There is no Sucks: A Solstice Message
What sort of creature are you? What are you here to do?
On the solstice, the pinnacle of our year, the zenith of the light, triumph of our sun, we are always offered a glimpse of the heights to which we might ascend. Today’s rays offer us a rare level of clarity, the kind that allows us to see just what rests on a higher plane.
I’ll say the same thing today that I’ve said every year since 2013: bank this light. The light will only diminish from here, so take all of this that you sense and know and have been given on this day and store it deep within you, that you might carry it through the leaner times to come and ever remain whole. But this year, I’m going to say much more than that. The year itself, 2019 and its nature, it calls for something more.
These are critical times, both in the cycle of our individual lifespans and in the phase in which we find ourselves collectively in society. The time is now to take the gift of today’s clarity and vision and, beyond simply storing it up, put it to use.
Nooffense to anybody else, but I must first address members of my own micro-generation, the 30–40 set.
I want to be very clear about something: it is not our responsibility to somehow “save the world” — whatever that may even mean. No single generation, or even a single age of time, can be made to shoulder that responsibility, nor is any generation or age going to ever be adequate to such a towering task. Is the world in need of saving? Perhaps, although I wouldn’t take it for a fact. But if so, and if such salvation is possible, it’s not automatically in the hands of the humans alone. And if it be possible to achieve such salvation BY human hands, that will be demonstrated in the doing. If salvation is neither possible through non-human forces or by human effort, it will not come about, and we’ll discover how this particular story ends.
No sense getting all worked up about it, if that’s the case. Every story does end.
Whatever the case may be, this is not Lord of the Rings. We older millennials are not tasked with bringing the ring to Mordor to destroy it. If only this were as simple as melting a piece of jewelry in a volcano! Instead, we were born into this tsunami-like juggernaut of intertwined but individuated forces and systems and cycles. We inherited a boat much larger than we alone can possibly turn in the middle of stormy seas. None of this is a swipe at the easy-target Boomers, either. This isn’t their “fault” any more than it’s our job to fix it. You can’t point the finger at any group of people.
I say all of this because I myself am susceptible to despair at the prospect that things can’t be fixed and systems can’t be overcome and sometimes the prospects of long-term survival seem dim and unpleasant. When overcome by this despair, I become convinced that there’s no point to doing anything at all; like the author of Ecclesiastes, I begin raving madly in my head about how it’s all just vanity and vanity and all things under the sun shall perish one day anyway.
But now, especially now, we need to understand that neither the fact that this is not our fault or responsibility or job nor that creeping despair over the realization that we might not “win this thing” can be excuses for us to fail to take what responsibility we do have and the actions we can (and must) take.
This is our time; we’ve barely seen its beginnings. That part is, in part, the fault of our Boomer parents, but it’s due to their size, not some sort of defect in their character. There’s a shit-ton of them, and they haven’t really turned over the keys to society yet. But there’s actually more of US, and, laws of time and aging being what they are, they will soon have no choice. And make no mistake about it, those keys are coming to us. Xers are like Prince Charles, they’re already too old now that it’s time to take the crown. They’re also too small; they’re going to be drowned by us. We’re going to flood in and wash them out of the way.
This is going to happen over the next decade, but it’s going to start more or less now. As far as “readiness” goes, it’s possible that ship has sailed, and it’s not certain any generation can really be “ready” anyway. We’re as ready as we are now. The key is going to lie in the willingness. Will we step up? Will we answer the call?
What will we do if the answer is yes? It may not be within our power to save the world, but we’ve still got our lives to live and shit to run while we’re living them — and that’s a lot more than nothing.
In the Bhagavad Gita, the main character is a prince named Arjuna. He’s standing on his chariot on the battle lines with his army. Across the way are the lines of the enemy army, led by his cousins. The whole thing takes place in this brief pause in the moment before the fighting, and he’s just like, “Man, this sucks. The people in this army are my family and the people in the other army are my cousins, who are also my family. I don’t want to kill them and I don’t want them to kill me. What the hell.”
The guy driving his chariot for some reason also happens to be god, and he replies basically, “Dude, there is no ‘sucks’. Everybody here was set on a path long ago — before they were even born — that’s well outside their control, and on that path you all shall travel. It’s the way it is and all there is. You must act, but the purpose of your action isn’t to fight against THAT. Look at the day before you and you know what your job is. Go and do your job. If it means killing, that’s the way the story goes. If it means dying, that’s the way the story goes. That’s how it was always going to play out. So that’s what the hell.”
And the prince is like “Whoa…”
The fact that our lives will see great changes even as does the world that incorporates it does not contradict the notion or existence of fate. Fate is comprised of such movements and changes, and accepting — even loving — one’s fate does not mean embracing the status quo or attempting to remain motionless as you are. It does not mean withdrawing from the world, from social interactions and societal activity. It means we spend our lives seeking to uncover our proper roles and then live them out to the fullest and best extent possible.
What sort of creature are you? What are you here to do?
With the acceptance and love of our fates within that great tapestry and pageant that is the universe — as it is and not how we might seek to make it — we better position ourselves to behave collectively in an orderly fashion, each of us taking our respective positions. When we do so, we are more capable of enacting the changes we seek — or, bare minimum, of exercising the responsibility we have to own our time here.
We need this order, but the order is nothing if it isn’t paired with beauty and with grace. If we don our best stoic suits and refuse to complain about any aspect of our fate and commit ourselves to doing our jobs, that’s great and all, but it’s empty motions without this other half — without music and dance, without holidays and rituals, celebrations and observances on small and large scales, alone and all together with everyone else. Just as these things would be empty and even blindly hedonistic without some sort of responsible and orderly foundation, that foundation is just a concrete slab without purpose if not for these things.
So it is that we shall contemplate and we shall not shy away from responsibility — but we shall also sing and celebrate and be glad.
There are many shadows that remain cast upon our path just in terms of the second half of this year, never mind on the scale of the rest of our lives and beyond. I’m having a good time, but I suspect this is unlikely to be a banner year for everyone. There will be trials and difficulties. But if we rest in the understanding of all of this context, we’re strong enough to take whatever gets dished out and then some. We really are.
Be bold as we walk that path, both separately and together, all at once. Be bold each morning as you awaken and emerge from bed and go to it. Fear none of it. Resist none of it. Go for it — and remember a few more helpful things to bolster you on your way.
Take what luxury or abundance we may find within ourselves and around our persons and lend all of that to the new ideas we see emerging and we can do anything, including challenge the powers and habits that rule the day right now.
Take what we’ve gathered around us and put it to work, remaining calm on the surface even as we boil and scheme within, and just patiently do our jobs, like a farmer tending the crops and, over time, ensuring the great harvest.
In moments of cruelty and oppression, moments that may at times even bring the illusion of darkness to these days of long light, remember that these are the moments when the year’s last cosmic seeds are being planted, seeds of hope destined to grow — to grow for us. It will require faith to believe that when it doesn’t seem to match with what’s all around us.
When there’s strain in your relationships, do what you can on your own — continue doing your work, in other words. They’re likely to resolve themselves even if we have to delay some celebration or pleasure until they do. That’s okay. That happens. It’s not the end of anything.
Be committed to the world you greet and the world you sense is to come and be ready for the new ideas and energies that are certain to emerge.
Too often we waste our time and energy focusing on right and wrong, good and evil. The earth bears it all, and so must we. This is how it always is to play out. We will know we have arrived in maturity when we begin to focus instead on doing our job — just as god the chauffeur told the prince right before the battle.
Remember, particularly in those moments of near-despair, that all stories come to an end, including ours, including that of our civilization, including that of humanity, including that of the planet and the sun and on and on and on. Everything ends, even if nothing is lost. If it is our fate to see any of these endings while we’re here, well, it had to be somebody, right? At some point in every story, the time for saving is past, and if that’s what we’re to see, we must bear that with the same responsibility as we would in a time of prosperity.
Maybe if we do have to go, we can leave some sort of imprint behind.
WE WERE HERE.
Perish the thought from your minds, though, friends, because that’s decidedly NOT the task for today. Today we celebrate the light, worship it if we are so inclined, and bank as much of it as we can, that it may carry us on to the end of the story of this year — which is plenty enough for us to focus on.
Many blessings to you and yours.