The Surface

I've wondered in many different ways what it is like to remain at the surface; to be in the warm glow of our Sun and stay in that warmth. Or better, I've wondered about how we can know when we're just about at the surface, when we're about to breath that clean air that hasn't been cluttered by this or that thing in our ocean wanderings.

Perhaps we can tell that we, all of us, are nearing the surface when we more often feel the waves, but we can also see that these waves are passing things. That is, we are approached by many different sorts of obligations from and for persons in that section, but that these can be dispensed with if we only enlist a little of our will.

Will all, or even many, of us make it to the surface soon? I think not. But not because some are more adept than others at swimming - this makes a difference, but we're all boyant I think. No, I think that some have little interest in surfacing and would prefer to drift with the currents and the tides and only swim away when things get too tough. There's a song not many know where Gord asks: When are you thinking of dissapearing; when there's nothing but heartache in your social life? And, this is how it is for most of us. Why swim to the surface to breath clean, to live in the sun, when things are acceptable (from our limited points of view) deep down in the ocean of our obligations and social circles?

The answer lies in knowing that, eventhough buffetting waves increase while moving to the surface, the perspective we own at the surface of our social community allows us to look to the things that should matter. And, the littleness even of obligation can be recognized. Think:

What if in a dream you dreamed that you were a member of some section of the ocean, ever needed to play your part there. And then you learn that you can get out of that ocean, and out of those obligations. And not in the sense that you are running away, but in the sense that things no longer apply. This is a kind of freedom I've only experienced on bike rides when stop signs seem only to apply to the cars, and not to us on bikes. I'm joking, of course, but the freedom is the same in kind none the less. It is only that the degree can change radically when we lift out of our meager circumstance. Then we can see where best to dive back in. Then we can see what obligation means.

I hold some dissapointment in my heart from time to time when I see others headed for the surface only to be sucked back down by the rip-tide of their past experience. Which is to say, I sometimes see persons approaching a point where they can move forward in their understanding of things (the ocean, the waves, me, you, and everyone else as well) and some little tendency will pull them back down. And my dissapointment is not mine because I am already at that surface, but because I have had (and seen) the same thing happen to me and also seen how this eventually breeds discomfort, suffering, and all of the other things that we find in our little sections of the ocean.

Here is the good news: We are all boyant beings. Eventually, we will rise back up for that boyancy. (And you and I are always rising anyway.) This is why we listen to the ocean, to that white noise, to those little distractions, and these other things in this extended metaphor. When we pay a little attention, we can realize that these things too will pass, and that our boyancy is what can really carry us forward. Which is to say that when we approach the surface we can get our bearing from the Sun and move in the direction of more perfect joy.