As a philosopher who has studied complex processes for over 25 years, this postmodern use of it to justify anarchy pisses me right off. I agree with Artep that this is a veiled attempt to justify the authors support for Trump as a change agent. As such, it is not enlightened dialectical thinking but an act of deception. Understanding complex processes requires understanding the nature of order. Edge of chaos or metastable conditions are not anarchic. They involve commitments with an openness to questioning those commitments and not a skeptical suspension of judgement to create a vacuum. Here is a philosopher effectively parroting speaker Mike Johnson when he said that it doesn't matter that Matt Gaetz had sex with under age girls as long as he can shake up the status quo and generate some excitement. A thriving rainforest does not need this kind of excitement to generate stability, particularly at the highest constraining levels. At the highest levels it needs relative stability and predictability to generate conditions for life at lower, smaller and faster levels. To suggest that someone like Trump could possibly be a facilitative constraint in this way is to be ignorant of this reality. Similar to the postmodernists, there is also a disturbing lack of feeling here for how much pain would be inflicted in a sudden destruction of the status quo, mainly for those least able to protect themselves. It's one of those famous philosopher's thought experiments (or wet dreams) abstracted from reality. Aristotle said that the mean of the extremes is the extreme of what is right and I, for one, as a teacher of process, regenerative ethics, cannot see a scenario where electing Trump as President is right and I'm happy to commit to that.
Thank you for this. I too study complexity and I think you’re right. We must consult with our understanding of order. The idea that we know nothing of right and wrong and that goodness randomly emerges from destruction and that we should be tuning our awareness for this is nonsense. It reminds me of a movie plot.
You are missing the most powerful aspect of both Charles’s sharing and of the human experience. Spirituality. Energy, frequency and vibration create matter and not the other way around. We are all a spark of the the Divine/ the Creator, always creating starting with our thoughts. There is lots of proof of this but we have to want the truth and then investigate (if curious you could watch The Source documentary by Dr Joe Dispenza for example). Knowing how powerful we are, one could ask, Who do I want to be in the world today? Do I want to be right or do I want to be happy and centered?
I think I may understand where Charles is coming from. It's been clear to me for decades that our society is steadily heading down a path towards some sort of major reckoning, if not a total implosion. Just two indicators: despite the many booms and busts of the economy, the wealth gap continues to increase. Despite the decades of sturm und drang around the climate, carbon emissions increase year after year. Democratic leadership takes us to eventual demise slowly and gently, whereas Republicans will make it more rapid and short-term catastrophic. Either way, SOMETHING has to change.
The non-MAGA Trump supporters may be following the frog-in-the-stovepot analogy. Gradual decline may lead us unconsciously to our demise, whereas an abrupt shock to the system may cause us to take note and change course. The problem is that society and economy is now such a large and complex system that the scale of damage caused by the “shock and awe” approach may not be recovered from.
I think I understand him too, Bill because I have witnessed thinkers like Eisenstein being complicit in undermining higher education. While they sat around in their limbo space of tension between narratives, neoliberal managements, clear about what they wanted moved in and transformed universities from higher learning institutions to dumbed down degree factories. Thinkers like Eisenstein would not be welcome in today's universities as I'm not, because there are many areas of Eisenstein's thinking that I promote as well. I dream of a world of Bakhtin's polyphonic narratives and higher levels of consciousness that Ken Wilber argued for. But we are nowhere near there because the forces of determinism and mechanistic materialism keep winning and the conditions for complex life on this planet are almost unsavable because of it. I can walk and chew gum at the same time. As a process philosopher I can understand that the universe is an irreducibly complex whole while at the same time, as a dialectical thinker, be clear about distinguishing who my enemy is. I believe there is emergent possibility and agency in the world and what disturbs me about Eisenstein's followers is that they seem to have embraced a sort of fatalism. If they just retreat into their happy place, the universe will reveal its truth and sweep away the negative vibes. It's similar to the Stoic state of ataraxia many of my students seem to be seeking since the trauma of the pandemic. But like Buddhism, such a state leaves one accepting the world as it is and just working on themselves rather then seeing the possibility for change in the broader context. Retreating within to find peace is important, but it leaves the world vulnerable to the rape and pillage wrought by those unreflective sociopaths like Trump. I agree with Eisenstein and Wilber that we need to provide experiences of wholeness to develop a feel for the whole that we have lost, but against a background of uncertainty, we must also be able to articulate what our model of the future might look like following Hegel, recognize the obstacles in our way.
I have been searching for the words for some time - months maybe - to respond to Charles as you have just done here in your two comments and all I can say is bravo. Thank you for putting this into such concise & thorough terms; these thoughts are very similar to my own but the words to express the. have been unreachable through the emotional exhaustion I’ve experienced in these past few months. I enjoyed reading your reflections and feel you’ve hit a mark that so many people have been missing just slightly. I feel validated, inspired and grateful to have learned how to better speak about this through reading your comments.
And Charles. Ugh. I have been a curious, frequent and excited reader of your books and teachings for over a decade and I am so sad to say this is the end of that. I must have a boundary with what I can only see as avoidant, privileged, hypocritical, unhelpful - and frankly, cowardly. Weak. It’s disappointing to see a father like yourself falter this way. This may not be productive or kind to assert but it’s necessary, I think, for those of us who have followed you for ages to assert that we are not condoning or participating in this nonsense.
Thanks Glenn, for the additional perspective. I’m one of those “jack of all trades, master of none“ types — reasonably adept at integrating information from disparate sources, but pretty much rely on people (like yourself) with particular expertise, to provide the elements.
It's pretty clear to me that as a society, we are stuck in a conceptual box with a certain set of options that are no longer sufficient to current challenges. (That Einstein quote about problems not being solvable from the same level of consciousness that created them.) I’m no expert on Chaos Theory, but as I understand, newly emerging phenomena are difficult to anticipate from the standpoint of the existing paradigm. To be charitable, maybe that's what Charles is driving at in his references to "unknowing". Hopefully, more will be revealed at some point.
Bill, what you’re proposing here - that complexity through its magic may yield a positive result and we should shift our perception in the way of perceiving or maybe even manifesting this positivity, is the problem.
It is the same process involved in abusive relationships. Wipe the slate clean and remain positive… maybe all of our known and experienced history can shift into a new realm of complexity where the present circumstance is meaningful? Maybe it isn’t abusive or unnatural? Perhaps we should wait and see….
It is never the case that complexity works by bringing goodness from traumatic conditions EXCEPT if the conditions can solicit our awareness and we can bridge this awareness into our innate process of generating health and wellbeing. This is the opposite of “wait and see”. This is “ground and learn”
What Charles ought to be saying is “pay attention to your body, to your relationships, to your capacity for rest and nourishment… notice how the administration is affecting you”…
When we’re grounding in the truth, we can work together to affect change that supports humanity
Many thanks for posting the transcript - I don't usually watch videos.
I agree with you.
I do not at all resonate with Trump as a person - he is in many ways the epitome of the separate, insecure, narcissistic, entitled masculine that has been so out of balance - and yet he has the ability to take on established power structures, and this time around he seems to be expanding that with his appointments of Gabbard and RFK and others.
The bullet-grazing-the-ear is far too eerie to be purely coincidence. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred he would either be dead, seriously injured, or completely untouched. That was a clue to me that there is a larger story unfolding here, a larger pattern weaving in which Trump apparently has a starring role to play. But I don't think that role is going to be to "Make America Great Again" or to bring about what his followers expect.
There is an uncertainty to these times, but also - as you say - an anticipation. It feels like the ride is just beginning, but that the ultimate outcome - whatever it is - will be positive and transformational.
Travelled down a rabbit hole today that kind of surprised me. My younger sister and I have had a "truce" of sorts to keep our relationship as sisters manageable. A number of years ago after numerous difficult and tense conversations, I needed to draw a line that we would not be discussing religion or politics. For many years, we have been able to honor that line. Today, something changed....and it was on my part. We were talking about some family changes, and the subject of the election came up. And I listened .....and heard her say she had not followed or listened to any of the news about the election. I was curious and not defensive as I would have been a year ago....asked if she had read about Project 2025 and she had not, only had heard about it. This was the first time in years we were able to have a conversation that did not end in a yelling match. We are both very aware that our views and values are polar opposites - I am of the left leaning liberal side of the line who studies and practices Buddhism and she is conservative, religious and right leaning. Right now as I type this I am surprised at the calm I feel and glad that we began to broach this huge chasm in our relationship. Time will tell where it goes, she knows I am not interested in being "saved" . She is my sister and despite our differences she is loved.
Here is a true story a friend just sent me, written by Elizabeth Gilbert:
Every time I read it, which is often, I choke up. So I’ve started memorizing it, using my method, which makes that process smooth and easy. I would be honored to do it for all you folks at the next opportunity.
The Bus Ride
by Elizabeth Gilbert
Some years ago, I was stuck on a crosstown bus in New York City during rush hour. Traffic was barely moving. The bus was filled with cold, tired people who were deeply irritated with one another, with the world itself. Two men barked at each other about a shove that might or might not have been intentional. A pregnant woman got on, and nobody offered her a seat. Rage was in the air; no mercy would be found here.
But as the bus approached Seventh Avenue, the driver got on the intercom. "Folks," he said, "I know you have had a rough day and you are frustrated. I can't do anything about the weather or traffic, but here is what I can do. As each one of you gets off the bus, I will reach out my hand to you. As you walk by, drop your troubles into the palm of my hand, okay? Don't take your problems home to your families tonight, just leave them with me. My route goes right by the Hudson River, and when I drive by there later, I will open the window and throw your troubles in the water.
It was as if a spell had lifted. Everyone burst out laughing. Faces gleamed with surprised delight. People who had been pretending for the past hour not to notice each other's existence were suddenly grinning at each other like, is this guy serious?
Oh, he was serious.
At the next stop, just as promised, the driver reached out his hand, palm up, and waited. One by one, all the exiting commuters placed their hand just above his and mimed the gesture of dropping something into his palm. Some people laughed as they did this, some teared up but everyone did it.
The driver repeated the same lovely ritual at the next stop, too. And the next. All the way to the river.
We live in a hard world, my friends. Sometimes it is extra difficult to be a human being. Sometimes you have a bad day. Sometimes you have a bad day that lasts for several years. You struggle and fail. You lose jobs, money, friends, faith, and love. You witness horrible events unfolding in the news, and you become fearful and withdrawn. There are times when everything seems cloaked in darkness. You long for the light but don't know where to find it.
But what if you are the light? What if you are the very agent of illumination that a dark situation begs for?. That's what this bus driver taught me, that anyone can be the light, at any moment. This guy wasn't some big power player. He wasn't a spiritual leader. He wasn't some media-savvy influencer. He was a bus driver, one of society's most invisible workers. But he possessed real power, and he used it beautifully for our benefit.
When life feels especially grim, or when I feel particularly powerless in the face of the world's troubles, I think of this man and ask myself, What can I do, right now, to be the light? Of course, I can't personally end all wars, or solve global warming, or transform vexing people into entirely different creatures. I definitely can't control traffic. But I do have some influence on everyone I brush up against, even if we never speak or learn each other's name.
No matter who you are, or where you are, or how mundane or tough your situation may seem, I believe you can illuminate your world. In fact, I believe this is the only way the world will ever be illuminated, one bright act of grace at a time, all the way to the river.
Reading between the lines, I think you are super embarrassed about supporting Trump. That’s okay, and totally understandable, but why not just admit it rather than hiding it under mountains of guff?
Possibly he feels like I do that I don’t support Trump per se but that I support some of his appointments and ideals he claims he will champion (no foreign wars, free speech, health freedom - of course true health freedom would also include a woman’s choice about her body)
And maybe like me could not support KH because these very ideals mentioned above have been at risk in Biden’s admin.
As Charles said and I agree there’s just so much complexity, uncertainty and rearranging of political camps that it’s almost impossible for a thinking person to pick a camp to land in.
The deck has been shuffled and thrown into the air.
And also as he predicts the only thing that seems certain is that things will likely get more uncertain and weird as time rolls on.
I can’t say I like Trump but I can say I like some things he says he is going to do. Will he do them? I have no idea! lol.
I hope things get better. I hope that maybe he will be a better version of himself as he is surrounded by good people.
I don’t hope for him to fail just because I don’t like some of the things he’s done in the past.
I hope he succeeds for the sake of the country and the world.
why so judgey? I see that Charles has been doing what many of us have - responding in the moment, not being afraid to try something out, change his mind. I find it refreshing and healthy...I have pretty much followed a similar trajectory. He saw a chance to inject another opinion into an unhealthy arena in the hope of making some small impact - what is wrong with that? I really find the tone of your comment as one-upmanship!
Opinions are the only thing for sure right now and it is becoming tedious. As Plato said, "Opinions are the wasteland between ignorance and wisdom," Like everything in life we will have to deal with people, issues and events as they happen. Only then can we really have a discussion based on reality.
Agreed. Electoral College does not accurately reflect the 48.24% vs 49.96% - It was not a popular mandate. In fact not the first Trump win, nor Biden were even 15 %
Even though I find Trump loathsome, I did not fall into despair and disbelief when he won. I did not want Harris as president and thought the Democrats really bungled this, and they haven’t given us who we wanted (Bernie) twice now, so they are completely out of touch. I’m giving up on them. But republican- no. Green Party, maybe. I hate the two party system anyway.
Something akin to what you’re suggesting has happened to me. I’ve made a decision to just watch this unfold.
Seems like a “let’s give the devil a chance.” Trump is showing us who he is. Who he said he’d be. His appointments and agenda will cause suffering on a scale inconceivable to most of us in this country and word. WW3 stuff. How’s that for blowing stuff up? No thanks.
Trump is asking for peace with Putin and Zelensky, and Biden is authorising long range missiles into Russia to kick off a larger conflict. This is the stuff of WW3 and it's Biden and the democrats who've been pushing this for four years. Remember before that... four years of peace; that was Trump first version. He's smarter and calmer now too.
I’m curious. Is there some reason why ‘your’ premonitions should be considered to be accurate when others also have premonitions and most likely are different than yours? Is there some reason that yours are ‘special’? Premonitions seem to me to be much the same fear mongering that you have been speaking to. Just a different shade of doom/redemption divide that is rampant at the moment.
Charles is a solipsist who thinks his “intuitions” give him a direct pipeline to The Truth about absolutely everything, unlike lesser mortals (i.e. you, me, and everyone else in existence, including every major philosopher in history, all of whom Charles caricatures, strawmans, and dismisses in his own books. He also dismisses, without evidence, any historian whose perspective he doesn’t find congenial).
Nailed it , Charles. For me the big problem I have with Trump is the blindness to the sickness of our biosphere and the call for us to be healers and tenders instead of just users, like your chapter in your climate book entitled “Tending the Wild”. Have my own differing problems with his opponents and some hopes on what this electoral change may accomplish. But the needed vast re-engineering of our technologies and economic system to a life giving place is beyond the ken of either side. And the whole subject of the UAP or UFO’s is there bubbling along. https://roddreher.substack.com/p/the-uap-cover-up-uncovered-a-bit
The Ukraine situation looks to turn hot and some form of Russian retaliation directly against the USA looks possible, probably cyber attacks and infrastructure sabotage. Yes, we are moving into mystery with the world structure we have known for decades may change.
What an excellent post, thank you Charles for the high level illumination.
Just yesterday I was trying to convey your general theme to a friend, and offered the following biblical quote:
“Put not your faith in the wisdom of man, but in the spirit of God”.
As in, we are in a time of great ‘unknowingness’ (in contrast to the prevalent belief that people know exactly what is going on, which mostly consists of group echo chamber talk) and that now is the time to develop or strengthen one’s spiritual nature or higher self to prepare or buffer from what is coming - something we cannot predict with any existing narrative.
It IS time to put down the narratives and pause, feel, observe, let go, be open and be vigilant.
I am currently experiencing homelessness right now. As in, I have not walked into A home where I feel I belong, yet. But this house of Uncertainty - that is feeling pretty true to my being right now compared to all the other homes I've tried to live in. And the house of Hope. This is where I wish to stay.
Still working on walking out of the home of old stories. The stories that tell me of certainty. Yet, the certainty leaves me hopeless and oh so lonely
As a philosopher who has studied complex processes for over 25 years, this postmodern use of it to justify anarchy pisses me right off. I agree with Artep that this is a veiled attempt to justify the authors support for Trump as a change agent. As such, it is not enlightened dialectical thinking but an act of deception. Understanding complex processes requires understanding the nature of order. Edge of chaos or metastable conditions are not anarchic. They involve commitments with an openness to questioning those commitments and not a skeptical suspension of judgement to create a vacuum. Here is a philosopher effectively parroting speaker Mike Johnson when he said that it doesn't matter that Matt Gaetz had sex with under age girls as long as he can shake up the status quo and generate some excitement. A thriving rainforest does not need this kind of excitement to generate stability, particularly at the highest constraining levels. At the highest levels it needs relative stability and predictability to generate conditions for life at lower, smaller and faster levels. To suggest that someone like Trump could possibly be a facilitative constraint in this way is to be ignorant of this reality. Similar to the postmodernists, there is also a disturbing lack of feeling here for how much pain would be inflicted in a sudden destruction of the status quo, mainly for those least able to protect themselves. It's one of those famous philosopher's thought experiments (or wet dreams) abstracted from reality. Aristotle said that the mean of the extremes is the extreme of what is right and I, for one, as a teacher of process, regenerative ethics, cannot see a scenario where electing Trump as President is right and I'm happy to commit to that.
Thank you for this. I too study complexity and I think you’re right. We must consult with our understanding of order. The idea that we know nothing of right and wrong and that goodness randomly emerges from destruction and that we should be tuning our awareness for this is nonsense. It reminds me of a movie plot.
You are missing the most powerful aspect of both Charles’s sharing and of the human experience. Spirituality. Energy, frequency and vibration create matter and not the other way around. We are all a spark of the the Divine/ the Creator, always creating starting with our thoughts. There is lots of proof of this but we have to want the truth and then investigate (if curious you could watch The Source documentary by Dr Joe Dispenza for example). Knowing how powerful we are, one could ask, Who do I want to be in the world today? Do I want to be right or do I want to be happy and centered?
I think I may understand where Charles is coming from. It's been clear to me for decades that our society is steadily heading down a path towards some sort of major reckoning, if not a total implosion. Just two indicators: despite the many booms and busts of the economy, the wealth gap continues to increase. Despite the decades of sturm und drang around the climate, carbon emissions increase year after year. Democratic leadership takes us to eventual demise slowly and gently, whereas Republicans will make it more rapid and short-term catastrophic. Either way, SOMETHING has to change.
The non-MAGA Trump supporters may be following the frog-in-the-stovepot analogy. Gradual decline may lead us unconsciously to our demise, whereas an abrupt shock to the system may cause us to take note and change course. The problem is that society and economy is now such a large and complex system that the scale of damage caused by the “shock and awe” approach may not be recovered from.
We need a fundamentally new paradigm.
I think I understand him too, Bill because I have witnessed thinkers like Eisenstein being complicit in undermining higher education. While they sat around in their limbo space of tension between narratives, neoliberal managements, clear about what they wanted moved in and transformed universities from higher learning institutions to dumbed down degree factories. Thinkers like Eisenstein would not be welcome in today's universities as I'm not, because there are many areas of Eisenstein's thinking that I promote as well. I dream of a world of Bakhtin's polyphonic narratives and higher levels of consciousness that Ken Wilber argued for. But we are nowhere near there because the forces of determinism and mechanistic materialism keep winning and the conditions for complex life on this planet are almost unsavable because of it. I can walk and chew gum at the same time. As a process philosopher I can understand that the universe is an irreducibly complex whole while at the same time, as a dialectical thinker, be clear about distinguishing who my enemy is. I believe there is emergent possibility and agency in the world and what disturbs me about Eisenstein's followers is that they seem to have embraced a sort of fatalism. If they just retreat into their happy place, the universe will reveal its truth and sweep away the negative vibes. It's similar to the Stoic state of ataraxia many of my students seem to be seeking since the trauma of the pandemic. But like Buddhism, such a state leaves one accepting the world as it is and just working on themselves rather then seeing the possibility for change in the broader context. Retreating within to find peace is important, but it leaves the world vulnerable to the rape and pillage wrought by those unreflective sociopaths like Trump. I agree with Eisenstein and Wilber that we need to provide experiences of wholeness to develop a feel for the whole that we have lost, but against a background of uncertainty, we must also be able to articulate what our model of the future might look like following Hegel, recognize the obstacles in our way.
I have been searching for the words for some time - months maybe - to respond to Charles as you have just done here in your two comments and all I can say is bravo. Thank you for putting this into such concise & thorough terms; these thoughts are very similar to my own but the words to express the. have been unreachable through the emotional exhaustion I’ve experienced in these past few months. I enjoyed reading your reflections and feel you’ve hit a mark that so many people have been missing just slightly. I feel validated, inspired and grateful to have learned how to better speak about this through reading your comments.
And Charles. Ugh. I have been a curious, frequent and excited reader of your books and teachings for over a decade and I am so sad to say this is the end of that. I must have a boundary with what I can only see as avoidant, privileged, hypocritical, unhelpful - and frankly, cowardly. Weak. It’s disappointing to see a father like yourself falter this way. This may not be productive or kind to assert but it’s necessary, I think, for those of us who have followed you for ages to assert that we are not condoning or participating in this nonsense.
Thanks Glenn, for the additional perspective. I’m one of those “jack of all trades, master of none“ types — reasonably adept at integrating information from disparate sources, but pretty much rely on people (like yourself) with particular expertise, to provide the elements.
It's pretty clear to me that as a society, we are stuck in a conceptual box with a certain set of options that are no longer sufficient to current challenges. (That Einstein quote about problems not being solvable from the same level of consciousness that created them.) I’m no expert on Chaos Theory, but as I understand, newly emerging phenomena are difficult to anticipate from the standpoint of the existing paradigm. To be charitable, maybe that's what Charles is driving at in his references to "unknowing". Hopefully, more will be revealed at some point.
Bill, what you’re proposing here - that complexity through its magic may yield a positive result and we should shift our perception in the way of perceiving or maybe even manifesting this positivity, is the problem.
It is the same process involved in abusive relationships. Wipe the slate clean and remain positive… maybe all of our known and experienced history can shift into a new realm of complexity where the present circumstance is meaningful? Maybe it isn’t abusive or unnatural? Perhaps we should wait and see….
It is never the case that complexity works by bringing goodness from traumatic conditions EXCEPT if the conditions can solicit our awareness and we can bridge this awareness into our innate process of generating health and wellbeing. This is the opposite of “wait and see”. This is “ground and learn”
What Charles ought to be saying is “pay attention to your body, to your relationships, to your capacity for rest and nourishment… notice how the administration is affecting you”…
When we’re grounding in the truth, we can work together to affect change that supports humanity
Thanks god another viewpoint and analysis
For
Many thanks for posting the transcript - I don't usually watch videos.
I agree with you.
I do not at all resonate with Trump as a person - he is in many ways the epitome of the separate, insecure, narcissistic, entitled masculine that has been so out of balance - and yet he has the ability to take on established power structures, and this time around he seems to be expanding that with his appointments of Gabbard and RFK and others.
The bullet-grazing-the-ear is far too eerie to be purely coincidence. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred he would either be dead, seriously injured, or completely untouched. That was a clue to me that there is a larger story unfolding here, a larger pattern weaving in which Trump apparently has a starring role to play. But I don't think that role is going to be to "Make America Great Again" or to bring about what his followers expect.
There is an uncertainty to these times, but also - as you say - an anticipation. It feels like the ride is just beginning, but that the ultimate outcome - whatever it is - will be positive and transformational.
Travelled down a rabbit hole today that kind of surprised me. My younger sister and I have had a "truce" of sorts to keep our relationship as sisters manageable. A number of years ago after numerous difficult and tense conversations, I needed to draw a line that we would not be discussing religion or politics. For many years, we have been able to honor that line. Today, something changed....and it was on my part. We were talking about some family changes, and the subject of the election came up. And I listened .....and heard her say she had not followed or listened to any of the news about the election. I was curious and not defensive as I would have been a year ago....asked if she had read about Project 2025 and she had not, only had heard about it. This was the first time in years we were able to have a conversation that did not end in a yelling match. We are both very aware that our views and values are polar opposites - I am of the left leaning liberal side of the line who studies and practices Buddhism and she is conservative, religious and right leaning. Right now as I type this I am surprised at the calm I feel and glad that we began to broach this huge chasm in our relationship. Time will tell where it goes, she knows I am not interested in being "saved" . She is my sister and despite our differences she is loved.
It’ll be nice to see more examples of families evolving to do more than stay divided on this.
Nice work Pam
Here is a true story a friend just sent me, written by Elizabeth Gilbert:
Every time I read it, which is often, I choke up. So I’ve started memorizing it, using my method, which makes that process smooth and easy. I would be honored to do it for all you folks at the next opportunity.
The Bus Ride
by Elizabeth Gilbert
Some years ago, I was stuck on a crosstown bus in New York City during rush hour. Traffic was barely moving. The bus was filled with cold, tired people who were deeply irritated with one another, with the world itself. Two men barked at each other about a shove that might or might not have been intentional. A pregnant woman got on, and nobody offered her a seat. Rage was in the air; no mercy would be found here.
But as the bus approached Seventh Avenue, the driver got on the intercom. "Folks," he said, "I know you have had a rough day and you are frustrated. I can't do anything about the weather or traffic, but here is what I can do. As each one of you gets off the bus, I will reach out my hand to you. As you walk by, drop your troubles into the palm of my hand, okay? Don't take your problems home to your families tonight, just leave them with me. My route goes right by the Hudson River, and when I drive by there later, I will open the window and throw your troubles in the water.
It was as if a spell had lifted. Everyone burst out laughing. Faces gleamed with surprised delight. People who had been pretending for the past hour not to notice each other's existence were suddenly grinning at each other like, is this guy serious?
Oh, he was serious.
At the next stop, just as promised, the driver reached out his hand, palm up, and waited. One by one, all the exiting commuters placed their hand just above his and mimed the gesture of dropping something into his palm. Some people laughed as they did this, some teared up but everyone did it.
The driver repeated the same lovely ritual at the next stop, too. And the next. All the way to the river.
We live in a hard world, my friends. Sometimes it is extra difficult to be a human being. Sometimes you have a bad day. Sometimes you have a bad day that lasts for several years. You struggle and fail. You lose jobs, money, friends, faith, and love. You witness horrible events unfolding in the news, and you become fearful and withdrawn. There are times when everything seems cloaked in darkness. You long for the light but don't know where to find it.
But what if you are the light? What if you are the very agent of illumination that a dark situation begs for?. That's what this bus driver taught me, that anyone can be the light, at any moment. This guy wasn't some big power player. He wasn't a spiritual leader. He wasn't some media-savvy influencer. He was a bus driver, one of society's most invisible workers. But he possessed real power, and he used it beautifully for our benefit.
When life feels especially grim, or when I feel particularly powerless in the face of the world's troubles, I think of this man and ask myself, What can I do, right now, to be the light? Of course, I can't personally end all wars, or solve global warming, or transform vexing people into entirely different creatures. I definitely can't control traffic. But I do have some influence on everyone I brush up against, even if we never speak or learn each other's name.
No matter who you are, or where you are, or how mundane or tough your situation may seem, I believe you can illuminate your world. In fact, I believe this is the only way the world will ever be illuminated, one bright act of grace at a time, all the way to the river.
Much love,
Neil
Reading between the lines, I think you are super embarrassed about supporting Trump. That’s okay, and totally understandable, but why not just admit it rather than hiding it under mountains of guff?
Possibly he feels like I do that I don’t support Trump per se but that I support some of his appointments and ideals he claims he will champion (no foreign wars, free speech, health freedom - of course true health freedom would also include a woman’s choice about her body)
And maybe like me could not support KH because these very ideals mentioned above have been at risk in Biden’s admin.
As Charles said and I agree there’s just so much complexity, uncertainty and rearranging of political camps that it’s almost impossible for a thinking person to pick a camp to land in.
The deck has been shuffled and thrown into the air.
And also as he predicts the only thing that seems certain is that things will likely get more uncertain and weird as time rolls on.
I can’t say I like Trump but I can say I like some things he says he is going to do. Will he do them? I have no idea! lol.
I hope things get better. I hope that maybe he will be a better version of himself as he is surrounded by good people.
I don’t hope for him to fail just because I don’t like some of the things he’s done in the past.
I hope he succeeds for the sake of the country and the world.
why so judgey? I see that Charles has been doing what many of us have - responding in the moment, not being afraid to try something out, change his mind. I find it refreshing and healthy...I have pretty much followed a similar trajectory. He saw a chance to inject another opinion into an unhealthy arena in the hope of making some small impact - what is wrong with that? I really find the tone of your comment as one-upmanship!
Ding ding ding!
I agree. With your intuition.
Opinions are the only thing for sure right now and it is becoming tedious. As Plato said, "Opinions are the wasteland between ignorance and wisdom," Like everything in life we will have to deal with people, issues and events as they happen. Only then can we really have a discussion based on reality.
But now we know that the election WAS close, much closer than when you wrote this, as votes continue to come in.
Agreed. Electoral College does not accurately reflect the 48.24% vs 49.96% - It was not a popular mandate. In fact not the first Trump win, nor Biden were even 15 %
Time to remember, recover and reStory ones identity with Earth.
You are Earth, you are not the World. remember?
We made the World from the Earth
...and we know what life is like when the World shuts down (2 years of the pandemic) - we survived - (except for those who didn't).
If the Earth shuts down for 3 minutes (withdrawing the $400Trillion of annual life support we depend on) We are all dead.
That's right. Hard to count your money if you can't breathe.
Therefore, align with Earth - the forces of Nature are also in you.
Worlds come and go - but breathing is...well life
Facts please Charles. It was a very close election.
Even though I find Trump loathsome, I did not fall into despair and disbelief when he won. I did not want Harris as president and thought the Democrats really bungled this, and they haven’t given us who we wanted (Bernie) twice now, so they are completely out of touch. I’m giving up on them. But republican- no. Green Party, maybe. I hate the two party system anyway.
Something akin to what you’re suggesting has happened to me. I’ve made a decision to just watch this unfold.
Seems like a “let’s give the devil a chance.” Trump is showing us who he is. Who he said he’d be. His appointments and agenda will cause suffering on a scale inconceivable to most of us in this country and word. WW3 stuff. How’s that for blowing stuff up? No thanks.
Trump is asking for peace with Putin and Zelensky, and Biden is authorising long range missiles into Russia to kick off a larger conflict. This is the stuff of WW3 and it's Biden and the democrats who've been pushing this for four years. Remember before that... four years of peace; that was Trump first version. He's smarter and calmer now too.
That’s never going to happen. Putin isn’t peaceful. He’s a murderous dictator. If he could take our country he would.
A poem I wrote in March this year:
*Improbable yearnings*
Can we abandon all our stories
That are woven from the mists
Of the belief that we can know
All that remains unknowable?
Can we step into the intimacy
Of embracing the ungraspable
Without attempting to hold on
While being tossed to and fro?
Can we open ourselves up
To the ache of inchoate longing
So we may notice in glimpses
Sweet solace in the unfathomable?
Can we value the questions
Recognising the unanswerable
As the only key to presence
Where all the cravings cease?
~ js ~
https://jayasreesrivastava.substack.com/p/improbable-yearnings
I’m curious. Is there some reason why ‘your’ premonitions should be considered to be accurate when others also have premonitions and most likely are different than yours? Is there some reason that yours are ‘special’? Premonitions seem to me to be much the same fear mongering that you have been speaking to. Just a different shade of doom/redemption divide that is rampant at the moment.
Charles is a solipsist who thinks his “intuitions” give him a direct pipeline to The Truth about absolutely everything, unlike lesser mortals (i.e. you, me, and everyone else in existence, including every major philosopher in history, all of whom Charles caricatures, strawmans, and dismisses in his own books. He also dismisses, without evidence, any historian whose perspective he doesn’t find congenial).
Nailed it , Charles. For me the big problem I have with Trump is the blindness to the sickness of our biosphere and the call for us to be healers and tenders instead of just users, like your chapter in your climate book entitled “Tending the Wild”. Have my own differing problems with his opponents and some hopes on what this electoral change may accomplish. But the needed vast re-engineering of our technologies and economic system to a life giving place is beyond the ken of either side. And the whole subject of the UAP or UFO’s is there bubbling along. https://roddreher.substack.com/p/the-uap-cover-up-uncovered-a-bit
The Ukraine situation looks to turn hot and some form of Russian retaliation directly against the USA looks possible, probably cyber attacks and infrastructure sabotage. Yes, we are moving into mystery with the world structure we have known for decades may change.
What an excellent post, thank you Charles for the high level illumination.
Just yesterday I was trying to convey your general theme to a friend, and offered the following biblical quote:
“Put not your faith in the wisdom of man, but in the spirit of God”.
As in, we are in a time of great ‘unknowingness’ (in contrast to the prevalent belief that people know exactly what is going on, which mostly consists of group echo chamber talk) and that now is the time to develop or strengthen one’s spiritual nature or higher self to prepare or buffer from what is coming - something we cannot predict with any existing narrative.
It IS time to put down the narratives and pause, feel, observe, let go, be open and be vigilant.
I am currently experiencing homelessness right now. As in, I have not walked into A home where I feel I belong, yet. But this house of Uncertainty - that is feeling pretty true to my being right now compared to all the other homes I've tried to live in. And the house of Hope. This is where I wish to stay.
Still working on walking out of the home of old stories. The stories that tell me of certainty. Yet, the certainty leaves me hopeless and oh so lonely