I have been considering the ways in which we can begin to heal our relationship with nature as a further aspect of the events of this Pandemic. In California with the recent fires, we were put in a classic double bind. Newer understanding of the airborne spread of Covid-19 includes the critical importance of ventilation, including open windows in homes, moving activities wherever possible outdoors, including exercise, dining, shopping pick ups, and any necessary social interactions to outdoors (along with masks and distancing). But the fires have brought massive smoke and pollutants here with health warnings to keep windows and doors closed and stay inside. With a double bind you face conflicting messages, one negating the other, so that to fulfill one, you must fail the other--either way you will be wrong. In this case health and safety are at risk. Depending on the context, such situations can push people into a confused and hopeless state, where they essentially give up. On the other hand, they have the potential to initiate a creative leap out of the dilemma by seeing things in a new way, beyond the struggle of this or that. As several modern writers have pointed out, Zen teaching koans are often presented as double binds that can exhaust the mind's limited concepts and analytic processes to open intuitive understanding of a larger truth.
As we faced the fire earlier in September, we chose to evacuate to a place away from the fire where we could still maintain the Covid-19 protocols. Returning home as the fire still burns, presented the dilemma of Covid-19 ventilation vs smoke and unhealthy air. It took a few days for this to sink in and to sort out options. The solution was flexibility. An air quality app allows me to open and close windows and doors and have time outside throughout the day, based on the local measurements. It is an interesting exercise in shifting between technology and nature, the threat of contagion and nature's health enhancements, the balance of air, temperature, humidity, wind, humans and animals all flowing in and out. It is not as simple as blending into the natural order, because it incorporates the tools of technology. But there is a rhythm to it, and when seen from a spiritual viewpoint, the dance of life. While I have not had a lightening flash of Zen insight, I am beginning to see this 21st century world in a new light, with new possibilities. The environmental changes that are looming for humanity and nature present all kinds of double binds that we must sort through. Remember that in those seemingly impossible choices that will emerge from climate change, there is the space to leap beyond. (Susan Nettleton).