Monthly Quip January

Hello again, Friends, 

We made it! Once again our planet has circled all the way around the sun. And where did it get us? Right back where we started.

Maybe we should be counting the passage of time from the original Big Bang, when the ingredients for the universe were created,13.7 billion years ago. It would be a cumbersome number to use when marking the date on documents- January 1, 13,700,000,000 – but it would give us more of a sense of where we are coming from, and how long we’ve been under construction. 

For now, we still follow the conventional Gregorian calendar, having not yet achieved separation of church and date. So we’ll go with 2021. 

In a difficult time such as the one we are living through, with its storms and plagues and crisis after crisis, I think it’s helpful to remember the countless ancestors that went through their own struggles and sorrows and brought us to this moment of life. Reflecting on the scientific story of evolution, we find a lineage of bodhisattvas stretching back millions of years through epochs of geological time. 

We owe our existence to the sacrifices of uncountable numbers of beings; creatures who had to shape-shift to meet the ever-changing demands of natural forces; who suffered horribly through atmospheric upheavals, ice ages, comets crashing into earth, continents colliding, volcanoes erupting, floods and vicious plagues. Through their fierce determination to live, all those beings have brought us to this present moment of semi-awakened consciousness.

In order to honor those who made our life possible and maybe even find some hope for the future, I suggest that we go back to some form of ancestor worship. By ancestor worship I don’t mean just keeping a daguerreotype of Grandpa on the mantle. I’m talking about deep ancestor worship, which requires that we dig into our evolutionary past and evoke the spirit of those who made it possible for us to become the brilliantly befuddled humans we are today. 

Maybe you could even work up the biography of one of your favorite long-ago ancestors– animal, plant or even fungus or bacteria– and talk about its life to your friends and children. Perhaps we can find ways to bring evolution alive by turning it into stories, songs, dances. The time has come to celebrate the fact that we are part of this grand unfolding and unfinished revelation, to take our place as members of the extended family of life on earth.

As a member of this family, there is much to be done, but it is a glorious calling, and you are asked to be a part of it. Do what you can do and then do a little more, in service to the mystery of life on earth.

My sentiments are more finely expressed by D. H. Lawrence: Our task in the coming era is to relocate ourselves in the cosmos and to renew our kinship with all of earth life. It is time to join again in the dance-drama of biological and cosmic evolution.

Feeling too cynical to join the dance-drama? Check out the below piece in the Inquiring Mind about my own journey to embrace the power of ritual, Learning to Love the World Anyway.

One project I’ve been working on these days is to assemble a book of favorite quotations, pieces of poetry, musings, one liners, the insights of sages throughout the ages. Here are two favorites to ponder this January. 

The first is from Canadian philosopher, Marshall McLuhan: There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew.

The second quote is from Joseph Campbell: The challenge of our time is to forge a new story by which we might understand ourselves.

And when things are bad it can sometimes help to add music. Below is Buddha Blues, a song written by yours truly that speaks to what I mean, with arrangement and guitar by the talented Kevin Griffin.

So friends, stay in touch with any requests, complaints or revelations. Stay awake, stay connected, stay amazed, and now, more than ever, if you don’t like the news go out and make some of your own.

Wes