Daily Mood Quote
Day 230 – January 4, 2012
Be aware of wonder. Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
~Robert Fulgham
Do you ever wonder if we are a world of extremes? In my opinion, I think we are and my husband agrees. It is one of our fundamental points of view and it is what has gone wrong in every area of American life and in our western culture in general. From politics to family life, to relationships, we have taken the concept of more, and bigger is better, way behind the bounds of rationality. In that sense we had destabilized and unbalanced not only our lives, but the lives of our children. Let me point out that I don't believe that this has been the product of any particular malicious, or malevolent plan, it just sort of happened. We have lost our equilibrium!
How else can you explain that we as a nation, can justify paying grown adults to play games “for us” (golf, basketball, hockey, football, car racing) with seven and eight figure salaries? While the teachers of our children continually struggle to make ends meet, while being blamed for the ills of our society. Show me the balance; wait a minute there is no balance to our priorities. Additionally, media and public attention will focus with laser like intensity on those espousing the more extreme political and social agendas, leaving no room for compromise, discussions...balance. A clear example of this is our dysfunctional legislative branch of government, Congress. We blame them for not doing anything, yet it was our focus on their extreme political viewpoints that put them into office in the first place. It's no one else's fault...but ours, it's our culture, and yet we wonder why things are not good for everybody. Like Mr. Miyagi (played by Pat Morita) said to Daniel (played by Ralph Macchio, who was recently on Dancing with the Stars) in the movie Karate Kid, “Better learn balance. Balance is key. Balance good, karate good. Everything good. Balance bad, better pack up, go home. Understand?” That's the problem, we can't, or we refuse to understand tha basic tenant. Apparently, it's too simple a concept to grasp.
The reason this comes up today is we recently encountered a situation where we observed an interaction between two younger people that left us wondering where the balance in the relationship was. Is this indicative of how all young folk think? Boy, I hope not. It seems that in many relationships and in so much of life, we have lost the ability to compromise and the “my way or the highway” attitude pervades every area of life and erodes our understanding of and empathy for others. Who by the way, no matter who you are, outnumber you by a ratio of seven billion to one. So, it would make sense to be open to finding common ground. Right? Imagine what would happen to our world if seven billion plus people, had seven billion plus different agendas and nobody would budge. I think we are almost there! But, I have hope that eventually things will even out. In the vast chunk of time in which our species exists, this storm of overt self-interest can only be a blip. But storms can do long term damage and life isn't a television reality show. (Warning “stream of consciousness” observation ahead!) In fact, I believe reality shows have absolutely nothing to do with reality. We see more of them because they are cheaper to produce, no big stars, no hugh payrolls and they don't have to pay the Screen Actors Guild: Cheap and sloppy television; might as well watch YouTube, as most people have discovered.
Anyhow, back to balance. Wallace D. Wattles said, “The calm and balanced mind is the strong and great mind; the hurried and agitated mind is the weak one.” I believe the fundamental confusion that enwraps us is the valuation, or lack of balance, between two simple words; “me” and “we.” I am a product of the “Me generation” whose apparent sole focus has been on “me, myself, and I,” “the inner peace of me,” “the success of me,” and “the relationship between me and (place deity here).” Note in the last phrase the order of the statement is of particular importance and concern. It can be followed by, “why doesn't he/she love me?” “why don't they get me?” and last but not least, the omnipresent “what's in it for me?” Let's be honest here, I will bet that everyone reading this and everyone you know has taken one or more of these points of view at some time in their life, myself included. It's pervasive and hard to resist. If not, you're a saint; go directly to heaven and if you pass go collect...on the way (Thanks Monopoly for the phraseology). The irony is deep here, Monopoly, really? Go figure.
The thing is, life can't be all about “me,” nor can it be all about “we.” There is a whole “nother” set of dysfunction that falls into that category (we can talk about that later). It comes down to fundamentally balancing “we” (all of humanity, the earth, the environment, our spirits, etc.) and “the me.” I think that's the trick to finding the peace and harmony that we all seek; even if we don't consciously process that while shopping and role playing online, on Wii and on Xbox and reading self-help books.
I really took note of the last point the other day, when I took a walk through a rather large book store (guess which one) near me and was aghast by the sheer volume of self-help, self-psychology, and navel-gazing self analysis books. My goodness, who has the time? Lots of advice to get to a simple point that's been around for generations and in every culture....Balance. Balance life, balance diet, balance exercise, balance joy and sorrow (they both have important teaching roles in our lives) and especially balance the proportions of we and me. Then, I believe we can find and appreciate the real wonders and precious lessons that our all too brief lives have to offer. To qoute Mr. Miyagi yet again, “Lesson not just karate only. Lesson for whole life. Whole life have balance, everything better. Understand?
How will you find a balance today?
Tune in tomorrow to read the daily mood quote
Thank you for reading
