A man died on Broadway Avenue a few months ago while checking out a Nice Ride bike. Some lowlife in a van veered off the road, hit him, and fled.
I visited the site the day after and thought about how I sometimes repeat phrases from Moby Dick to try to attain inner calm when I feel harassed: "Deep down and deep inland there I do bathe me in eternal mildness of joy." Or I think of the Meditations of Aurelius, that emperor who was ever turning inward:
"If a man should stand by a limpid pure spring, and curse it, the spring never ceases sending up potable water; and if he should cast clay into it or filth, it will speedily disperse them and wash them out, and will not be at all polluted. How then shalt thou possess a perpetual fountain and not a mere well? By forming thyself hourly to freedom conjoined with contentment, simplicity and modesty."
But it’s not enough simply to regulate your internal environment. Suppose that crash victim was in total inner peace when he was hit by the van. It didn’t prevent him from dying. Sperm whales turned out not to be malevolent at all but instead quite docile and vulnerable to overhunting. And you’re not a well, spouting huge quantities of fresh water. You’re vulnerable too and you have to fight to protect yourself and improve your surroundings. You have to fight for bike lanes that are separate from vehicle traffic, for increased enforcement of drunk-driving laws, and for a livable city so you don’t end up like that poor man on Broadway Avenue.
Sure it’s good to strive for inner calm, but if a circumstance is not right you should always make an effort to change it.
pseudoisaac 