Beautiful in the Beginning

The world is filled with tragedy and horror. Most people know this. Knowing this, we have a few options. We could succumb to despair and hopelessness. We could ignore it entirely and lose ourselves in constant distraction. Neither of those would be helpful for putting out the fire, though. We could rage, throw rocks at windows, and use the name "Luigi" as a verb. There may be a place for that, and I cannot tell others how they should handle their own pain; but I can say that anger is a poison, and that cultivating it, rather than healing the wounds that cause it, will lead to our own harm. Can we find a way to experience the world with all its darkness, and to do so with awareness, not shutting things out, but seeking to understand, while maintaining a steady and peaceful mind?

We likely all know people who have made the decision, for their own mental well-being, to shut out all news entirely. People who don't want to know that, with the gutting of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), their weather apps will no longer work, or that we are in a constitutional crisis that may end democracy in the United States. People who don't want to know who Curtis Yarvin is or what Peter Thiel is doing. They do this because they want to be disentangled from the shouting from every direction and the constant mental trouble and fight. And I understand that decision. All that stuff is a drag. Plus, the enormity of Nazis and their allies taking over the US government feels like too much to deal with and hard to even believe.

I am among those who would feel irresponsible if I cut myself off from the news.  I'm sure many of you are, too. I used the simile of a fire before, and that's how I explain it to people who are encouraging me to shut out the news because they believe it is harming me, and they want me to find the same relief they did. If there were a wildfire approaching, I would want to know about it. If you, a person who thinks I should shut out the news, want to stay in your home and be immolated, that's fine for you, but it’s not a choice I want to make now. No, I want to know where the fire is, how quickly it is coming, whether I need to pack a bag and flee, and if there's anything I can do to help the firefighters.

But what they are right about is that I need to be able to do this without distress. Not only will distress hurt my physical, mental, and spiritual health, but it will also make me less effective at takinsg action when it is time to take action. So, when I engage in news, I want to do so in a way that maintains calm and clarity, and that does not give rise to fear and suffering. It's surely not something I've perfected, but it's the line I want to walk. If that's a line you want to walk, too, this blog might be for you, if I do my job here well.

Wildfires are spreading across the global political landscape. That's not what this blog will be about, however. You have many places to get news (and if you don't, I can make recommendations, such as the Cassandra Report, Ken Klippenstein, or Robert Evans). This is not generally going to be a place for news. I am never going to advocate for cutting off all attention to the news--although I will advocate for taking breaks and retreats, vacations from the onslaught, every so often (I myself am as I am writing this). But if we want to be the most effective we can be, in any action we take, we need to be able to act with a wise mind and a loving heart.

I intend for this blog to focus on how we can garden our minds, nourishing flowers and fruits rather than blight and weeds.