Out Of Control.
We’re Out of Control.
Lately, everything seems so discombobulated. Not just for me, but for most people I know and in nearly every aspect of living. There seems to be a pervasive sense of angst.
Here's a partial list of what people I know that are "our age" -- so the baby boomers --report experiencing.
-significantly negative--even dreadful health diagnoses for themselves or loved ones
-separation and/or divorce for themselves, friends, or family members
-revision to their sexual orientation
-the extreme heat, extreme storms, extreme weather all around; climate change is real
-financial concerns (founded and unfounded)
-extreme irritability
-family dysfunction of not the "fun" kind
-societal divisiveness-- exacerbated by the deep political divide, unleashed violence in the name of "beliefs," ongoing wars, rising anti-semitism and alternate forms of hate.
This is not to say there are not some wonderful things happening too-- like fireworks on July 4th, time spent with family, summer weekends, summer reads, walks with an evening breeze, children playing and learning gleefully, and babies being born to wonderful parents. There's a lot of love out there being spread around.
But it seems that the negative feeling is outweighing the joys for many. I'm totally a glass half full person, and it's even getting me down.
I think the crux of this overwhelming state of extreme uneasiness stems from feeling an utter lack of control. Inside we all believe that as we get older and wiser, problems are handled more easily and actually "go away," our families become more settled, we would enjoy getting older together. Peacefully. And that is apparently SO not the case. Every facet of life is out of control. Spinning orbits, we can't keep in order. I don't remember that for my parents or grandparents. There were challenges, but it seemed there was always an order to things.
When did "bad" and "evil" become acceptable inconveniences, or did we get so lazy as to look away? Why do people abandon so easily rather than work hard and pull together to meet challenges-- personally, professionally, and more globally?
This next one is a challenge through the generations, but why do people when seemingly well all of the sudden get devastating diagnoses? That no matter what they do, or how they handle their treatment, they are likely to succumb, cutting their good life short and leaving their "people" heart-broken.
How can we possibly pull these spinning orbits into line? Maybe we can't, and the answer is to try one's best to guide just one or two at a time. Maybe knowing that there might in fact be a plan that is greater than "us" and that we never were and never will be in control. I'm thinking that living life, finding and putting out joy at any level is what we are supposed to be doing. Maybe some silence will help. But importantly, where we can affect an outcome, while we most likely won’t be “in control” as we know it, we need to work hard at what we believe to be right, and cannot look away.
