Thursday, July 5, 2012

COOL MEDITATION



Maybe it’s the fact that I’m pretty much on holiday now or maybe it’s just that I like my own voice too much to be content with a few lines on facefuck. Either way, I woke up today in unusually bright spirits but with a handful of solid reasons. No, I’m not elated and brimming with pride as a result of an old lady enjoying 60 years of totally unearned privilege, or championing the exploits of 11 men on a pitch who are good at kicking a piece of plastic around (although props to Spain, they were good innit!?!). Life, occasionally, can and should brim with optimism and positive thinking. If you wanna stay down in the dumps, stop reading. If you need a lift, spare a minute more…

Why be positive? Surely that’s not the done thing these days? Well, the first thing I wanna rant and rave about is the resounding victory of the British public in staving off the privatisation of public woodland. Reading up on this difficult campaign has reignited my faith in people. We’re meant to believe (if you follow the headlines of impending environmental disaster and financial melt-down) that we are a bunch of greedy cunts who want nothing more than to line our pockets and spend our pennies in hell. Well, fortunately not. Anyone who was involved in this campaign should give themselves and their colleagues a massive pat on the back, go for a long walk in the woods with a bottle of fermented grape juice, a mat and and snuggle up in the shade.

Another small but sufficient reason to be positive is to look at changing attitudes to plastic bag use. People are right to recognise that this issue is almost irrelevant in the larger climate change context; we’re not gonna save the world by transporting our booze in re-useable bags whilst industries pump their crap into the air uncontrolled. True say, but it must be seen as a symbolic step in the right direction. Big up all the Welsh and Irish who by law now have to pay 5p per bag, cutting down on plastic use whilst raising cash for environmental projects. Apparently Scotland is next, with England perhaps unsurprisingly coming in last.

Speaking about the environment, I for one am inspired by the recent protests in Peru opposing an contaminous open-cast gold mine which have put the authorities in a state of emergency. Unfortunately three people have died, but once again the South Americans are showing us what it really means to stand up to big businesses in defence of an unpoluted water supply. People everywhere are brave and have noble ideals, and continually disprove Adam Smith’s (the Godfather of neo-liberalism) claim that everyone is simply out for their own benefit at all times.

Taken in the grand scheme and history of humanity on the planet, these issues may seem isolated and insignificant, but I am inclined to see them as part of a much larger web. Life, as the first teaching of Buddhism goes, is hard. I agree, but let that not blind us to the goodness and virtue that exists in the world.


Stay positive! One love!!!

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