Living in Our New World Part 7: Becoming a Fairy Godmother
October 5, 2008
How do we become that fairy godmother of Sleeping Beauty fame? How do we soften the curse from having left things undone? In other words, how do we transition to the new normal?
First, we need to understand how we brought this "curse" on ourselves. We did so by not asking the right questions and by ignoring the warnings. We have plundered our planet's bounty of finite gifts. We need to learn how we did that and how we can stop. Realizing the seriousness of our situation and getting over our shock and sense of loss, we can then choose to become a participant in creating our new normal, instead of feeling like a helpless victim.
We can ask ourselves how we can begin to climb down our dangerous ladder and how far down we need to go. And what will it look like down there? What positive changes can I make on my descent? How do I foresee my life in the new normal?
What is at the upper rings of the ladder? More than most people usually think about: driving to the supermarket whenever you wish, flying across the country to visit your grandchildren, receiving medical care, setting the thermostat to a nice warm temperature in the winter or to cooling air-conditioning in the summer, washing and drying clothes in machines, driving your own car to work or taking a bus or train, eating foods from around the world whenever you like, setting your house ablaze with electric light, turning on the tap and having cold or hot running water whenever desired, taking out the garbage for someone else to dispose of, stopping for take-out on the way home or going to a restaurant where you are waited on by a smiling wait-person. The internet, iPods, cell phones, plasma TVs, vacations, electronic games, movies delivered to your door, microwave ovens, well-stocked stores, prolific gas stations, Amazon.com and UPS. All of that is at the top.
Clearly, it will look very, very, very different on the lower rungs.
What happens as we begin our long descent down the ladder? We lose our privacy and perceived independence, our dreams and conveniences, our expectations that life will just keep getting better and that technology will solve all our problems. We encounter change, a great deal of change. And change is something we don’t like to have thrust upon us. Also, we will become fearful for we will have no idea exactly how far down we will have to go. Gradually, most of the things we took for granted will cease.
But with all our loss of conveniences and possessions and all that we are used to, we can also gain. What could we possibly gain? The chance to stop the harm we are doing, and to do what is right. The chance to end isolation and loneliness, and to, instead, create a stronger sense of family and community. The chance to learn how to work in a way that we make something of lasting value instead of producing toys to numb the mind or excite the senses.
How do we prepare for our descent? Mentally, physically, and spiritually.
Mental preparation is what I have been writing about. We have created the terrible problems we now face. With our craving for more possessions and experiences, with our inability to control our anger in all its forms, our ignorance of what is truly important, our arrogance in placing our own interests above those of others, and our pride in our accomplishments and technology, we have been living in a manner that cannot be sustained and has only been possible because we are more powerful than others and we got here first.
From a Buddhist perspective, our greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, and pride of countless lifetimes lead us to being born at this point in time as a human on this planet. We’re here because of our past karmas: mental, verbal, and physical. Our craving, angry ignorant, arrogant, and proud thoughts, speech, and behavior are seeds. Now those seeds have matured and we’re here at the top of the ladder looking all the way down. Like children, we want to blame others for getting us here and for not rescuing us. But the reality is that there’s no one else to blame. We’re responsible for our actions and their consequences. No one else.
From a non-Buddhist (non-karma, non-rebirth) perspective, our greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, and pride have resulted in our placing our own interests above those of others. When you get the most powerful countries in the world with a lion’s share of earth’s finite resources doing this, the consequences become apparent. First, natural resources become increasingly difficult and expensive to procure. And then, with alarming speed, they are either depleted or so contaminated they are as good as depleted.
So there’s no one to blame. We did it. You and I.
The question becomes what do we do now.
We take a deep, and quivering, breath and start our descent. We face our grief and deal with it. We can use Elizabeth Kübler-Ross’s grief cycle to help us recognize and work through what we'll be feeling:
- Shock stage: Initial paralysis at hearing the bad news.
- Denial stage: Trying to avoid the inevitable.
- Anger stage: Frustrated outpouring of bottled-up emotion.
- Bargaining stage: Seeking in vain for a way out.
- Depression stage: Final realization of the inevitable.
- Testing stage: Seeking realistic solutions.
- Acceptance stage: Finally finding the way forward.
Yes, Kübler-Ross was talking about the terminal illness of one person while I'm talking about a planet and every being, plant, and mineral on it. But the process is the same.
To move on from our precarious perch to the new normal, we need to understand how we got here and what we're facing, work through stages of loss, and find the way to move forward.
(Tomorrow: Living in Our New World Part 8: Making Preparations)
Reader Comments (4)
Green ways often save money, are very convenient and are of higher quality. We need more people to unleash their creativity on a new direction.
I understand what you are saying, but I also am factoring in human nature--"sell the sizzle". For the masses who are not in touch with the depth of our situation, selling the sizzle is an easier method to effective change.
Signed,
"Sizzling Sue" ;-)
Thank you, I understand what you're saying and it’s a very good point. Many people will need that green "sizzle." As many websites and books are encouraging people to go green, that area is already well covered by people far more knowledgeable than I. Also, going green is not really what I’m talking about in this series. Going green is, as you said, a horizontal move or actually a move up in quality of life while doing less damage to the environment. It involves making choices: which light bulbs do I buy, how do I best heat my home, which food do I eat, what kind of transportation do I use, and so on.
I’m writing about accepting responsibility for what we have done to our planet and then getting over the sense of loss so we can find the benefits in how we will live in the future. Electricity for any kind of light bulbs will become so expensive that many people will no longer be able to pay their electric bill. Rising heating oil and natural gas prices will likewise increase so more and more people will be forced to cut way back or do without. (Electricity rates, heating oil, and natural gas in the US are already increasing well above the inflation rate.) The only food and water we will be able to depend on (as those in Houston recently learned) is what they have in their pantry or backyard gardens. Eventually, the only dependable kind of transportation (ask those in the southeastern US where there are gas shortages) we will have will be bicycles with the occasional use of carpooling. And of course, our feet. ;-)
After giving my climate change talk at various locations, I was asked what people can do to prepare. It is this question that I am addressing. If I was speaking to a group of people who had never heard of peak oil or climate change or financial crises or food shortages, I’d be "gentler" in my vocabulary. Actually, thinking on this last sentence, I’d have to say only a little gentler. :-)
Thirty years ago, I’d have definitely been much gentler. Today, I no longer have that option. Those who just wanted green solutions have already decided this series is not for them. It's the brave few who remain!
We waited too long to have a smooth, horizontal transition. We have a serious, malignant cancer that is too advanced to be treated with a change of diet or herbs. Our only hope is to recognize the seriousness of the situation and make important changes very, very quickly. We need to learn the old skills, reduce our debt, stock our pantries, plant those gardens, increase the insulation in our homes, install water catchment systems, develop stronger communities, and set our sights a lot lower.
The more we do today, when we have the time to learn and recover from our mistakes, the better prepared we will be tomorrow.
The more we let go and do without today, the more good fortune we will have tomorrow.
“We”, the generic we, that is, the older generations, put these top rungs there…we invented the toys of the 21st Century, we advertised them and convinced the younger ones that they needed these things to be happy. Then we sit back and complain that ‘they” want it all now, that we managed without these comforts and conveniences. So the descent must also start with us. And because we are better able to remember how to reduce our dependence on these luxuries, we are able to lead the way. We must.
Does this descent really mean a loss of independence or a regaining of it? When we learn not to depend on the things we thought to be essential to our welfare and happiness, I see us as learning to become happy without the constant struggle to “keep up with the Jones’s”, to reduce our need and desire to be everything to everyone, to become more community minded, able to live on less and share what we have. It seems far less stressful and more satisfying than what we have created today!
We see so many so called reality television programs portraying families, groups, who have “gone back” to living as the pioneers did, living with less, planting, making, using ingenuity, instead of visiting supermarkets, turning on appliances, buying and discarding clothing on a seasonal basis.. A case of life following fiction? It seems so.
Yes, we can look upon this inevitable and essential descent in the terms of grief and loss. Or we can be the pioneers venturing into a renewed, braver, cleaner, kinder world.
Amituofo
Of all the parts "Living in our New World" ... I like part 7 the best. I agreed that the world we live in is progressing very fast in the area of technology, information, wealth.
But really is that a good thing ?
I recall hearing somewhere that the Chinese ancient sages knew about this and did not choose to go to this path.
I was once impressed by someone who can do great memory recall but then looking way back before paper is invented or ink on leave was availiable, how did these info get pass through ?
They will pass through via the re-collection of the memory from one master to students .. hence I see that in the current world, we are getting more "lazy" and relied on technologies to do stuff for us. Thus we think we are more clever fakely with those phones, laptops, files, etc.
As I watch the movie "Wall-E" I was suprised and filled with sadness that our world may become what it may portray. I recently ask questions like "if somewhere in future, where everyone do not need to work, there is enough resources for everyone to live. There is no need to study as computers or robots can tell us whatever things we want to know ... then when that happen, what is our goal in life ? Just causual communication ??"
I felt Ven WuLing is trying to tell us that we can choose to see this current world with a different spectacle. But how many of us is willing to do that to face the truth ?
Diasters or bad things even in financial world comes quicker and has bigger impact now ... this may have something to do with our Group karma.
So in the end, I choose to see this world is not improving .. focus myself in nianfo and when my dues as a son, parent, husband are up .. then I wish to transend into Western Pure Land with the belief to reach the state of Buddhahood.
Just sharing my thoughts :-)