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Each day I spend a great deal of time walking.
Walking to get somewhere, walking to do something,
walking to clear my head after spending too much
time in a climate controlled building. When I walk
I find myself surrounded by people on busy city
streets, with everyone so focused, so determined
to get to where they have to be. I am often amazed
at how easy it is to startle someone, to be walking
right besides someone and have them not know you
(or anyone else) is there. You startle them by
simply saying excuse me or taping their shoulder
to ask if that is their glove on the ground, or
trying to get them to stop so that you can ask
for directions. It seems as if they not only cannot
hear you, but are unaware of anyone else’s
presence.
There is so much stimuli, so much noise,
so much action, that in order not to get overwhelmed
people end up cutting themselves off, or turning
within, caught up in their own thoughts. The use
of cell phones and portable music devices are just
one more tool in everyone’s arsenal to form
a protective barrier between themselves and the
world around them. Everyone walking together but
walking seemingly alone, each one separate in their
own bodies, in their own thoughts, in their own
minds.
Is everyone really alone, really separate? I had
a very different experience more than twenty years
ago, once again walking, walking to nowhere in
particular. Walking from somewhere, having just
left a church on the Upper East Side of Manhattan,
where every Thursday evening I practiced yoga and
Zen meditation along with a group of friends. The
yoga always came first, preparing us to sit in
meditation for what often seemed like an interminable
amount of time. Though the session felt like it
went on forever, the cumulative effect of the combined
practices left each of us feeling lighter and more
centered. While the sessions often left me with
the mindset to see the world anew, this one time
was different. While I still was able to see all
the people and the stores and the other sights
of a congested urban landscape, my eyes were able
to see everything on what appeared to be a molecular
level as well. What was most astonishing was that
I saw the molecules floating from one physical
being or structure to another while still enabling
everything and everyone to keep their basic shape
or form. It seemed that we were all connected,
all made up of the same thing, with no real difference,
no real differentiation between each of us.
Over the years that have passed we hear more and
more about how we are all connected. How the world
is shrinking and how we are being brought closer
together, whether we want to or not. To say that
we are all connected has become so commonplace
that it has been used as a slogan for a major communications
firm. There is no denying that one of the major
features of our times is the increasing level of
connectivity in economics, culture, entertainment
and world affairs. Just look around. With jet travel
becoming more common, the advent of the internet
and the presence of 24-hour news stations that
play in almost every country in the world, we seem
to be more a part of each other’s lives than
ever before. At any time we are able to find out
about what is going on not only across a single
country, but in many countries in every continent.
Internet programs now exist that enable us to zero
in on each other through the lens of a satellite.
Globalization has become a catch phrase. It has
never been so easy to find out what is going on.
Instantaneous communication is possible with anybody,
no matter where they are. Even political movements
have begun to take advantage of the internet, being
able to contact supporters everywhere in an instant,
where the phone tree we used twenty years ago or
more would have taken hours, even days to get the
word out.
This level of connectivity is so much like all
of the stimuli that the people I walk next to in
the city deal with and shut off from on a daily
basis. So much comes at us, at such intense speeds
that instead of bringing us together it runs the
risk of forcing us apart in order to protect our
individual sense of balance, our individual sense
of peace. There is all that information streaming
at us without the time to process it. We hear about
the slaughter of people in Darfur, we hear about
global warming, we hear the sword rattling from
Washington D.C. to Tehran and instead of feeling
empowered by all this information, it contributes
to a feeling of being out of control. How can anyone
do anything against such massive tumult and change?
In this way of being connected, we are connected
as if we were drops of water in a storm swept sea.
How do we cope? We can shut down and pull away,
look for refuge in ideology or religious intolerance
to filter out the barrage, or find ways to be creatively
connected. To be creatively connected, first requires
that we become fully engaged, to find those ideas
and causes that drive and motivate us to reach
out into the world and to find our place in the
tumult, to find what grounds us. There is a danger
though, for this can also be a road to intolerance
and fanaticism. To become so lost in the connections
we develop that we can no longer see that we are
all connected. This is where creativity is needed,
the creativity it takes to understand what it truly
means to be engaged.
This type of engagement involves becoming aware,
becoming alert and alive as we interact, as we
take a stand. Finding the way that each and every
one of us can make a contribution. Each person’s
contribution is different. It is only similar in
the level of intensity and commitment. Though we
may each be like a drop of water in the ocean,
through our engagement we influence all the others
around us allowing us each to have an impact – causing
ripples, creating waves. Taking a path to action
is only part of the challenge. The deeper challenge
is for each of us to become intimate with ourselves,
giving us the capacity to truly be with each other.
Becoming intimate with ourselves allows us to open
ourselves to the point where we can let others
in and realize that we are not really separate,
that we share our existence on this planet and
that what we do to the world and each other is
ultimately what we do to ourselves.
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