“In the depth of my soul there is
A wordless song – a song that lives
In the seed of my heart.
It refuses to melt with ink on
Parchment; it engulfs my affection
In a transparent cloak and flows,
But not upon my lips.
How can I sing it? I fear it may
Mingle with earthly ether;
To whom shall I sing it? It dwells
In the house of my soul, in fear of
Harsh ears.”
Song of the Soul
Kahlil Gibran
I’ve not recorded a podcast of personalities amongst the crisis. Not yet. I need to find a way to do so without my judgements or preferences coming forth. Of course, I have favourites. Everyone does. Anyone who says they don’t is lying. For me, I live in a lesser spotted group of beings. Ones who I suspect are all quietly rocking in a corner. It’s not just our own pain either.
So how do I categorise the neighbours on both sides who turn the idyllic area into woof zone? What’s in your makeup that can’t care about those who share your space? Or notice when your dogs are distressed? But then I have to remind myself that they just don’t think. The funny part is they’d care more about me writing about them than any suffering or nuisance caused.
I similarly need to remind myself that there is a whole portion of people out there who learn by trial and error. They just happen to be discovering right now to cost of themselves and others. That jogging on top of you is suddenly detrimental to all.
So ironically even though extroverts take their lead from the external and introverts from the internal – there is a bit of role reversal in progress now. Or at least maybe it’s more evident than ever. While the extroverts will be more likely along with those analytical souls to strike up conversations on the survival of the fittest. Those internalised introverts will be worrying about everyone else, not just themselves.
Never have our priorities or ways of communicating been so apparent in difference.
Random discovery – even though I fall asleep better to audiobooks I know well. I write better to music I don’t. Which I’m using to muffle the barking.
My life is mostly filled with introverts whose lives have changed little. Except maybe we talk more often about the madness because how else are we going to crow about our differences?
All my heroes continue to share the silver lining. To draw emphasis to the reset. To continue to ask the difficult question – will we really return to ‘normal’ after all this?
They are nearly all introspective introverts too. The positive track that is possible lies in the special beings who are swaddled in attention and character reinforcement at this time. Think of it as the ultimate tonic to bring out the best of development for a subset of young souls. Will they have such a core that they won’t crave the validation in the social selfie in a few years? Have some of the current generations just been too removed from the idea of more is less? Will this be the care button humanity needed to push?
And at last, a fitting song I know has played. I have to stop to listen and digest the apt words;
“When our world falls to pieces
And the moonlight starts to hide
In a million little splinters
In the corners of our mind”
Depth of My Soul
Thievery Corporation
And still, we see the gaps. The individual needs, the society ones. The political spin, the reality. The new rich might be the ability to step off grid and sustain. The spine to say no to what doesn’t feel right. The ability to realise your dogs are driving your meditative neighbours nuts.
But the real contradiction is that it’s the inward who are looking out right now. Not those extroverts so influenced by the external.
Naoisé April 7th 2020