I will begin today by making a promise, and climax with an unusual invitation. First off, I want to state for the record that should I ever appear to be moany or negative on this page, you have my word that I will endeavour also to offer a solution to the said problem, as well as some positive action that can be applied to alleviate any prolonged suffering.
My contributions are generally of an upbeat nature, I hope you’ll agree. But, of course, as recently departed soul-singing genius Frankie Beverly, front man of Maze, said: “Where there’s a flower, there’s the sun and the rain”, in his inspiring song ‘Joy and Pain’. So occasionally, where I am prompted sometimes to consider what might be life’s rain, here in Portugal and in life generally, I will never do so without offering you a metaphorical umbrella.
Speaking of which, we’ve had biblical rains here. A blazing meteorite not long ago. Hellfire on earth for some of our fellow countryfolk. And we could all be forgiven for thinking that the most recent celestial passer-by – Comet C/2023 A3 – was the latest portent of global upheaval. Whilst some, I suspect, now await frogs and locusts falling out of the Aurora Borealis-stained night sky, the next downpour I’m feeling in my water is the US election.
On the one hand, I resent the overwhelming effect that this political circus has on the rest of the world, given that it’s merely – on one level – a democratic process to choose the USA’s administrative figurehead. And on the other hand, I accept that we live in a global culture, and ideological subset, that is intrinsically linked to the fortunes of our transatlantic cousins – fortunes in all senses, which seem to be entirely consumed by the proxy battles of culture war.
It’s hard (with no vote of my own to cast or direct skin in the game) to watch such a horrific fall from grace and decency in public affairs. It’s also hard NOT to watch, realising that our material lives will be affected, more or less, by what ensues on November 5 – a date that has special significance in UK politics too (historically), which I find equally repellant in its recent iterations and disgrace.
So much importance and influence rests upon a bloody battle that will end in a contrary cocktail of elation and disgust, no doubt fermenting further social disease, rather than a firm, post-election handshake that signifies the best man (or woman) has won, and everyone can now move on. OK. Enough already Carl, with this sad and searing indictment of political and public life, which is by no means confined to the ironically named United States.
Is this just a bad case of “looking for love in all the wrong places”? And if it is, where should we be looking? I can’t remember the last time I heard a politician talk about love, or anything else that truly matters to human beings like beauty, inner peace and contentment. Can you?
You might, understandably, argue that such matters are not the concern of such people. But in any sane society, their activities might at least pave the way, or create the conditions, for such goodness. Yet, it appears not. Their self-satisfying, ugly world and worldview can no longer be expected to offer anything edifying. They merely tinker, in turns, with the economy in a race to the moral bottom.
I know these comments sound like it’s my “first day on the Internet?”, but I hope they have more of the boy at the Emperor’s new clothes parade in them, than the cynicism of a hopeless, ageing man, raging against the machine. Sure, politics, global and national leadership leave a lot to be desired, but why criticise these worldly wannabees, and yet leave them in control and in charge of our emotional and material destiny?
Remembering my promise, what solution do I have for this rusty old scenario of resignation and beaten brows?
It seems to me, we’ve been fooled more than once. And fooled countless times, it’s shame on us. It’s time to look for love, beauty and peace elsewhere, not in the external world where political promises tend to fail, or wither on their ideological vines. It’s time to free ourselves from dependency and victimhood, when it comes to that which we truly seek, and look within.
The flammable and flailing world we see before us. The brightly-lit showcase of political shenanigans and endless war-mongering is telling us – in no uncertain terms – that the answers do not lie in that direction, or in the hands of others, whose efforts we watch with increasing mistrust and disapproval. The treasure we are seeking, just like the age-old ‘acres of diamonds’ story, is within us and available through our own efforts, and no longer must it be ‘outsourced’.
My suggestion is that we start digging that ‘acre’, and mind our own business, as it were. For many years, I have been exploring this inner realm, and for want of better terms of reference, experimenting with those much-misunderstood, cliché-ridden subjects of meditation and mindfulness.
My journey, the one within, has been infinitely more fulfilling and far more under my own control than the outer path of accumulation and acquisition that I was conditioned to believe would bring me happiness.
Acculturated as we are to expect hard work and complication in worldly matters, the inward turn is incredibly simple; so devastatingly simple perhaps that no one would ever believe our creator (whatever you imagine that to be) would install it, where we might have free access to it, and forever; a mere, yet increasingly esoteric matter of ‘enquiring within’.
I don’t mean to sound like a pound shop guru, but I honestly think the time has come for us humans to look within for answers. And didn’t I promise some positive action too?
In Portugal, certainly where I live, we have the daily Bombeiros alarm test. For those not in the know, their first unassuming experience of it might be to call loved-ones, five-minute warning-style, and hide under the nearest table, in prayer. May I suggest a reframe of this ‘nerve-jangle du jour’, and see it as a ‘call to stillness’, a moment to stop what you are doing, and go briefly within? This is what I do at midday, whereupon hearing the big kazoo of doom, spark up a livestream and talk others (and myself) through a simple peaceful process for just a few minutes.
If you are new to meditation, contemplation or mindfulness, this everyday ‘stop, look and listen’ is the perfect introduction, and I will be very surprised if you don’t feel some immediate benefit that could even be habit-forming and life-changing.
Frankie Beverly also said in that beautiful song of his: “When the world is down on you, love’s somewhere around.” You now know where it is, and what to do…
Join Carl on Facebook at around midday, every day, if you’d like to pause and go within – www.facebook.com/barefootbroadcaster
By Carl Munson
Carl Munson is host of the Good Morning Portugal! show every weekday on YouTube and creator of www.learnaboutportugal.com, where you can learn something new about Portugal every day!
