Finding Security in Insecure Times

Looking to the past to find ways to make it through the present.

The pressures facing society in ancient cultures meant that uncertainty shadowed their every step. In their unpredictable time, they looked for leadership in the teachings of their day. The teachings they clung to can give us, like it did them, two touch-points of security on our travels in uncertain times. They are like pitons securing you to the rock face as you journey towards the summit.

So if you don’t know how to walk into your day tomorrow, you need these touch-points. If you are unsure of how to navigate moments of crisis, you need these touch-points. If you feel confused while trying to make sense of our cultural moment, then these two touch-points are for you.

Touchpoint One: A Sober Mind

Ancient teachings were oral and passed mostly by word of mouth. In the chance that the teaching was written down, it was read aloud to an audience. Therefore, if the teacher wanted to emphasize a point, he or she would have to repeat some type of refrain to be picked up by the learner. If you were in the audience, you would have picked up on the cadence of the teacher’s instruction.

One ancient teaching tells its listeners to care for their mental state, or to be “sober-minded.” Had you been there, you would have heard the rhythm of this exhortation to “be sober-minded” echoing throughout your daily life. As you moved in and out of your daily tasks of domesticity, you would have bopped along to the rhythm of the teaching much like having your Spotify playlist in the background.

But why sober-mindedness?

Modern science is discovering how important mental health is for all of life, but particularly for endurance sports. These grueling and demanding competitions demand everything of their participants. And those who are successful share something in common: strong mental health. Physical strength and fitness alone are not sufficient in races that require endurance.

The same is true for our life journey, especially in times of such uncertainty. We need more than just willpower and grit. The differentiator between those who finish the race and those who don’t is strong mental health.

For us, we are currently enduring a global pandemic. We are enduring political polarization. We are enduring the exposure and upheaval of the American caste system. We are enduring wildfires and hurricanes. And this is on top of the daily uncertainties that come with your job, relationships, family, and your neighbors. As a result, mental health is declining at alarming rates in our country.

Therefore, one touchpoint of security is to spend time each day focusing on your mental health, on being sober-minded, and preparing your minds for the day before you. Caring for your mental health can take many forms, from traditional spiritual disciplines like prayer and liturgical readings, to more modern approaches like building rituals and ecotherapy. (If you haven’t yet, look into “forest bathing” and plan your next outing!)

Touchpoint Two: An Everyday Ethic

To understand this second ancient teaching, we have to realize a truth about ourselves. As Americans, we are obsessed with bigger, better, faster. In many ways, this has pushed our nation forward in some beneficial ways. But it has also left gaping holes in our society. It has left many on the outskirts. If we would be honest with ourselves as a nation, we would see that the “American Dream” is not accessible by all.

Also, this kind of grand philosophy makes the majority of our lives boring and insignificant. We have this unconscious (or sometimes very conscious) triumphalism as an undercurrent in our collective worldview. It swiftly and often secretly sweeps us out to dangerous depths. It can be perilous. Not just in the doors it opens for greed and corruption, but because it robs the meaning out of so much of the life. Why? Because so much of life is lived in the mundane.

And if there is no meaning in these mundane moments, then what is there to live for?

Looking back to ancient teachings helps us see that these mundane, everyday aspects of life can be potent for affecting real change. Now, a disclaimer. This change will not be big and fast. It is sloth-like. It is also hard to notice and most likely won’t get recognized. (Still interested?)

But if we take back our everyday moments and reinfuse them with the meaning they naturally carry, then we can find purpose and meaning from moment to moment.

And this is the ancient idea of an everyday ethic. A morality of moments.

Now I am not naive enough to think that as a culture we can come to a solidified agreement on what ethic or morality or value system is best. But if we can at least recognize the profound purpose of simple, slow, and small acts of kindness, love, sacrifice, service, generosity, justice, mercy, forgiveness which are found in duties like changing diapers, serving food, welcoming facial expressions, and listening ears, then we can move the ball forward to affecting change now that will be felt by generations to follow.

If there is no meaning in these mundane moments, then what is there to live for?

And the beauty of these everyday moments is that we will have them every day, regardless of the uncertain times we find ourselves in. Simple, small duties fill every person’s day and therefore exclude none from their possibilities.

Embracing this kind of everyday ethic leaves none on the outskirts.

It also doesn’t leave the change up to the most powerful, wealthy, influential people. It brings the power back to everyday people for the common good of everyday people.

Keep It Simple

So how do we endure the unknown? How do we press on when uncertainties avail us on every side? How do we walk into (or log in to) work? We prepare our minds for action, and we find ways to live out simple ethics in small, everyday ways. And we get up and do the same thing the next day. And then we get up and do the same the day after that. And as time marches on, these touch-points keep us moving on the journey and keep us sane and connected to those who journey with us.