So I was able to spend three months hanging on the beach in Mexico... all credit goes to my dear spouse, who generously allowed me to take a sabbatical from 'real life', to walk endless miles along the beloved coast of the ocean, to engage parts of my brain normally not exercised for long periods of time. I had essentially no social duties for those 3 months, except to occasionally interact with the few other people sharing our off-season apartment building (11 units on the beach in Los Ayala, Nayarit). My daily walks normally had a specific purpose... shopping for fresh-and-local fruits and veggies, coffee at George's cafe. I had 3 restaurant meals in those months.
Life improved considerably... first, when Susan arrived after Christmas, and again when Liv and Heidi and their families arrived for a short break from the rigors of an Oregon winter. Fun! The high-quality beach activities and shared meals were highlights of a very pleasant winter (for me).
So what does one think about during so much non-social time? One huge influence on my thoughts was a book given to me by Heidi and Tsultrim: 'A Buddhist Response to the Climate Emergency'. A common reaction: 'Climate Emergency'? What is that? The book is an organized series of essays by Buddhist thinkers, beginning with the Dalai Lama and including Gyurme Dorje and Kyabje Dudjom Rinpoche and Kyabje Chatral Rinpoche (the wonderful old man who is the primary teacher of Heidi and Tsultrim, with whom they worked)... and western Buddhist thinkers (Robert Aitken Roshi, Joanna Macy, and my favorite, Susan Murphy)... and ending with a wonderful piece, 'The Bells of Mindfulness', by Thich Nhat Hanh. An extraordinary collection summarizing the just-short-of-panic thinking of Asian Buddhism.
So reading this collection brings up more questions than it answers. First, why has the scientific community failed so spectacularly when it comes to convincing us... us Americans in particular... that we do indeed have an emergency, and that we need to react to that situation? Al Gore impressed all of us with his film, 'An Inconvenient Truth', lo those many years ago. We were shocked, and we left the theaters filled with mostly-unspoken promises to do our part to head off the obvious catastrophe headed our way. But what happened? Why did those promises evaporate? Sure, we changed some lightbulbs, and we drove a few miles less... but we didn't make the big changes necessary to avert the 'climate catastrophe' which is so surely coming.
My conclusion: We are super-entitled. Dammit, we're Americans. We're living the dream. We can do what we please... fly to and fro (and maybe buy some carbon offsets if we're in the mood), drive here and there, live in too-big places in too-cold places. We're rich. We can buy what we want, and damn the rest of the world. We're rich, and we don't have to worry about 'climate emergencies'. If necessary, we'll buy bigger air conditioners, and we'll put in a pool.
Our biggest and most prominent entitlement is a long life. Many years beyond our 'productive' period. Years of joint replacements, of rehab, of cruises and adventure travels, of conspicuous consumption. We've earned it, dammit. Just like the public-union folks have earned their pensions and health care. We're entitled, so stand back and watch us. Yehaaaa!
Grandfather duties call... back later today with more entitled thoughts from an entitled old guy!
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