Keeping still when the world won’t
AS I SEE IT
By Rev. Jim Innes
As we move into the first week of July, I am still trying to understand whether the Strait of Hormuz is open.
I do not want to turn this into a political piece, and I do not fully understand the complicated relationship among Iran, the United States, Lebanon, and Israel. What I do know is that things are worse now than they were before the Strait became part of the conflict. And that only sharpens a more personal truth for me: when events far beyond my control begin to affect daily life, I have to work harder to stay grounded.
Since I drive a pickup truck, gas prices are a major part of my budget. When I think about the groceries coming into the store, and the trucks that use even more gas than mine, I am reminded that events far beyond our control shape the ordinary rhythms of daily life. That is why I cannot separate the politics of distant events from the more personal work of staying grounded when those events begin to weigh on me.
Some may feel the main task is to respond to politics with a strong voice, and I respect that view. I understand the value of speaking out and working for change. But I grew up as an adopted child in a conflicted family, so my first instinct has often been to seek safety within myself. It took me many years to learn how to face conflict directly, whether I was dealing with harm, confusion, or pain. So many times, I was too out of whack to say anything constructively to anybody. That experience is why, when I face forces or powers I cannot easily control, I return to the need for inner stability and grounding.
The complexity of politics, with its deep systemic roots, is hard to fully grasp, even for those closest to it. So while we may need to speak out, plan solutions, set boundaries, all while staying loyal to the people we love, we also have to accept that we do not control everything. Sometimes, even powerless to effect any small change at all. So, as I see it, sometimes the only task is to go inside, remain steady, and act from a center of compassionate reasonableness.
This kind of mindful discipline is not new. Long before us, Marcus Aurelius wrote from within a world of war, plague, and political strain, “You have power over your mind, not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
I am not a historian, but Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor whose private writings, were later collected in ‘Meditations’. They show him returning, again and again, to what he could control: his judgments, his duties, his conduct, and his response to events.
Many of us understand this mindful method, yet many of us still struggle when our minds are clouded by external pressures, especially those that place us completely at the mercy of what is happening around us. We can tell ourselves to be reasonable, but still ache, almost painfully, to express that emotional charge.
And perhaps that is where the real discipline lies: not in mastering the world around us, but in mastering our response to it. The world will remain unsettled, and events beyond our control will continue to press in on daily life. But if we can return, again and again, to what we know as good and right (our judgments, our conduct, and our care for others) then we may find a steadiness that no circumstance can take away.
Rev. Jim Innes is the rector of St. John's, Grand Bend with St. Anne's, Port Franks.