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UNIVERSE WITHIN by Gwen Randall-Young
Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions. – Albert Einstein
How hard can it be to think our own thoughts? After all, we are each individuals with minds of our own. But what do we really know, and how do we know? How do we glean our information about the world?
When I was a child, I remember repeating, as fact, ideas I had heard my parents expressing. For years they were my major source of information about the world and myself, so it was natural for me to assume that their political opinions were the correct ones. There was a sense of power in being in the know about such important things.
When the boy next door challenged my statements, his parents being of a different political persuasion, the obvious conclusion was that he, and they, were wrong. At least he and I went to the same school, so we could have something we could both be right about. Ours was the public school, and the one we passed on the way there was the Catholic school. Of course, we thought, it was better to be public than Catholic. So we could still play together and be smug about our place in the world.
That smugness was shattered one day when the boy who lived on the other side, and who attended the Catholic school, told me I would burn in hell because I was not Catholic. I had visions of God tossing me into a frying pan where I would shrivel up like burned bacon. I was no longer certain of my place in the world, and frankly, quite worried about where I would be after. A profound insecurity set in. I wanted to be on the right side, but I did not know which it was.
Things did not improve, for next came the Cuban missile crisis. Again, I thought I was on the right side because whatever side we are on, has to be the right side. Right as we might be, I did not like the model bomb shelters on display at the mall, or the air raid sirens that were being erected throughout the city.
Despite an undergraduate degree in political science, I never did find out what, or who, was right. I learned that there are ideas, and there are people. People act according to their ideas, and we can agree or disagree with their beliefs or actions. I saw that ideas can become beliefs, and beliefs can come to be regarded as truths. Politics, it seemed to me, was about conflicting ideas about what was right, and true. I also discovered that I was not all that political.
I then delved into graduate work in psychology. I learned a lot about the science of human development, learning and behaviour. In the study of psychology distinctions are not made on the basis of race, culture or political orientation. We look at how humans as a species develop and function. In this area, there are more similarities than differences.
The psychology that I studied made little, if any mention of the human soul. Nor did it consider the human as part of the interconnected whole that is our universe. Now, I was on my own. Since then, my study has been an exploration of the human spirit, and how Spirit manifests in each of us. My focus has been the soul. The soul, of course, is not political. That is the territory of ego.
How do we speak of soulful things in the political arena? How do we express “with equanimity” ideas that are so different from the talk of the day? Most of the “knowledge” about what is happening in the world is information gleaned from the media. Most of what is taken as fact is what is written and promulgated by “our side.” Of course it is the truth. The minute we choose a side we have joined into the polarity process. Our children grow up thinking that what they see on CNN is what is true in the world. Polarity sparks interest, and makes news. Peaceful co-existence does not sell advertising minutes.
In our culture, one is expected to have “informed opinions” about what is going on in the world. Yet, as Bertrand Russell said, “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.”
The tsunami showed us what happens when we transcend the political. What a wake-up call. Slowly the world drifts back to sleep, waking to ingest the “processed political food” served up by the media, when we could be feasting on the organic wholeness of our interconnectedness. It is time to take a step back – far enough back that we can see the polarities, and the space beyond them. Then we must use our wisdom to figure out how to explore and occupy that space, for in it there are no borders, no separate territories and there is room for all.
Gwen Randall-Young is an author and psychotherapist in private practice and a feature columnist for Common Ground magazine. Her books, tapes and CDs are available at www.gwen.ca, or contact her at gwendall@shaw.ca. They may also be ordered through Banyen Books.
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