Currency Exchange
Air is clear and crisp with the temperature sitting at 51 degrees fahrenheit. Today is Tuesday.
Listening to Oregon's "Cane Fields" and realizing that the tune matches what is happening in the world. The final bars at least, end in a harmonic that signals hope. And now, Kitaro comes into the audio and there is another sound from a flute in "Caravansary" - the violin and bells are floating on top of a baseline that opens the heart. There's hope.
Today the news is all about the world's currencies - there is a deep dive happening as these words are being written - we are all in free fall. That seems about right. The idea that we are all interconnected even plays out in our currency - as one market is hit, all markets are hit, some to a lesser extent than others - but the flow is pretty connected and moves in the same direction.
That's how human existence seems to work: we move together as one, no matter if we realize it or not. For most, the everyday demands of life essentially erases our ability to see it because surviving the environment or the wars or the petty conflicts in our lives seem to blur vision. What's really important does not to make it into our awareness most of the time.
We find ourselves caught up in stories that are not our actual lived experience - they are the stories of the things happening in other parts of the world and to other people. Then, we get sad or inspired. The ones who ARE the story, don't even know it most of the time - they are too busy living into the actual conditions that have to be faced. Then you realize, "Hey, I am a story too!"
People hear about America and have a narrative in mind about a place where "freedom" and "individuality" and "dreams" can be realized. Likewise, the narrative from America puts forth ideas about "foreigners" who are less cultured, less intelligent, and certainly less civilized than this place. The currency of culture can lead some to want to explore and others not. The ones that explore are our hope becuase they find a way - whether they have access to conventional currency to travel or not. Somehow the explorers find a way.
Our common destiny, it seems, is in the hands and hearts of those who are able to take their lives into the realm of unfamiliar places and melodies, and then share with the rest of us through stories, music, and art. The currency exchange here is entirely outside the realm of conventional cash and the zeros and ones reflected in bank statements.
Deep appreciation for those who recognize that their lived experiences give the world a chance to build a common currency, one that doesn't yet exist. We have to start somewhere and it seems all the talk today is about currencies – maybe we can convert what exists today into what is needed for tomorrow.