Lapis Magazine

Spring 2009 Editor’s Letter from Ralph White

As the global economy reels and most people have no choice but to cut down on their acquisition of unnecessary items, the time has come to ponder the simple life. Do we really need all the material goods that for decades have been waved in front of our faces by innumerable advertisers with their endless appeals to ego and status? Or can we take this opportunity to simplify our lives, slow down, and live well on a more modest income?

In this issue, David Shi describes the pleasures of simplicity and reminds us that the fullest lives are rarely those that are cluttered by excess consumption and the relentless pursuit of more and more stuff. The simple life is often the best life, and what better opportunity to explore it than a world-wide recession? After all, if the US economy were to grow by say 3 per cent a year for the next century, what on earth would we all do with the huge amounts of things with which our world would be encumbered by the time we reached 2109? Even if the ecosphere could handle this much consumption, our own psyches would long ago have rebelled against the relentless focus on overwork, acquisition, materialism and all the other short-sighted goals that have gripped our culture for way too long.

It’s time to slow down. Fortunately, Carl Honore shows the way with his soothing words on the Slow Food phenomenon. The need to stop, take a deep breath, and moderate the pace with which we live our lives has now spread beyond food to embrace Slow Towns. They’re springing up in Europe and it surely can’t be long until even compulsively frenetic America joins the crowds that choose to savor each moment – the peal of a church bell, the lapping of waves, the smile on a neighbor’s face – before running off to the next appointment while simultaneously checking our BlackBerries.

What can we learn from wiser cultures that have preceded us? Robert Bly offers us the wisdom of the poets of Andalusia where graceful architecture, reflective pools, and Sufi poets created a golden age of refinement and tolerance. Lapis is pleased to offer many video clips from the New York Open Center’s conference on Sufis, Kabbalists and Christian Philosophers in Medieval Spain. We suggest that you ponder the words of the speakers and imagine a slower, deeper, wiser culture that is still described with awe almost a thousand years after its apex.

Can our own culture ever become a source of wisdom for future generations? Some would argue that this only becomes a possibility if we have faced the shadow of our own focus on power and greed. The inimitable Peter Dale Scott, our greatest living exponent of Deep Politics, speaks at length on the invisible and often dark forces that have pushed America into countless engagements that contradict the ideals upon which it was founded. As in all matters, by first becoming conscious of the hidden elements driving our disturbing behavior, we pave the way for awakening and freedom.

There is much to ponder in this issue of Lapis as we continue our investigation of the inner meaning of contemporary life. We hope that you will kick back with your laptops, enjoy a cup of soothing tea, gaze out of the window at the world going by, and take sustained pleasure in the images and words we are delighted to bring you.

Ralph White