With the difficulties surrounding social distancing, and isolation, and its effect on all of our psyches, and our emotions, I want to extend some thoughts and care. I may not be a professional in these particular areas, but as a mom with love for my kids and our own community here, emotional and group health is something I give a lot of thought to.
Social media can be especially difficult right now, especially with the political climate currently. Everyone has gotten moved by a post once or twice in their lives and put on the mantle of a keyboard warrior, and we have all also been on the receiving end. But currently, often dependent on social media to connect with others, the situation can become stressful and complicated. And knowing who to trust, and holding on to what's real and whats not has gotten more and more difficult in our little quarantine bubbles.
I'd like to ask friends to please look out, to take care of your rational mind. Over times where I've been very alone, now in the past, I've been forced to recognize that our own very sense of self is actually so very interconnected with others, in really intricate ways we don't often think about. So with lack of a community and culture around us that keeps us engaged and rational, it can sometimes take a toll in holding on to your own grasp on reality.
I just would like to encourage my friends to maybe add things you may not normally to your routine, if you are alone and/or feeling this way. Take time to separate sources, people, and institutions that you can depend on, not only to be there for you, but also to be foundational and reliable. Stick to those, and try to ignore those less reliable, unless you are helping someone. Helping someone with a less reliable mindset will not effect your own grasp on reality. In fact if anything, it bolsters it because you recognize the person is having difficulties and immediately keeps their mindset at a different plateau from effecting your own. At the same time, there is positive growth gained on both sides in trying to sympathize.
However, in other, newer and less foundational ideas and "research", taking in a lot of unproven and hypothetical and theoretical information can maybe make you feel like you are altruistically strengthening the voice of the disregarded, and/or maybe you feel you are keeping your mind working hard--and you definitely are doing that--but without some sort of pillar or anchor in reality to check back with, you can work your way down mental paths that are totally off the wall and have no basis in reality, in the life and culture that is currently on the other side of all those social distancing walls. And this can ultimately harm you, if only to completely disconnect you from others and leave your mind stranded in a place where there is no surety, no real sense of self, only questions and--often--panic.
So find a resource that is reliable to you. With how far we have progressed as a society... I'd maybe normally say that the Bible might not be the best choice... However, for a long time this was a singular resource to keep people tuned into morality and ideas that kept cultures from a total backslide into tribalism and disparity even in the darkest ages. It kept people plugged into "God", or really more, this interconnected self we share, and what keeps our culture moving, but... it was also responsible for terribly hurtful and murderous wars and horrible atrocities that now, most rational people look down on. So maybe I've rather encouraged people to find something else that works for them, at least in addition to that. Something hopefully that also allows for scientific and interfaith and intercultural understandings. But something that is reliable, that you can always go back to for your own sense of surety, that connects with the larger whole. It may be a person, although better would be an institution, or a series of books or other media... But, identify your resource(s), and recognize its wholesome and good traits, as well as a fair realization of where maybe it also has had some bad advice. Create some pillars in your mind. Ritually remind yourself of your ethics and values. Anything from literally reciting thoughts to yourself, to reading something meaningful to family, or listening or watching something that bolsters your belief in your core values and morality.
Just for example. For me as an atheist, I value the Dhammapada and the Tao Te Ching, because they make a case for morality without God, and they are old and reliable. But when it comes to the Asian "three teachings", I throw out the Analects because I sort of personally see it as a root of Communist thought. I also think Relativity by Einstein is a great book, because it is not only rational, but also draws attention to viewpoints and differing realities in very conceptual ways. I value the Cosmos series, old and new, to give me an appreciation for the universe and my questions about our origins. And I do value greatly certain scriptures in the Bible. Not just the Golden rule, and the sermon on the mount. But those on their own become more valuable to me when I consider Bible passages where the writer recognizes the text's own limits, infallibility, or transcendence. Like John 21:25, where it says the world itself cannot contain the scrolls that could be written about the things that Jesus did. So how much do we not really know that Jesus said or taught? And 2 Timothy 3:16, where Paul said "All scripture is inspired of God..." before the Bible was even fully written. So what "all scripture" is he referring to really? All holy texts? Any written word? Those personally help me understand the moral context of the Bible. Where it can help and give us leverage in our own life, but also how other healthful works and ideas can be leveraged against it's less healthy doctrines.
I'm a humanist and an atheist, but if I were ever to call myself a christian for valuing the Christian Bible, I'd call myself maybe a leveragist christian. That's actually a term I thought of when I first left the Jehovah's Witnesses, that I threw away because; hey, cults! But honestly I kind of believe it is things like this the world needs so very badly right now. We need to bridge the giant gaps between us so badly, and in a way that makes sense. Many people need a moral compass right now. But also many people have their own moral compass, created by observing the atrocities of religion, but without the rituals and without the concrete institutions for fostering families. Lots of atheists bring their children to church because of this, to foster those value. And I have--to end this quick rant--I have to believe answers not only for those who feel uncomfortable or lost in the middle, but for most everyone alive, lies somewhere in that middle. So personally, though I shied away from the idea at first, now I would welcome other leveragist christians in the world, if that's what it takes... Leverage positive christian values to create useful positive energy in the world, recognize where the tradition comes from, love the rituals and the practice, but leverage better values against the negative ones that do exist within Christianity. Leverage is a basic concept, but also a concept in physics--a force--and like any other system, we can use it both for and against the forces of God, the ones we needed to believe we're always perfect in the past, to create the best human equilibrium any concept of God means for us to have, and what He might want us to have, if he does exist.
Lastly, getting back to our current isolation, and the current tendency towards maddening. I hope people can find foundational things they can rely on, but I'd also recommend rational exercises to keep your brain sharp. Everyone hates math, but doing a set of somewhat complex math problems every once in a while--anything slightly outside your comfort level--does train your thinking ability. It creates patterns in your mind that helps you make sense and organize the world rationally. And it helps you become a lesser pillar to others, because healthy rational thought applied to real life situations is like water. People are just drawn to it. And the more people who can be that right now, the better.
Anyways, I hope that helps people. I can get political sometimes. And I hate the fireworks coming off of that, just as much as I hate the pain many people are going through that cause them such deep political concerns. I have been extremely anti-religious in the past, but after seeing how much people need these things, even though there's this obvious cognitive dissonance and maybe they don't even fully grasp why they need it, but they just know they do... I feel and understand that. And I mean, I just want to help with all the uncertainty. I'm insignificant. I'm not anyone, I'm just a mom to two kids trying to keep the books and payroll for a tiny Portland contractor, currently really hoping to finish an engineering degree I started a decade ago. But I really have been through hell and back, in some of the worst, self-shattering situations imaginable. And I am a bit of a recluse for periods because of those things, but I also don't let things bring me down and I keep progressing and I know that my methods and values have kept me afloat and moving forward even when I should have been fully sunk a long time ago. So if something I can say or do or offer can fix things right now, I'll speak them. I'll offer them. I'll give everything I have inside to see people not backslide. Not plaster a mask on and take in loads of bad and abuse and the hurt of others along with their compromise to any moral tradition. And not to mistrust and remove themselves so far from anything foundational that they totally loose themselves and hurt others that way. Love. Love. Love. Love.
