The best Gift is Presence?

Being fearful seems to be a normal state of being in this society, whether people are generally conscious of this or not, I don't know. I'm inclined to say, I don't think so. Bodies contorted and minds congealed, nerve wracked people waiting for the potential next turn of phrase, vehicle horn, emergency siren, demands from a boss. These are just a few examples. Discussion on my periphery seems to consist largely of symptoms of being disgruntled, overworked, overstressed, and generally anywhere but in the moment. I like to say that people are being symptomatic of the systematic.

I walk along and think that people are missing the point of their lives. But I don't blame people purely out of ignorance or lack of awareness (which I have found many new age spiritual dogmas to teach), I think that hegemonic forces are largely responsible for the general malaise and expression of frustration I hear in the discussion being presented by people relegated mainly to the working classes, and the poor. Though the rich too have their qualms, of course. The topic of these classes I mention mainly centering around money, and what has been done by it, what needs to be done by it, and who gets what, where, when, and how. How monotonous, boring, exhausting, and in the last analysis, all important.

The majority seem to be planning for the future just to get past the present, well, you know, being in the present just seems to bring more of it. And for many, being in the present is a very painful, real, burdensome place. I have to wonder at the cost of not being in the present, in our bodies; and the actual consequences to our overall sense of wellness and experience of wholeness as beings with purpose in our lives. The latter being a privileged thought and possibility for the more free agents in the world.

My point being that I think the experience of being disembodied as a coping mechanism can bring with it temporary relief, inspired by automatic survival instincts, but the purpose likely is not intended to bring with it, long term satisfaction, nor the experience of being home in one's body. I wonder how the physical body, with all its ability (some more than others obviously) could create, unencumbered by poverty and social stratifications as a result of this hegemony. It's been said that, "Today is a gift. That's why it is called the present."(Alice Morse Earle) I think I'm going to go dance.