Independence Day, USA, 2020 ... halfway through. So far we've been dealt the shock of a global affliction, the slowing down of time, and the unmasking of the "established order". Passionate political protest and counter-protest hit us like a meteor, seemingly with no warning .... sped time back up, and hijacked the conversation overnight.
And now it's the 4th of July. Free to get to back to normal???
Uh, no. Clearly, no.
The disruption of our sense of "how things should be" in our modern world continues unabated. We're talking (or arguing) about it all the time, grappling with the evidence that despite our best efforts at denial, the only constant is change. Like it or not, this cliche is a cliche for a reason.
Change, as a matter of fact, is a matter of physics. Inertia is not a stable state. Inert objects are essentially preparing for movement.
Change tends not to come out of the blue. If we know how to pay attention, we can usually sense it coming.
And, change makes life interesting. All the interesting stuff happens on the border of this and that, one culture colliding with the next. The tracks that divide the town, the magic time between day and night. The shoreline, the foothills, the seance. The front, and the theatre.
The universe itself obeys some very basic laws of physics and biology, namely what goes up must come down, what expands contracts and vice versa .... all things are always changing, say the mystics and the scientists.
And "the established order" tends to reestablish itself in unforeseen ways.
You can see for yourself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA3fqHTR7no
This amazing little film illustrates straight up physics. Harmony is supplanted by chaos, which reorganizes itself, again and again, into a different form of harmony. Every time. We may fear that we won't like the new form, that it won't serve us as we're used to being served. That is ours to contend with ..... because it's going to happen with or without us.
In everyday life, changes just happen: the child is now a teen. An engagement is announced. A relationship falls apart, or a move is in the works. Job trouble, job loss, new job. Loyalties shift, addiction rears its ugly head. An accident occurs; former life slips out of reach. Someone dies. A hurricane hits. Power is lost.
Something knocks, and we don’t want to know.
Then too, affected parties don't respond to change uniformly. What’s exhilarating for one (excited to go to college, get married, save the day or overthrow the social order) is devastating for the other. Not only does this party not want to lose what he had, but he doesn't know what he’ll get in its place. Conflict ensues in borderlands.
So, to avoid conflict, we stick our heads in the sand and pretend. We collapse, helpless and over-matched. We obliviate ourselves.
Or, to prevent loss, we fight, and resist, and become obstructive and destructive. We scramble for power in order to dominate, manipulate and deprive others of the right to change, to live. We silence the other.
Or …............ we let ourselves get nervous, intuit the rumblings and figure out a way to go with it. We adapt. We begin to perceive differently, and cede "the old ways" little by little .... give up the illusion of power, allow others to be themselves, and realize, somewhere deep, there is no going back ... there IS no going back.
We discover parts of our own selves we never knew existed, as in dreams in which we discover rooms in our houses, or are free to fly.
I wonder what the summer will bring ...
