I have had to learn patience the hard way. I can remember vividly the view of my ill-fitting boots, as I marched up the steep roadway. I was slowly approaching the top of Fourth of July pass in the Idaho panhandle. It was October, many years ago now, and I was on a mission.
A few miles back, at the top of an onramp which, in the opinion of the local sheriff I had crept too far down, I was compelled to defend my position on the side of the road. It was illegal to hitchhike in Idaho, but I steadfastly asserted that I was in fact hiking, not hitchhiking. The sign I held was not a fact that supported this thesis, but the sheriff was amenable, so long as I trudged on without soliciting any drivers.
There I was, stubbornly placing each ragged sole back onto the loose gravel, a few feet further ahead each time. I had a couple of thousand miles to go on this adventure, so patience was my friend in those slowly collecting moments.
Though I was sure that at the top of the pass it would be easier for a Good Samaritan to stop and offer me a ride, I was in fact over the summit and down the other side some distance before a kind, if ragged fellow stopped and picked me up. He had spotted me hours earlier, when he had been headed in the other direction. Seeing me still marching on his way back home, he said he could not help but stop and offer me a ride.
Looking back, it was not such a terribly long wait, and in the end I made unbelievably good time overall. But I tell you, in those moments I struggled. The thoughts of hopelessness and despair, of absurdity and injustice, of foolishness and fear dogged me mercilessly.
In an effort to drive off the spirit of gravity, I sang. I sang out loud, and took deep breadths between each long and full throated line. The songs were hopeful sometimes and dark others. But whatever the spirit of the song, the act of singing encouraged me to carry on, and raised my spirits. I remember that day, and the moments I spent under the autumn sky in Idaho, very fondly.
I spend a lot of my time now contemplating the most effective ways I might improve the world we live in. Most of us agree that in order to achieve anything; we must first manage some level of security in our own lives. I think this is largely true, but so many of us stop there and decide that it is all quite hopeless, so why go further.
Assuming though that the security element is in place, and we are able to now look away from ourselves and our own self interest, where do we go from there? Well, certainly inspiration is needed, and this is often times out of our control. Or else we have to conjure it up like a magician out of practice. For many, inspiration is easy, for others it is elusive, but let’s go further and assume we are energized and enthusiastic as well as secure in our lives.
From this position of strength and energy, we are now equipped to act. Looking away from ourselves, we see a world populated with individuals suffering. To focus on that for too long is very dangerous, but neither can it be denied. The suffering is so acute, it is quite easy to resent and reject the happiness and celebration we observe alongside of it. But this resentment and bitterness will destroy us if we linger with it for too long. Rather, it is this celebration and happiness that is the key to our noble future.
What we are witnessing today in the world, is the demise of a very successful culture. It is a culture developed on greed and excess, fed on the labor of the oppressed, and fueled by a planets worth of miraculous resources. I have for some time been a member of a community that recognizes these things, and many of us have chosen to confront and resist this culture at every opportunity. But it is not the most important work we have done.
The danger in seeing these things is that we begin to react to them; we become defined by our opposition to them. I have a friend who claims to ‘reject western medicine’, and by this he means that he will not participate in it. Interestingly, he is allowing that which he rejects, to define that which he embraces. If we only react and respond to that which offends us, we are allowing that which offends us to determine the nature of our existence.
The alternative to reaction is creation; to reactivity is creativity. Creativity is the means by which we will heal this world and all of its inhabitants. It is by doing the work of developing our own culture, that we will further our cause. It is in the creation of our culture, that we do the most good in the world. The culture we are developing is one of inclusion and acceptance, of rigorous empiricism and consistent ethics, of love and kindness and understanding. It is in doing this work, the work of creativity and not resistance, that we do the most good. But, to do this work requires patience, patience and maybe a song or two.