By ROBERT FUSELIER
Los Alamos
When we get down to the root of all the names we put on others, the labels that we use in a blind attempt to make our world easier to navigate, we arrive at two options: good or bad.
Good and bad is the basic premise of most of our actions. Good and bad is how our subconscious emotional systems work to keep us surviving: we are programmed to seek out that which helps us survive (good) and avoid that which harms us (bad). No great amount of wisdom is needed here; slugs and worms operate at the same level.
Fortunately, we have two things that can, and I emphasize “can”, allow us to function at a much higher level than slugs and worms. Both arise from a tremendous addition to those near-jerk, reactionary emotional systems that occupy our subconscious. Science calls this addition the neocortical areas of our brain. This special gift allows us amazing analytical powers and an additional bonus: language.
Because of our neocortex, we can – again, I emphasize “can” – analyze in greater detail the reality we face in our life as well as the successes and failures we’ve experienced in the past so as to come up with better understandings of both our reality and the choices we face in that reality. We can gain wisdom. We don’t have to, but we can, if we start with a little humility.
With language, we can add all types of words to the categories of good and bad. The labels might sound grand and clever, but they are just fancy ways of describing the world at the level of a worm. I understand it can feel that’s where we are now when we listen to many politicians, pundits, and religious leaders or when we look at social media, but our world, and all of humanity, is much more than just good or bad; we’re more than just a bunch of labels.
The good news is that, because of language, we also have the ability to gain wisdom from our ancestral elders. We can measure our experiences and what we learned against what they wrote about their lives during the times they lived. Again, we don’t have to take advantage of this opportunity, but we can. Of course, we always have the subconscious option to avoid using the higher parts of our brain and simply label these writings as good or bad, but only if we chose to do so.
Our neocortex allows us the ability to understand a critical component of wisdom: that what we believe is reality is only our image of reality; something created from both the influence of how those we trusted saw reality and our own very limited perspective of reality. Our childish emotional systems tell us that what we see is reality is truly real; our matured neocortical areas remind us to always seek clarification, to always keep looking.
If we want to survive, we can’t ignore our subconscious emotional systems that see things as good or bad. We need to avoid that which can harm us and move towards that which allows us to live. We need knowledge of good and bad. We, as individuals and as the human species, will survive by seeing the world around us only through a dualistic, this or that, good or bad, perspective. But is that all we want to do, just survive?
To reach our amazing potential, we need to see beyond good or bad. We need to see the limitations of just this or that. When we do, we see the world is much more complicated, and much more amazingly beautiful, than just either/or. We begin to see all the both/and realities that exist around us. We begin to see that what unites us is much greater than what separates us. Instead of you or me, we see you and me in spite of all our imperfections. For me, this is the Good News.