New Thought:“A Clanging Cymbal” or Melody of Love In These Dark Times?

Photo by Tom Barrett on Unsplash

Alongside my fellow Americans, I have been forced to take a long pause to meditate upon the ever escalating tension daily tightening its grip on our collective consciousness. Whether it is the physical, economic, and social toll of the ongoing pandemic, the en mass outcry for racial justice in the wake of George Floyd’s death, and the ever widening political chasm, we are given visceral reminders of how cavalier and capricious life can be. It is in the midst of times such as these that humanity, as it always has and undoubtedly always will, asks the perennial question: “Why are such horrible things happening?” Whether in the form of traditional religious explanations (i.e. Apocalypticism or divine retribution for human sin) or contemporary conspiracy theories, our evolutionary drive to seek and discern identifiable patterns and causes behind chaotic effects can lead us down a rabbit hole, collectively and individually, into a Edgar Allan Poe-esque pit of existential madness.

If it sounds like I’m speaking from experience, I am. I rolled for a time in both fundamentalist Christian and radical libertarian/proto — alt-right conspiracy circles, my paranoid eyes always on the alert for the latest sign of the impending martial crackdown by agents of the anti — Christ/Illuminati led New World Order, which would serve as the prelude…