Chaos in the world today almost defies description. In trying to understand it, I began thinking about some of the cycles of life and society that contribute to it. The following ones come to mind--along with awareness that numberless other cycles could be added to this list, including some relating to economics and epigenetics. In considering these cycles, it is also amazing and important to recognize the simple and complex ways that they interrelate with each other. The cycle of war, for example, has profound implications on the ability of caregivers to raise kids in ways that communicate nurture and safety. Awareness of cycles can make a difference, as it illuminates those windows of opportunity (sometimes only milliseconds in duration) where we have a chance to act in ways that can influence future events. The number of cycles in which we live, and the ways they interact with each other, defies simple formulation. The cycles all have elements, though, that admit for some degree of intervention, provided we have some awareness of how we live in them--and how they live in us. Otherwise, they are merely self-perpetuating. The cycle of the quality of care during our upbringing: Those of us raised by caregivers who had difficulty forming fulfilling, nurturing relationships, or in environments we experienced as fundamentally unsafe, are often predisposed to approach relationships with caution, and to perceive the world as uncertain and hostile. While this can lead to admirable skills for coping and survival, it can also lead us to perceive others as primarily threatening, and make it hard for us to perceive them as those with whom we might comfortably share existence. Withdrawal or aggression become our ordinary mode of being. The cycle of our immersion in media: Todays tragedy becomes the news in which we are immersed, which becomes tomorrows perception of how the world is: untrustworthy and dangerous. This becomes part our rationale for our behaviors and responses. Whether these responses perpetuate or challenge this view of the world depends, in part, on whether we have internalized examples of human behavior that represent overcoming of challenges while honoring the personhood of others. If we have such examples and models, we might draw upon them to guide us in what do next. If not, we might hurt others, to protect ourselves (or those who represent a part of our selves), in the same way that we ourselves fear being hurt. The cycle of war: One sides collateral damage (resulting from just and necessary retribution--however just and necessary it may be), is the other sides unjustly killed, innocent victim, for whom retribution now becomes necessary and just.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 22:28:31 +0000
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