwhile, on the other end, they think career mom should be home caring for her children. Each is being compared to someone else's notion of what a "higher purpose" means.
Granted, some people have gotten where they are by default. They never choose their own fate. Fate seems to choose them. OK, maybe THEY need help in finding their place in the universe. But the rest of us got here by choice -- i.e., we already found our place in the universe on our own.
We don't really need to or want to hear what you or God has planned for us. We like where we are. We're doing what we believe we were intended to do.
I'd say: one more time, please. Da capo. But more edges please. Although it's already been one hell of a ride.
Or maybe I would just say: ok. So we did it. Who would have thunk.
Depends on the size of the bang after the critical mass is reached. Or maybe on the song that plays while the 'game over' is flashing.
:-)
What music would you prefer to be playing while they flash the "Game Over" sign? I'll have to think about that myself. Maybe "We Are The Champions?"
A dear dear friend once made me an inspirational collage which still hangs on my office wall and which I continue to use frequently for a spark. One of the quotes on it is, "Dish it up, baby, and don't spare the jalapeños!" I'll admit, all too often I still shy away from the jalapeños. But you do have the right idea here: let's do this thing Da Capo, but with more edge, with more verve, with more fire.
With more jalapeños. Only please, may these jalapeños be more joyous and less destructive.
How about more FUN, while we're at it? Joyous Jalapenos, please!
I am so with you on this! I think this idea deserves a whole blog all by itself! I have similar memories as a child, knowing everything was connected, yet not really having language to express my experience.
I'm going to lie down in the grass now, and spend some time looking up. Thanks for the reminder!
Peace to you,
Mary
Oh yeah! I know the feeling you speak of. Or as Natalie Goldman says, "Writing Down The Bones". It's such a gift to love writing. I consider it one of my biggest blessings. Even when my spirit is raw from it. Maybe even, especially when.
Thank you for speaking an important truth!
Love,
Cara
carabarker.net
Here you belong, indeed! Mary Oliver is a soul sister, that's for sure! Her images transport me. When I came across these poems, while "shopping for inspiration", my soul said "this is it".
I'm glad it spoke to you, too.
I love what you say: " it is like anything you do, do it not because it will make a difference, it will, but because it needs doing, leave all the rest..."
Thank you always for "speaking up". Your voice matters. Thanks too for reminding that only love counts. This is all that matters.
I also attended the conference, and participated in a magical mediation by Roshi Joan Halifax about the gulf devastation. I also walked away realizing the founder of many of the latest tools of technology are VERY interested in keeping our hearts and souls connected in the very highest of ways. If we use the tools with astonishment, and tell about our truths, it becomes an amazing tool to break down barriers. Thanks for the sublime review of Mary Oliver, she is a true master.
It's been a long day and I'm just now sitting down to connect with ya'll. Seeing you at the conference was a highlight for me, for sure! Just wish we could've spent more time together. I'm sure you'll be cooking up your next blog with some of the wisdom you gathered. I look forward to reading what you took away.
Thanks for "popping" over! I so appreciate your constant presence and support.
Much love,
Judith