La Vida Local Irregular Notes on West End Life
Peace on Earth & Peace in Portland
By Rosanne Graef
’Tis the season when we once more turn hopeful that maybe, just maybe, this year, will be when peace, goodwill, and love triumph and our warm wishes for the holiday season come true. For that to have a chance of happening, let’s apply to peace, goodwill, and love the old adage about charity beginning at home.
The near constant uncertainties and pressures of the pandemic and partisan politics of all stripes and at all levels seem to have reached a fever pitch. Society has become unhitched from its civil moorings. Way too many people are walking an emotional knife edge with ecstatic euphoria on one side and unrestrained rage on the other. Hysteria, hyperbole and hatefulness are being stoked 24/7. Those who do so seek to profit in some way by playing on people’s fears and misfortunes. Snarky comebacks, zingers, exaggerations, and downright lies may be fine for in-person yakking with your pals. But now we share them electronically with the general public deliberately or accidentally. These utterances cause pain for uncounted numbers of innocent people in ways the clever originators never imagined.
It’s impossible to constantly live at the extremes. You know those surveys where you’re asked if you “Strongly Disagree – Disagree – Don’t Know – Agree – Strongly Agree” with a statement? Or how about merely liking or disliking something being phrased as being passionate or phobic about it? Just as being whipped up too high for too long leads individuals to snap, it has consequences for societies, also.
“Widening our circle of compassion”
Albert Einstein wrote, “A human being is part of the whole, called by us ‘universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
Chipchan the Chipmunk
Years ago, a chipmunk lived near me. I enticed Chipchan with peanuts in the shell. He would take them, scurry away, and hide them for future meals.
Chipchan got to the point where if I sat on a rock with “his” peanuts in my pocket, he would burrow in, dig around, and then emerge with his cheeks stuffed. Imagine the feeling of having this tiny, trusting, vulnerable individual rummage in my pocket. It was one of those mystical moments that sometimes happen in life. We all need these moments, maybe now more than ever.
My wish for you is that you go out in the cold, quiet dark of a winter night, look up at the stars and hold these thoughts in your mind:
You are a tiny speck in all that vastness.
Your existence is an exceptional occurrence.
You are no more of a miracle than any other living being.
Be like Chipchan – trust others and look for the good peanuts.
Rosanne Graef lives in the West End and is a regular volunteer contributor. Email her at lavidalocalwen@gmail.com.
