Wholly Sh*t

Call me negative, but I don’t think anyone is looking out at the state of humanity, whether by window or screen, and thinking to themselves, “Ah, yes. Perfect.”

One thing we could all probably collectively agree on is that society is broken. (Yay, unity?) And because of this fracturing, it’s pretty hard for anyone to be happy.

Healing is the process of becoming whole again. The words healing, whole and holy actually all share the same root. To be holy is to be complete, pure, and interconnected—within oneself, with others, life, and God. Pain is a signal that a part has been disconnected from the whole. And illness is the presence of impurity, something disrupting the whole.

To be whole is to possess an undivided and complete state, where all parts are integrated harmoniously. For something to be genuinely whole, it must also be pure. Any form of impurity introduces an element of disruption or division, undermining the integrity of the whole.

This principle is encapsulated by our legal system in the phrase "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." The integrity of the truth relies on these two other factors. Partial truth is about as good as a lie. While “nothing but the truth” emphasizes the importance of purity, ruling out extraneous information or personal opinions that might distort or detract from the facts.

Whole and pure sound like a tall freakin’ order when it comes to the state of the world. So how can we even begin to imagine achieving this?

Tolstoy once said, "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself."

Just like you can’t have a lush forest made out of sad little Charlie Brown Christmas trees, you can’t have a healthy society made out of unhealthy people. Since society is just a collection of individuals, we should start there.

I’ve said before, I think macrocosm and microcosm are sometimes just a matter of perspective. Yeah I know we aren’t supposed to think of ourselves as the main character or the center of the universe, but surely in the context of our lives, we are the Forrest Gump. Everything else just serves as a supporting role. Even John Lennon and JFK were bit parts. In terms of what we can change, we ARE the macrocosm.

Healing ourselves is what causes the ripple outward. Our movement as an individual at first causes a small change in the surface of our collective ocean, undulating wider and stronger as it spreads and interacts with more of its surroundings, amplifying its effects and influence. Picking up the feathered ass of an unsuspecting, floating seagull, leaving it momentarily bobbing in its wake, as our ripple moves on to become a monster wave crashing onto the shore of Teahupo’o. We should not underestimate the power of seemingly small changes in ourselves. (Some big wave surfer is so stoked right now because of us.)

The experience of the individual becoming whole is one of deep fulfillment, that enables us to manifest qualities such as compassion, composure, grace, generosity, and tolerance. A change in these areas within us is sure to have an effect on just about every person we come into contact with, whether we or they initially perceive it or not.

I believe there are things about our interconnectedness as living beings that cannot be understood with science and logic at this point. It would seem that the 100th monkey washing his sweet potato was the tipping point to somehow mysteriously spread the behavior to other monkeys on nearby islands without direct contact. But we only know this because Japanese primatologists were carefully studying them. What about all the other phenomena that go unobserved or considered? Is it possible that sometimes a change in a single being is enough to reach critical mass? Is there such a thing as a collective consciousness that we are all unwittingly connected to? I personally believe there absolutely is.

So, where does this leave us? The daunting task of healing society begins with the individual. As arduous as it may seem, by focusing on healing ourselves, we become the catalysts for a healthier, more harmonious world. This ripple effect, initiated by our individual efforts, has the power to transform society from the inside out. So, let's start with ourselves and trust in the profound impact of our personal growth on the world around us. I think we are so much more important and powerful than we realize. 

"You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop." —Rumi