Friday Night at 8: Contraction and Expansion

I think about all those folks in power, the bankers and the media and the politicians, to name a few, and they want not just to keep their money but also are desperate to retain the one thing they believe money can buy and that is prestige.  When you’re rich, you’re treated better by the tradesmen, you have clout and can have things the way you want them … ultimately, you end up living in a bubble.  Now that bubble is breaking, not only because of the recent election and the recent wake-up call to all Americans over the hard times ahead, but because of overwhelming change, historic change, that is sweeping across our world.

I’m in a bubble, too … got a job, a roof over my head, enough to eat, clothes, all the necessities of life.  I’m white and heterosexual and still benefit from the unearned privilege that brings, I don’t get stopped by cops just because of my looks, storekeepers and landlords treat me well, all that jazz.

So, lots of bubbles.  No shortage of bubbles.

So there’s all these folks in power who want to narrow the odds so they stay on top.  It is very likely they aren’t even aware of that but instead talk themselves into believing they are acting in the best interests of rationality and intelligence and integrity.  Ha ha.

I’ve learned from the diversosphere and here at Docudharma, particularly from Winter Rabbit, Jessical and Robyn, a very different view of our present state.

Contraction. I guess a good example of that would be hoarding, not just buying a bunch of stuff and hiding it, but spiritually hoarding, not looking about in the quest for survival to see that perhaps someone is suffering more than them, perhaps that suffering person has something of value if they could but see it.

In the ripples of Docudharma, this comment from RUKind still has me thinking, especially this line:

I don’t think left-center-right are the proper adjectives any more. I’d say change/status quo are the basic definitions and from there the direction of the change becomes a secondary attribute.

Those who embrace change and those who resist change, and we see both those kinds of folks in reading about the news of the day, I dunno, made me think about contraction and expansion.

For so much of human history, expansion has been a perceived need, room to live, room to grow.  It has caused, of course, some of the most terrible pain and suffering to so many, this supposed need.

I believe expansion does not have to entail conquering countries and killing and stealing from the inhabitants thereof.

And I think change automatically brings a real expansion, not a superficial material one.

There is no limiit to love and compassion. None, no limits, no boundaries.  There will never be a wall stopping a human being from constantly expanding in love and compassion.

There is no limit to celebrating and feeling awe over the experience of existence itself, all around the world there are dances and celebrations of the phases of the moon, every season, a myriad of cultural treasures folks not only have a passion to preserve but to always refresh and renew from a limitless source those very treasures provide.

Material contraction will be the concern of those who are resistant to change.  They will turn off their consciousnesses and build walls, limit themselves in every spiritual way in order to avoid being aware of the big changes affecting their lives.  Minds becoming smaller, fears distorting vision, all that jazz.  I don’t claim immunity to any of these things, although I also actively struggle to overcome them in favor of something I want even more.  Which is the human need for expansion.

For those who embrace change, oh the universe will be so big, never-ending, no boundaries, not even the word for boundaries exists in this kind of consciousness.  I know a few people who are like that and they are very valuable, imo.

There is no limit to love and compassion.  There is no limit to consciousness and awareness, no walls, no boundaries except those human beings manufacture in the face of such vastness.

Contraction and expansion.  I’m sure most of us will indulge in both.  But there are some folks who will choose one over the other.  And then, oh boy!  What a ride we’re going to take.  Heh.

Made it through the week … very cold here in the Frosty Apple, all the neon lights of Times Square are still glowing, the high-rise buildings are bustling, subway cranking along.  Yet it all looks like a scene from the past sometimes, and that’s a strange phenomenon to experience.

Obligatory YouTube courtesy of carlm51stl (and this is a spoiler for those who haven’t seen that last scene in “Casablanca.”).  “Here’s looking at you, kid ….”