So this is what we’ve come to? Generational warfare? All I should really need to say is seven generations. Seven generations, people. But with everything flying around this past week, I’m going to have to clarify lest you think that I side with Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick. If you aren’t familiar with his comments, he said on Monday that our elders should be “willing to take a chance on (their) survival, in exchange for keeping the America that all America loves for your children and grandchildren.” The America that he is arguing for has nothing whatsoever to do with a healthy socio-ecological system or the wellbeing of his grandchildren. In fact it is quite the opposite, which makes the hypocrisy of his comments readily apparent (I hope). More on this in a minute.
I in no way agree with Mr. Patrick as will become clear. But if warfare isn’t what we are after, then we need to start by elevating the conversation. Let’s start by reading, or rereading, these insightful words by Kristin Flyntz:
“An Imagined Letter From COVID-19 to Humans”
She has beautifully expressed the gist of the message that I received in the midst of COVID-19, which I opted not to share as I explained in my last post. She also said it a hell of a lot nicer than the words that came to me! The message, however, is the same. Here’s the thing in a nutshell. Nothing short of realizing a state of interbeing is going to work. The problem, all of our problems- pandemic, social unrest, economic failure, ecological meltdown, climate crisis- are based on one and the same thing. Our worldview is off.
We have to get this through our heads. Now. The world is a conscious being. Her name is Gaia. Gaia is part of an even larger being that many of us call God, or the Universe, or Consciousness, or the All That Is, etc. In the same way that Gaia is an aspect of God, we are an aspect of Gaia. That is easy enough to conceptualize, right? But this can’t remain a concept in our heads. It has to become our reality. That means that we have to start treating Gaia just like a person. Oh, and while we are at it, we should start treating every other thing that makes up Gaia as “people” too- animals, plants, even rocks. Too much? Fine. At least start with the animals closest to you and start to work your way outward from there. Please.
Believe me I understand that this is a hard leap for a culture that has at least since Descartes (370 years) thought the world to be a machine that is essentially as dead as a doornail… which is in itself an outmoded expression because in our forthcoming worldview not even doornails (not even doornails!!!) are dead. Descartes was wrong. Deadly wrong. The death that we now face is how deadly wrong he was.
The world in its entirety is alive. I will offer a simple definition of life, that otherwise easily veers off into arguments in the weeds while missing the point entirely. To be alive is to be conscious. To be conscious is to be aware, responsive, thinking, decision-making. Every single aspect of reality is conscious. That’s not what we were taught, is it? Hard to imagine a rock as thinking, right? With our current worldview it is nearly impossible.
Our separation of consciousness into “higher consciousness” (the thinking human brain) and “lower consciousness” (our typical threshold to be considered alive), is a primitive misunderstanding of what is what. I know I am cutting right to the chase here, and I’m sorry if this is jarring, but we are at that point. Every single being/entity, cell, atom, particle/wave, etc. THINKS. Another way of saying it is that there is nothing that is not thought into being, moment by moment. Everything that exists is a materialized thought. A thought in action. A thought manifest. A thought in motion. A thought thinking about itself. Do you see?
You might naturally ask who is doing the thinking. Good question. We are. We, as in, God at every level of being: Universe, Gaia, Ecosystem, Human/Animal/Plant/Rock, Organ, Cell, Atom, Particle/Wave. All of us. Us in our entirety, as the One That We Are. You might reread Kristin Flyntz’s words one more time now and take them literally rather than figuratively. Gaia is speaking. She is speaking to us in the same way that we might speak to our heart, or lungs, or liver, etc. Are we listening?
Now back to our little generational tiff. At this moment the majority of humanity is made up of 7 generations: The Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y (Millennials), Gen Z, and Gen Alpha. The first three encompass those of us who are 40 and above, while the latter four are forty and below. I’m a Gen X’er. What can I say, we tend to tell it like it is. So here’s the deal. If I were in any of the younger generations, I would honestly have a hard as hell time with anyone in the older three generations lecturing me about being responsible right about now. Seriously. If you are in one of the older three generations you need to take a good, long, hard look in the mirror before saying a word to anyone in the younger generations who might not be taking this virus as seriously as you think they should… for your sake.
Why? Do I honestly have to answer that? O.K., I will. But you should already know. We have been utterly irresponsible to the survival of the younger generations in our complete failure to deal with the climate crisis, in our complete failure to live according to the seven generations rule. In case you are not familiar with this indigenous piece of wisdom, what it says is that every decision that is made should consider the wellbeing of the seventh generation out. It furthermore says that if we don’t do that, we jeopardize our own wellbeing. In other words, we must consider how every single decision we make will effect our grandchildren if we want to be well ourselves.
Do we do that? Not by any stretch. We never pay the true cost of things. Let me give you a clear example. I was talking to the plumber who will be working on our house last week and he was trying to make the case to me that we will never see the payback on some of the decisions that we are making, like a more efficient hot water system, more insulation, or the solar system that will live on our roof. You know what? He could be right (although when considering the true cost of things he is absolutely wrong). Still, on the surface it depends highly on what happens with the cost of fossil fuels in the coming years. That is to say that if the only cost we are considering is the cost that Shannon and I will bear then we are potentially making foolish decisions. But what we have to ask ourselves is, what price should we put on the survival of our species? What is human life worth to you? What is the life of other species worth to you? And most importantly, are you willing to pay that price?
I personally think that life in all of its forms is invaluable. I am therefore willing to pay any price, and so is Shannon. So we make hard decisions in all areas of our lives that cost us more money than business as usual would. In the end, we will pay whatever price we can muster. That is the true “sacrifice” that every generation should be making for each other and for future generations. It’s not about laying down our lives. If you are here, you are meant to be here. You are meant to be making your own unique contribution for the sake of your own as well as our collective evolution (which aren’t in competition with one another). It’s about facing our shadows and making the hard changes required to support that evolution. Are you willing? If so, use this precious time to examine your unexamined assumptions about the nature of reality. What you assume to be true is what comes true, or at least seems to until we get tired of that reality and make a different choice. If you want something different, then have the gumption to imagine it and the guts to realize it into existence.
As for the partying young folk on the beach, they aren’t going to listen to us elders about how they should care about our wellbeing until we demonstrate that we care about theirs. And, no, Mr. Patrick, continuing with an out of control consumer culture that is devastating the earth will not bring wellbeing to anyone, especially not your grandkids. If you truly care, then think the whole thing through without leaving anything or anyone out of the equation. Only then will we rise to the occasion. Only then will we chart a path toward wellbeing. Wellbeing will come in Oneness if it is to come at all.