How aware are we?
It doesn’t take much observation to recognize that there’s a lot going on in life and in the world that we know very little (or nothing) about. And, this may or may not necessarily be an indictment. We are creatures of our surroundings and, by implication, that means that whatever we’re not surrounded by likely will not impose itself on us very deeply.
For example, this observation should terrify most people. It also seems quite clear that most Republicans right now would scoff at it. And, the most likely reason is that most of these same people do not feel any impact from it, because their surroundings are relatively untouched by it. But, for those are more than touched by it, there is a pervasive sense of fear about it that dominates their lives.
We are in Colorado today visiting one of our kids and her family, for their one-year old’s birthday. And, like we were at that point in our lives, they are immersed in the surroundings of young family life (as they should be), perhaps without a ton of awareness of the kinds of things referenced in the observation above (probably good for them right now anyway). A baby’s awareness is highly focused at the beginning of their lives and expands as they grow and mature. Their surroundings impact it a lot. It is quite fascinating to watch this process in our 5 grandkids, each at different ages, contexts, and temperaments, even as doing so causes us to reflect on that of our own kids.
It seems important to recognize that awareness development doesn’t (or shouldn’t) stop once we arrive at adulthood. It needs to continue, in order to cope with the world in a healthy way. When it doesn’t, we can easily see all around us the susceptibilities that leak into the mix (not to mention the consequences).
My wife and I are at a different points in our lives now than where we were when we were younger with our own young family. Accordingly, we have different kinds of bandwidths, than what our kids do at the moment, which allows us to maintain awareness of things like the above. Even with more bandwidth now for certain things, our awareness is still quite limited, mostly by what our means allow us to experience (and not). Unlike some people, we don’t have certain fears because of our position and resources in life. And, we don’t have certain burdens for the same reasons.
By general disposition (personality, etc.), people seem to be more aware of certain things and less on other things. I feel more aware certain things, because of my nature and what I work on in my life, than my wife. Likewise, She also has more awareness of certain things than I do.
But, at some point, our lack of awareness is an issue, both interpersonally and with regard to the systems that impact our lives. For example, we all have a sense that America is changing. The question is in what ways and for what reasons. Just hoping for the good ole’ days, isn’t awareness (in many cases, it’s actually closer to naïveté). There are forces of self-interest and power that are heavily in play right now (whether we are aware of them or not), which require other forces to countermand them or they will prevail to significant effect for everyone. When that happens, we will become truly aware of what has changed and how it actually does impact the surroundings of our lives.
At whatever point we happen to be in the courses of our existence, awareness is a valuable means of understanding the nature of that existence — not only for ourselves, but also for those whose surroundings (experiences), at any given moment, are different than ours.
To that end, we have both an opportunity and an obligation to become increasingly…aware.
