Heroes Not Zombies

My title for this photo is “sun and storm”. What caught my eye, in the hours before sunset was how I could see the dark grey, almost purple cloud on the horizon, and the veils of rain dropping down from the cloud base to the ground, but all of this in the context of a bright clear sky (which you can see in the upper right of the photo) and the bright, shining sun, sitting just between the cloud base and the ground.

So here’s my question. Is this a stormy day or a sunny day?

Or, if you prefer, is this a photo of a storm or bright sunshine?

Trick question really…..because the true answer is « and not or ». But that’s not the way we tend to experience things when we are autopilot is it?

I remember one morning I parked my car in the station car park on the way to work and found that, as often happened, the nearest ticket machine wasn’t working. As I returned with a ticket from another machine I came across a man, furious and upset because the machine wasn’t working. He said to me « This is a terrible day! » I told him the other machine was working and it was only 7am, so if the worst thing to happen to him today was going to be finding that one of the ticket machines wasn’t working, would the day be so terrible after all? »

I guess that with hindsight he might have punched me on the nose! However, he said, thank you, you’re right. When you put it like that I can’t let a parking ticket machine ruin my day!

The thing is reality is complex and nuanced. It isn’t « this OR that ». This tendency we have to bring together our two powers of generalising and labelling tend to run roughshod over that. Once we become aware of the multidimensional and interwoven nature of reality then we can focus more on the unique and the special, on the here and now, on the amazing, rich, AND not OR!

Maybe if we did that more there would be less polarisation, less hatred and less fear…………..just saying!