Post No. 29: Being Here

A poem to start this post:

Are you like me

There’s always something

That’s not quite right

And needs fixing?

Often I am busy

And don’t quite notice

The ongoing unease

Lurking at the edges

Let’s get rid of it!

Oh I know you’ve tried

It’s how we are made

Wanting out of the mire

Perhaps it’s just life

Unfolding for you

Let’s embrace like lovers

And feel the desire.

As the poem above implies, we all experience a certain unease, if not in our personal lives then definitely with the craziness in the world around us.  I have written a lot about this in the last several posts having to do with great power relations, artificial intelligence, wars, animal rights and others. To avoid this unpleasantness we sometimes try to escape.  But there is no escape from “Being Here”, which is the title of this post. We have no choice, for while we are alive we are always right here, right now.  We can’t teleport out of our bodies and be at another time or place.

If you try to be here, you’re likely to drive yourself crazy.  You don’t have to try to be here because you are always already here, right now. We experience unease and angst because we are human and have the ability to interpret events and try to figure out a way to improve our situation. Sometimes we’re good at this and sometimes not. But the whole process of desiring something different and better can produce angst.  We are not like other animals that, in the words of Walt Whitman are so “placid and self contained” (see Post No. 26).

I suggest the best way of “Being Here” is to just live the life that is presented to one each moment.  This sounds easy because it actually can be.  The ancient Greeks gave a lot of thought to how to live a life of well-being. I wrote about this in several earlier posts.  Their answer was pretty simple:  live with virtue.  In a nutshell, it is to be wise about what is good and bad, to be moderate, act with kindness and truth, and see misfortune as an opportunity to practice these virtues.  I suggest one addition to this Ancient Greek wisdom: to recognize the thing that differentiates us from Walt Whitman’s “placid and self contained” animals - our ability to develop complex interpretations of our surroundings and the unending torrent of thinking that can arise out of this.  This additional suggestion is simple: pay attention to the ever-changing moment in front of you.  Perhaps we can start each morning as we feel our undies sliding over our butts. 😂 (tighty whities or whatever floats your boat!)