Being Grateful to Have a Moment to Appreciate
Mindfulness is having a moment. Meditation, eating, conversation, and probably even more mundane things have fallen under its 21st century spell. In a world of constant distraction, where virtual friendship, shopping, love, education, and amusement are at our fingertips, the lure of something that can bring us back to the present moment and awaken us to the beauty of our surroundings is irresistible. There are practitioners hawking mindfulness in bookstores, on podcasts, and on every other airwave that still exists, and it is a true testament to our obliviousness as a culture--maybe even a species--that we need this sub-genre of pop psychology. For the world itself, the forces of the universe, the will of the people, or God Himself--whoever or whatever you think drives the forces that shape human behavior--is doing a pretty bang-up job of reminding all of us, every day, that life is fleeting and that all we really have is this moment.
Obliteration and terror can come to us at any moment and at seemingly any place. The threat of random and senseless destruction is no longer something that happens over there. Instead it looms in our neighborhoods, our schools, our churches, and our commutes. The most mundane of life's activities can turn into the most significant in an instant. Or maybe the shift doesn't happen on a mass scale. Maybe it's that phone call you dreaded forever, with news of a car crash gone bad or a PET scan with unfavorable results or a kindergarten classmate whose birthday cupcakes were baked in a factory that also processed peanuts. In an instant, life--or life as you know it--can be over.
Thomas Hobbes taught us long ago that life without government is nasty, brutish, and short. Today many of us would raise a hand in debate; life even in the world's greatest democracy can be pretty brutish. I believe human nature is unchanging, so I hesitate to say that today is any more dangerous or uncertain than any other day. The 24-hour news cycle, omnipresent social media, and a host of cognitive biases skew our judgment to make us believe the worst about the Right Now. But I do believe that we are going through one of those periods of uncertainty that characterize the world from time to time that drive us to a deeper, renewed, and probably different sense of ourselves, our purpose, our relationships, and our country. There will be lots of lessons for us to take, but perhaps the one of the most obvious is that we do need to look at this moment and be aware of it and be thankful for it. There is beauty in it, even when it's hard to see, because we are here, we are alive, and we are not alone. We don't need meditation to look around and be thankful for the moment and hopeful for the ones that are to come. We have the world to remind us, every single days.
I wish God's peace and blessings to the people of Las Vegas.
