Who reads dystopian novels when politics and social norms are going off the rails? When deadly hurricanes, monsoons, fires and earthquakes consume the planet? That would be me. Just finished Margaret Atwood’s hellish trilogy: Oryx and Crake, The Year of the Flood, and MaddAdam. Her imagination is extraordinary, and in today’s environment sadly believable.
Between my fixation on the political hullabaloo, reading apocalyptic books and Yuval Harari’s Sapiens, History of Humankind, I’ve indulged a serious look at the worst case scenario.
Curiously, I’m more aware than ever that “worst” – “best” – “bad” – “good” are just words. World events may seem scary, dangerous; even infuriating. For some they’re deadly. How I internalize them, how I meet them, is peculiar to my personal beliefs. This perspective determines whether I’m miserable or content.
A character in MaddAdam was weeding a garden and thought:
“… Weed is simply our name for a plant that annoys us by getting in the way of our Human plans.”
It struck me how easy it is to label things, even people and events as weed-like when they annoy me and intrude on my plans. They aren’t – that’s all in my head.
As I digest all this the Serenity Prayer comes to mind:
The “wisdom” part – that’s what I need. Knowing when to chill and when to act is hard AF.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
“I have invented the world I see . . . I have invented this situation as I see it.” ― A Course In Miracles (Lesson 32)
