Canada to Mexico– Submersed in a World of Opinions
I need to pen some true reflections on our walk from Canada to Mexico, but I haven’t been able to bring myself to do it. I’ve rarely felt so inarticulate about such a thing, but at least I know why I’m struggling.
I’m struggling because we saw EVERYTHING. It’s just damn hard to gather my feelings on EVERYTHING, and figure out how to touch on… EVERYTHING.
We consistently found ourselves waking up in homes far more beautiful than anything we grew up around, only to spend most of our day talking to people on the street with scars from behind bars and no roof to stop their view of the stars.
Just as we saw life from all angles, we were touched by life from every side. Some of the wealthiest were some of the most generous. Some of the most rugged were some of the kindest. We would spend our day barraged by opposite judgments about the same clothes, one group judging us for living out of a bag, the other for not looking dirty enough. One for not going to college or through the conventional avenues for activism and charity, and the other for buying into the system, making a career out of our walk.
And the judgments come unceasingly from nearly every interaction, even the kindest. We don’t realize when we’re doing it. And we don’t realize that we’re all doing it to each other all the time. Being the object at the center of every kind of person's judgment all day, sure is telling as to the nature of opinion though.
Judgment is suffering. Not necessarily for the recipient, but always for the one judging. It’s unfortunate that we don’t realize this, often feeling satisfied with our own opinions, but judgment isn’t presence; it’s mental perturbation.
And so it is! We live in a world of people, enraptured by the same human mental machinery, each churning out different results from the same internal processes. All equally human. Most incapable of moving beyond their conceptual division, embracing the “other side.”
We couldn’t function as the common denominator to all these people in the past, but clearly we can train ourselves to. Clearly we can learn to empathize and understand each other better, but we live in a world pushing a different agenda.
The reality is, we all begin as seeds from the same source. Each seed is planted in a different area of the forest. Some get more water. Some get more sun. Some have to compete harder for resources. Each ends up expressing itself thusly.
Some trees grow more twisted and contorted from this. Some grow towering and beautiful. But in the end, they’re all far more related than we realize. Were it not for their literal communication via root networks and the resulting redistribution of resources, half of the forest might die off.
Of course, trees don’t need to be convinced that they're all connected, justifying their helpful efforts to work together and survive. They just do their part.
We’re confused because we have words to confuse us. Until we find a conscious space devoid of them, we will lack the cognitive availability to see things as clearly as the trees.
