How can we find the key to reconnect to Reality?
Part 1 – Letting Go
Hope is a human construct, a coping mechanism in the face of the uncertainty that hold no sway in the natural world.
– John Vaillant, Fire Weather
In this series “What are you doing” I often am reacting to some bit of news that I think we should all know about and find a way to do something about – and by doing I include changing our worldview on what we think matters with regards to coping with the unfolding ecological collapse. Here are two recent “unreal” news items from Canada that gave me the idea for this reflection.Right now we will just set the stage to get you in the right emotional space to “do” something that will not unintentionally make things even worse.
Ottawa school board could make graduation ceremonies more ‘inclusive’ – by allowing those who didn’t pass to participate at commencement ceremonies, “students of all levels of achievement will be able to cross the stage with their peers.” [ie. they did not pass courses needed to graduate] ref.1
Alberta quietly plans to subsidize natural gas plants to keep them afloat. Alberta’s independent electricity grid operator is facing backlash as it quietly unveils a plan to offer contracts for old coal-to-gas plants that would otherwise be retired — a move some say will kill the province’s open market and remove incentives for decarbonization. The contracts — which would amount to a subsidy for older, less efficient natural gas power plants — would be unique in Alberta’s free market system that buys power from whichever generator can offer the lowest prices. The contract discussion also follows a moratorium on renewable energy developments. Mike Law, the grid operator’s CEO, who recently left the organization, said the moratorium on renewables would send the industry “into a tailspin.” ref.2
I hope your head is shaking in confusion when reading these news reports. I hope you are thinking “but these actions are completely unrealistic and will not help people in any sustainable way.” If, I agree. However, I admit to have taken a risk by using a loaded word like Reality. So sorry, but all the good words are loaded, are dangerous, have multiple meanings and are slipperier than a snake. But these dangerous words are also the best place to explore the nether regions of our hearts and minds, places where we dare not tread because we may find out we are not as sensible or compassionate or all-knowing as we think we are. Searching for a connection to “Reality” is well portrayed in this 700 year old Sufi fable by Nasruddin:
A man is walking home late one night when he sees an anxious Mulla Nasruddin down on all fours, crawling on his hands and knees on the road, searching frantically under a streetlight for something on the ground. “Mulla, what have you lost?” the passer-by asks. “I am searching for my key,” Nasruddin says sounding very anxious. “I’ll help you look,” the man says and joins Mulla Nasrudin in the search. Soon both men are down on their knees under the streetlight, looking for the lost key. After some time, the man asks Nasrudin, “Tell me Mulla, do you remember where exactly did you drop the key?” Nasrudin waves his arm back toward the darkness and says, “Over there,in my house. I lost the key inside my house” Shocked and exasperated, the passer-by jumps up and shouts at Mulla Nasrudin, “Then why are you searching for the key out here in the street?” “Because there is more light here than inside my house,” Mulla Nasrudin answers in a casual manner.
This story has many meanings but for the sake of this reflection I will choose to say it s about finding our ‘key’ to ‘Reality’. Its message for me and many others is that the key or answers are to be found with the house of ourselves and within the house of the dominant culture we live in. These are dark and confusing places to look, but keep looking and exploring. It is so easy to look outside in the light and see all the things that look like the solution, beliefs, opinions of others, material things, attachment ideologies, etc. There is no shortage of “outside” places to search for our key to reality – but you will not find the key there. The key is hidden within our unconscious selves and within taken for granted cultural norms which shape who we are to create we believe is ‘Reality’.
So what where is this ‘dark place’ where the key to Reality lurks? Certainly not within the limited Reason of the human mind. Certainly not with any human construct – because anything imagined by humans is comprehensible and thus not mysterious. We need to look outside our human world – to what is beyond human Reason [but not Reason itself], to Nature, to the cosmos, to the animal urges within us that propel is to want to live and enjoy live and find a way to live that has meaning and purpose so that we feel is if “I matter”.
All theories are wrong but some are useful. – George Box, British statistician
What I propose you and I “do” is to work very, very hard on our “theory” of what matters, of what is ‘really’ going on, on never stopping from evolving our understanding and emotional reactions to stimuli. Rather you and I must keep on growing and maturing so that more and more we become comfortable with the discomfort of not knowing it all, of not accepting the status quo, of never ceasing to change our lives and our behaviours and the small of the world we have influence over. Just like in the Sufi story our current “key to Reality” is in the dark and hidden crevices of our imaginations, it is in the alternative ways of living that would be considered heretical or crazy my most. Now whatever Theory/Religion/Ideology/Story/Culture/Values/Purpose you choose just remember it is going to be “wrong” – in that it is partial. That our theories are a simplification of the “great big contradictory mess” that is that mysterious being we call “Reality” – but that you NEED such a theory to operate to remain sane. Furthermore, once you get a theory that seems to “work”, that seems to “explain” what you see in the world and within yourself, never get to comfortable with it because the world changes and you change so that your theory must change with the world and with your personal changes or else you risk becoming as disconnected from Reality as the Ottawa Schoolboard or the Alberta government.
If this is all to airy-fairy for you here is a very concrete example of what I mean. A friend how loves to garden just told me that although he had been faithfully watering some flowers he had recently transplanted they still looked half dead. However Mother Nature did her ‘thing’ last night and blasted wind and rain ferociously down upon the ground – what most of people would call “bad” weather – and lo and behold! – these plants sprang back to life and are much, much happier now. What is “reality” telling us with this event? One message could be that when we are forced to move/change and life is sunny and nice and comfortable we sometimes don’t thrive until we have a “storm” come to us that wakes us up and helps us grow and adapt and grow deeper roots in the place/idea/relationship we are in. In other words, what seems bad is good [a storm] and and what seems good is bad [perpetual sunny weather]. Of course, is the storm is a hurricane, it could also mean if you happen to be a tree you could have your roots ripped from the Earth – that risks always exists.
If this metaphor is still not working for you try this: ditch all that you think is right and true… a little bit at a time so you are not left adrift in chaos. Learn about a perspective that you disagree with or know nothing about. See what it feels like to accept that our current way of living and perceiving “Reality” is killing us, is “wrong” in the sense that its bringing death instead of life to the ecosphere and is behaving like a cancer. Live in the moment and do and experience something wondourful every day that connects you to the wondour of the living world and/or other people. Imagine you are dead: was your life worth living? Live today as if its your last. Believe and then act as if everything you do, even the littlest thing, truly matters. Focus on finding and enveloping yourself with more good news than bad news without becoming an escapist. Do one concrete action that connects you to the Earth. Plant a tree or a flower or bake a loaf of bread and give it away – all of this is about gifting the future.
So, “lucky” you and I – the storm of ecological collapse is upon us and we have the privilege/challenge of growing up to actually transform into true ‘homo sapiens’ . We are being forced to change where we look for the key of Reality. Thus, for me, all the “bad” news we learn about is only “bad” if don’t let it help us change our views of what “Reality” is. Clearly our current dominant culture/theory is looking for keys in the light where there is no key. Let’s transform ourselves and as much as the world around us as we can to instead start looking for “Reality” and ways of coping with Ecological Collapse in the darkness, in the mysteries of Life/Nature and mysteries of our inner beings
Perhaps “Reality” is an invisible wind bending we who are the tree so that we can let go of the leaves of our notions of what matters that are now totally disconnected from Reality and risk destroying us
eg. Industrial civilization is close to breaching a seventh planetary boundary, and may already have crossed it – Ocean acidification is now threatening life in the oceans. – ref.3
Part 2 will focus on direct action to connect you to the Reality that is coming quickly towards us
References
2. https://thenarwhal.ca/alberta-aeso-natural-gas-contracts/
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