Galileo and Cosmic Pollution
We’ve all been in situations where people find it necessary to voice their opinions about our life-style choices, our career choices, our parenting choices and more. It can drive us nuts, right? So here’s the thing: It doesn’t have to. And as easily and frequently as people drive us crazy, believe it or not, we can be doing the same to them….. even to ourselves. The voice of criticism – either from within or without – is simply rallying for significance. We can choose to ignore it.
We are Love. We are Light. We are G-d’s creation. We are not 'less than'. We simply ‘are’. Our choices are not 'less than'. They simply ‘are’.
People may sometimes find the need to control. They may be avoiding dealing with things in their own lives. They may be steeped in insecurity and self-criticism which pours out onto others. This creates cosmic pollution. That is, it is energy that I do not want or need to take in.
If it feels right for me, I want to take it in. If it does not….if it drains me or drags me down, it is not mine. Yes, even if the thoughts appear to be coming from inside my own head!
There is a force in this world, created to challenge us. It is concerned with getting its job done; that is, to create self-doubt and inaction. My job is to remain true to myself and in so doing, remain close to Hashem (the Creator). If something brings me closer to Hashem, great. If it brings me away from Him, fills me with self-doubt, self-deprecation, confusion, and resentment…well, it’s quite simple – it is not mine.
It’s tough when things come at us from the inside. It's not necessarily simpler, when things come at us from the outside - via people in our surroundings.
Some examples that come to mind:
-- We moved to Israel 33 years ago. After having set up our new home, a neighbor came in and berated our decision to buy the brand of refrigerator we had purchased and shipped 6,000 miles. We were told it would never hold up as well as the brand she had. I waited for years for that thing to break down! ...It never did. After 25 loyal years of service, we donated our fridge to a charity because our family had grown and we needed a larger one.
-- Has anyone ever stopped you on the street with warnings about
carrying your baby in a carrier instead of using a stroller?
--Has anyone ever questioned your choices in health care for yourself and your family?
--People who decide to home-school their children get ear full after ear full from 'well-meaning' strangers about how they are destroying their children who will grow up to be socially inept and a whole host of other horrible things.
-- There are people who will tell you sugar is healthy and a good source of energy, people who will swear by the Paleo diet, and others who will tell you vegan is the way to go. Some will tell you the organic trade is a hype, vaccines are safe; Others firmly believe vaccines will kill and that your cell phone gives off harmful radiation. Others will say it's all a hoax and a conspiracy theory. Each side has 'science' to back it up.
I recall seeing the book, I'm OK You're OK (by Dr. Thomas Harris) lying on my friend's coffee table. I was a kid. I knew nothing about the book, yet, the title struck me. This, my friends, is what we need to say to ourselves when hit with cosmic pollution. I’m OK You’re OK, Thank you for sharing. From there, we move on.
Galileo (1564-1642) supported the Copernican theory of a sun-centered solar system and proved so mathematically. He was declared a heretic by the Catholic Church and spent the last 9 years of his life under house arrest! Guess what? The church was wrong.
I believe Galileo continued to produce scientific papers even under house arrest. Galileo did not allow the cosmic pollution to put a stop to his mission in this world. And neither should we.
As part of Hashem’s Plan for the world, I want to take responsibility for my life, not the lives of others. To be responsible for one’s life means to me, to seek connection with our inner self, give significance to the things that drive us, motivate us, and feel right for us – to the things that promote love and relationships. If there are things in my environment which do not promote love and positive relationships, they are not mine. I can choose to release the negativity back to the cosmos and keep the space clean and pure around me.
Hashem’s Space is pure and clean and filled with Love. That’s the space for me.
To all of us (and I include myself), who upon occasion, feel OK with voicing our opinions with insensitivity and/or without having ever been asked, perhaps at those moments it would be best to stop and ask ourselves whether or not we are about to pollute Hashem’s space. If the answer is ‘yes’, we can choose to hold back. We don’t have to be right and we don’t have to take up more space in His world than is necessary.
Galileo himself is quoted as having said, "I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him." Sounds like a great idea.
I believe that when we love and accept our own individuality, it becomes easier to accept others'.
I pray we all find the Place within ourselves to allow for the individuality, strengths and weaknesses of ourselves as well as others. Each of us has a part in Hashem's puzzle of creation. Let us celebrate our part and embrace the other parts as well.
Blessings for a healthy winter,
MashaFaygel