I guess I should read my own blog entry But… You Promised! to remind myself of the virtues of holding on to promises. I promised myself to write every sunday but there have been several weeks when I’ve neglected it. I could give an excuse of how much stuff is going on here right now, and it’s true, but it still doesn’t justify anything.
Lately I got into pruning. Pruning means taking care of plants and trees by shaping and cutting them. May sound pretty middle-aged, but it really made me realize why the Japanese hold gardening in such a high regard and consider it very meditative. I used to absolutely hate gardening when I was younger. It was just too slow paced and boring. But the other day I found myself very inspired by the whole thing. For some reason I felt an intensified sense of existing in an interconnected system, a reality, instead of just in my head.
Pruning very different from the fast-paced, impulsive type of experiences that seem to define our times. You can’t get a quick fix, because the results of your clips will show possibly after several years, and it takes a lifetime to become a good pruner. As I was clipping off dead branches and over-vigorous “suckers” from our nine fruit trees, I was thinking about the nature of contentment and happiness.
Am I just an out-of-touch fossil to say that the society is getting more self-centered and self-absorbed, or is it an unpopular truth people don’t want to hear? I just keep comparing my own experiences before and after starting to live a more rural, natural lifestyle, and I feel like I’m seeing more and more downsides in the western urban way oflife. We are born into a mass-consumer society and as everyone, who has read even a little bit of psychology knows, our first 5-10 years will form the rest of our lives, core beliefs and so on. So we learn to think that’s what life is supposed to be: satisfaction in life comes from getting pleasure from owning and acquiring things and services. The emphasis is on drawing things towards us, rather than working for something greater than our confined, immediate self-interest.
At the same time, I find it so interesting that on other levels the world is a much kinder and just place than it used to be. We have an international justice system, human rights organizations and so many establishments that work hard to further kindness and fairness, and we have a better sense of respecting difference.There have been simply horrible things done in the name of religion and superstition in the pre-modern times. I’m not so naive as to think that the old world was like the Garden of Eden and then the monster of science and technology broke into the Paradise and pooped the party. But having said that, maybe out of force of circumstance, people in times gone by seemed to have a better sense of gratitude and respect for life and selflessness seemed to be in higher regard. How could the best of the both worlds be combined?
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