The Wisdom of No Escape

“Wherever you go, there you are.” (John Kabat-Zinn)

We had a series of several small earthquakes on Hawaïi island early this morning. Yes, I know. I’m in Hawaïi. Don’t judge me. The quakes were the second set of tremors in less than a week. The newsflash I read, alerted via a text from a friend, said that Kilauea volcano was erupting, yet again. This was accompanied by what could have been stock footage showing fire and brimstone (whatever brimstone is — molten lava perhaps?) and great plumes of smoke billowing into the atmosphere.

Without really thinking about it, I let the next news item load onto my screen and observed scenes of the great white blizzard that has descended on New York City. Two extremes: hot and cold, lava and snow. Both events are apt to cause damage and loss to persons and property. And add two more calamities to the hot mess that is 2020.

But neither of these events are impacting me personally, at least not yet. Certainly I’m not planning to visit the Big Apple any time soon. But it remains to be seen if the VOG that blanketed Hawaïi for months in 2018 will descend on our side of the island once again. Perhaps reversing the exodus of mainlanders intent on evading COVID 19 by making their new home on Hawaïi Island.

In short, there is really nowhere to go that isn’t visited with its own particular problems. Nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. That is as true of humans as it is of places. Notwithstanding global events of great significance, each of us are confronted with more mundane challenges, inconveniences, difficulties and exasperations on a daily basis. Which is why, when I read the latest updates on Kilauea, the phrase that came to mind was “the wisdom of no escape.”

What IS the wisdom of no escape? What would it be like not to avoid or anesthetize myself from what is coming down the pipe of “everyday life”?

My first thought is to “Be Here Now” as Ram Das would say; anchor myself in the present moment and simply observe the thoughts and sensations passing through my conscious awareness. Where and how can I reasonably hope to contribute? In all honesty, if it weren’t for technology I wouldn’t have a clue about a blizzard inundating New York State. I wouldn’t even know about a volcanoe erupting across the island from me. Do I want to be oblivious to these and other disturbing happenings? No. But do I want to obsess about such uncertainties and inevitabilities? No again.

Where I DO want to focus my attention is on the places and activities in which I, personally, am apt to make the greatest difference. There’s no end of opportunity to improve, or exacerbate the situation in which I find myself. The choice to be part of the problem, or part of the solution, is mine alone. Recently our community chose to hold a Christmas toy drive for under-privileged children living on the island. The response was robust and heartwarming. Seeing the success of this endeavor, a group of teens started a food drive for items that could be funneled to the same, or other families in need. The old adage to “do what you can, with what you have, where you are” is alive and well in my corner of Hawaïi. And this ability to respond to an immediate need is a more powerful agent for change than lamenting how “nothing will ever be the same”, giving up, and citing something “out there” to blame.

So it behooves me to ask: “What can I do to ameliorate or improve the situation in which I find myself?” If each of us were to ask ourselves that, I can imagine an inexorable wave of change gaining momentum day by day by day, making us, and the world we live in, a better place in small but significant ways.

As Gandhi would say: how can I BE the change I wish to see in the world today?

How can you?