In Purpose, On Purpose
Some days I think I am more feline than human - I like to sleep ... and eat ... and spend time alone. Like cats, I don't get the point of expending my energy on things that have no apparent point. Which is to say that being stuck at home with not much to do isn't the hardship for me I know it is for many.
What's challenging for me is not so much how to fill my time but how to fill it with purpose. How to be in purpose, on purpose. Doing stuff that has no inherent value is as stifling and frustrating for me as small talk at parties. I'd sooner go home, tuck up into bed, and read a really good book.
Speaking of which, before the pandemic hit, I purged a ton of books off my shelves, even ones I hadn't yet read but figured I'd never get to. I get overly-excited in book stores and will buy a book just because I like the cover illustration. This gets me into trouble.
So, when it looked like we were going to have to stay home a whole lot longer than anyone knew, I cursed myself for the purge. And began, in earnest, an extended longing for something to read. Thanks to Kerry Clare at #PickleMeThis who put me onto the wonderful Canadian writer Iona Whishaw and her series of books starting with A Killer at King's Cove.
I've pretty much exhausted my interest in Netflix etc. Who knew that one could tire of cheap entertainment? Even with all that's going on in the world, I cannot bring myself to watch more than an hour of something at a time. I need a distraction but it can't be mindless, I've discovered. And it's all a minefield now, isn't it?
I will tell you, though, of three shows that I've recently watched and was enthralled by:
What they all have in common is humanity in all its complexities.
I'm thinking that maybe living in purpose right now is not the priority. It feels like 2020 is asking us to redefine what purpose is, both personally and on a global scale. We've been uprooted, upheaved, and uplevelled to a new way of thinking and feeling. I'm hoping that we get the point of all this chaos, that we are truly listening with attentive and discerning ears to what is happening and to what is being revealed about us as a species.
Feels like the whole world is on a purge, clearing out that which no longer serves our greatest good, even if we don't know it. We're creating a clean slate. Letting go, sometimes violently, of the stuff that dehumanizes us all. And, hopefully, filling the empty space with the qualities of our highest selves - love, respect, fairness and equality.
2020 - the Year of the Purge.