Did we order this weather or have we simply been fortunate? I'd like to pretend we ordered it but in reality I am just feeling blessed. Once again the weather report from the Lake Cottage goes like this: sunny with highs in the lower 40's, a hot tub is due at 3 pm, dinner at 5:30 with a movie to follow, reading is recommended along with a daily walk up and down the hills. Meanwhile, if the light breeze is a bit too much, stay indoors and soak in the beautiful scenery of the Lake.
We finished a combined read this morning titled The Golden Spruce, the story of a man who cut down a Sitka spruce which had become an integral, spiritual elder of a native community. The book was filled with startling history and equally startling revelations. In brief it told the combined stories of native communities in the Pacific Northwest, one man, a particular Sitka spruce and the logging industry since it began. It was, at another level, stories of common people, their lives and, sometimes, often incredible realizations. One of the phrases used to describe the phenomenal awakenings that humans can experience was "spiritual emergencies". Both of us felt this was a good way to speak of the powerful, transformative jolts that can happen out of the blue to an individual. It makes some sense at the feeling level of what takes place when a human is "out of context", away from civilization's vibrations and listening not to planes, trains and automobiles but to nature's rich and varied sounds and, if time has slowed significantly enough to really hear, the Voice of the Cosmos, of creation, of god. Them are tricky words there pardner, I can hear someone saying, but I have had a few touches of this in my life and the words in the book rang true deep in my soul. Andy's too.
What does this have to do with The People, Wisconsin's protests, ongoing political interests or anything else in that more solid realm? Nothing. Or something. But you must take a time out in your chair by yourself to listen. Underneath all the dailies, the schedules, the fun, the running, there is what I have called in the past few years, The River That Runs. You've probably had an experience with this River yourself. Camping in the woods? Meditation? Hiking somewhere more or less remote? Wherever or whenever you may have slowed down below your usual work/life pace. Perhaps you went away for a retreat or a vacation that didn't have a hectic agenda attached. Maybe you were at a cabin on a lake with nothing to do but relax. A true set up for a visit by the Beyond is being out in nature for an extended period of time. This is a way to get close to having a spiritual experience. The gentleman in the book was out past those buoys. He truly had a Spiritual Emergency. Nevertheless they can happen anywhere and at any time. One characteristic they exhibit is the knock-you-off-your-feet energy. Once that happens to you and you have navigated The River That Runs, you will not be the same. Never.
So, once again, what does this metaphysical chatter have to do with political protest in Madison? I happen to believe the work of the Common People can put us in the vicinity of The River That Runs. It's possible. Taking your beliefs and convictions in to the street with thousands of people you don't know is a wilderness experience of its own! In the midst of a sea of fellow human beings, you, just you and your body, are converging with a force for change. Sometimes, for me, when I am in that swirling sea of The People, I can't hear single voices, I only hear a tide swell. Everything feels differently, time works in odd ways, my ideas begin to feel part of a collective in a way I just write about on other days. Energy shifts, sometimes magic happens. To be sure, this kind of spiritual emergency is tougher to come by given the high octane status of crowd dynamics. Not the same as being out of doors and away from the maddening crowd. Still, it is a place filled with rich insights, potential changes in thought, revelations galore. I think it qualifies as a possible place for life-changing revelatory information. I think it's definitely on the River That Runs tour. It's just more boisterous, edgy in a lots of people kind of way.
I think The People are not just protesting for collective bargaining rights, or better pay or the right to have a say in our government. I think We are beginning to wake up, beginning to look around and see the devastation wrought by so much desecration of our natural world by the juggernaut of business as usual. I think We are beginning to all feel The River That Runs right underneath us. I think there may be more and more "spiritual emergencies" coming.
Power To All The People!
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