Wind and Water

Trying to keep life in balance is an ongoing concern for me, but lately it has seemed more of a struggle. Life doesn’t seem to be flowing as smoothly as I would prefer and I can’t quite put my finger on the reason.

In our Western Christian cultural philosophy we don’t have a healthy concept of balance. We celebrate celebrities who are out of balance, whose talents and lifestyles are often one-dimensional and without harmony. We usually approach the issues and topics of our own lives in a one-sided manner, using our energy, space and time in a “straightforward course” as if we were a horse wearing blinders (yes, the Bush fiasco in Iraq is a classic example). We disregard the reality that life does not always follow a straightforward, linear path, but is instead a journey offering many forks in the road. In fact we narrow our vision too much by using a land-based vision of life’s course. It would be better to consider life as traveling through wind and water, where there is no path to tread on foot, but instead there is an open expanse of sky and sea, with variable circulation and flow through which we navigate.

Eastern non-Christian (and especially the non-theistic) cultural philosophies seem to me to have better concepts of balancing life, such as working with the flow of energy through space and time, yin and yang, and Feng Shui (which means wind and water). The Eastern approach pays more attention to interconnectedness, inner and outer aspects, centering, simplifying, intention, taming and detaching from outcome.

My navigational concerns include: age and health; use of limited space, time and energy; and relating to other people. Age and health has become more of a concern as the calendar progresses. The darkness of winter contributes its annual blow to energy. Some progress has been made in the use of my space, with help from the book, “Wind and Water”, by Carole J. Hyder. Energy should increase as the daylight lengthens. Balancing the use of time remains my greatest challenge.

For non-vegetarian readers, I will close by putting some positive meat on the bones of this article. I think the American rejection of Republicans in the election was somewhat of an Eastern approach, recognizing our politics needed to be more balanced and centered. Our disastrous meddling in the Middle East may be teaching us that spreading the West too far produces unbalance. Awareness of the importance of protecting the environment may be rekindling (especially if the talk of opening the moon to building and commercialization is quickly squelched). We are becoming more aware of the dangers of forcing religious beliefs on those who choose not to share them. The serious talk of Hilary and Barach as Presidential prospects shows we are making progress against gender and racial discrimination. Popular support for a raise in the minimum wage shows we are concerned about economic polarization.