If we follow the news today, we see a world about to collapse, as if we were experiencing the worst time ever. Therefore, we are able to believe that our grandparents were right, longing for “the good old days.”
Grim indicators abound–extreme heat waves and raging fires in Europe and the United States, America bleeding between one mass shooting and the next, inflation reaching historic highs to the point that recession seems likely, the unending Russian war in Ukraine continuing to cause shockwaves across the globe.
Britain and Italy face political instability. Sri Lanka sank in front of people’s eyes while its leaders fled the country. The quiet country of Japan saw the assassination of its former prime minister in the daylight.
As shocking as everything looks, nothing has changed that much in the world. The main change has been in the accumulation of information and people’s connections in the world. In past times we set out on walking tours to hear what was going on in the neighboring town and rocked inside a ship for two months to get to know a distant country.
In later periods, we bought a ticket for a high-speed train or took planes to land on a distant continent to know other realities and people. Now without getting up from the chair and with the press of a key we are there, in the heart of the world. In less than a second, the entire colorful, noisy and bustling reality unfolds before us, stunning us with its growing influence.
We hear and see, feel, admire and respond to everything that happens to everyone in every corner in real time. Communication between us requires us to absorb an intensive flow of information which we consume like addicts.
How often does someone read a book and go to a friend to share, “Listen, what a good book I read!” We are in a world that is all news that we are not built to absorb, engagements that we are unable to tolerate. As a consequence, people are getting sicker physically and mentally.
The endless bonds formed between us are cold, flat and alienated. They have no depth, warmth or identification. They lack sympathy and willingness to approach, and do not take into account that we are one. If the world seems full of crises, it is the ties between us that are broken.
The physical bonds between us have become tight and fast, and so it should be, but we need to adjust ourselves internally and emotionally to it. We need to insert warmth within these bonds that will strengthen and connect us instead of breaking us apart. You can turn off the news a bit, open a purposeful book, talk to each other, and feel each other.
Instead of running around with eyes on the monitor and absorbing fragmented pieces of information, we can get a real picture of reality when we look at creation as integral, knowing that it has direction and purpose. All of reality, past or present has a single purpose: to make us perceive that we are one, like nature, and to understand that only through our mutual guarantee and interdependence will we be able to overcome any hardship. When we achieve this perspective, the perception of the world that we see will finally come into a beautiful balance called peace.
Photo Caption:
Malaga, Spain.- In the photos taken on July 21, 2022, it shows the forest fires that affect several Spanish regions amid record temperatures. The heat wave that has punished Europe in recent times leaves a catastrophic aftermath of forest fires that have burned several hundred thousand hectares in the old continent. The most affected country is Spain, where the heat wave formally ended at the beginning of the week but the Government has recognized a figure of 70,000 hectares burned only until July 10.