As I reflect on this last Sunday in January, Winter Storm Fern is unleashing it's potentially 'catastrophic force' as it moves across a predicted 2,000 mile area, possibly impacting over 200 million people. A storm of this magnitude necessitated warnings, preparations, and emergency plans--all of which have been initiated. Miraculously, California is not in Fern's path...this time. But I am connected to friends and family across the country, so I too watch and wait. Despite the knowledge we have gathered in meteorology, climatology, and the other atmospheric sciences, we do not control the weather, and we cannot unerringly predict the causes, course, and impact of such a storm. Inevitably, social/political conflict over our changing climate hangs in the air along with our collective uncertainty of the future. Meanwhile, despite sub-zero temperatures, the phenomenal people of Minneapolis, are lining streets in protest of another kind of ICE (the immigration force), in another kind of storm.
As I absorbed the news this weekend, the ending line from a poem by Juan Ramon Jimenez, popped into my thoughts: "Life without calculation." (see link below for the complete poem). Here again, comes the paradox between Nature and Human Beings--our capacity to stand outside of our environment, our world, and reflect--categorize, calculate, while being an expression of Nature ourselves. Humans, as well as storms, are a force of Nature. Collectively, over centuries, we distanced ourselves (from ourselves as Nature), creating an identity of separation from every other form of life, as well as from one another. But another aspect of humans is the potential to come into a realization, or perhaps we can name it as a return, beyond our isolated sense of self. I thought of my friend and teacher, U.G. Krishnamurti, who described the state he attained in his "calamitous" shattering of self, as becoming "primal without the primitive". That phrase has long impacted me.
What does it mean to become primal without the primitive? For example, anthropology might point to the development of tools as early humans moved from beyond the primitive. Primal is the original, before humans separated themselves from nature. Primitive, in this sense, refers to a condition which lacks tools, technology, mathematics and language--that which provides understanding, creativity, and support. I can pull in here that line of poetry, "Life without calculation". Calculation is useful in our development beyond the primitive. It can refer to higher mathematics and probabilities, and concepts that have taken us beyond the primitive in our quest to understand life. Yet, calculation can also have an overlay of separation: calculation to achieve one's own separate interest, regardless of the impact on the whole. With Juan Ramon Jimenez's poem, endless openings await us; calculating our path is irrelevant.
So what does this have to do with massive storms? If you are stuck inside and have a power source, consider this week that you are not a victim of nature; you are home. Whether you are riding out the wind, cold, and ice, sheltered in place, or you are in the throes of protests, wearing layers of winter protection in service to humanity and Life, you remain an aspect of nature. You are equipped with endless possibilities, for thriving, creating, discovering--the primal without the primitive, beyond mere calculation. Expect the way to open to renewal. There is plenty to contemplate while waiting out your storm, until the time of restoration. Peace. (Susan Nettleton)
for poetry: https://108zenbooks.com/2010/07/16/life-without-calculation/ https://poets.org/poem/spellbound\ https://mypoeticside.com/show-classic-poem-30476