Death of Civility

There's been a lot of press lately about "Town Halls Gone Wild." We see and hear a lot of rudeness, screaming, shoving, cruelty, self-righteousness and a few now carrying guns to some of the Town Hall meetings. When we lose civility, it seems that circumstances can then go bad, quickly.

From what I've seen in the press, its been an interesting reflection of what I experience in day-to-day life. It's the "Death of civility." We do something nice like hold a door, let someone into traffic in front of us, extend a smile or offer help in some other way that is quite genuine and the person just goes on by acting as though we where never even there. In fact it can be worse. We can be placed in situations where it seems like the principles of common human respect and kindness are dropped all-together. People can be easily be run over by others intentionally, because the goal is more important that the people that we move towards the goal with.

It can be so easy to get sucked in and "play the game," getting emotionally hooked by what seems wrong, unjust or unfair. We can sense or feel that we've been run into walls or barriers, resulting in us feeling a little frustrated. But if we dispense with our own sense of compassion and civility, what are we ourselves projecting and sharing in our lives?

Please allow me to widen the context and remind us of what we already know, yet often forget. Life is rare. We *really* do float in the vast and boundless ocean of space, at this very moment. We ride on a single planet, circling a perfectly positioned Sun, moving in a virtual shooting gallery of objects that go in and out of our Solar System. On top of all that, consider everything that had to go right in our family history, so that we can be here now in this moment. Our ancestors survived, disease, famine, war, natural disaster, dangers and many other things. It doesn't matter if we believe God or evolution created us because, either way we have a single point of origin. We are truly miracles. There's zero exaggeration in that statement.

Zen is "Unification," not fancy theories and contemplating our belly button. True Zen is Civility, harmonizing and not letting "Any-thing" go to waste. This is a the responsibility that we have to each other, because All being in interconnected. We cannot afford to leave our integrity and civility on life support. Our mind and actions, can and must breath life into It.

There's an old expression that goes, "Anger (incivility) is like picking up hot coals at attempting to throw them at another person. In the process of doing so, we burn ourselves." I will do my best to remember and focus on that Truth. My personal focus today will be directed towards nurturing the seeds of civility that is me, not allowing them to die.

In Deepest Gratitude,

Jaye Seiho Morris, Curator
digitalZENDO

Comments

[Mumon]

The same folks, ideologically, who brought us anti-union violence in the late 19th and early 20th centuries is involved in the health care opposition.

It's important to go Gandhi on this, so to speak.