Alternate Universes

I opened a story that was titled, "Why is she like this?" and it was about a politician (whose name will go unsaid) who has been a channel for ideas like, "alternate facts.".  Hmmm...

I used to talk about Los Angeles being a place where people live in "parallel universes", occupying the same space/time but truly living different realities.  It is one result of diversity - different languages, different appearances, different foods, different customs, different expectations and yet, a common hope:  for a life that is sustained by basic human capacities of caring and belonging.

But alternate facts are a different game.

While parallel universes allow for existence in relative peace which may sometimes erupt in conflict because of events and occurrences that intensify competition for things like housing, work, or access to services; alternate facts create danger and threats to peace.  That danger lies in the deprivation of being able to stand on common ground.   Without common ground, there is no path to common understanding.  The alternate facts deprive actors and thinkers of creating options to expand  compassion, love, and joy.  Common good, common ground, common sense are unreachable when alternate "facts" are asserted.

Understanding and growing commons is essential for healthy human existence, especially today:  compassion, love, joy are just words that conjure a notion of something comforting - but when it comes to operationalizing these, alternate facts create barriers.  And the biggest barrier is the inability to recognize the essential need for "community.".   As human beings, without community there is a void that feels lonely, abstract, vulnerable.  And mixed with ego, insecurity, and fear - things get very confusing - danger, danger, danger!

Confusion is a great place to pretend alternate facts exist.  It is a great place to begin feeling okay about saying and doing things that create doubt, suspicion, delusion, and more fear - all things that cause suffering.  

When society reaches a point where alternate facts are no longer just disagreements in how we make choices in life, where alternate facts are framing reality, where alternate facts are the basis for policy changes that affect how we operate as a society - we know it's time.  

It is time to get back to these facts:  human beings need love, support (in navigating difficult conditions that inevitably arise in life), and reminders that we exist in a time when all life is inextricably interconnected.  So, this is it.  

Alternate facts arrived in a time of deep division, doubt, and delusion (which is reality by some agreement;  not reality as things are).  Suffering comes from all of these;  yet, the ability to get out of that suffering exists and the search to find how to do this is unseen by so many.  There is a way to enter another, parallel universe than the one that may feel burdensome and overwhelming.  For most, it takes awareness, practice, discipline, and consistency.  For a very few, jumping to a new universe can happen instantaneously (without drugs).  

What universe do you occupy?