An Instinct Towards Goodness

Two days in a row it has been unseasonably warm here for January with temperatures reaching sixteen. Very unusual, especially when you consider that in New York they are being battered by a hurricane-force snow storm of historical proportions.  It is also hard to know for sure what role, if any, climate change and global warming play here.  We can only surmise and wonder though I am persuaded that human tampering with our global climate should not be ruled out.

The world has changed since I was younger.  Change, they say, is the only constant.  But is this really change, or is it rebranding?  I just read a bit on the internet about hipsters and really they are not very different from the way I was in my teens, twenties and thirties, and in many ways I still haven't changed though I hope that I've grown some.  I still don't wear labels or advertising, get my clothes at Value Village, try to think and live environmentally; I am still a vegetarian; I am still an artist.  I have not grown a beard (I don't like beards) and I have no intention of wearing glasses that I don't need.

Unlike many people my age I still care about the world, the earth and the environment and I have not, thank God, been cured so far of my youthful idealism.  Perhaps it is no longer youthful but has aged well?  I no longer worry about my place in the world or in society.  I am too old to worry about this.  I am part of everything.  Even though we all walk around outside as though we are disconnected from each other we are all connected.  There is no getting away from this.  What brings us together as humans is how frighteningly alike we all are.  We are also, of course, individuals, but we are a unity in diversity.

It just seems impossible to alert others to this except through acts of kindness, tolerance and compassion. No one can be bludgeoned or black mailed into changing.  It is like forcing someone to convert to Islam (or pick a religion) while holding a gun to their head.  They will only give lip service to save their own hide.  I am also reminded here of some of the conversations I used to have with my therapist.  He was Adlerian in his approach, huge on self-actualization, self-development and empowerment.  This was great for some things but it did seem difficult to persuade him that not all our human acts are selfish or related only to our own self-actualization.  I have long believed, and believe this more strongly than ever that humans, we, are by nature kind, generous and unselfish.  We learn to be selfish and uncaring but there is in all of us except the most sociopathic a need and desire to give and share, an instinct towards goodness.

In the meantime we are basking here in this false spring while on the East Coast they are pummelled with snow and wind.  In three weeks in Victoria they will conduct their annual flower count.  In most of the country they will be shovelling snow and throwing salt on the pavement till at least Easter.