Trying to Get it Together

Kant, the brilliant German philosopher, wrote, “Wisdom is organized life.”

That is genius. And that is what we are missing today; organized life. Well, genius, too.

Everything is a mess. Our president. Congress. Religion. Education. The economy. The environment. It’s all a disorganized, sloppy jumble of ideas and chaotic priorities. And our own lives reel in the confusion.

We lack wisdom. We are missing any real guiding principles. What do we represent as a people, as a nation, other than angry personal divisions, a shallow obsession with materialism, empty religion, and a contorted political system that only works for affluent, well-connected individuals and corporations?

Our major social platforms, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter can be places of real connection, family photos, invites to fun events, cute videos of pets, helpful news and interesting pieces of art, essays, and great music. But too often these are also places of vitriol, rage, bullying, bigotry, used to stir up trouble and to keep people indignant and antagonistic.

And now we have found out that our Facebook information has been sold to God knows who in order to sell us more “stuff.”

The remoteness of social media contributes to our dysfunction. We don’t have to face anyone online and that temps us to be meaner than we would be if we sat across from people we disagree with or dislike.

Honest disagreements are healthy and can sometimes open a real dialogue. And when social media is used for that, then it has value. But just mindless venting and thoughtless attacks on others, mostly complete strangers we know nothing about, is useless and often destructive.

I’m sure like me, you have been stunned by some of the responses you have read from people on Facebook and Twitter. And like me, perhaps you have been amazed at your own angry or insensitive responses.

It’s easy, and cowardly, to be loud and aggressive when you’re just throwing out words on a screen. Face to face confrontations requires actual courage and some integrity.

Plus, written messages can be easily misunderstood. We sometimes don’t get the real point being made. And we react instead of getting clarification. And so, the cycle of conflict grinds on.

I am trying to better organize my life so I can keep things in perspective. I have tried positive thinking. There’s nothing wrong with that, trying to stay above the usual mental garbage we hear nearly everywhere. I’m not talking about profanity, though that’s pretty ubiquitous. I’m talking about cruelty, meanness, ugly thoughts about others, especially those not like ourselves. But positive thinking feels sort of like a Ponzi scheme to me. Put in a happy thought and let other happy thoughts build on it until you reach, what? Nirvana?

So, I’m going for positive experiences instead. Time with good friends and family. Time to appreciate the beauty of nature. Time to listen and not talk. Time to consider and move toward the hurting, the less fortunate, the ignored. Time with good books, and movies and TV series that speak to me, and music that inspires and touches something deeply mystical, something down inside where my soul survives amidst the rest of the clutter.

There is a certain organization to that. Not something obsessive or rigid or even scheduled. But something that is intentional but also spontaneous, unexpected; a looking for something promising and happy in the ordinary course of life.

Is that silly? I hope not. It’s all the organization I can muster for the time being. But for me, I think it might work.

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The Unclad Soul

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