This all started with being. All of it. Just being. Way back when. "In
the beginning
was being ..." (as one of those bibles may have said) and the genesis
of
this.
Back then, all there was was being.
The only thing you had to do
was be.
Being was enough then. It's still enough now. But you forget that from
time to time, don't you?
So to get enough, we add things, we change things, we take things away.
No, it's worse than that actually. It's that we're convinced that if
we're going to bang life into a shape that'll be enough, we
must add things, we must change things, we must take
things away - all of which only adds more concerns. Then we have
to solve those concerns because concerns get in the way of just being
ie they get in the way of being enough. But that doesn't work either.
It's never enough. So we add a few more things and we change a few more
things and we take a few more things away - all of which only ensures
more concerns are added which we then also try to solve. Why do we?
Because we're thrown to. And because we're thrown that when we do,
it'll be enough. Look around you. Tell the truth: how's that going for
you?
So: first there was being - just being. And it was enough. Then came
things and solving concerns, all of which just added shrapnel to the
hand-grenade. Soon all our concerns obscured just being, and being
enough. With being obscured, it's never enough. In our thrown attempts
to make it enough, we circuitously add more things and try solving more
concerns, truly none of which is ever enough. We ascribe that to "the
way it is". That's not it. It's not that at all. It's that without
being, "the way it is" is never enough ... and
with being, "the way it is" is enough
(paradoxically
our certainty that it's never enough, undermines experiencing that
being is enough).
For sure, that's not an easy get - not because we can't
get it, but because we're thrown not to. It's why bringing back being
calls for confronting our thrown-ness.
We're thrown that it's not enough, that something more's needed. We
infer (albeit erroneously) from the seeming
not-enough-ness of our own lives, that it's smart
(very smart) to add things, to change things, and to take
things away. We're adaptable organisms. We're thrown to adapt. So we
adapt. We add. We change. We take away - because that's what adaptable
organisms do. And then as a by-product of being adaptable, we must deal
with all the new concerns that arise when we adapt.
Dealing with all the new concerns that arise when we adapt, is also
what adaptable organisms are thrown to do. But that's not the highest
expression
of our humanity (it can't be: remember, we're thrown that whatever we
do, is never enough). The highest
expression
of our humanity is being. When we're being adaptable, that's our
thrown-ness. But when we're being being (not a typo)
we're being uniquely
human.
You will adapt. It's required to make your life work. But you don't
have to.
The only thing you have to do
is be.
And beyond merely being being (because
the only thing you
have to do is be),
mastering
being is what it is to
masterbeing human.
Being is enough. Who you are is enough. It's enough to just be. And if
it's not enough to just be, that's your thrown-ness having gotten the
better of you. Be in life. "In
the beginning
was being ..." (as one of those bibles may have said). Look: you can't
spell
"beginning"
without "being", and you can't spell "being" without "be in".
