Well, I started the meditation odyssey on Sunday, Oct. 1, yesterday, and I confirm that, like anything worthwhile, this will take time and effort. Shit.
Meanwhile far, far worse happened on the shit front today, Mon., Oct. 2, 2017 in Las Vegas. We all know of what I speak. (If you’re in a different country or live in a cave, there was a shooting today in Las Vegas where some asshole gunman killed nearly 60 people and injured hundreds during a music festival) What a dismal, and at the same time heroic, thank god, display of humanity. In my non-enlightened view, the heroes of the day were those Las Vegas festival goers who helped to rescue and recover the injured and deceased who were shot since the first responders weren't going in until it was "safe." Some serious selflessness there on the part of the concert people. Humbling really. On the other hand, we had the heinous maniac devil of the day who was, you guessed it, the shooter. There you have it. Good guys and bad guy. Black and white.
That said, if I were to embrace my inner Dalai Lama, or Byron Katie or whomever, which I'm supposed to be doing, I might question those thoughts, those judgments, and consider that maybe the shooter had extenuating circumstances that made him snap and drove him to open fire on a crowd of innocent people. (And I'm sure there were extenuating circumstances at work here, but I can't think of anything that would lead me to let him off the hook even a little bit on this one, and I doubt you can either, but just play along for now.) On the flip side maybe the heroes are really white supremacist buttheads. It was a country music festival after all. Did I just write that? God that’s in bad taste. Sorry. But that’s rather the point. That would be a ridiculous conclusion to draw about people who attend a country music festival...that they must be white supremacists. Most of us see that's ridiculous.
But it’s not always clear, and things are not always what they seem. Sometimes they are. Frequently they’re not. I think that’s one of the lessons mindfulness is supposed to teach us. One of the many lessons I have not learned which is to consider or allow space for what we don’t know, what we can’t know, and to be comfortable with the discomfort that brings. We are to suspend judgement in favor of compassion and unknowing. I need to remember this. I want to remember this. Only not now. Right now, I am motherfucking outraged by that shooter.
I don’t understand why or how we, aka the human race, can make such a godforsaken mess out of what could be a paradise. We make this earth what it is, the good and the bad. Unfortunately while the good is getting gooder, the bad is also getting badder. I just hope it’s at least 50 /50 but even if it is, I don’t think that’s quite the “balance” we’re talking about when we say we're after more balance in our lives.
And on top of all this, Tom Petty died or may die. Damn it, people, can we get our sources straight and not jump the gun on reporting death before it’s time!? We did not need more crummy news today! I think I speak for many when I say I hope Tom Petty is not dead. I dig Tom Petty, and he is not an old guy and looks very sexy in the suede leathers I saw him in just two years ago at one of his shows. In any event I hope he will pull through, along with those injured by the maniac in Las Vegas. And I am very sorry for all of those who lost someone last night. Senseless tragedy indeed.
Many of us will get up to live another day tomorrow, and I for one want to continue on my travels towards being…learning to be more compassionate, mindful and grateful. I’m fairly convinced it’s the only way we get to a better world. Stillness plus awareness of all we are and all there is. Yeah? I don’t know. But I’m going to keep going. It is only Day 2 after all. Long road ahead on the eight week minimum, lifetime maximum meditation odyssey.
Shitty day all around.
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