I was driving on Route 32 coming from Newburgh. I am a slow driver, the result of transporting other people’s children hundreds of times. The car behind me was honking his horn, and then he passed me crossing a double yellow line. He slowed down, stuck out his middle finger through the car window and came to a dead stop. Just before I was about to rear-end him, he accelerated racing forward leaving me to ask, “Why are people acting so crazy?”
Someone who wants to remain anonymous said, “I was sitting with a friend, someone I know cares about people, a generous person. The subject turned to politics, Joe Biden. He became agitated, angry, forceful. “Biden,” he proclaimed, “was the most dangerous person in the world, worse than the other guy.” We argued, sudden combustion, both of us frozen in the surety of our convictions. My friend was looking right at me. My right eye was covered with a dark crimson infection, larger than a silver dollar around my right eye. He didn’t notice. If his head was on crooked, I would not have noticed. So lost were we in fear and anger, we could not hear the wind, the birds singing or the ebb and flow of the sun peaking out behind the clouds.
The Mayo Clinic coined the term “pangry,” a combination of panic, the pandemic and rage. People are driving recklessly. Incidents of car accidents have risen since 2021. Health care patients have become more violent. One hospital has issued panic buttons to nurses. The murder rate is climbing. Anxiety disorders and general mental health issues are ubiquitous. Gun sales are up. Anger, frustration and stress have caused more impatience. Rudeness and discord between people is more commonplace. More than ever we need connection, friendship and love to counterbalance the dissonance. Yet, relationships have suffered.
From the other side of the great divide, Katherine Hepburn spoke the words in a documentary film addressing the current dilemma. “If you want to be miserable, keep thinking about yourself,” she said.
The ego is a maniacal destroyer. We accomplish this torpedoing with thoughts. Who done me wrong? I am being misunderstood, ignored, unappreciated. He said he would do it, he didn’t do it. The world’s coming to an end. If I get sick, I will not be able to get an appointment. At least ask me how I am. You think you’re better than me. Why didn’t you say, “Hello,” to me in the health food store? Boy, I look old. I used to be so gorgeous. I can’t get this stupid thing to work right! Why is this happening to me?
Our poor dumb bodies do not know the difference between thought and reality. If you think the world’s coming to an end, your entire organism reacts as if it is true, causing self-harm.
Help! Where is reality anyway?
It’s here but we are not. Most of life is spent in thoughts unconnected to the present moment.
According to the great stages of past and present, the only way to escape the morass of thinking or our current situation and circumstance, good or bad, is to enter the domain of the present through the senses. Some people do this though meditation. Others pay exquisite attention to smell, taste, hearing, seeing and touching, collecting impressions that exist only in the now, bringing relief from the spinning ceaseless creation of thoughts. It’s not esoteric or pretentious. It’s easy.
Sit in a chair. Feel the weight of your body in the seat. Notice the play of air on your skin. Hear all the sounds that thoughts block out. See what is in front of you while simultaneously staying aware of your physical self, the fact of your aliveness. The great ones throughout the ages have taught this is where peace, joy, awe and calm happiness exist. We can enter this sacred space at any moment.
I am no guru. I often only resort to this strategy when troubled. When Grace comes in and I see I can be my own worst enemy, I pause, allow the languid embrace of stillness to remove the illusion that I am my thoughts, my opinions, my past accomplishments, regrets, or the roles I have played in life. Only then can I get a brief ethereal taste of who I really am, who we all are, which the limitations of words prevents defining. Try it. It’s simple, smooth, straightforward and painless, a panacea for the human race.
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