Unraveling the Vaccine Debate: Finding the Fulcrum Beneath Polarity2020 was certainly a year of stasis. In spiritual jargon, we were sitting in "the void", a dark and quiet place where all seemed rather gloomy, unchanging, vague, and uncertain. But the void is also where change and new manifestation incubates. I believe that we will begin to see these shifts occur in 2021 and onward into the next decade. That will require us to move forward into action, and a part of that will be to fully confront the issues we are facing. The article below was a difficult one for me to write. In it, I am trying to confront an issue that is currently a hotter topic than it has ever been. It is also one that is personally very difficult for me: vaccination. In my book Active Consciousness, I talk about Gurdjieff's notion of "buffers" -- the patterns of thought and emotion that keep us from confronting things that are difficult for us. Usually, our buffers are rooted in our past experiences or in cultural or family norms and beliefs. Unfortunately, buffers are also at the root of the growing divisiveness and polarities we are experiencing in our world. The article below was my effort at confronting my own hot-button polarity issue. Indeed, I find the vaccine polarity much more difficult for me than political polarities. I must admit that this article (original targeted for a Charles Eisenstein online form) does not truly demolish my own buffers, though I do explain their origin. I hope you find it interesting and food for thought in confronting your own buffers and polarities. Unraveling the Vaccine Debate: Finding the Fulcrum Beneath Polarity Many of us are growing to realize the dangers inherent in the increasing polarities in our world. Polarity is all about two camps fighting one another on two sides of an issue, each side “othering” and dehumanizing the other as an enemy to be vanquished at all costs. Of course, polarities have likely plagued humanity for thousands of years. But the information age and the rise of social media have worsened the problem and also made it much more obvious. Lately, I’ve been listening to Charles Eisenstein‘s 10-part lecture series on political hope. Charles encourages his listeners to not only understand where each side of a polarity is coming from — in essence, putting oneself in the other’s shoes — but also to search for what truly lies beneath a polarity. When I think about the nature of polarity, what springs to mind is the image of a see-saw. One side goes up at the expense of the other, which must go down. But under a see-saw lies its fulcrum. The word “fulcrum” derives from the Latin word “fulcire,” which means “to prop”. Besides being a prop for a lever, a fulcrum has also been defined as something that plays a central role in or is in the center of a situation or activity. Given any polarity that you may be embroiled in, what is supporting it? What lies at its true center? CONTINUE READING |
