When I was a kid, we didn't have cell phones, tablets, or video games for entertainment and amusement. We read books, magazines, and comics, and among my favorites where Highlights, Reader's Digest, and Marvel. On the last few pages of comic books were ads, and one consistent ad was for...Sea Monkeys! And boy, was I fascinated with them. I'd always ask my mom if we could buy some, and she always said no. Dang it!
Still, I imagined looking into a magical world in a jar, watching sea monkeys floating and swimming through the water. Even after making several pleas ("...but so-and-so's mom bought them for so-and-so!..."), my mom let adequate time go by for me to discover that sea monkeys were actually just brine shrimp. Then she brought me back to reality; we had an aquarium with a water turtle named Freddie, and I'd watch him play with the algae-eaters and guppies. Plants and colorful gravel covered the bottom of this little world that he lived in...he even had a large rock where he could "sun" himself under a light. We would dig up worms in the backyard for him to eat, and I would watch as my Dad dropped a big nightcrawler into the tank. Freddie would scoot off the rock, plop into the water, and as the nighcrawler curled around his face, he would gobble it up. Who needs a little jar of brine shrimp when we had already created a whole ecosystem for my first beloved pet?
I've also realized how relentless I was as a kid, being sucked into all kinds of things I wanted...like an EasyBake Oven. I so wanted one for Christmas or birthdays, but never got one. ("...but so-and-so's mom bought them for so-and-so!..."). Again, my mom let adequate time go by, and one day she replied: "Why would you want one of those, when I can teach you to cook and bake in a real oven?" And she did.
Life has become so complicated with the thinking that we need 'bigger-better-faster-stronger'. The latest phone or tablet, the latest car, the latest apps. But the simple truth lies within the confusion between wants and needs (and the associated costs). Didn't need an EasyBake Oven. Didn't need Sea Monkeys. I wanted them, but didn't need them...and I found that what I already had was way better than what I ever thought I wanted.
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?"
Matthew 6: 25-27
Simple Truths
So, what do Easy Bake ovens and sea monkeys have to do with truth? Most of us want to protect children from the harsh realities of life, with the hope that they'll become healthy, happy adults. We want them to be happy, but we also need them to be smart and safe. Nurturing and raising children is a tough job, and sometimes we think we don't have the tools we need to do it. But like my mother, parents can become quite resourceful when it comes to teaching children the most important things they need to carry throughout their lives. And one of those important, simple truths is: Everything takes work to work.
This week, a very smart, wise friend reminded me that you have to have an understanding of a problem before you can find the solutions. It can be difficult living in a world where we're conveniently spoonfed the "answers" through AI or social media. Doesn't take too much work to ask AI a question, but it does take work read and to sift through all the fabrications...trying to discern through what is true and untrue; what is real and unreal. We can spend a lot of time and money on things we might think are necessary to help us, rather than gain the understanding of what or how they might impact, influence, and affect us and generations to come. And sometimes, the very tools and fabrications we consume and internalize can become a part of the very problems we try to solve. Instead of grounding ourselves in reality and remembering what we've learned throughout our journeying, we get sucked back into becoming confused children. Crazy, huh!
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened."
Matthew 7: 7-8
"Is it possible to exist in a world of sea monkeys?"
I realize it's not the best-worded hypothetical question or koan, but it's simply put. However, in context of what I'm writing today, I asked AI this very question (without context), and this was its response:
---
"Yes—if you mean a miniature aquatic world inhabited almost entirely by “Sea-Monkeys.” They’re actually brine shrimp (Artemia), and in a carefully maintained tank, they effectively live in their own tiny world.
A human couldn’t physically live in that world: it is too small, extremely salty, low in oxygen, and lacks everything we need to survive. But you can create and observe a thriving Sea-Monkey ecosystem—complete with algae, bacteria, reproduction, competition, and generations of inhabitants. So, from their perspective, a world of Sea-Monkeys is entirely possible. From ours, it’s a fascinating little civilization in a tank."
--- Fascinating, indeed.
I've been in situations that were "extremely salty, low in oxygen", where I've literally had to struggle to breathe. I've been in tanks that limited any hope of existing, much less thriving. I've been plopped into systems, climates, and micro-climates where I've had to learn to adapt for the sake of sustainability. I've been subjected to being put into labeled tanks...a member, a subscriber, a "valued customer", a number, a statistic, an algorithm. I've been held captive to the thoughts swimming around in my own head...fear, worry, depression, and doubt. I've had moments in my life where I would look in the mirror and think: "Who are you? Who have you become?"
It took time for me to realize that being a victim...to everything thrown at me, in a myriad of environments and micro-climates...prevented me from understanding the truth about myself. I don't want to live in fear. I don't want to be depressed. I don't want to be around people who use and abuse me, and then just throw me away. I don't want to struggle just to survive. I don't want to spend money on things that destroy my health, my mind, my behavior. I don't want to question my own existence.
I had to take ownership of myself, and understand what it is that I needed, not wanted: I needed purpose in my life, beyond my circumstances and control. I needed a job and the tools to be productive. I needed a good environment, a place to live and call home. I needed to live within my means. I needed to be around genuinely good people who were positive, encouraging, and understanding, and I needed to be the same with them. I need to smile, to laugh, to be happy. I need to be loved.
If you identify with any of that, the solution is and always has been: Love.
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
1 Corinthians 13: 4-7
An environment of Love is what everyone wants and needs! So rather than being a slave to unhealthy environments and associations...instead of wondering what brand of sea monkey I was, or what brand others wanted, expected, or labeled...I took ownership in becoming the person I truly needed to be, no matter where I was or where fate would land me the next day, next week, or next year, five, ten, or twenty.
Believe me, it isn't easy. Doing the hard thing never is. But the more I was able to admit and take ownership, the more I was able get a jump-start on being the self I needed to be. I stopped being in abusive, unhealthy relationships because I finally recognized the cycles of insanity. I stopped drinking because it impaired my health, judgment, and reasoning (and quite frankly, made me feel like shit). I started limiting my caffeine intake because I discovered that it affects/disrupts my flow of concentration. I started using AI more as a tool to help me gain some knowledge and understanding, not be spoonfed fabricated answers that it thought I wanted to hear. I started surrounding myself with the Nouns...people, places and things...that were meaningful to me and helped me live a healthy, sustainable, happy life.
"For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you."
Romans 12:3
Being in the world, not of it. The more I was able to honestly take ownership of my own heart, mind, body, and spirit...the more moments that revealed the truth of lessons learned, regardless of the tanks I was compelled to swim in...the more I became aware and discovered the places which were either filled with Love...or systematically and cyclically lacking it. Achieving that physical-mental-spiritual balance is a lot of work! But that's what it takes, and at least now I'll know if I made poor choices, because I'll inevitably feel and often regret them later. Same with the things I buy, the places I go, or the people I meet along the way. And I'm not perfect; I make mistakes, I'm human. Perfect isn't!
“Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye."
Matthew 7: 3-5
I also learned not to waste time and play blame games about the issues, problems, and chaos going on in the world...but I do need to have an untainted knowledge and understanding of the problems before they can be adequately addressed (and that can be very hard to do in today's climates). I don't have all the answers; no one does! What I simply need is to do the work it takes in my own backyard and in my own skin. Am I a sea monkey, or a human being? If I don't have my own shit together, how could I ever understand or be considerate of those who might be swimming around in the many tanks of anger, hurt, confusion, and trauma? (All the while, being wary about how "hurt people hurt people"...I have to really work hard and be cautious enough to not get sucked into the hoses!) But I'm smart enough to know that all anyone wants or needs is Love. That's the answer everyone has, and the only one that matters. If we'd all work on Love as the answer, for ourselves and others...maybe that would solve a majority of problems.
Sometimes I find myself alone, but I'm never lonely. Every day I try to take moments to do things I love. I love grinding and smelling my (decaf) beans for my morning coffee. I love my moments of prayer and meditation with my Creator. I love playing my wood flute. I love trying to stay positive and maintain a sense of humor through a bad day. I love to cook (experimentally, lol). I love to laugh...even at myself! I love "Facelook" time, visiting with friends over coffee or a good meal. I have one game on my phone that I love to play (it's a word game). I love the smell of sagebrush on the open prairie...
I love my community and tribe, and the good people I associate and partner with. And quite honestly, I don't necessarily like meetings (and I attend quite a lot of them), but I do love productive ones where like-minded folks work together in the same "think tank"...where there is understanding and hope for goals and objectives to be accomplished and successful. And at the end of the day, I love to go home, draw in and breathe out a sigh of relief, kick off my shoes, shed the uniform, take off all the hats, peel off the 'labels'...and then do more of the things that I love as I watch the sun set on another day.
Simple truth? Time is all we have. Can I, by worrying, add a single hour to my life?
Love really is all we need. For everyone, including ourselves.
All You Need Is Love
By John Lennon & Paul McCartney
There's nothing you can do that can't be done
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung
Nothing you can say, but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy
Nothing you can make that can't be made
No one you can save that can't be saved
Nothing you can do, but you can learn how to be you in time
It's easy
All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need
There's nothing you can know that isn't known
Nothing you can see that isn't shown
There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be
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