Here’s to the ‘Lost Sheep’
“Which is better — to be born stupid into an intelligent society or intelligent into an insane one?” ― Aldous Huxley, Island
For many years I thought I was stupid. It has taken me a long time to work out that it isn’t me, but society that’s mental. The fact is I’m exceptionally sane. I’ve always looked at the world through a holistic lens, not by choice I guess, it’s just the lens I happen to have been given. When one looks at the world in this way, there is no possible conclusion to be drawn but — what the fuck?
Nothing makes any sense. In isolation, perhaps. But when looked at with any sort of holistic vision our economics, our education, our political systems and their like’s, are at best delusional and at worst, diabolical.
It’s been over 60 years since Jiddu Krishnamurti coined his famous phrase — “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society”. Yet here we are today, still somewhat ‘well adjusted’, sicker than ever before.
But perhaps we’re not all as ‘well adjusted’ as we think. There is a disease in our culture. I know it well, as it’s a disease I myself have suffered from…
It goes by many names — laziness, confusion, fatigue, inertia, complacency, isolation, desperation, pointlessness, exasperation, the ‘lost sheep’. The ‘lost sheep’ provides a useful metaphor here. Sheep are herd (or flock) animals, they like to follow and get profoundly uncomfortable when alone. And this is reflective of the situation many people, especially younger people, find themselves in today.
We are educated by a dying system, whose only intent is to program us for effective participation in said dying system. Is it any wonder then, that so many lack motivation? That so many of us won’t blindly follow the herd?
The more I connect with this ‘disease’ in myself, the more I connect to it in others. It’s everywhere, of course it is, how could it not be?
But instead of looking at it as the disease that society wants to label it as, I want to celebrate it as a healthy response to a not so healthy reality. I want to celebrate those with the courage to say no.
Even if that no isn’t consciously coming from an integrated place of deep awareness, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that a growing number of people are refusing to blindly follow the herd.
The problem is, if we don’t follow the herd, where do we go? This is a difficult question, particularly as you have suddenly become (often completely unintentionally) an ‘enemy of the system’. Whatever path you choose, it will be much harder from now on, for some far more than others.
And be careful here too, there is a trap! A trap which I have often fallen into. In taking onboard the ‘problems of the world’, in making the decision to live in ‘reality’, rather than ignorance, there is a tendency to want to ‘save the world’.
This is a heavy weight for any individual to carry, trust me. During my time working as an activist for Greenpeace my thinking changed from how do I “change peoples minds”, to how do I “empower people to believe they can actually make a difference?”
Because it is this reality that is possibly the most debilitating to any potential movements toward change. Most people feel so small and insignificant that they think they could never make a difference, and therefore, they don’t even want to think about the problems.
So the question becomes, how do we hold the vast and immensely complex problems of the world in consciousness, without becoming overwhelmed by them? The answer, I believe, is lightly.
I have been reading Aldus Huxley’s utopian classic ‘Island’ this week and he puts it beautifully — “It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them… So throw away your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly. Lightly my darling…” ― Aldous Huxley, Island
As Huxley also said — “I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.” ― Aldous Huxley, Point Counter Point
It’s by combining these two philosophies that I have found my course in the world. I remain aware and conscious of the problems and realities we face, but instead of trying to save the world, I have placed my focus on changing the nature of my own reality.
In doing so I have connected to a purpose and personal drive that I have never before encountered. I feel liberated, energised, in love with my life and the people in it. I know that part of my work in the world involves finding and helping other ‘lost sheep’ to find and connect to their true path’s. This ‘knowing’ is, in itself, a beautiful thing.
So, here’s to the ‘lost sheep’. May you connect to your deep purpose and truth. The world needs you.
