This is the million-dollar question, isn’t it? Isn’t it interesting how uncomfortable humans are when they do not have the outcomes to the unanswerable questions or situations in life? How many of us are actually capable of sitting and breathing through this most difficult process? I think the answer would be, very few. We are always tenaciously scurrying around looking for the answers and when we are of course unable to find them we just start making them up. We are all so uncomfortable with pain and suffering of any kind we simply cannot fathom sitting with the unknowns. What this actually requires is a tenacity to enter challenging situations without reacting to what is going on. A willingness to cut through reactivity and self-deception which is the stories we make up to comfort ourselves from the uncertainty in our world.

Currently we have numerous uncertainties in our world. First, we have the coronavirus, which no one seems to know how it was created or where it exactly came from. Along with this, no one knows specifically how to identify the virus accurately or what’s more how to treat it appropriately. Accompanying the pandemic, we have the incessant lockdowns, with their resulting psychological trauma, the economic crisis, multiple losses such as, businesses, school closures, rights and possibly a loss of life or any normalcy that we once knew. Furthermore, we have the pharmaceutical industry and the government pushing thru vaccines before the appropriate clinical trials can provide safety to the public. A vaccine that is not fully vetted can have dangerous side effects that may result in permanent damage to some people. In this country we have the political crisis between Democrats and Republicans generating a lot of verbal threatening between the parties and between the citizens who support the parties. Last but not least we have a racial crisis that is ripping this country apart from the bottom up. All of these issues are not new to the world at large and have been going on since the beginning of time yet human beings have learned nothing from history, and they continue to make the same mistakes over and over again.

WHY IS THAT?

The answer is because we all think we know what is right and once we think we are right we become righteously indignant and try to argue, debate and convince the other that he or she is wrong for thinking differently. The best place to observe this is in a marital or romantic relationship. At first the couple is romantically in love with each other and everything is bliss. After the bliss wears off and the honeymoon is over, and they no longer believe they have to convince each other of their love the curtain comes down and all of the qualities they once loved in each other become the one that they wish to change to be more like them. The perpetual debate, “I am right you are wrong, and I would rather be right than happy!” One should ask instead, “Would I rather be right or happy?”  The aforementioned question is right out of A Course In Miracles (ACIM). Our egos cannot tolerate being wrong. The bottom-line issue according to ACIM is to prove to God that we know better than he does about what we need. Funny thing about that is when we do have needs and issues where do we go, right straight to God/higher power/Buddha to make it all right. When will it be time to turn inward with the strength and guidance of the “One”; accept what is and move through the difficulties of our lives with wholehearted kindness, love and compassion?