people are scared

We seem to have forgotten, as a species, where we are from; a grand consciousness for which this material existence is an experiment. We have myths, analogies, metaphors, similes and a plethora of tools for persuading ourselves that our anxieties and lonelinesses (?) are really just expressions of matter creating tricks of the mind. We neglect the possibility that mind came first, and matter has evolved to what we have today.

We study and discuss other cultures, going so far as to accept as sane the perspective that other cultures have alternative values, and that while toleration is a minimal (and largely insufficient) standard, acceptance and celebration is sometimes a too tall order. The slippery slope of relativism (would you bind your daughter's feet to adhere to the culturally appropriate norm?) is the bugbear to ward off anyone going a bit too deep into acceptance of the truly different. We forget that the bugbear is a straw man (if he only had a brain), and one that is a symbol in himself of trying to become something more than he is (hoping to move from the vegetative to the animal). The bugbear-straw man is more than either a distraction or the symbol of progression of early humanity (vegetative - animal - human); the bugbear-straw man warning that is relativism distracts us from seeing/hearing/feeling/sensing that the differences between us are nowt; the colour of my skin, my sexual identity, my age and my age-inspired disabilities, among other distinctions, are mere tertiary distractions from the consciousness that I share with EVERY SINGLE PERSON, ANYWHERE.

Materialism as the great experiment has been the agenda for millenia now, and as we learn more and more about individualism and what it means to leave the collective experience behind us, materialism presents us with more and more possibilities to celebrate our SELFs. The thing is, we have forgotten that there is more to being alive than experiencing material/individualistic, bacchanalian and fleeting pleasures. The age of the celebrity has arrived and for the new souls, never before has there been such opportunity to revel in the celebratory limelight, where everything feeds the infantilised ego. Never never land is here and there is no need to grow up, no need to take responsibility for one's actions. It's a never ending intoxication.

Only, most souls realise, its not. There is something missing, and its so deeply buried, so deeply missed and so devastatingly disturbing, that when soulmates meet or when a glimpse into the midnight pit of despair is briefly illumed, it's such a foreign experience to share that even those who might recognise shared depths of experience - well - even they can't quite believe it is safe to acknowledge it to each other. The conversation does not start back up, excuses are given, anxieties about sanity flare up, and Saturn, that great dark (necessary) force has once again blocked out the Sun. Pray for the Moon to come to the rescue, with just a bit of guiding light, to give all our poor scared, isolated, souls the opportunity to reconnect. Pray for the light of a kindred soul to whisper in our ear that being scared is ok, but that its better to take that step forward and reach out our hand to grasp a little bit of shared consciousness. We know, all of us, in our depths, why dogs howl at the moon. With a few steps towards each other when we actually meet, and a bit of faith, perhaps our grand experiment might continue a bit less painfully, while remembering it was we who asked for it.