Mindfulness
We need so much more of it in this day and age.
I’m a fringe touchy-feely person. I’ve dabbled with various counter culture touchstones throughout my life. B’hai Faith, the idea of peyote as a means of opening “doors”into your mind, sweat lodges and their concomitant chants, holistic massage with healing hands.
I read two books in high school that definitely resonated with me. Teaching As a Subversive Activity—though I would rather bathe an elephant and pick up its poop on a daily basis than teach any grade of human child—and Bullshit and the Art of Crap Detection. Both were written by Neil Postman.
I used a book called A Year of Living Consciously for nearly three years. Thumbing to the appropriate date each day and making an effort to absorb its message. It’s a book of daily inspirations for creating a life of passion and purpose. Between New Age games and Carlos Castaneda, I’ll admit, I’m a product of the aftermath of the Sixties. Prone to a willingness to give most every whackadoodle idea, activity or philosophy at least one try.
Like everybody else with their wits about them at this juncture of our history, I’m troubled beyond belief with the rise of anti-democratic forces and the inexorable pull of xenophobia—the fear of others. There is no doubt in my mind that the emperor of Mar-a-Lardo has played a hand—a very large hand—at stoking a division which already existed and has ever existed in America.
What was once in the shadows, now has been given his express permission to stalk the land. Of all the aspects of his “presidency”, that aspect, in my opinion, was the most damaging part of it. His use of the bully pulpit to spread fear and hatred is, to me, one of his most awful legacies.
What’s worse is he continues a campaign to foment rebellion.
Over the past couple of weeks, I have been poking through Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents and listening to Kim Cutter’s podcast The Control Variable. It’s a podcast delving into the history of propaganda and what role it might have played in the January 6th insurrection. As we should all know by now, you can substitute the phrases—public relation campaign or brass-knuckle advertising—for propaganda. As we should also all know, if you have the financial wherewithal, as corporations and governments do, you can wield this tool like a sledgehammer.
The Supreme Court’s decision to equate money with free speech is the worst of it, but that’s a rant for another column.
(I should also note that corporations and their billionaire owners are far, far better and well-positioned to spread propaganda than governments are. Except when it comes to War.)
Kim Cutter believes hijacked amygdalas account for much of the craziness sweeping the country—QAnon, the rise of cult-like behavior for a narcissistic faux-billionaire conman, the storming of the Capitol by many otherwise ordinary Americans, people dying over the refusal of taking a vaccine. The amygdala is what comes to life during “fight or flight” circumstances. I’ve heard it referred to as the “reptilian brain”. It harbors our basest instincts. It’s absolutely necessary for our survival. Our amygdala is what advertising agencies, all propaganda and bad actors online are constantly hoping to hijack.
From Simply Psychology:
…sometimes the amygdala can act too strongly, leading to amygdala hijacking. Typically, in a stressful situation, the frontal lobes will step in to override the amygdala to ensure we respond in a rational manner.
But, if the stressful situation causes strong feelings of anxiety, anger, aggression, or fear, this can result in illogical and irrational overreactive behaviors to be displayed.
Essentially, the amygdala overrides the frontal lobes to hijack control of the stress response.
I find it both funny and exasperating that the media continues to wonder why the majority of white folks in America vote the way they do. And the corollary, why do poor white folks vote against their economic interests. Don’t they understand liberals and progressives are laser-focused on helping them?
The short answer is. . . they are not voting against their best interest.
LBJ’s oft-quoted retort sums it up most succinctly:
If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.
The author of Caste, Isabel Wilkerson, of course, attributes white Americans’ voting behavior as it relates to being the dominant caste no matter where they fall in regards to socioeconomic status.
Racism and casteism do overlap, she writes, noting that:
what some people call racism could be seen as merely one manifestation of the degree to which we have internalized the larger American caste system.
What does any of this have to do with ‘mindfulness’, crap detection and living consciously?
Assuming you are a person whose hierarchy of needs is being met—I think what gets each and every one of us up each morning, what drives us to do our best, what keeps us focused and engaged will be deeply affected by how mindful we are. It is clear some people give little regard to their mindfulness.
If fame, power, money and a myriad of things is your over-riding reason for being, chances are you are not being mindful, or your idea of mindfulness is skewed. Chances are—if you are one of those persons—your ‘pursuit of happiness’, guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, is probably negatively affecting society-at-large.
I’m looking at you Joel Osteen.
I’m looking at you Alex Jones.
I’m looking at you Candace Owens.
I’m looking at you Mitch McConnell. Ad infinitum.
Which brings me to a poem I recently ran across by the Welsh poet William Henry Davies:
Leisure by William Henry Davies
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
I think you have the capacity to short circuit the crap being thrown your way by being as mindful as possible. It’s not easy. Life tends to get in the way. The distractions are never-ending. The amygdala hijackers never sleep. The online bullshit is as many have described it—a firehose of information, misinformation, mal-information and statistics.
Every day, 24 hours of day, like a fire hydrant uncapped, the internet spews forth data—good, bad and indifferent. Mindfulness is how we combat the deluge. Mindfulness is how we sidestep the efforts made to contaminate what we know is most meaningful to us.
The Maserati will not make us as happy as mending fences with someone we love. The million dollar houseboat will not be as meaningful of an addition to our lives as the rescued pup. The adulation of millions will not mean as much to us as the few we know have our backs.
Be more Francis of Assisi, who was the patron saint of stowaways and animals, and less like the money-driven Joel Osteen.
Be more Mark Cuban, who just launched an online generic drug prescription website which will save Americans thousands on some prescriptions, and less like the clueless Elon Musk.
Be more Frank Edgar Cornish, who made so many selfless community contributions his hometown dedicated a park in his name before he turned 40, and less like the selfish Aaron Rodgers.
I say, stand beneath those boughs, and stare as long as sheep and cows.
It’s called mindful meditation.
To make it out of this pandemic and past the politics upcoming in the fall, we’ll need as much of it as possible.
Today is the first day of Black History Month.
As a reminder, Black History in America is American History. Most of the people up-in-arms about Critical Race Theory are not opposed to Black History. It’s similar to Obamacare and the Affordable Care Act. They’ve been told, they’ve heard, they’ve caught wind of it on their social media that CRT teaches white kids to be ashamed of their heritage. But I’ll bet most of them would agree the history of Blacks in America should be common knowledge.
Also, I was looking for something funny, but I settled for this:
Thanks for reading and sharing. I apologize for the few-and-far-between writings. My partner and I both tested positive about three weeks ago. I’m assuming it was the Omicron variant. Both of us had “mild” responses—we are fully boosted—but the havoc testing positive creates needs also to be taken into account.
Especially if you still work for a living, or you are part of a larger household, or—like us—you live in a tiny house.
I have recently started treatment for prostate cancer—after isolating for 10 days and having the treatment postponed, treatment which had already taken six months to start from the time I learned of it—and that’s a ‘wrinkle’ you might not consider when thinking about how cavalier you want to be with this (what we hope to be) waning virus. In case you’re curious, I have until March 3rd for the conclusion of my proton therapy. As of today, 21 more visits.
Anyway, I hope to be more prolific in the coming months after we resettle east of the mountains and get into a ‘normal’ routine. Please. No flowers, cards or hullabaloo. Take care until next time. - JLM
I love you babe, so much. I don't suppose you have copies of Teaching as a Subversive Activity and Bullshit and the Art of Crap Detection still, do you?