just can't unplug from noise...

One of my favorite dharma teachers is Dr. Seuss; he captures the human condition so beautifully. One of his stories starts with two  people walking toward each other along a narrow road. When they meet, they each refuse to step to the side so that the other can pass. Everyone else builds bridges & even whole cities around them, & life just goes on. But the two stubborn ones stand there for the rest of time, refusing to budge. It never occurs to them even after 85 years that they could be curious about why the other is refusing to move, or that they could try to communicate. They could have had a really interesting debate in all those years even if they had still never moved. The point is not that you’re trying to achieve harmony or smooth everything out. Good luck, if that’s your goal. The point is to live together on this earth with our differences, to communicate for its own sake. It’s about widening your circle of compassion. And when you can connect with your own suffering, you can reflect that countless others are feeling exactly what you feel in spite of a different story line…Pema Chodron

Isn’t this where connection is real? Alive? Hostile? Unbelievable?

I really don’t always ‘like’ being so connected to so many humans…..don’t really want to be around others…don’t always want to hear another story line….

The paradox lies, of course, in being so connected, yet driving others away…

But we need each other…..we need stars & wishes & touch & shared pretending…..remembering humanity’s feeble lifeline…

Furthermore we have not even to risk the adventure alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us. The labyrinth is thoroughly known. We have only to follow the thread of the hero path, & where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves. Where we had thought to travel outward, we will come to the center of our own existence. And where we had thought to be alone, we will be with all the world…..Joseph Campbell