Wheel of Fortune

Woke up today and for some reason, Marvin Gaye’s old song was in my mind. 

 

What’s goin’ on? …

Mother, mother
There's too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There's far too many of you dying
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today, yeah

What’s goin’ on? …

 

Good question. What’s going on? In my country, an epic ping-pong game of cruelty and greed against kindness and resistance. Back in San Francisco, my wife went on the Women’s International Day March with her home-made sign. Here in Hong Kong, I acknowledged the day in a different way, paying tribute to Ella Jenkins, Hazel Scott, Maria Montessori and other powerful women relevant to my life’s work. 

Marvin released his song in 1971, when I was 20 years old and convinced we were going to make the world a kinder, more beautiful, more life-affirming place. Who could have imagined where we would be 54 years later? Not me. 

 

What is so maddening about what is going on is that after so much progress in human rights and social justice and enlarged awareness and expanded consciousness, far too many people are hell-bent on pushing the whole show back into ignorance and exclusion and unchecked greed. I was convinced that evolution was a steadily upward moving line, but instead it seems to be a contemporary Medieval Wheel of Fortune, with Vanna White smiling her TV smile while we dip down into disaster. The goddess Fortuna lifts us up and slams us down at her caprice. 

The Buddhist perspective of the cycling wheel echoes this idea. As expressed by Pema Chodron:

 

“The truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen; room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.”

 

Wise words we would do well to heed for our own sense of well-being amidst turbulent times. But this should not be an excuse for passivity. If things are ultimately out of our hands and left to Fortuna or Karma, we still have hands to push the wheel in the right direction and we should use them. And maybe take some comfort that one of the original meanings of that Wheel of Fortune was that the high and mighty will eventually fall. The 5^th century Roman philosopher Boethius remarked:

 

“I know the manifold deceits of that monstrous lady, Fortune; in particular, her fawning friendship with those whom she intends to cheat, until the moment when she unexpectedly abandons them, and leaves them reeling in agony beyond endurance.”

 

I know I should not wish agony on any human being but let me confess— with the current crop of sub-humans purposefully trying to bring all that I hold dear and good and sacred to its knees, I find comfort in the image of their future “agony beyond endurance.” Sorry to say so, but there it is.

 

The Goddess Fortuna was at Orff’s side lifting him up to his epic work Carmina Burana that opens with those powerful three-notes singing “O Fortuna!” And later in the text are these words:

 

The wheel of Fortune turns;

I go down, demeaned;

another is carried to the height;

far too high up

sits the king at the summit –

let him beware ruin!

 

Another comforting prophecy, as the Toddler-King’s ratings are starting to plummet. May ruin befall him and his ilk!

 

Meanwhile, here I am in Hong Kong by the grace of Carl Orff’s work and doing my part to use music and education to uplift and inspire people, connect them to their own beauty and that of their neighbors, set in motion the healing antidotes to all the toxic narratives and practices we unthinkingly keep going on. Two days with kids in two schools, two days with teachers willing to give up their weekend to bring more happiness to their students. 

 

These teachers did such wonderful work, especially working with partners creating beautiful movement simply from the shape of a letter. Likewise, using percussion instruments as drama props and improvising movement as if they were in a silent movie with me playing ragtime piano. We also did a rock-scissors-paper activity and while I’m just fine with the playful competition of winning or losing that traditional game, I also introduced a game-changing variation of making a cooperative little sculpture from whatever combination of the three gets thrown out. First with partners, then with small groups. (Thanks to Masumi Hasai-Smith for this idea!)

So that’s “what’s going on” with me. Today I have a day off before the next seven days in a row of teaching and plan to go visit the Temple of the 10,000 Buddhas. Let’s see if my hands in prayer position can join with the hands-on Orff workshops to help turn that wheel.