This city of lights that I reside in, can be quite the challenge mentally.
I am strangely hyper aware of the noise pollution around my building these days. Drilling and ripping up balcony's and pavements and buildings in all directions. Not to mention the chaos that is the downtown core with the 1 billion dollars spent on security for the G-20 summit.
(1 billion dollars, is this number even palatable to the average person? It's bloody insane, I don't want to say to much about this but lets support the ban on Offshore Drilling and lets phase out Fossil fuels immediately and independently investigate the ties between big oil and big government.
Let's stop depleting our resources on Aboriginal lands, especially with the viable energy alternatives available to us unilaterally. The Judges decision to overturn the moratorium on Offshore Drilling is ludicrous and reeks of right wing payoffs.)
I tend to generally think of protesters as a bit of a pain in the ass,(shitty past attitude admission) but in this current climate of environmental disaster and world poverty I completely support them. There is no need for a Bono or Bob Geldoff here.
Moving on in topic, the noise pollution ... the fences downtown and the upcoming Pride parade (wait perhaps I shouldn't mention that one)the honking horns of the multicultural World Cup celebrations are going to throw your “SO-HUM” morning meditation slightly out of whack, and perhaps your needy libido.
I am honestly practicing zazen/meditation twice a day as well as visualization and some other practices that work for me in keeping me humble and in the moment. However, even with all of this ritualistic love and exercise incorporated into my life, it is still obviously difficult to deal with the energy of this city in the Summer. A friend visiting from Alberta recently commented to me...”it must be difficult, I couldn't imagine living here and dealing with this 24 hours a day”.......I wasn't exactly sure what he was referring to at the time, but the truth is, we who have lived here for most of our adult lives just do it. However, it would be nice to go swimming in a river once in while or take a walk down a country road with your partner when the only sounds you can here are the sounds of your own footsteps.
If we don't figure out an outlet that works, or a way to slow down the process of synthesizing and analyzing all of the chaos of the city, we are in trouble. Most of the people here look like they are living in a bubble of noise, or a cylinder of darkness. They are not dealing with the energy, they are just trying to catch up to the speed with a new cell phone or to play some music immediately in order to drone out the wilting sounds of the natural world.
I don't like to generalize. However I just did.
Maybe most of these people are not walking around depleted after all, maybe they know the secret, the secret that helps them get through. Perhaps a little pot during lunch, a couple of xanax before breakfast or my favorite, sneaking bottles of Vodka into your daily routine. It's all so very soulless in the end. How can we get it back to ...I don't know....that wonderful way we saw the world when we were children. Couple that vision with some proactive peaceful initiatives, some humility and were off.
In the meantime, let's think about the challenge of changing ourselves. Deep stuff.
As I am writing this a huge protest is going by the cafe I am in with thousands of people and signs that read “Native Rights are Human Rights” and “You can't breathe money”. These protesters seemingly are getting something that most of us are missing.
(Most of them being University students; let's hope they continue to get it after they leave their supportive community, and move onto the antiseptic and brutal real world complete with the DREAM CRUSHING machine that subliminally works its way into your life)
Powerful message though..
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