The Taming of You and I

We, the inhabitants of the tamed, "over-developed" world, live longer than the people of the Cockscomb or the Amazon, but we live some would say (of us city-dwellers, anyway), too much like zoo animals, pacing back and forth in our allotted cells.

-Wickerby, Charles Siebert


The truth is I don’t know where the Cockscomb is besides that it is in Belize. I am slightly more aware of the Amazon but not so much with Cockscomb. Clearly, I have visited neither.

This fact does not change the message here. I read the book this statement is from and consequently fell in love with said quote. It reeks of combining another way of life with our contemporary lifestyle. It smells of the remnants of a potpourri that once was in your home but has since moved on. It is the odor that is stuck in your sofa cushions or in the carpet you casually traipse across. You notice it but you don’t know how to bring it back from the trash. When we were children, the ability to smell and enjoy the fragrance existed for most of us. And with that, the ability to explore without condemnation, without fear.

We knew the art of being simple. As adults we cannot be simple minded and we cannot be oblivious to the world but we can live in a state of chosen simplicity, all the same. What if we focused on the pleasures that open us up both spiritually and mentally to the much larger picture? No one person is simple in and of themselves; we are all complicated and made up of millions of large and small experiences as well as the genes that exist in our DNA. All of this added together is not to say, however, that we cannot enjoy a peaceful mind most of the time.

The thing is that life is meant to be enjoyed. At least that is what I believe. We are not meant to be stressed and hurting more often than not; pondering how we compare to one another. Jealousies and comparison are a breeding ground for the seeds of a tumultuous life. Believe me when I tell you I would know. I have personally spent too much time focusing on what I don’t have rather than on the blessings I do have. I have wasted many an hour wondering why others get “the good life” while I feel stuck without whatever I interpret their blessings to be. The grass often looks greener from far away. The problem is we do not know what fertilizer has been used to make it so seemingly lush. Much of this is based in the fear that we will always be left out in the cold somehow. Most of us will not. For those who are, it would be good if we would take the time to help them change that fact. We are meant to overcome our fears. We are not meant to feel trapped by what we may or may not lack, we are meant to be free and loving. It is pressure that makes us pace back and forth, more like a caged animal than most of us would be willing to admit.

Are we trapped by those around us? Are we trapped by what they have said, have done and have expected of us? Sometimes. But, if we allow that kind of entrapment, we live life as a victim of circumstance instead of rising above it. While being a victim happens to all of us from time to time, choosing to live as a casualty is something only we are responsible for allowing.

I do think the pace at which we live does not help. We are available to everyone, all the time. We do not get time alone to explore our own selves and we must learn how to turn off the ringer. We can find out anything we need to within moments – yet rarely is it used to enlarge our conceptions of the larger world out there. Yet - you are not going see me jumping into a buggy anytime soon. Well, at least not to get from point A to point B.

Wouldn’t it be fun to unlock the locks we’ve placed on ourselves so that we can start smelling the roses? So that we can eat a pasta sauce that spent hours simmering on the stove instead of always from a jar? (Unless, of course, from a jar just tastes better in your kitchen.) Would it not be fun to allow ourselves to say we are doing too much? We are involved with too much? We don’t even know ourselves well enough to know what we really should be doing as opposed to so much of what we actually do. The walls have been built around us with little hope of escape unless we choose to collect the right to some freedom. This means letting go of some of what we think we know and allowing more of what we do not know. Which also means letting others be trapped in their cages if they choose to be while we roam free right outside, not allowing the shackles to keep us wound up too tight. When one such as this has found the joy that comes from such leeway, only then will they be prepared to help others find it too.

It is not necessarily easy, I will say that. But it absolutely, positively can be done.