Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Rebalancing the Worldbody

Homeostasis refers to the body’s ability to maintain a state of
balance. Like a thermostat set for an optimum temperature, the
multiple systems of the body are always adjusting for the changes made
by contact with the world, digesting food and information. It’s a
principle on every level of the organism, from cells to the
integration and communication of body and mind through the
pituitary-hypothalamus link. Our physical self is a dynamic interweave
of different functions working for the same goals, the health and
balance of the whole. When problems come to conscious attention, our
rational faculties are there to deal with it. Interdependence is
absolute.
This continuous adjustment and readjustment responds to changes,
internal and external that provides an image-model for the worldbody.
First and foremost everything should be properly nourished and care
taken to avoid harmful toxins at every level. Recently someone on the
radio said, “Money is the toxin that’s killing American democracy”.
Our conscious awareness should likewise be part of the world’s
balancing act. With awareness comes responsibility. When we see a
destructive influence it’s important to look at the multiple factors
that feed it and everything affected by it. We’ve gotten into trouble
with a machine model that simply fixes the defective part, the final
result of a confluence of factors. The Bible didn’t say money was the
root of all evil, but that love of money is the root of all evil. It’s
the prevailing attitude toward money that needs revising. The TV news
recently gushed over the youngest billionaires in the world as though
this is something we should all bow down to, whereas I see individuals
having that much money as obscene. And the way money drives its own
accumulation makes it the ultimate selfish meme. Competition to have
the most money drives greed. We’re too often enslaved by the products
of our own creation. The dark and egotistical qualities in human
beings are not only tolerated, they’re celebrated.
Saving the planet depends on changing the way we see. Wiping away
forests removes an important element in the planet’s sensitively
evolved ecosystem. Over fishing, monoculture, fracking and drilling
are just a few more things that erode the worldbody’s ability to heal.
Water is contaminated, dolphins are sick, bees are disappearing;
symptoms of world sickness are everywhere we look. The obvious benefit
of treating the world more gently, with an overview of the whole,
would show clearly were not single-minded focus on profits involved.
Profits are not more important than people, and before the entire
planet has been ravaged, it would be a growth in wisdom to pause and
evaluate what’s necessary for a healthy world. Overeating disorders
are often connected to feelings of emptiness within and the desire for
fullness, but the thing that would satisfy is not material, but to tie
oneself to the whole with a sense of individual purpose, contributing
whatever each does best. We need to feel our connection to the world
body to heal the emptiness. The 1%’s avidity for profits is an
overeating disorder that doesn’t address the emptiness within.
Undereating disorders resist having a particular way of being shoved
down their throat, and control their lives in the only way that seems
open to them. The resistance of the Occupy movement refuses to digest
the values that are destroying the worldbody, sees the turbulence and
upset, planetary fever and chills, and knows that very few people
having all the money is an imbalance that needs to be changed. They’ve
begun the process by spreading awareness and demonstrating better
values that can change direction from within.

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