the folly of trying so hard to make things so easy
Caroline Ross describes the Tao as not meaning ‘going with the flow,’ but, rather, as living like the salmon swimming upstream to mate and spawn. It’s not easy, it’s challenging. It can be done, but it takes effort. There is friction to work against.
Well, creatures get expression, grounding, health, satisfaction in doing the work, meeting the challenges.
When aboriginals traveled there were trails, pathways, but they were not smooth in the way that our current roads are. Smooth is fine, but our culture tries too hard to smooth, ease, protect, shield. It’s a folly. It involves complexification to a point of aggravation and enervation. We wind up with a surfeit of “conveniences” but, after all the effort to “simplify,” we wind up no more satisfied than if we had just dealt with the natural challenges and frictions.
We stress ourselves and “the planet,” we harm the other creatures, as we over-strive for our easings and protections.
