One Rockhampton taxi driver told me the town was booming because in the past 18 months the number of McDonald’s restaurants had doubled – from two to four. “Yeah, mate, we’ve got McDonald’s, Hungry Jacks, KFC, Red Rooster ... place is going good.” Another taxi driver – sharper than the first – welcomed the election of the conservative Abbott Government because it would mean more mining jobs for Rockhampton. More mines would mean more development in the town, with progress measured by the number of high-rise hotels that were likely to appear once it was awash with money.
The views of the two taxi drivers are a long way from my own. But they are also the veritable width of an open-cut coal mine from some other Queenslanders as well. My final destination on this holiday was an island off the central Queensland coast where a local couple run a small eco-lodge for tourists. Their lifestyle is simple: they live on wind and solar power, gather rainwater, earn a little money from the lodge and some fishing and oystering. They love the island and are strong protectors of its ecology. Their outlook is so different from the mainstream “develop and make money” (which really means “destroy and make money”) mentality as to seem almost from another planet.
After I returned from my trip, I wanted to make sense of it. How is it possible to navigate through all the dichotomies and polarities in our world, at a time when we need unity more than ever?
Maybe one aspect of the answer is grace. That is, an understanding and experience of the world and a way of living that’s beyond the friction and the hurly-burly of the poles and opposites.
For people who are sensitive, it is easy to fall into despair. For those at the frontlines of battles to protect the environment, there is burn out and the experience of feeling crushed by the enormousness of the forces of power and money. How do we maintain hope?
Grace is a strange kind of dance in which there is an implicit understanding of ego liberation. Attachment causes suffering, while life is purely and ultimately life – all else is human desire and aspiration, so much that is added on. Grace allows us to surf the natural rhythms of life, its ups and downs, with dignity and respect for ourselves and all others. It recognises and meets the opposites, but is not invested in them. It is from the realm of the eternal, yet it is able to participate fully in the material world.
With grace we rise above the opposites, not in denial of them or withdrawal, but in a movement towards a higher synthesis. We act in the world not for one side or another but for the greater good, which is ever-evolving. New forms appear as a result of the continuous creation of higher syntheses.
This might sound like so much theoretical mumbo jumbo if the evidence to support it was not all around us. I think of all the social and environmental advancements that have occurred in the past few hundred years – all have required some measure of grace, or the ability to go beyond the conflict of opposites and act for the greater good. And grace does not preclude taking a stand on an issue when that stand embodies a higher synthesis: Martin Luther King and Gandhi took firm positions while navigating beyond entrenched conflicts and dichotomies.
Unfortunately, there is nothing easy about maintaining grace – it needs constant work and attention. Its starting point is in the life of the individual, where a spirit of nurture towards oneself is required. Balance and reflection are equally important. To create the conditions in your own life builds the collective store of grace and creates a channel for it to act in the world.
I wonder how grace can inform the decisions that people make in central Queensland about development and the environment. Maybe there is a notion of “right livelihood” that needs to be cultivated in which jobs and money are tied to the environmental good. Perhaps it’s possible to ensure long-term livelihoods for people while protecting nature. I think this way of thinking avoids the entrenched positions of jobs vs. environment, which in our culture currently it is easy to fall into. Of course, there are vested interests who oppose more enlightened, graceful approaches. There is entrenched power, ignorance and greed. Nobody said it would be easy, this game of human evolution. Grace, when we have it, makes it all a little easier and sweeter.
