{"article":{"id":10433,"heading":"Let's think...","author":"Cayce Callaway","created":"2001-09-20 01:08:04","modified":"2001-09-20 23:31:05","last_modified":"Fri, 21 Sep 2001 06:31:05","article":"

We've all had experiences in our lives where everything was suddenly altered and there was no going back; natural disasters, accidents, divorce, loss of someone close, the list in endless. For me, one of the common threads to these events is a loss of psychological balance, a disorientation, a difficulty regaining what I had previously perceived as stability.

Clearly, it happened again for most of us on Tuesday, September 11. No matter what one's political leaning, something shifted and we all have to deal with a new equilibrium.

As Americans, I believe we're ill-equipped to handle such discomfort. We take our emotional cues from TV and movies where something or someone always comes along and makes it easier. We're inundated with advertisements that promise to keep our lives perfect, free from all disaster. We eat, we drink, we pray, we work, we take drugs, we shop, we do whatever we can do to make the uncomfortable feelings go away. Our desire to be free of dis-ease has led us to take half of the legal and illegal drugs consumed on this planet.

Our current call for actions of all sorts, from vigils to demonstrations to retribution, seems to be a deep desire to take us back to where we were before, no matter where one fell on the ideological spectrum, to a point of familiarity where we might restore our collective balance. We seem driven to busy ourselves, to fix what's broken, to make something happen. We must do something, because the situation as is feels intolerable.

What if instead we did nothing for a little while? What if we sat quietly in our discomfort and examined what bubbled to the surface when all the noise and activity was turned off. What if the televisions and monitors went to black and the newspapers went to white and we stopped looking for answers? What would happen, for instance, if the President decided not to meet with his advisors for a week and they all just sat silently and thought. Okay, maybe the President was a bad example, but you get the drift.

I think we're being offered an opportunity to evolve on a number of levels. We can deepen our understanding of the suffering of all humankind, not simply the suffering of Americans. We can look at our desire to consume and our insatiable need for acquisition and the policies it's led us to develop and pursue. We can look at the pace with which we live and the blur that characterizes most of our lives. And just maybe, when the smoke finally clears, we can discover what is real.

Everyone's calling for a moment of silence. I'd like to suggest we start with a week.<\/p>\n","contact":"cayce9@hotmail.com","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"No matter what one's political leaning, something shifted and we all have to deal with a new equilibrium.","numcomment":3,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2001\/09\/10433.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":10447,"heading":"2 cents","article":"How about YOU stay silent for a week, Mr. Cayce \"Bonehead White Liberal\" Callaway....","author":"brownoneyque","parent_id":10433,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2001-09-20 13:14:03","modified":"2001-09-20 13:27:24","fileurl":""},{"id":10450,"heading":"Everything Has Changed","article":"The name-caller above richly illustrates the point he seeks to refute. Knowing nothing of the person he attacks, he manages to add a little more ignorance and blind hatred to the mix. \r\n\r\nCayce makes a powerful point, which can be incorporated even into taking action and speaking out--if we do so with the attitude of seeking to explore our discomfort, rather than run away from it. \r\n\r\nRetreating into progressive certainties is still a form of retreat. This is not to say they should be abandoned. Yes, it's true that the CIA virtually created the Mujahadeen, and gave Osama bin Laden his introduction to Holy War. Yes, it's true that militarism is the source of this terrible tragedy, not the solution. But for these insights to have power in the world, we must be able to connect with people who are not necessarily eager to think about such things. And we can connect with them if we look to what already connects us--which is what Cayce is pointing us to. \r\n\r\nWe must think bigger than those who would trap us in their limited vision, continuing the cycles of violence, injustice and suffering which have brought us to where we are today. To think bigger, we must set aside our own pre-conceptions as well. We must be willing to be uncomfortable, and be patient with discomfort. Not-knowing is the root of all knowing. This is a truth shared by all spiritual traditions, and by science as well. Certainty is barren. Questioning is infinitely fruitful, even, especially in the bleakest of times.","author":"Paul H. Rosenberg","parent_id":10433,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2001-09-20 13:55:28","modified":"2001-09-20 14:11:56","fileurl":""},{"id":10490,"heading":"Everything has changed:the Movement seizes","article":"Civil war is the US is a very real response to Herr Bushii.","author":"the Moment","parent_id":10433,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2001-09-20 23:31:05","modified":"2001-09-20 23:50:27","fileurl":""}]}