I’ve been away from “the world” for a while—by which I mean, away from home and my life of computer-focused hermitude.

As I wait for round two of my cataract surgery (my right eye), I remain with my loving family in Appleton, Wisconsin. Yeah, I have my computer with me, but hardly have the wherewithal to stay intensely focused on global events, beyond “Oh my God, we’re bombing Iran now?” and masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement gunmen are rounding up “illegals” all across the country.

As I sit on the couch, presumably recovering from my left-eye surgery, I want to scream and shove all this obnoxious news into a corner of my mind, where I can absorb it slowly, in a context of hope. Yeah, we will move beyond all this. The media may not report on it, but humanity is evolving. Right?

This is what I believe—or tell myself to believe—but the only way I can maintain this belief is by... somehow, oh Lord, participating in our evolution, helping to create a tomorrow that isn’t globally structured around war and winning and “the other.” In my current circumstances, as I sit plunked on the couch in my sister’s living room, my eyes closed and my mind wandering, I hardly feel like a participant in what matters. I’m not atop the news. I’m not atop my own life.

Instead, I sit on the couch in the middle of the day, semi-asleep, my thoughts simply drifting to........

© Common Dreams