Sometimes I run across things I’ve written years ago that still seem quite relevant today…

Like this matter-full post from way back when…actually the reference to my age gives it away, since I’m now 53 (well, almost 54)…

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that there’s something different about the world these days.

People seem to be a bit more edgy and fearful now than any time since I was born 48 years ago.

Of course, I didn’t live through the two great world wars, the Great Depression, the Holocaust, or other seminal world events of the past.

Maybe this same eery and unpleasant feeling was lingering in the air back then as well.

But something strange is in our air, or “airwaves”, since everything now is media driven…

sometimes I believe to the point of being “driven” right off a cliff.

I can hear it in my mother’s voice when I talk with her.

People are fearful about stuff, or maybe I should say fearful about losing their “stuff.”

And that brings me to the topic of today’s post, matter.

In my simplistic and wholly unscientific view the universe is divided into two categories of matter.

You have the things that are natural, such as all forms of life, the earth itself, the atmosphere, oceans, land, and everything else natural that the universe contains.

Then you have the things that are man-made.

One exists by the hand and will of god (or perhaps the “god particle”) and the other by the hand and will of, well, us.

Protecting the natural world at the expense of our laser-like focus on the man-made shit is scoffed at by too many of us.

But doesn’t it all matter…really?

Now I’m not advocating that we all go back to living in caves and hunting and gathering.

But I am advocating that there be some balance restored in our approach to what matters…

because it all does.

We have gone so far in creating a world of comfort for ourselves at the expense of the natural that we are at the tipping point where our actions are having a profound and negative effect on the natural world.

This obsessive focus on man-made material comfort, a focus that says only “we” matter, is getting us in a lot of trouble these days.

The climate is changing because of it.

Organisms are disappearing.

The order of nature is being upset.

Greed is now good.

And we are literally consuming ourselves out of existence.

And everyone wants to blame everyone else.

It’s the Republicans fault. No, it’s the Democrats that did it. No, the Muslims! The Christians! No, says Trump, it’s those damn Chinese…

and so it goes without end.

The truth is we’re all at fault, every single one of us.

Because we, the human organism, are the only form of matter that has the ability to destroy this planet…well, short of a wayward asteroid, or an unstable Higgs Boson particle.

And we are doing a pretty darn good job of it.

The jaguar can’t do that. They just live according to their god-given instincts. They can’t decide to build an atomic bomb, or kidnap other animals for ransom, or commit any of the millions of dastardly deeds that humans inflict upon themselves.

They don’t burn or chop down the forest, or go to war with other animals.

They just live according to the plan that was laid out for them.

So, what’s the plan for us?

Are we living according to the right plan, or have we gotten off track?

I think what needs to occur is that we stop making every argument a political one, especially those that concern our planet and the health of it.

That we start taking action to correct the errors that have brought us to where we are now.

That doesn’t mean that we lose our comforts of life, our homes and cars, cities, planes, railroads and all those other things that make us feel better, or superior.

Costa Rica is a country that is pretty low on the totem pole in terms of its rate of consumption compared with the developed countries of the world.

And it’s a place where folks do seem to get it when it comes to the idea that the natural world does matter.

I guess it’s easier to have a deep respect for nature when you’re surrounded by so much of it.

Maybe Costa Rica and other biodiversity hot spots around the world (the few that are left) can serve as giant classrooms to teach us humans that the natural world does matter.

That would be a pretty cool thing to see happen.

Maybe then we humans could come to realize that matter matters, whatever form it might take.

That realization is at the heart of impact mindfulness.

I hope we’re not too late.

image credit: Tambako the Jaguar via Compfight cc

If you got nothing new to say, re-say something old. And, fortunately, there’s a lot out there that I’ve said that I can choose from.

Some of it embarrassing, but some of it, actually quite illuminating, in my not-so-humble opinion…

Here’s one on moving from belief to ideology.

I remember some self-help guru (I believe it was Tony Robbins) said that it really doesn’t matter if your beliefs are true or not, as long as they’re useful.

While that seems to be a slightly cynical statement, it does have a tinge of truth.

Where do our beliefs come from?

Well, they come from our experiences, traditions, parents, culture, etc.

If you grow up in a christian home, you’ll be inclined to adopt similar beliefs. Whereas if you grow up in, say, a muslim home, you’ll be more likely to adopt a quite different set.

If you grow up in communist China or Russia, you might not hold fast to the idea that western capitalism is the path to prosperity.

Does that make one belief right and the other wrong?

No, because the truth is that no matter what you “believe,” you cannot prove empirically that an opposing or different belief is wrong or untrue.

Beliefs are based on a certain degree of faith. The stronger that faith, the stronger the belief.

They’re not all religious. You can have beliefs about many things…politics, business, personal development, and so on.

In the previous 173 posts (referring to the old CRG blog) I’ve provided a smattering of my own beliefs. I know that they probably seem to be uncentered and disorganized. Some liberal, others conservative. Some religious, others secular.

But you see one thing I don’t believe in is “labels.” I’m not going to try and organize my beliefs in such a way that folks would label me conservative or liberal, religious or secular, right or left-wing.

We tend to get far too concerned that our beliefs have to be consistent with a given ideology. That’s never a good thing.

Why?

Because it limits what you allow yourself to believe in.

There was a time when believing that the earth was anything but flat would get you labeled a heretic…maybe even executed.

Today, if you grow up in the bible-belt southern U.S.A., believing anything but the conservative or fundamentalist christian line may not get you executed, but it will get you exiled from membership in the club.

So we disallow ourselves from believing anything outside of the confines of the accepted ideology.

And once you begin to think that your belief is absolute, empirical truth, it must mean that what everyone else believes is a lie (in short, heresy).

And that naturally leads to the idea that other “untrue” beliefs should be suppressed, quelled, or vanquished.

But I “know” that the human race’s search for truth is never served by suppression.

If it weren’t for the brave-hearted souls who dared to believe differently, in the face of the threat of condemnation or expulsion by the community of shared beliefs, then we would still think the world is flat.

In short, we would never know real truth.

Isn’t it curious how we tend to destroy ourselves over ideologies as opposed to scientifically knowable truth?