Larry, I’ll call him, has given up.
He’s an intelligent, compassionate author who has thoroughly studied current conditions on Space Ship Earth and realistic projections, including the behavior of the crew, enough to conclude that the demise of our global civilization is now inevitable. He’s doubtful that humanity will survive. And … this could happen very soon.
Many of us can come to terms with “the end” of our individual lives as we get older and death approaches, but Larry has embraced a much bigger end: Civilization, humanity, no future for our grandchildren.
I recently gave the keynote address at a local graduation ceremony. I arrived early to hang out with the 72 students and asked a few of them, “What would you like to hear from me?” I ended up quoting a bright young woman I’ll call Lucinda, who paused in deep thought for about thirty seconds before answering.
“Don’t give up,” she said. “Sure, life sucks at times, but it’s worth it. Don’t give up, ever.”
I quoted her in my brief address and spoke about spiking suicide rates amongst young people. I reminded everyone that we all get discouraged at times and agreed with her advice. Then I led the thousand audience members in a simple exercise.
“Turn to the person next to you and tell them, ‘You are amazing.’ Take that in for a moment and then listen as they tell you the same thing: ‘You are amazing.’" They did it.
“I cried,” one person told me afterwards. “That changed my life,” a mother said, as her teenage son nodded in agreement. And a trembling 80 plus year-old gentlemen leaned on his cane and shook my hand vigorously, staring deep into my eyes.
Please go to the nearest mirror now, gaze into your own eyes and repeat several times: “You are amazing.” Pause for a moment, feeling whatever that brings up, then say: “I am amazing.” I’ll be here when you return.
Welcome back. Thanks for doing that. The point will become clear as we progress.
So, let's keep exploring this theme, that it’s time to give up, but never give up. This articulates the challenge Einstein illuminated when he said that we can’t solve our problems with the same thinking we used to create them.
In my last post I quoted D. H. Lawrence who wrote: “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and retain the ability to function.”
Larry has given up. Instead of trying to “save the world,” he’s accepted that we - the world and humanity - are doomed. So, he now concentrates on enjoying each moment, being in service in small ways, making a difference in his immediate circumstance and relationships.
Lucinda will never give up. She’s forging into the adventure of her life, bright and hopeful, sailing towards unknown horizons with courage and confidence. She’ll get discouraged, but she’s determined to carry on.
Is Larry cynical? Is Lucinda naïve? Is Larry realistic? Is Lucinda brave? Will Larry turn out to be right? Will Lucinda? All of the above are true, and more.
The legendary Buckminster Fuller wrote a small volume entitled I Seem to Be a Verb. Savor that concept. What does it mean to you? I’m inviting you to flex your imaginal muscles right now to think of yourself in a fundamentally different way because, through these out-of-the-box musings, an unusual understanding of ourselves living this paradox just might arise. Let’s leap on.
In 1918, when Max Planck was receiving the Nobel Prize for physics, he said, “We have now discovered that there is no such thing as matter; it is all just different rates of vibration designed by an unseen intelligence.”
According to Wiki, “In physics, the observer effect is the theory that the mere observation of a phenomenon inevitably changes that phenomenon. This is often the result of instruments that, by necessity, alter the state of what they measure in some manner.”
You are an observer and so am I, all of us observing “reality” and measuring it “in some manner” (very differently for Lucinda and Larry). What we observe, if Planck and his cohorts are right, is “different rates of vibration designed by an unseen intelligence.”
It’s understandable if we automatically interpret that term “unseen intelligence” in grand terms: God, life force, or the word I use: “Love.” But if Buckminster Fuller is right, that I am, you are, a verb, then we are more than passive observers, we are also active creators. Could we simultaneously be that “unseen intelligence,” each of us creating our own “reality,” which we then observe, forgetting that our prior observing transmitted the vibration that made it the way it seems to be to us now?
If we are willing to consider that possibility, these words from Eileen Day McKusick’s astounding book, Tuning the Human Biofield, can help us understand anew what we are doing together every day at noon.
“The concept of universal consciousness mediated by torsion waves propagating through the holographic aether or zero point field (or quantum potential) can potentially explain the mechanics of how distance healing works. Just as I can place my awareness now in my left foot, now in my right hand, with no sense of that awareness having to travel in a linear way through my body, so I can place my awareness on a client 1,000 miles away and use my subtle energy field to influence it at a distance.”
In other words, we are amazing!
All of us are amazing, perhaps amazing enough to follow this meandering trail to a transformative conclusion: “What you/I/we express in our noon club transmission is recreating reality.” And, instead of this seeming like an impossible, grandiose claim, maybe it now seems as inevitable and attractive as Larry’s conviction that the end is near, and Lucinda’s optimism in the face of horrifying statistics.
Lucinda is right and so is Larry. Life is a blessed adventure … and the end is near. But what, exactly, is “the end?”
“The end,” I venture, is the final chapter in our traditional human experience, built from the vibration encoded in our ancient belief that we are living in an objective, Newtonian universe of matter, a giant machine managed by forces beyond our control.
That kind of thinking has produced this kind of “world.” But we can think differently. For instance:
Every caterpillar dies from its chrysalis into new life as a butterfly. That's transformation! If caterpillars don’t struggle during their transition, they will fail to build their wing muscles and will never fly.
Are any of us struggling? This provides a different perspective on the reasons why, doesn't it? We humans are undergoing our own metamorphosis.
Some of you have set your phones to alert you at noon every day. Others will do that now, thank you. All of us will struggle to break free from the busyness of our lives when that alert sounds. For some of us, that noon mini-meditation will be a relaxing interruption in our routine. Others will experience the paradox, being observer and creator in the same quantum moment. And we will be that much freer.
Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young gave us a secret many years ago when they sang: “Rejoice, rejoice, we have no choice but to carry on.” If we need a reward to carry on and complete our transition into the New Humans we are destined to become, here’s their message, and mine, in 2020:
“Carry on, love is coming.
Love is coming to us all.”
I look forward to being with you every day at noon.
Will
P.S. If you want to sing along while you read, click here.
