Because It's Hard

Biggest, most disgustingly selfish vehicles
Driven by the ugliest, most inconsiderate
And aggressive drivers
And I can think about how our children's
Children will despise us for wasting all the future's fuel
And probably screwing up the climate
And how spoiled and stupid and selfish and
Disgusting we all are
And how modern consumer society just sucks
And so on and so forth

You get the idea

If I choose to think this way in a store and on the freeway
Fine
Lots of us do
Except thinking this way tends to be so easy and
Automatic that it doesn't have to be a choice
It is my natural default setting
It's the automatic way
That I experience
The boring
Frustrating
Crowded parts of adult life
When I'm operating on the automatic, unconscious belief
That I am the center of the world
And that my immediate needs and feelings are
What should determine the world's priorities
The thing is that, of course, there are totally different
Ways to think about these kinds of situations
In this traffic
All these vehicles stopped and idling in my way
It's not impossible that some of these people in
SUV's have been in horrible auto accidents in the past
And now find driving so terrifying that their therapist
Has all but ordered them
To get a huge, heavy SUV
So they can feel safe enough to drive
Or that the Hummer that just cut me off is maybe
Being driven by a father whose little child is hurt or sick
In the seat next to him, and he's trying to get this
Kid to the hospital
And he's in a way bigger, more legitimate hurry than I am
It is actually I who am in HIS way

Or I can choose to force myself to consider the
Likelihood that everyone else in the supermarket's checkout
Line is just as bored and frustrated as I am
And that some of these people probably have harder
More tedious or painful lives than I do

Again, please don't think that I'm giving you moral advice
Or that I'm saying you are supposed to think this way
Or that anyone expects you to just automatically do it

Because it's hard
It takes will and effort
Do it
Because it's hard
It takes will and effort

And if you are like me
Some days you won't be able to do it
Or you just flat out won't want to
But most days
If you're aware enough to give yourself a choice
You can choose to look differently at this fat
Dead-eyed
Over-made-up lady who just screamed at her kid in
The checkout line
Maybe she's not usually like this
Maybe she's been up three straight nights holding
The hand of her husband who is dying of bone cancer
Or maybe this very lady is the low-wage clerk at the
Motor vehicle department
Who just yesterday helped your spouse resolve a
Horrific, infuriating, red-tape problem
Through some small act of bureaucratic kindness
Of course, none of this is likely
But it's also not impossible
It just depends what you want to consider
If you're automatically sure
That you know what reality is
And who and what is really important
If you want to operate on your default setting
Then you
Like me
Probably won't consider possibilities that aren't annoying
And miserable
And miserable
But if you really
Learn
How to think
How to pay attention
Then you will know you have other options
Do it

Because it's hard
It takes will and effort
Do it
Because it's hard
It takes will and effort

It will actually be within your power
To experience
A crowded
Hot
Slow
Consumer-hell type situation
As not only meaningful
But sacred
On fire with the same force that made the stars
Love
Fellowship
The mystical oneness of all things
Deep down
On fire with the same force that made the stars
Love
Fellowship
The mystical oneness of all things
Deep down

Not that that mystical stuff is necessarily true
The only thing that's capital-T True
Is that you get to decide
How you're gonna try and see it

On fire with the same force that made the stars
Love
Fellowship
The mystical oneness of all things
Deep down
On fire with the same force that made the stars
Love
Fellowship
The mystical oneness of all things
Deep down