2023: The End is Nigh!

Looking back on 2023 I feel – mostly – disappointment. Some in myself for not writing as much (or not at all in the case of this blog) and not being as focused and mindful as I had hoped to be. But the majority of my disappointment is in humankind. Humans are a grave threat to everything we hold dear – like life – and I struggle to understand why we do what we do to others and why we do what we are doing to this very planet that gives us life and sustains us.

Here in America, I see the hatred, the bigoty, the racism, they misogyny, the antisemitism, the fear. Half of this country is determined to hate the other half because of their looks, or their religion, or their politics, or their sex, or their sexual identity, or their citizenship status, or their ethnicity. It is a blight taking over our country and our democracy. And it is not sustainable if we ever wish to be at peace with each other.

Around the world I see wars and famine and struggle. Along with the same hatreds and fears. People living with the belief someone is coming for them. Or for what belongs to them. Because here, and around the world, we’ve been told there is an enemy and we must fight back to protect what is rightfully ours. Sometimes the enemy has a different skin color, or a different god, or is an immigrant, or is gay or trans. The enemy comes in many varieties – it only depends on which enemy frightens you the most.

What monsters are you afraid of?

The war in the Middle East or Ukraine – or any other war for that matter – proves nothing except we are vicious, uncontrollable animals who respect nothing and no one. So don’t even talk to me about things like being anti-abortion. It’s painfully clear human life has little or no value.

We hate and we destroy that which we hate. We claim to love life, but we are destroying the planet which is the very reason we even have life. We spend our days – a heartbeat in the grand scheme of the Universe – fearful, hurting, lashing out. And then, well, after all that, we die. Every. Last. One. Of. Us.

I struggle to understand what we’re doing here. Not the meaning of life. Nothing so grand and esoteric and existential. Just what we’re doing here when we’ve been provided a chance to experience life and all it has to offer, in this corporeal form. It’s brief, fleeting. And we wallow in self-pity and delusion and fear. We live as if there are no miracles when we should live as if everything is a miracle.

Things will only get worse. I can pretty much guarantee that. The politics of disinformation, the anti-social media platforms, the promotion of violence, the utter disregard for life and the environment, and the havoc we’re wreaking on the climates of the world will be coming at us from all directions. We will find more people on the move as they try to escape all that and more, and our governments will tell us we now have even more people who are a threat to our well-being. More people who will take from us. More people to hate and fear.

Until those people are us.

But to end this – and this year – with a moment of light – moving away from the darkness and the doom and gloom – I would suggest there may be a solution. At least for some of us. Which is to work toward living in peace with each other, even when we disagree. Perhaps especially when we disagree. To live with intention. To live with the understanding that we are all different and it is exactly those differences that make this world amazing. To be kind to all, knowing we all bleed red, we all hurt sometimes, we all need refuge sometimes, and we are all going to die, regardless of how we lived. To be kind to every living species and to constantly be amazed at the miracle of it all. To live in gratitude, every day, for all that we have and all that we get to experience.

And so why not try living in peace? What’s the downside? Even if you don’t change the world living with that concept, I can promise you this: your life will be exponentially better.

Imagine…

~jwb~