The strong call of the herd?
We are strong, together we have done extraordinary things, once the moon was a circle of light, a mystery that was beyond us, and yet, we explored, discovered, imagined and then even travelled there just so that we could say we had. We have an amazing resilience, we group together and protect the weak, children, we pull together, when we need strength we make connections, meet the neighbours, learn their names, check on them, help and bring them into our awareness that just does not exist when we are self-absorbed in our own lives and dramas.
At an intellectual level, we all know that the idea of a completely isolated, autonomous being that needs no one and never has is wish fantasy that comes from an incredible good place. These individuals want to be strong not just for themselves but anyone who comes within their shields of protection, whoever they think are the “us” in “them and us”. They do not want strength to bully other and take advantage of them, they want to build a fortress that prevents the randomness and chaos of real life from knocking them on their asses, but the real measure of some one is not whether you get knocked to the ground once in a while, it is whether you get back up again.
It is fine to feel doubt, to be weak, we all take our turn at some point in our lives, we were all children, and if we are lucky enough we will get to be old enough to put our trust into the hands of other to protect us again when we are weak again. That is why it is so important to step up when the herd needs you, because there is a blessing or a curse that we all carry, we can not help but feel that how we think and feel is how everyone thinks and feels, whilst logically we might know that everyone is different, we feel that is not true. So when the herd wants and need you, it is up to you how you act.
If you act with fear, you will think that everyone is fearful, that everyone will run, hide and think only of themselves, that will be your reality and it will be true for you. However the opportunity exists for you to act with love, and then you will think everyone who can will act with love, that they will listen to opinions of whose who they trust and act in the best manner possible for the benefit of all and themselves. And it is strange but understandable, that those with fear can not imagine people acting with love, and those who act with love, understand that fear exists and decide they will act with love instead.
That is a choice that we all face, and we will not always get it right, we might all buy a little extra toilet paper that is not unreasonable but to stockpile a year's worth is acting with fear, though you still have the chance to give some to those who are short and in need, a poor act can always be rectified as soon as you are able to act from love. That is the gift of being an imperfect growing being of consciousness, we get to choose to grow everyday, and like a dormant seed it only needs a little water, feeding and love to emerge again and grow into a mighty oak. Every choice is a decision about your character, balancing your wants and needs with others and your wants and needs for them, you have to decide if you operate in the world with hard kindness and compassion, where you are willing to give your need for being liked for the benefit of some one you care for, that is what sacrifice is giving up something for a better position, even if it is you giving up something for someone else benefit.
And those hard sacrifices are the ones that truly define who we are, it is easy to be kind when it costs you nothing, opening a door, saying thank you, being considered and involved in the lives of others, these are the ones that bring us joy as well as helping others. It is the ones that hurt, the ones where we give up our freedom to do as we wish out of pure self-interest, where we sacrifice. It is the essence of the noble warrior, who seeks only to defend the weak, their community, it is when someone decides that they will be the one to hold the line and stand with the perfect resolution of sacrificing their lives for the common good.
We have all perhaps been living in a dream where we are individuals who have our needs and wants served by society, that they are all important and we deserve and even have the right to be fulfilled, otherwise we are being failed by life, and yet we have battled the internal confusion that we feel in our soul that this kind of existence is shallow and unfulfilling. We have suddenly been force to stop and consider something that is undeniably bigger than any individual, something that requires and demands a collective response, that need for the herd to behave at it's greatest. It requires that we act for the common good, for the collective needs, and whilst this is unapologetically a call for action, what it means for most of us, those who are healthy, in the prime of our life is to have a bad cold on behalf of those who we care about, those who are weak and old. Though, of course there is the opportunity for us to go further with the introduction of universal basic income to protect everyone with the basic cost of rent and food.
However the economics secondary to the health emergency, so what should we do? Am I heading towards the infection, queuing up to be exposed in an incredibly British way, no of course not, I am listening, we are trying to allow a peak, to manage the virus in a steady, reliable way. I am ready and prepared to take my turn when it naturally occurs. Though it will not occur by staying at home and hiding, so I will continue to sit in a
café and write, at a healthy two yard distance, I am not swimming but I am walking, I am talking to people, putting a note through the door of my elderly neighbours, I have brought some coffee creamer (funny how you find out your proprieties at these moment) and I will have a cup of tea every day, I might even call my mother a little more often as that is what this is about. It is about being a member of the greatest herd in the world, your family, friends, community, country and everyone, we are the herd, and we can cope with anything, we have many times before and we will again, with love.
