Comedy of Errors

The older I get, the deeper into my meditation I go, the more I think life really often is such a comedy of errors...I think Shakespeare understood everything. I, and maybe many of us, spend oceans of mental energy trying to "figure things out," placing events and emotions into the right categories in our library of experience. The trouble is, they begin to overlap; they are clever escape artists to, what experience would view if it were a person, the prison of dichotomy. Ironically, I find that the errors, which we try so earnestly to avoid or plot to derail, are really the stuff of dreams, the richest moments in our lives, where our hearts are available to the massive range of human emotions. Hence the epic comedy.

When I reflect on my mind-space, I see that so often I forget to be present...I am somewhere in the past or somewhere in the future. It will be such a great accomplishment in my life- in all our lives- if I could one day be so firmly present that I hear everything, that I operate through listening more than thinking, that I find deep, thorough peace because nothing has been left undone and there is nothing left to do...no matter how busy or exciting or driven or full of things my life is, that still, I am first and foremost 'being', compassionately living right now, un-distracted by what I might be or what I once was...

Rainer Maria Rilke, who also understood the equal worth of sadness and longing and anger to that of love and hope and comfort, wrote (in "Letters to a Young Poet") to his troubled friend, begging him to "be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now." He is not the first to say such things.

I admit to being a bit of a passivist, at times preferring to downplay rich and sticky conflict, despite for years feeling aware and dedicated to embracing it. But even as we embrace it, we judge it: this is bad, this is uncomfortable (with our lovers as with our distant enemies) and so, let's fix it, let's understand it right out of existence. One of my favorite sayings is slowly becoming "let's agree to disagree." I would like to add to it, "let's agree to not understand." I used to kind of hate the phrase; I thought it kind of breathed conscious cop-out, a haunting passive aggressive back door. But I see now how it validates the unquestionable human condition of contention. It gives license to the darkness and confusion to go ahead and exist. It is deeply affirming, especially when said with a genuine smile.

I don't always know how it will feel, to walk into conflict, to embrace emotionally volatile situations, or even to sift through the general blues. But I'd like to say that, as I am more skilled now than before, I will become even more adept at not trying to answer all the questions. Of not trying to "figure things out." Of being content in whatever mood or circumstance is presented, without trying to either grab hold and make it stay or by plotting its eradication. I'd like to one day say that I welcome the muck as much as the sun...

In fact there is a saying, "No mud, no lotus," as the lotus only can grow out of the stinkiest, deepest, most unsavory mud. Why is this the way? We may never know, but we can see the dreamy humor in it. We can celebrate that the lotus, somehow, does grow...and we can take refuge in that knowledge and in so honor and laugh at our soaked and dirty clothes...

I'm going to really try to hold that space more often, in all the different pockets of my life...and see the comedy in trying to figure out perceived errors, and commit myself to seeing and hearing them while setting them free from having to fess up to the serious, un-playful professor in my mind. She is the voice that always wants everything defined, that is quick to blame and who encourages competition. She is the voice who forgets that some mysteries are meant to be lived- that understanding and defining them pale in comparison to the importance of their presence in our lives.

I don't always know how to be like this, but I know that whenever in my life I'm just there, just present with what is, open and curious, I feel relaxed in the most all-together authentic, blissful way. I am available, without expectations and agenda, to the universe.

pondi.

Sounds of the Indigo Years: Music to Hear: Vol.2

Although a little late, "Sounds of the Indigo Years: Music to Hear" has returned to offer you another fantastic, progressive and of course lesser known gem of musical brilliance to be shared and savored...

This week's pick: Cecilia Zabala- an enchanting singer and guitarist from Argentina, bestowing incredible vocals which range from soothing, Gilberto-esque romantic undulations to more experimental vocal acrobats, all accompanied by a beautiful range of warm and easy to more clipped and energetic guitar playing.

I was lucky enough to have met her when she was touring with my uncle for the International Guitar Night tour, an annual U.S. tour bringing together artists in contemporary classical guitar from around the world. However, don't judge too quickly, whether you enjoy this genre or not...for she escapes classification.

She has two albums and you can check her out at www.myspace.com/ceciliazabala

****************************
What an incredible time to be alive musically! So, I offer you a weekly 'check this out' opportunity to expand your musical horizons and check out what's out there. Suggestions for future additions are most welcome. I've named it "Sounds of the Indigo Years" after the so-called Indigo Children. To learn more about them (perhaps us), you can check things out at Wikipedia (in this case it's a good summary).

Basically, it is named "Sounds of the Indigo Years" on the notion that never before have people been so able and open to connect with and explore other cultures, no matter which culture(s) you belong to, through music. Through that connection, this rich musical age- whether by default or intentionally- I believe is improving the world. Listen close.
****************************

Asfinkter sez whaa?

I came across this joke recently:
What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual.
What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual.
What do you call someone who speaks one language? American.

Right. Why is it that Americans in general are so unconcerned with this particular skill? How is it that a nation whose citizens represent an incredibly rich collective heritage of different languages could become so aloof and dispassionate on this subject, resulting in one of the most linguistically limited societies in the world. Worse, is our mono-linguistic preference in part fueling that stereotypical but pervasive presumption that Americans are one-dimensional, dense, oblivious- to say the least? Are we doomed to ride the globe’s linguistic short bus, or are our shortcomings balanced by our strengths just like anywhere else?

Unfortunately, the discourse surrounding second language education in the U.S., at least between ‘average’ citizens, tends to include two parts. First, there is the “[They] should learn English if [they] want to live/work in America,” bit, referring to immigrants and refugees living and working here (or even with international associates with whom Americans wish to do business!). The second part of the narrative includes the disinterest in adding or strengthening language programs in our schools and the exceedingly bleak notion that “English is the most spoken language on earth; everyone is learning it or wants to learn it, so why should we waste money/time learning other languages.”

This may be a worst-case scenario, representing the most apathetic, narrow opinions toward second language learning in the U.S. today. However, based on our present education system (and its lack of funding/support/programs in second language learning), these assumptive statements above are not so far from the mainstream view.

Ironically, many others around the world are indeed learning English, but that is in addition to already possessing a native tongue, often as well as other languages. I don’t have a single international friend who doesn’t speak two or more languages. The number of required English language programs, starting children as early as age 5, in schools globally is staggering even compared to a short decade ago. In the next several decades, as these children grow up, we will see a significant growth in the number of world-wide English speakers. In this way, their horizons, their potential and their opportunities expand. By default, so will those of some Americans. But it would be foolish to entertain even a trace of the notion that this is happening to accommodate or ascribe to the mono-linguistic American culture and its business world. Quite the opposite: It is for their or their nation’s own advancement in our shrinking global world.

Even if we should never step off of American soil, increasingly will the successful and indispensable person be one who possesses more than one speaking language. What are we doing to expand the horizons and opportunities for our children via second language education in a world increasingly interdependent?

Language is not only a means for communication. It is a cognitive phenomenon which no less than defines for us what our relationship to the world will be, where its boundaries can be found, and perhaps most importantly on this subject, how boundaries can become permeable, dynamic, creative. When we are children, we pick up language much more quickly than as adults, yet in the U.S., we don’t even introduce (by and large) second language until middle school, when our linguistic learning abilities have already greatly diminished. Because we are an isolated nation, language also serves as a kind of sailboat…a stationary adventure out into the world...

The awareness that others speak other languages is not enough to impress upon the American citizen that not only do others speak differently, they think differently, believe differently, solve differently, live differently. That translation involves maps, not tracings. That to learn another language, whether consciously or not, is to learn another way of thinking, and therefore of perceiving the world. In doing so, we not only make deals and sign contracts; we open gate upon gate to deeper understanding, wisdom and conscious celebration of diversity.



pondi.