2011…this year has been one full of excitement, gain, and loss. Countries moved forward, while others moved backwards. Wars were ended, while unemployment rates skyrocketed. One thing we can be sure of…there was indeed CHANGE, whether we liked it or not. The usual things happened, too….babies were born, while the elderly passed on. Relationships began and ended, emotions were evoked and suppressed, while love and hate continue to be conflicting forces in this world. In some ways, nothing has changed. In others, they have changed completely. It’s all relative…whether the glass is half-empty, or half-full.
As the year went on, tensions continued to rise between two classes of people….the ninety-nine percent, and the one percent. Class warfare was declared by many on either side; one side claiming that the other takes from them and gives nothing in return, while the other claiming that it is indeed giving things, and that the other side needs to be more appreciative of that. Anger escalated, and people took to the streets, claiming that they’d had enough of the unfairness that they’ve witnessed for a long time. Yes, violence broke out, arrests were made, and some people did get hurt. That is to be expected when people gather together for a cause of some sort. I wouldn’t call it a true revolution, rather, an awakening.
No, I’m not referring to my personal beliefs about what is truly going on “behind the curtain.” Amazingly, for the first time in a long time, people are slowly awakening to the fact that there are indeed others, like minded souls, who inhabit this planet. They were able to stop racing around in their gas-guzzling SUVs and come together, to do what they believed needed to be done to save the Human Race as we know it. The selfish pursuits and endless quests to achieve the “American Dream”, as it turns out, were not the ultimate reason or purpose for living on Earth. To say that everyone is the same everywhere would be unfair, and this represents but a cross-section of everyone on this planet. The media seems to focus on only certain ones, and it tends to color our view a bit.
Another amazing thing is happening…more people are accepting of Spirituality and religion. Some may be doing this out of fear, due to the constant reminders that the Mayan calendar says that the world will end sometime in December of 2012. Are they looking for salvation for the wrongs they have committed? Are they looking to be purged of their sins and to be looked upon as worthy of a higher God? Certainly there are a few that just might be running to find it, in desperation. They know not what to do with themselves, and their lives have proven to be an illusion or a disappointment. They might just see that their entire focus on the worldly affairs is endless. The rewards are short-lived, and the desire to continue to act upon them quite possibly could lead us to a not-so-wonderful world. We need not catastrophize about everything coming to a screaming halt.
What I mean is, yes there will be change…that you can be sure of. There is ALWAYS change, whether you realize it or not. Nothing is not ever changing. Just because we don’t see it with our own eyes in that moment, it doesn’t mean that there is not change happening. It may happen at a snail’s pace, or it may appear to happen almost instantly. Honestly, drastic change is the result of a slow build-up, over time. We can analogize all we want to, but I think you get the picture. All these little things that occur over time eventually will change the state of something, and when we see that one more little change was enough to “push it over the edge,” then we assume that it all happened immediately. Don’t believe me? Science will dictate otherwise.
Putting myself under the magnifying glass, I will say that in 2011, I have made tremendous progress in the ways that I view my life, and the lives of others as well. As many of you may already know, I was a very angry person, and chose to see life mostly through a negative lens. Change always represented what I had to give up, or what was being taken away from me. Naturally, I resisted, raged, ranted, and rebelled as though my life were at stake. Sadly, even if I was in the wrong morally, I’d still carry this cantankerous view of my life, feeling justified in my wrong-doing, because in my past, I felt that I was taken advantage of, looked down upon, or abused.
As in the aforementioned example, it was the result of many years of cultivation of fear, anger, resentment, finally congealing as hatred. This hatred would lead to violence, and consequences would present themselves. Such is life. For many years, I never gave it a thought to “let go” of all this baggage. Letting go to me meant allowing myself to become weak and submissive. “Don’t go down without a fight!” ego admonished me. “You can’t let them lose! Do whatever you have to do to win. Nothing is sacred.” At first, I felt nothing. Soon, I began to feel a little pain. Much later, the pain was much greater than the feeling of acting out in anger. I realized how much of a hold it had upon me. I knew that it was time to surrender. I didn’t know how, but I knew that it needed to be done, and soon; for if I didn’t, I would surely die, in so many ways.
What does this have to do with what’s going on right now? Think of all the people, on both sides of this class warfare. What do they have in common? They both appear to be trying to hold onto something. One side wants everything to stay “status quo,” while the other is trying freakishly to hold onto the very foundation this country was based on. It’s a tug-of-war, and neither side appears to be willing to budge, or give in, for to do so would mean certain doom. The egos won’t have it, and they too will stop at nothing to get their way. All the while, everything around them is falling down, catching on fire, or being trashed beyond belief! Smell the burning? That’s civilization smoldering to the ground, and the fire just gets higher and higher. Imminent destruction of the lives we know are at stake if we don’t wake up!
What do I wish for in 2012? World consciousness…waking up to what’s going on around everyone. The resources that we have are not infinite, and it’s time we stop pretending that they are. If we continue to drill for oil, pollute the air with toxins that make it hard to breathe, or contaminate our water supplies due to industrial waste, we WILL see the end of the human race sooner than expected. Yes, I know that you are angry, and maybe you do hate one another, but remember this; we are all here TOGETHER.