people floor me
People floor me. Every day. Every day people open their eyes in the morning, or the evening, (depending on when they open their eyes) and they get up with brains full of thoughts and ideas. An earth full of creatures, and this particular race we call human, every day open their eyes and take their brains full of thoughts and ideas and live their days. Some of them full, some of them empty, all of them purposeful despite the fact that most of them are unaware of this purpose. Most of them are unaware of their inherent worth and value simply by just being here.
Perhaps back in the day they knew. Back before the earth was round. Back before religion became so political and politics was so heavily influenced by religion. Was there a time like that? Certainly not one I can remember. What I mean is, perhaps there was a time and space before iPhones and the internet, a time and space before television and print news, a time and space before Plato and Socrates even, before the Pharaohs and the let my people’s go.
A time and space before knowledge when there was only wisdom. Only the inherent truth of our human value. Of the value of all things on this magnificent place. Where people honored the sacredness of life and the sacredness of death. Where even if they had to kill someone or something, in defense or for food, they understood the weight of the action they were taking. It was never done cavalierly or without care or because of a difference in skin color or gender. A time before power plays existed and people looked into each other’s eyes and saw themselves. A time when people looked into each other’s eyes and saw god.
There were only delicious apples and snakes had very specific jobs. And everyone knew this. And appreciated from whence everything came. Perhaps they knew then, their inherent worth and value. Or perhaps they didn’t. I have no actual way of knowing do I? I like to think that this is what we are working towards though. I like to think, to dream, to imagine that once upon a time we knew it, maybe not all of us, but some of us, and that we are all working towards knowing it again. And when we discover it, even for the fleeting moments we get to discover it, we are in paradise, we are a living breathing oneness.
And in all those moments in between, we are 7 billion people who wake up every day, each with our individual thoughts and ideas about what is going on in the world around us. Each with opinions and positions and judgements about what and how we should all be living. And each person, like it or not, walks through their day projecting whatever it is going on in their brain onto the screen we call life. And sometimes it’s wonderful and sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it's full, sometimes it's empty and most of the time, in fact always, it just is.
But every day we do it. And then we go to sleep and wake up and do it again and again and again. It floors me what we go through as a people. Death, birth, heartbreak over and over and over again, disappointment, ecstasy, uncontrollable laughter, joy, creation, infinite creation, connection, infinite connection, hiccups, hunger, fullness, thirst, warmth, cold, discomfort, total relaxation, anxiety, rage, hurt, sadness, lust, love. My god the love.
My god the love.
This weekend I went to the symphony. I watched 120 people come together in total cohesion to perform a piece of music that was written almost 100 years ago based on a piece of literature that was written 422 years ago. FOUR HUNDRED AND TWENTY TWO YEARS AGO! Shakespeare was writing Romeo and Juliet and all of the other masterpieces that capture almost, if not every single emotion a human can have, four hundred and twenty two years ago. We have been doing this for four hundred and twenty years. No, longer!
People, humans, have been opening their eyes for over 200,000 years. They say modern civilization is only 6,000 years old. So 6,000 years ago, on record, people started opening their eyes and having modern civilized thoughts. Whatever that means. We have all of us forever, well for 200,000 years, been evolving. This is an undeniable fact. Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet in 1595 and we have been recreating it ad infinitum ever since.
And when Dudamel was done conducting these selections of Prokofiev’s masterpiece, the entire concert hall was silent on bated breath, for fifteen whole seconds. For fifteen whole seconds, all two thousand of us were collectively quiet, waiting for more of this holy music that helps us each to transcend our thoughts and our minds. This holy music that somehow instantly brings us each to a source of life that we forget over and over and over again. This holy music that we had been witnessing 120 people come together to create, out of nowhere. Out of instruments that not only did some other human build but at some point in history, prior to this one, another human created.
Another human being conceptualized putting strings on wood and making sound. Making sound that echoed what I can only imagine some other human had figured out their body could make when they opened their mouth to, well I wonder what they called it then, but to sing. And when he turned around to signal to us that the music was indeed over the entire audience erupted in applause. A young man leapt to his feet so moved by the performance he had to stand. And we all stood with him because we knew how he felt.
A day later I was on my couch alone and I happened upon that giant sports event called the Super Bowl. Lady Gaga was singing and I swear I felt it. For at least 4 of the 13 minutes and 26 seconds that she was performing, we all stopped and we watched. Whether we liked it or not, I felt the country come together to partake of this 51 year old tradition which was sprung from a sport that is 125 years old. And 51 years ago people did something similar. And 125 years ago at the start of football they did something similar. And in 776 BC at the the first ancient Olympic Games, according to historical records, they prayed to pagan gods the way we all stopped and watched a woman fly through the air while singing, on key!
It’s the that moment of silence, it’s that moment of awe, that moment of transcending those thoughts and ideas that have been recycling themselves in our brains for 6,000 years and landing straight in the center of something we can’t explain but we know is true. Landing straight in the center of a divine wisdom that defies words or logical explanation. It’s a moment that happens all the time if we let it. It’s something we have all felt. It’s a supreme remembering and the fact that we do it as humans over and over again...
...the fact that we still after all this time, after no time at all, go to sleep and then open our eyes and then go to sleep and then open our eyes… My god it floors me.
I believe in us. Because of everything that has ever happened in the history of the world and in spite of everything that has ever happened in the history of the world, I believe in us. I believe in us so god damn much it hurts. It breaks my heart every day. It fills my heart every day. It floors me every day.
I love us. Because of everything that has ever happened in the history of the world and in spite of everything that has ever happened in the history of the world, I love us. I love in us so god damn much it hurts. It breaks my heart every day. It fills my heart every day. It floors me every day.
And so every day and i will aim to do my best, to do my very best to embrace the full and celebrate the empty and recognize myself as wholly and completely worthy. I will do my best to see that in everyone. And I will aim to remember that I am doing my best, and so is everyone, whether my ideas and opinions agree with this or not. This is the wisdom.
And every day I will open my eyes and I will say, floor me world, floor me. And every night I will close them and say thank you world, thank you. And then I will wake up and do it all again….