126-03-03-2009

Time to Ruminate
Afraid of Silence
By W. Owen Thornton

It just so happened that the same text book was required for two different back-to-back philosophy courses … and, it just so happened, that we studied the same specific reading.  You know I thought I had that content down the first time because the prof explained it great, but when I reread the article two months later, I was able to say, … “Wow!  Now I really get it!”  It struck me then that the fast pace of the content in most philosophy courses comes at you without enough time to ruminate on the subject.  And isn’t thinking about “stuff” is what philosophy is all about?  And isn’t time to think about stuff just a little bit about human kindness?

School is no different than the work life … or even the home life of a domestic engineer!  It’s the expected norm that we never have a waking minute with something scheduled and if a mistake happens that we do find ourselves in a moment of quiet … well … a lengthy “to-do” mentally list fills the void.  It’s a wonder we aren’t all going barmy.  (Okay so stress and anxiety is increasing for each successive generation … and do we wonder why?)  Now I’m not criticizing the speed at which course material hits you in a university course.  That’s not really my intent at all (though if it would work, that’d be great!  ).  Really the question that’s been on my mind is what is wrong with us that we don’t make time to ruminate about … well … anything in particular?  In fact, I’ll go a step further and ask, just what the heck we are afraid of should we find time to ruminate?

It feels to me as though we’re afraid of the silence … that if our lives stop long enough for us to even consider what we’re up to, we might find out that we’re on the wrong path … and then all that hustle and bustle really isn’t worth anything.  And then we really can run off the cliff … and with good reason!

Let me tell you a couple of other stories and we’ll see if we can’t get to the heart of things.  A controversial study indicates that if you inject Botox into the vertical crease between the eye-brows that you lessen depression.  It turns out if you can’t make a sad face, you can’t have as many sad thoughts and these collection of sad thoughts won’t add up to depression.  My question here is, why create a manufactured solution where something much bigger is required?  Why don’t we ever look at the causes of depression and attempt to do away with it once and for all?  I’m convinced that most kinds of depression can be cured if we could A: lesson the stigma around it which would give people the space to B: identify it so that we could, C: decide to cure it rather than profit from curing people from it.  I may not be the person to do these things, but I can point it out to someone who just might have the power to bring that about!

Another recent study indicates that those who are abused as children actually have their DNA altered by the abuse such that they cannot cope with stress as well as they could have otherwise, and that they are more susceptible to depression.  Hey, even the Presbyterian Record cites increasing stress rates in Presbyterian Ministers, indeed in people of the clergy across the continuum.  In fact, but 2020, or thereabouts stress and anxiety disorders will be the second leading cause of disease and death in Canada.  So this is not laughing matter.  And what do we do with the news that abused kids grow up with altered DNA?  We consider an appropriate delivery system that would infiltrate the body and change the DNA back to normal.  Now this is good news for those who may already be ‘altered’ but why in the world would we be looking at a pill to correct the problem when we should be looking at the social problems that cause abuse in the first place.

So one answer as to why we never seem to take time to ruminate is that we don’t take time to do things the long way when there’s a short-cut.  We seem to be built for that.  But living in a world of short-cuts hasn’t done us any good deeds lately.  Does a foolish get-rich-quick scheme called asset-backed commercial paper ring any bells?  That was the leading cause of the economic meltdown in the United States.   Does the Madoff scandal ring any bells?  When will we ever learn from the adage that if it’s too good to be true, it usually is? 

Look.  I suffer from this too.  And we’re all so caught up in being caught up none of us think there’s anything wrong with the speed at which we’re living our lives … until a young teen kills him or herself because they cannot find any human connection on the planet.  That shocks us out of our meaningless fast-paced life … for a while … at least.  Do I have to reiterate to you, dear readers that we don’t make for perfect examples of human kindness when we’re going too fast?  Well we don’t.  Trained seminarians will step over the body of a homeless person on their way to doing a talk about the Good Samaritan story … a story inside their heads about a good person helping the needy … a main reason why a soon-to-be minister wants to become a minister.

Here’s a deep philosophical idea that I’m going to plant in your noodles that you do not have to accept.  But I think we’re running so fast because our identity lies in our doings.  If we stopped for five minutes to smell the roses … or to think about that essay … or to think about how much our spouse means to us … we’d lose who we are.  If we’re not doing something we’re not doing something of value.  But the thing is, we’re always creatures of value … just by sitting in a room thinking … how … well, you know, that interesting essay you read, or how pretty the roses smell or how much our spouse means to us. 

Sometimes we can even stop in the middle of a busy school tern and write an essay about slowing down and ruminating … in hopes that others will ruminate and do something for the world that promotes human kindness.  Now, dear reader, I can tell you this.  Do not be afraid of the slow down.  Someone out there loves you.  You’re okay the way you are.  So … slow down.  Ruminate.  Smell.  Write (an article on ruminating for the sake of human kindness).  Think.  Love.  Let’s not be so freaking afraid of ourselves that we can’t take a moment to simply be a human being.  Be kind to yourself.  That’s where human kindness starts.  Then … and only then can you be kind to others.

Love all of you who visit … and even those who don’t … it’s just harder to get the word out to them!

Owen

PS:  Good news.  I just made contact with an old Rotary friend who is … quitting her job and will ruminate over the summer to see where she wants to travel next.  Now you have to have your financial ducks in order to do something like that … but I say, good for her!  She’s doing just the exact right thing for her … ruminating about her life.