Life In Between

The dire social and psychological consequences of building mass societies was predicted in the middle of the last century. The impacts of people's alienation from themselves, one another, and simple, direct, daily physical reality has not lost any of its poignancy over the past seventy years. The polar opposite of this, contempt for everything that is not extremely insular, is unambiguously perilous to one's mental health. The basis of contemplative living lies in between these extremes. While humans are always tempted to eschew personal responsibility in favour of participation in enculturated activity and values, contemplative consciousness always pulls one back to individual accountability. Conversely, even though in the end each people ultimately makes decisions for which the responsibility squarely rests on each person's shoulders, the contemplative call to relate affirms that no one is even biologically solitary.