Columns - 01 February 2010
No more awe fatigue after hearing a whale breathe close to me
Urban Edge - Cape Times
Compassion
fatigue. Can you believe it ? What next?
I
heard the term for the first time this week. I don’t think that Mother Theresa
ever got it, but then she was a Saint. Or did that only happen after she was so
totally compassioned out that she had to leave the planet? I suppose you get it
from being too compassionate or maybe for being compassionate for too long. I
am not sure that there are degrees of compassion. Its like you cant be half
pregnant, either you are or aren’t.
The
more, it seems, that more we move away from responsibility for our actions the
quicker it appears that labels are invented to legitimise whatever behaviour it
is that we elect to adopt.
My
mother was once asked whether she knew that I was attention deficit, or had
ADD, because I am always on the move. “No,” she replied “ there is nothing
wrong with Evelyn, he has always had ants in his pants.”
Ants
in the pants, or an ant in the pant, as they may say in Cape Town, transforms
from a quirk into a deficit with the simply addition of a label. On the plus
side I suppose labels do provide us with guidance in getting a grip on things
that go bump in the mind and which are often than not a lot more difficult to
grasp than herding cats.
Vegetarian
is also a label. For me a few days ago it translated directly into a reduction
of stress. There I was paddling off Blauberg beach with John in the back of the
kyak when I noticed a huge rock ahead of us. ”That rock wasn’t there last week”
I remarked as I dipped my paddle into the icy water. “Because it’s not a rock,”
said John. “It’s a whale, with a calf!” “But don’t worry, “ he added as my
shoulders hunched with tension, “ Whales are vegetarian” So we kept our
distance, playing “find the whales” as they disappeared underwater then
remerged here and there for a puff of air.
And
what awesome experiences to be so close as to hear a whale breathing. Reason
enough I would argue never to suffer awe fatigue.
Carolyn,
who knows these things, read from a book on the subject after I told her of my
encounter. “If
whale shows up,” she read, “ it means express yourself through your voice by
singing, humming, or chanting simply the pure joy of doing so…”
Indeed.
I recalled a moment of joy recently when the group with whom I was hiking
stopped at a secluded waterfall in Table Mountain National Park.The water falls
down a steep rock face into a funnel-like gorge creating a wonderful echo chamber. Yoga
teachers, say that the chant of Aum, calms the mind, it is the the sound with
which the universe vibrates. So we did that at the foot of the waterfall. It
was a wonderful uplifting spiritual experience.
Compassion fatigue, I wonder, does that mean we get too tired to care ? I hope not.
evelyn@hwb.co.za
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