Really, None??

Further considerations on Anxiousness

I woke up this morning with the happy-go-lucky muslim shepherd whom I encountered yesterday still on my mind. Could it be true that their is no anxiousness experienced by the people of this Island? Nearly everyone I know back home in the States is perpetually anxious! Most of my friends from Europe are too. And increasingly my friends from China, Japan, Taiwan and even Bangkok are seemingly always stressed for one reason or another. It’s become such a constant feeling in most people that I dare say people have come to view it as normal. Yet he told me their isn’t a word in his native language to express this emotion that for many has come to define modernity. I know this is an island and all, but come on, no anxiousness at all? Really??

I couldn’t stop thinking about it. So, I decided to go find that man again today. I am starting to know where most people on this island will be at certain times of the day. It’s a very small island. It only takes about 15 minutes to loop the entire parameter by motorbike. So, sure enough, at around 5:00, as the sun started to set and the kids were returning to fly kites I spotted him again, grinning ear to ear, chasing water buffalo with a nice sized twig.

I wave him down and say hello. He laughs and invites me over for a smoke. I tell him I don’t smoke. He laughs even harder and tells me, “Well that’s why you are so anxious!”

We spontaneously jump ease-fully into the conversation that began yesterday. It’s almost as if he knew I was coming. I barely need to ask any of the questions I was planning on asking because he immediately starts checking all the boxes off for me before I have a chance to bring any of them up. There is a flow to life in the village that manages to essentially do what boardrooms attempt to do but without the obnoxious heir of superiority and boredom of structure. Not just some of the time, instantly.

“The thing is son, it isn’t that we don’t worry. We do. It’s a bit like all these Buddhists here in Thailand say, Life is suffering. We get that. It takes real work to lead a good life. You can’t escape this. But you rich westerners think you can escape struggle, which ironically brings the anxiousness. Have you observed all those tourists who lie on the side of the beaches here? They get so awkward when locals come to talk to them. If they don’t have their iPhone in their hand they get so nervous. They say they came here to relax but they can’t do it. They spend so much money, but it’s nearly impossible for them to just let go and be here. I laugh, but honestly, I feel for them. Why did they want to leave home in the first place? I hate leaving my home. I can see how much they want what we have, to just be at peace. I hope the can find it.”

I tell him it’s not entirely like that. It’s just that western society is built very differently and most people there like to “take a vacation” once in a while and the way we experience vacation is by leaving everything behind, by having others take care of us for a while, by… The more I spoke the more it seemed like I was describing the entire history of colonization. Have westerners ever been at home? Always on the go, looking for a better place to watch the sunset.

My wife and daughter drive by on their bikes. My daughter has made some new friends with some of the Burmese kids that are living down the road from us. They all want to go play in the sand for a bit before it gets dark. I bid farewell to my new friend. He smiles and tells me not to worry about anything. “We all are going to die!” He invites me to bring my daughter by again tomorrow to fly kites. I think I’ll do that.

The first thing I notice as we get to the beach is the sexy looking tourists, all lying like kings and queens on their little bed-seats under those big umbrellas, wearing expensive swimsuits and designer sunglasses all holding a phone in one hand and a fancy drink in the other. Few seem to be smiling, or even talking for that matter. Most have headphones on. They are near the ocean but not in it. Meanwhile, my daughter runs ahead of me to meet the local kids for a game of splash and giggle. The parents all play too, joking and laughing and not thinking or caring about much other than how great it is to be alive. No one is trying to look cool, but I notice everyone is gorgeous.

It’s not lost on me that most of our new friends have families whose lives are now in serious danger. Yet everyone has a huge smile on their face, all laugh uncontrollably, effortlessly merging from one made-up game into the next, adults and children alike playing as if no war was raging across the border at all, like no massive earthquake just killed the lives of thousands. The sky slowly turns from dusty blue to pink and magma red. Hornbills fly around our heads in impressive swoops over the backdrop of a grand contrast of lush green jungle atop the brilliant face of the deep blue sea. It was all so enormously hypnotic. What is all this?, I think to myself. Life!

Aftershocks from the earthquake continue. My sister-in-law has been checking in on us all day. It’s scary here in Thailand but much worse in Myanmar. Of course the topic came up between me and the father of one of the kids my daughter was playing with at one point. I asked him if he felt anxious at all. He offered me a deeply human nod of understanding and said. “I feel sadness, of course. But anxiousness, no. Life is always uncertain. But today we are together!” He dove under his daughter and then jumped out from behind her like a dolphin. She laughed and laughed and laughed. My daughter then reminded me that I too am a great sea creature and again I quickly became a whale.

…

Question:

What about modernity/western culture is causing many to feel more anxious?

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***this little mini-post was a gift, a freely offered glimpse of the new daily offerings being sent out each day (except Sundays) to paid subscribers; personal, intimate windows into our curious world here at the crossroads of modernity and something a bit more ancestrally familiar. Each mini-post ends with a question, aspiring to prompt creative communal dialogue.

This new addition to Hiræth: Post-Activism in the Anthropocene was inspired by a call out from a friend of mine for financial assistance. She is from Myanmar and her country is going through a terrible war. Her family was receiving some assistance until Trumps team opted to end USAID. And then a major earthquake ravaged their land on top of everything else. And then the Myanmar military continued dropping bombs…

Governments don’t generally help much. BUT WE CAN. For the next month, all profits beyond the basic upkeep of this substacky thing will go to help communities in Myanmar who I know directly, so I can verify that your donation will find the right hands. Please, if you can afford even just $5 a month, consider becoming a paying subscriber. Your dollar is a vote for a kinder world.

And don’t worry, my usual longer-form articles will still roll out as they always have, randomly and offered freely to all.

Thank you. All blessings.

#maypeaceprevailonearth

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