Thank you, Kerala. You write beautifully, and I fully resonated with your nostalgia for the “good old days” a mere decade ago (and at my advanced age, decades get more “mere” all the time…). I will not insult you by offering false hope or consolation: we’re fucked. Full stop. But my Buddhist practice tells me that everything is impermanent. But also, that everyone and everything is deeply interconnected; that this is because that is. And finally, in ways we cannot even imagine, that we are One with each other, with all life, with the entire universe. And in this respect, MLK was right about the long arc of the universe bending toward justice. For he also knew that “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality” where “whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” And that, my dear, is the Dharma in a nutshell; the only truth that matters—ever. So no matter what happens in our dying world, please remember two injunctions:
1. Breathe, Observe, Let Go, Abide.
2. Grow gardens, Grow community, Grow Awareness.
Blessings, Tom