The Boiling Frog and Spiritual Politics
A long time ago someone I know commented what does it matter if it's the End of the World? What matters is this is the only life you have here, right now...sooo, make THIS ONE count....
I've noticed it's harder and harder to break free of the ranks of the comfortably numb especially the older I become. It seems the older I become, the more easily I submit to compromise. The difficulty lies in when to recognize the quantity and quality of my compromises and their effects upon my life. The boiling frog comes to mind. It seems to be a popular metaphor these days... Thrown into a hot pot the frog will try to escape. Plopped into a comfortably tepid pot, the frog doesn't react. So, as the temperature slowly rises the frog's life gradually boils away. Are we all like the frog? Are we aware of the conditions of the metaphorical Pot? Do we accurately identify the conditions? Or like the frog, do we simply adjust to every increasing discomfort in The Pot as we compromise our principles and lives away?
It's a good metaphor. I'm not particularly literate so I don't know its origins. Anyway, with 6+ billion in the world today it makes our world quite a Pot.... I like the Pot metaphor and it's been historically used before, but in a different time and, most recently in a different context.
There are things that I want to know about the Pot if we are like the frogs. I want to know who is in control of the Pot? I want to know if we truly have the choice as metaphorical frogs to submit to the Pot or whether we can recognize it for what it is and jump out of it? When the condition of the pot is looming in front of us and we are all thrown in, if the pot is not boiling hot, is it possible to save ourselves and appropriately react in time? Is this possible or is a boiling pot necessary for us to even attempt to leap free of the pot? I still think and behave like a child so I want to know these things....
For me every choice or decision represents who and what I have become. As I look at my life and the important decisions I have made I wonder if I am in a pot, how hot is the water?
Clearly if we are going to accept that Global Warming is a climactic and environmental condition of this planet, then this Earth is a metaphorical pot. But what if there are many pots and each of us as a frog can choose to jump free of one pot only to end up in another pot? What if our family, relationships, jobs, finances, community, politics, Faiths and even our own bodies are all Pots? It appears that like the frog, we are clearly being called to identify how comfortable we are in each pot.
What is it like beyond the Pot? Is the freedom that exists outside of the pot guarantee an ideal froggy existence? Does life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness make a fully realized frog? I wonder.
