December 2, 2024
THE WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH US
“The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. —Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.”
(William Wordsworth 1807)
Though I’m taking a break from writing my blog I’m compelled to share the above poem as a pre-Christmas gift to those of you who are already worn down to cynicism and apathy by the barrage of adverts coming at us from every corner of the media’s reach. How did so many companies end up with my email address, my phone number, and my Instagram account (which I’ve taken off my phone in a last ditch attempt to preserve my sanity and objectivity)?
According to Wikipedia, “The World Is Too Much with Us” is a sonnet in which Wordsworth criticises the world of the First Industrial Revolution for being absorbed in materialism and distancing itself from nature.”
Since I don’t want to ruin anybody’s day with the observation that we’ve done little to refute Wordsworth’s accusation as to how far Western civilization has “strayed”, I’m going to make a suggestion that might help turn the tide in favor of nature, our own and that of the environment around us.
Do a daily Savasana (corpse pose).
Physically easy to do. Mentally and emotionally? Not so much. The would, should, could and ought thoughts create a maelstrom whenever I attempt to lie down, in anything other than a yoga class, for even five minutes of undisturbed R&R. (That’s REST and RELAXATION, if you’re unfamiliar with the term). During the hectic holiday season it seems counterintuitive to stop the frantic momentum of “getting and spending”, but if done with awareness ,Savasana can put things in perspective in a powerful way.
In death we surrender everything.
To lie still and hold that thought for even a few minutes reminds us that so very little is within our control. With or without doing the actual pose, stop to consider: “If I were to die tomorrow, would any of this to-do list matter? What would rise to the top of that list if I knew today were my last day on the planet? How would I want to be remembered? What would I like my legacy to be?” You can form your own questions, with the purpose being that of stepping away from the ego’s drives or the emotions’ striving for relief from anxiety, insecurity and a litany of hostile sensations that compel one to escape.
Which is what I intend to do momentarily as I power down my iPad and go help harvest this week’s yield in a neighboring vegetable garden. And drop off the contents of my compost bucket while I’m at it. Sheer bliss.