I was talking to some friends the other day who just returned to Florida. They have a home down here as well as one in Philadelphia, and when I asked why they came back so early, they said that they just had to get away from their relatives!
They went on to tell me about their daughters tragic divorce, how they had to bail her out of the financial end of it and buy her condo, and how all the kids and grandkids in the family are going wild; uncontrollable they said, while their parents are making unbelievable amounts of money.
Also, they said that they were abused at the airport and on the flight by two different people who were so impatient they physically pushed the elderly couple aside; both on the plane and in the baggage area.
I have observed the same kind of rage whenever Janet and I drive anywhere in southwest Florida. (I heard that the east coast is even worse!) People routinely drive seventy miles an hour in 45 or 50 mph zones, cutting in and out of traffic as if they are on the NASCAR circuit!
And it seems to be getting worse. Americans are getting angry, very angry - you can barely watch TV without seeing pundits screaming at each other about things they discussed civilly not many years ago. So what's up with all this rage?
People are scared. Afraid that they won't have enough, and afraid that what they do have will be taken away. Everybody is walking around bone tired all the time, we don't even have enough time to sleep - too much to do, too little time. And we no longer have faith that things will work out. We have lost our confidence.
As the rest of the world catches up to us, we, as a society, must face the possibility that we will no longer be the super power we once were; those days may be long gone. Soon, we could just be another country because of the enormous amount of debt we have run up in maintaining an unsustainable, wealthy lifestyle that was so far out of sync with the rest of the world. We have always been able to grow out of this, but China and India might change all of that.
Our great country is losing its prestige. As a country, we have a very big national ego, and we get angry when things don't go our way. We're worried that we cannot sustain our current lifestyle in a shrinking world, and we are getting scared, and anger is a direct result of fear.
Soon, China will have the economic power of ten Japans, and will dwarf anything that we can do. Already, most of our manufacturing has gone overseas, just as Japan's has, and what has happened economically to Japan over the last ten years could happen here - no growth and a steady deflation set off by a housing and a stock market bubble.
Japan has an aging population, as do we, and their growth rate has stopped; a trend that cannot be changed easily. Neither Japan nor the United States can compete with the rest of the world in manufacturing, and the things that we can compete in, our technology and our entrepreneurial talents, the rest of the world will soon learn how to do as well. The Chinese and Asians are incredibly intelligent people, and diligent, too and there are lots of them!
But if we can get by all of this without nuking someone, or some such nonsense, as a last gasp effort to reestablish our dominance, then, as we accept our new role in the world, we have a good chance of coming out of this relatively intact. And maybe even a better country for it - perhaps not financially, but psychologically and spiritually.
But then again... there is an almost palpable feeling that something big is about to happen, and maybe this is the real basis of our out of control anger, because what might be about to happen could foster the greatest of fears.
A possibility exists that we know, collectively, intuitively, that our world is about to change, a sudden, dramatic change that would be above and beyond economics, or anything that we have ever experienced before. (Nature has a way of wiping out any smugness that we foolishly develop when things are going too good!) It is as if the entire world is about to experience one of those life-altering tragedies that turns individual's lives around, but this time it will turn the entire world around.
If you type "2012" into your browser, you will see that many diverse prophesies are pointing toward that date, including the Bible and other sources that predict some sort of cataclysmic sun event. The Mayan calendar actually sets the precise date: Dec. 21, 2012.
Some say that 2012 will usher in a new consciousness after the apocalyptic sun event, which is described by various prophets as an orange fireball in the sky, a comet, gigantic sun flares. And perhaps what happens during the next five years will lead up to it, or maybe it will happen suddenly. Who knows, maybe the source of global warming involves much more than merely humankind's follies!
At any rate, it's a good time to begin looking inward. Regardless of what happens to the world, what we develop inwardly cannot be taken away.
As practicing Buddhists, we consider every day to be our last. We understand that our personal world will most likely come to an end before the world does, but either way, it's the next world that we will have to deal with, based on whatever understanding we have developed down here. Christians with faith in God, and Buddhists who live each moment, need not concern themselves with the end of the world.
However, those that have their entire existence grounded in the things of the world could potentially have a lot to worry about! Think about it; if we woke up some night and found the sky a bright, reddish orange, and the temperature outside our homes about 150 degrees, what would we do? The water would run out, no food, bands of marauders looking for water and anything to eat. We wouldn't be worrying about our 401k!
This kind of reality, where our families are about to lose their lives, is about as tough as it gets, and unless we have taken time to contemplate death, our relationships, and the deeper aspects of life, we could easily fall over the psychological edge.
Some say that although many will live through this upheaval, their lives will change dramatically, living in small groups and barely surviving. The economic and political concerns of today would be long forgotten, as people's lives more closely resemble the wandering lifestyles of Christ or the Buddha.
When the chips are down like this, things get real, quickly, and spirituality naturally floods our souls, as we survive together in loving clans and groups. How else could spirituality ever happen? It could never happen in our present states of mind.
It takes an exceptional astuteness and awareness to practice austerities and difficult observances when things are going so good, but those that sacrifice now will be ready, whether the calamity involves the entire world or only themselves.
It's just a matter of time, and time goes by quickly...
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