The bubble.

 

The bubble.

When my kids were small, someone gave them a goldfish in a glass bowl. There was sand on the bottom and a fake rock supporting a plastic bush. The fish spent his life swimming from one side to the other, hitting the glass sides and going back. He never realized that if he comes out, he will die, and the world of water as he knew it is not the entire world, only his bubble.

It occurred to me we all live in our bubbles. I was born into mine, lived a long time and all I know and believe that I know is what penetrated my bubble. There isn’t much that I chose since my choices are dictated by what’s available to me. I grew from a seed, got old and now I have a short time to communicate what I’ve learned to future generations if there will be future generations. There are no guarantees in life.

I was talking to a friend who has opinions about all major events. He wants anything that is the opposite of what the eastern Canadians do. His focal point is, he hates Trudeau. Why? Because the eastern provinces elected him. He painted his face for Halloween, bankrupted the country by paying people not to work, (and keep people like me alive) and I will not ask him again. After a while, I asked where he gets his news from and got another earful. Not wishing to be depressed, he doesn’t listen to news but to a few “You Tubers.” He is violently against masks, vaccines, and all that bull. He is still at the stage of nanobots with poison injected into his body. My friend lives in his bubble.

All people are living in their bubbles happily, while making decisions that affect society. Mr. Putin is no exception. He had some time in COVID isolation, so he rewrote the history of Russia upside down and justified his latest invasion. It is causing thousands of deaths, destruction of infrastructure that cost billions and years of work to build, and a huge new wave of migrants all over the west. That is his bubble. The only one that can effectively stop him is the president of the USA.

President Biden is in his own bubble. He leads the mighty US Empire that is challenged by the speedily rising China and, to a lesser degree, Russia. Reporters asked him if Putin was a war criminal. Knowing fully well that the US has done the same, he hesitates. The US right at this moment is selling weapons to Saudi Arabia and helping them operate the new technology. The Saudis are doing something similar in Yemen. We did not yet forget Iraq and Afghanistan in the fog of history. The American leader wouldn’t like to be judged for his country’s actions. The fish looks at the glass wall of his bowl and sees a reflection of himself.

The bubble we live in is our reality. All that we know and all that we believe is a part of it. It could be our politics, our religion, and our emotional commitment. It is very hard to change what is in my bubble and there is another major problem. Some of my reality is switching many times a minute with my thoughts, which hardly ever stay in one place. I don’t have full control. The other thing to consider is that reality is a gambler’s game with no limits. There is always a strong chance that the unexpected will happen. It could be good, or not.

To complicate things, all other people live in their private bubbles. Within it, they cheat, lie, and change on a dime. The mind we have can’t keep up. We assume we can change our beliefs, which often came from outside of ourselves, but when we do, there is a doubt. We can’t know and consider everything. To combat that, we develop values. There are things we believe that we don’t consider are possible to change. I know I can’t fly without wings and if someone does, I check for cheating.

Beliefs have the power to change reality in our bubbles, but there is not much proof of it. That is our fault. We learn from early in life to say and think that we believe things that, deep inside, we don’t. On my wall, I got a note saying, “The only one I need to convince is myself.” If I can convince myself, check it, and believe something, it turns from belief to reality. I no longer believe it, I know it. Doesn’t matter if I say with utmost conviction that I believe what I don’t know, I don’t. Humans always lied.

If Ukraine doesn’t seed grains in a short while, there will be mass starvation. In my bubble, there is panic setting in. As a male, I want to fight. Fighting may lead to annihilation. If the bully wins, freedom will be lost. He will not stop. The only saving grace is a quick shift in our beliefs, but we are far from being able to do it. Each for himself will not work now. We can say “give us our daily bread and deliver us from evil” but evil doesn’t just give up by itself. We need all humans to work together.

People here go on with daily life as the Ukrainians did a month ago, believing that nothing can happen to us. If half of the world will not have their daily bread, something will happen. My bubble shakes. I want to be like those who don’t listen to the news, believing that not knowing danger is excellent protection, but I can’t. That belief doesn’t pass the test to become reality. A million and a half stateless and homeless people in Europe are living witnesses and a billion other humans are test subjects in other places. Most are casualties of early signs of global warming. A worldwide epidemic threatens them if they survive the rest. In my bubble, there is a sense of urgency.