We are coming off of the third Global Sufficiency Summit. In truth I have had this sadness lodged in my belly all week, felt tired, and kind of hung over. And what I am most digesting from this incredibly rich two day long marathon dialogue is a conversation we had about death.
Ok, I know it seems kind of strange, maybe, to talk about death at a conference that is about restoring our reverence for life.
Here is the thing. What became evident from our conversation is that facing directly the truth of impermanence, the fact that, as Roger Burton so beautifully put it, “it is not going to turn out for us,” we will die, gives us access to preciousness, care, and love. It seems that developing an accurate relationship to that which is finite gives us access to that which is truly infinite.
I have been wondering about the connection between our misuse of resources that are finite and our denial of our own death. We nip and tuck, diet, seek the fountain of youth and mine for resource as if there is no end to them. Yet here is the truth and we all know it: None of it will save us. None of it. We will die and we will run out of oil. Really.
Maybe, just maybe, confronting this head on with grace and dignity can help us to restore the care, the preciousness of life that seems so missing from our current economic and political models.