Today’s writing plan included a rant about the state of politics, corporate greed and bungling, along with environmental discord.  I was the scolding mother who at the same time is there  to heal what seems unhealthy.

To say that my heart dropped to the lowest ocean depths possible with the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and to say that my fury with loud mouthed hypocritical politicians and their pundits has raised my blood pressure enough to blast me out from the lowest ocean depths, is more than a marginal metaphor. 

I scribbled a list on the desk pad under my laptop.  Notes highlighted the family value politicians that have  either romped with their same-sex boyfriends or opposite sex mistresses, ineffective lawmakers and government employees easily thwarted by drugs, sex and rock n roll, and a  rising tide of what smells like  a white supremacy movement,  increased gang violence, blah, blah, blah.  (There goes my blood pressure again!)

Then this morning’s Today Show featured a live interview with His Holiness The Dalai Lama.  He says simple things that float on happy clouds. 

“I think there’s every reason this 21st century will be much happier,” he told Today Show’s Ann Curry. 

I wondered if he was pulling Ann’s leg or if he was about to make some significant point. Meanwhile, I continued listing  my rant elements.

Then he went on to explain the “temporary” and “man-made” elements  portrayed  as the news. 

Oh I want to believe, I want to believe, but the Gulf of Mexico remains potentially one of our largest environmental disasters and Rome has fiddled while the oil spews forth.  “Man made…the world is improving…human compassion has grown…”

My meditative side began listening and recalled Paul Hawken’s 2009 commencement address.  One statement Hawken made helps raise my despaired spirits: “When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.”

And then I remembered my frustration with getting publicity for a nonprofit event I recently coordinated because, as I reported to the nonprofit’s board of directors, “Attracting local print media was like putting on lipstick to go rake the barn. Local and regional nonprofits are made-up to the hilt and pitching for their needs in a huge, over-crowded barn with one farmer who struggles too. “ 

Yes, my community has so many nonprofits that tackle all that needs improving and support, that it is a challenge to get one’s event freely published! 

On a world-wide basis we have given billions of dollars, from kindergarten penny collections, to $25 donations to Doctors Without Borders, and thousands of dollars to other relief agencies.

So maybe His Holiness The Dalai Lama is on to something:  Humanity is getting better.

He agreed that there are “mischievous people” who portray negativity while “Positive things we take for granted.” 

I removed my rant-research and “mischievous people” list from my desk pad and popped the paper into a recycling bin. They are that temporary. 

A wise woman once told me, “Bless those who bring us challenge.  Pray for their greater good, then go on to find your greater good.  This is the way to healing–both you and the planet on which we breathe.”