New Year. Sheesh! I’m just glad the days are getting longer.
I left Walla Walla with my last load of stuff to cart to Alameda, CA where, as far as I can tell, I may be at my last address, or there’ll be more. When I got near the end stretch of my drive around the perimeter of the U.S. last Fall, I stopped to visit with the Abbott of the Berkeley Buddhist Priory since I spent quite a few years in attending at that Temple and he has been a strong influence on my Buddhist (Zen) training; and told him that I had kept my eyes open for a place where I might settle for good since Old-Age is becoming more real for me. So he made a suggestion about a place that would be affordable for me and I thought, “elegant solution” (Which is an engineering term for fixing a problem so that the mechanism is optimized beyond its original design and expectations). I was looking for a setting with good public transportation, walk-ability and a major airport nearby. Alameda has all that and some of our Sangha members live next-door and I’m 15 minutes from our Temple in Berkeley.
The doing of the move and the details and all the help from friends in Walla Walla to get going before Winter became the ongoing obstacle was quite draining, so the day I decided to go into motion was the 21st of December. My favorite day of the year because the days start to get longer about then, a brightening that continues until June 21st and then suddenly a pall is cast over my favorite time of year (early Summer) by my liking the 21st of December so much, because the days then get shorter, at the beginning of Summer. It ain’t fair, somehow.
Which brings me to Happy New Year!
Most of us have have not enjoyed 2020 very much even though those four numbers are very pleasing in their appearance and order. And, many people, myself included, hope that this coming year is better than the previous; within which there is a hint of hope that a lot of stuff will be in “turnaround ” and consequently 2022 will be really great (Be aware) because those numbers are pleasing also.
The problem lies in trying to get a grasp on what the heck was going on today. Where was I? Did I try to see where I stand or was being physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually in relation to myself in all those categories?
Yeah, I know! Big Hairy-Question. And then, where is all that in relation to all those other Beings and the World, and Life in general?
One may ask who’s got time for that kind of stuff when I can’t pay rent, don’t have a job and my kids and spouse and friends and neighbors are all turning into concepts that have to be set aside while We All have to prepare for a world that may not be amenable to any of our Wills and Ways anymore
Yeah. I know! lots of Extra-Capitalization going on in this here rumination.
I suspect we are being given a chance as a society, a culture and individually, to see how we respond when massive and real dire problems face all of us. All of us. If all this keeps up for the next 30-40 years; not even Billions of Dollars, or Whatever, will make you feel comfortable about you and your’s or anybody else’s future.
Given the opportunity to change
Will I look at changing me, or will
I look at changing you, or your
Mind and how you act and think.
Maybe its better to work with the
Material that’s at hand and accessible.
Contemplative Space 
One of my first thoughts when the COVID came into reality in my personal space and time, anyway, was that it probably would slow the rate of the worst of global climate change. After all, for quite a time, air travel pretty much came to a stop. I don’t think the cruise ship industry will ever recover after seeing interviews of people trapped in tiny staterooms while they waited to become infected. Both of these things will slow down the use of fossil fuels, which are the propelling force of climate change. Is this a coincidence or is this our Mother Earth telling those of us who are failing to respect her that we’d better shape up or we’ll be shipped out, one way or another? Remember, we don’t have the power to destroy the planet. We only have the power to take away its’ ability to support our form of life. That, we most certainly can take away, and without drastic changes that we do NOT have the political or economic will to make, we will, within the next century, turn the majority of what started out as a pretty nice planet into either standing water, swamps that best support insect and reptile life, with mammals not so much, or a scorched and poisoned hellscape where everything that was flammable has already burned or is just waiting for a spark to set it off.
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