Connection & Faith - during a pandemic and violent injustice
Remember the “LOST” series? It ran on ABC TV from 2004-2010. I came late to the series. I started watching it, not on network TV, because I didn’t HAVE hook-up to either cable or even the "regular" stations, but via the internet on Netflix. I LOVED watching shows this way and I STILL do, no commercials AND if I want to watch 10 episodes a day...I CAN! If I had watched the show as it played on TV, I don't think I could have waited a WHOLE week for the next episode...it would have killed me!
Anyway, this post isn't about my former addiction to the LOST series or Netflix, it's about the themes that LOST used and the themes that have been reoccurring throughout my life and in the lives of us all.
Connection and faith are portrayed in this clip from LOST.
People, as the humans we are, desire to be connected to other people. This is why blogs exist. This is why Facebook is such a hit. When the first version of this blog came out, there wasn’t Instagram, there wasn’t Snap Chat. During the pandemic we have found new ways to connect. We connect via zoom, Google Meet and other video platforms. We meet and chat in 2D as often as we can. And yet, we cannot stay physically away from one another, even during a pandemic. No, we congregate with a “social distance” from one another in our backyards on a Friday night around a bonfire. We went to the stores as soon as they were opened for business. We flocked to the coffee shop, not because we needed that Caribou coffee so much but because we craved CONNECTION. We are not creatures who feed off of isolation (as I sit here for the 13 hour writing, alone, behind my laptop, I truly feel this) that is uncommon AND I would argue, not healthy. We join groups, we belong to churches, synagogues, mosques. We join run clubs, adventure groups, bands, gangs, anything to be connected even if it has a negative influence. We protest and demonstrate, not in isolation, NO, in groups! We want to be accepted, for who we are, not who we could become or what people want us to be. We don’t want to be labeled, put in a box or treated differently because of the color of our skin or the shape of our body. When we don't get that acceptance, we can become bitter, self-indulgent, depressed, angry and violent. Children, if not given positive attention, will go for negative attention (e.g. when you say "no", they’ll do it again, just because they can and you are giving them attention).
Buddhism says that we are interconnected. There is no separation between me and anything else. I exist because you exist, because the tree exists, because the sun exists. I affect you and you affect me. I affect the ocean and the ocean affects me. Really, it is about the arising and falling of each thing. I cannot exist if you do not exist and visa versa. We are in a symbiotic relationship.
In the past, it seemed that my connections to people led me to either positive or negative consequences. I believe now that this depended on how I felt about myself at the time. Insecurity lead me to connect with people that mirrored that in me and self-love to people who mirrored THAT. With either type of connection, whether the consequences were destructive or uplifting, it was the connection that I was longing for.
On faith. I truly believe that what you BELIEVE about yourself or IN will become reality. If you say it enough, it becomes real. You create a faith in this idea or thing.
At age 6, I never doubted this. I could BE and DO anything! I WAS an actress, I was a world traveler. I was an awesome mom. The possibilities were endless. As a grew, society, culture and norms challenged this faith. As I grew older, I was told and then believed that I COULDN'T do things. I was told there were limitations. I was a girl, I wasn’t Latina enough, I wasn’t White enough, I wasn’t strong enough. When we are giving ideas of imposed limitations, whether imposed by our own minds or by others words, it is severely damaging. This leads to stuckness in life, victim-like behavior and an unfulfilling life.
Stepping into faith and embracing connection is the only way to truly live. We can choose, at any time, to be like Hurley and drive down the hill at 60 mph heading straight for the rocks with eyes closed saying, "there is no curse, there is no curse". Just like Hurley, we can have faith that the VW will start and go driving in the promise land with Three Dog Night singing Shambala in the background.