Community: Epilogue

ORALITY: Orality seems an odd attribute to heal the world’s woes, yet has a part to play. Restoring elders as potential founts of wisdom, for starters. An odd idea in an electronic culture that discards and disdains them and creates “olders” rather than elders, those who simply grow old without a lifetime of the kind of reflection that actual leads to wisdom. Yet those who have done the work of carrying poetry and music and meditative practice in their very bodies and voices, who have lived and considered their lives simultaneously, who have seen the patterns of culture and history rise and fall and circle back around again, indeed have something invaluable to teach us. When the occasion calls for it, they speak the words that need to be spoken without consulting Google, they see the things that can only be seen with long experience, they offer a sagacious counsel that mere peers can’t access. 

 

In my own field of Orff Schulwerk, I am blessed (though every day feeling closer to the edge) with a vibrant healthy 72-year-old body that can still do some sizzling body percussion and teach the Lindy Hop. Yet the true power of my workshops is the stories I tell from almost a half-century of teaching, stories that hit the precise point needed to be made after this or that activity, often infused with poetry or mythological references or psychological/sociological/ cultural references. No young teacher I’ve encountered, no matter how talented, seems to be able to offer the same. 

 

We need such elders in every field of endeavor and we need to grant them the audience they deserve. Even if, at the end of the day, when we look to them to solve our seemingly unsolvable problems, they quote Robert Frost: 

 

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on.”

 

Sometimes we need that simple but profound reminder as we wake up to the next day.

 

DEMOCRACY: The happier future—and present—I’m trying to imagine here carries both a collective assurance of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” and an individual responsibility to use given freedoms for our common life, our promised freedoms and the happiness of all sentient beings. A tall order of the kind that elevates us to our higher possibilities. As noted, Zen, Jazz and Orff all offer democratic ideals and practices workable in small groups but are not transferrable to larger systems of government. Yet once we experience the best these democratic principles have to offer, we have the possibility of defending them, extending them, sustaining them.

 

It is a matter of grave concern that dictatorships still exist on the planet. The old monarchies and the ongoing dictatorships reduce human beings to obedient goose-stepping foot soldiers granting excessive wealth and power to a few often mentally-deranged individuals. This is not who we were born to be.

 

Equally grave is the number of democracies where citizens refuse or abuse their duty to be informed, to discuss issues over personalities, to insist on truth over boldface lies, to hold high-ranking politicians to the same standard of law and order as the rest of us. Democracy alone doesn’t make us free in the deeper spiritual sense explored in Chapter 2 but goes a long way to creating the conditions that permit us to pursue our own liberation. Without some voice in the issues that affect us all, we feel unseen, unheard, unvalued. Who would consciously choose to live in that kind of world? 

 

And so functional, inclusive and working forms of democracy are necessarily part of the blueprint for a happier future. If anyone needs a reminder of why this is important, observe how Zen Centers organize their collective life, watch how the jazz band works together on the stage, notice how the Orff teacher includes the voice of the children in both aesthetic and procedural decisions. 

 

SERVICE: Service is another facet of the jewel of living more for the happiness of all than one’s own selfish satisfaction. In my own upbringing as an American male, it feels like a quality no one prepared me for, starting in its simplest form of being a good host offering snacks or coffee or wine or fresh towels to guests. I have been served so graciously in so many homes around the world, but still feel awkward and uncomfortable wondering if I’m doing the right thing when I’m the host. Likewise as a guest, it simply is not my default setting to ask “How can I be of help?” or better yet, simply jump up and clear the plates and start washing the dishes without asking. As noted, I’m quite comfortable playing piano for others or offering workshops and absolutely love to give San Francisco tours to any out-of- town guests, so all is not lost. Yet still it persists in our culture at large, so that if I ask my grandchildren “Were you useful today?” they look at me a bit cross-eyed. 

 

If we can re-align culture to value service and train ourselves accordingly, from the simple acts of hospitality to the greater dedication to be of use to all of humanity, we will have taken the first steps toward a kinder world. To learn how to be good hosts and gracious guests.  To telescope that out further to the realization that we are all just temporal guests on this beautiful fragile planet. 

 

PATH WITH NO END: Finally, the spiritual teacher Ram Das once said “At the end of the day, we are all walking each other home” and I would add “on a path with no end.” Home is not at the end of the rainbow, but in each step taken consciously, with attention, care and love.

 

And isn’t that the beginning and end of this whole venture? To return from our self-imposed exile from that sure sense of home, a home that is a constantly shifting location unfindable by any GPS, but instantly recognizable when we find ourselves graced to arrive there. Though I chose the title “Blueprint for a Happier Future,” it is only a half-true metaphor. “Blueprint” is defined as an architectural plan to build your home, but your true home eludes your carefully laid plan. It is helpful to have an intentional design and the 12 qualities above offer an exquisite blueprint for your secret and sacred desires. But following the steps above like lists guaranteed to get you from here to there will not work. All we can hope for is that they lead you to the place where you finally let go of the plan and open yourself to grace.