Times like these, the questions run so deep for such a simple mind…

When I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful, a miracle, it was beautiful, magical
And all the birds in the trees, well they’d be singing so happily, joyfully, playfully, watching me
But then they sent me away to teach me how to be sensible, logical, responsible, practical
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable, clinical, intellectual, cynical
There are times when all the world’s asleep
The questions run too deep for such a simple man
Won’t you please, please tell me what we’ve learned
I know it sounds absurd but please tell me who I am

I said now, watch what you say, now we’re calling you a radical, a liberal, fanatical, criminal
Won’t you sign up your name, we’d like to feel you’re acceptable, respectable, presentable, a vegetable…

(extract) Super Tramp Logical Song.

When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye

I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown
The dream is gone
I… Have become comfortably numb

(extract) Pink Floyd Comfortably Numb

It’s the terror of knowing

What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming ‘Let me out’
Pray tomorrow – gets me higher high high
Pressure on people – people on streets
Turned away from it all like a blind man
Sat on a fence but it don’t work
Keep coming up with love
but it’s so slashed and torn
Why – why – why ?
Love love love love love
Insanity laughs under pressure we’re cracking
Can’t we give ourselves one more chance
Why can’t we give love that one more chance

‘Cause love’s such an old fashioned word
And love dares you to care for
The people on the edge of the Night
And love dares you to change our way of
Caring about ourselves
This is our last dance
This is ourselves
Under pressure
(extract) Queen & David Bowie, Under Pressure

Tough times demand tough talk

Demand tough hearts demand tough songs
Demand…

We can rise and fall like empires
Flow in and out like the tide
Be vain and smart, humble and dumb
We can hit and miss like pride
Just like pride

We can circle around like hurricanes
Dance and dream like lovers
Attack the day like birds of prey
Or scavengers under cover

Look in…to the eye of the storm
Look out…for the force without form
Look around…at the sight and the sound
Look in look out look around…

Rush (Neil Peart), Force Ten

Look in, look out, look around, feel the wisdom of Nature within and all around us. Just feel.  This is the beginning of any right thought, action, deed. It is in the stillness within the movement that we find the generative wisdom we need for today’s solutions unfettered by yesterday’s logic.

Next time we feel the urge to do something, let’s remind ourselves to just be.  The ‘being’ is what infuses the ‘doing’, otherwise the ‘doing’ is just distraction which narrows our sight and sound, warping us, numbing us, cutting us off from what really matters.

‘Our sense of separation from nature corrupts us, it fuels an arrogance a hubris whereupon common sense becomes insanity.’ Gregory Bateson

It’s time to let the wildness back in to our conscious attention so that we can call upon its generative wisdom. The times we live in demand nothing less.

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