The Birth of Fear: April 17, 1961

 

 

 

 

On April 17, 1961 the invasion of The Bay of Pigs1 was launched.  This was the beginning of a deep fear in me.  I was almost eleven years old and just starting to have a world view concept.  This was the beginning of feeling there was no ‘safe place’ on the entire earth.  This was the beginning of a fear which was to grow over the years and drive much of my life.  My parents, my friend’s parents and my neighbors were all glued to the TV sets as they and the commentators were verbalizing their fears and concerns.  The TV commentators were giving update after update each one more dire than the one previous.

In 1963 I was in the 7^th grade at El Segundo Junior High School on the west coast of California.  I remember walking from west to east across the lunch court.  The court was empty and I was walking between classes while ruminating on the recent news on the television about people building fallout shelters in the home and those without access to fallout shelters being taught (again) in the schools about ‘drop and cover’ techniques. We did practice ‘drop and cover’ in school.  We all pretty much knew that the drop and cover would not save us from a nuclear attack (which we believed was imminent).  My parents felt that building a shelter was foolish as who would want to live in a world after The Bomb.  I remember stopping and looking around the empty court wondering, ‘where can I go to be safe?’ I certainly knew that under any of these tables there was no safety to be found even though that is what I was being taught to do.  I did believe that there must be a safe place to go and I was determined to find that place.

In more recent years, added to the threat of us destroying one another thru wars came in rumblings from The Mother Earth herself.  We had so abused her it was becoming necessary for her to begin making adjustments to obtain balance / homeostasis.  Earthquakes, Tornados, Hurricanes and other events were on the increase.  Climate change was now a recognized and accepted reality.  Related to the North American continent the Native Americans who describe this land as Turtle Island tell us that as predicted long ago by the grammas’ and grampas’:  the turtle is beginning to go back under the water – the shore lines are no longer safe.  For this reason many are choosing to move away from shore lines: some a few miles and others thousands of miles.  Perhaps there is more safety as the turtle goes under to be on the top middle of the turtle's back; however major bomb silos are also housed in the middle of her back. (Just because it is a bit safer from the raging of The Mother Kali along the coast does not mean it is really safe anywhere.) 

 



 

 

Ultimately – there is no place which promises physical safety.  Coming to understand this has not been so much a giving up of hope as a releasing of fear.   The only place any of us can truly live is RIGHT HERE and RIGHT THIS MOMENT.  This is not to say I do not make plans for creating a safe environment – I do.       

The primary priority now is creating and being peaceful on the inner landscape of my thoughts and feelings.  Perhaps this is a luxury which comes with age.  I hold little hope for a peaceful world for the humans and others over the next 100 or 300 years, as we continue to conduct ourselves overall in a barbaric and selfish manner.  I do believe some will survive and that 1,000 years from now we may indeed return to the garden. 

 

 

 

 

1.       Link to public history of the Bay of Pigs from the JFK Library  http://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/The-Bay-of-Pigs.aspx