You Played the Cymbals!

Originally Published November 20th 1985 from gocomics.com

I had this great idea for a post about ego projection for this but I forgot it after going to handbell choir practice. Perhaps it will come back to me.

I read and listen to a lot of lectures by Jiddu Krishnamurti. If you are really secure in what you believe about life, the universe, and everything, and want to get really pissed off, give him a listen. I was listening to the first part of a first lecture series of them this morning, and he talked about how he was first going to talk about what is actually going on in the world because what is going on in the world is a reflection of what is going on inside us. We tend to get crazy interested in the world and its problems and try to ignore, suppress, and in all ways not face what is going on in us. In many ways Calvin and Hobbes are an embodiment of this. This is the first strip in which Hobbes is both named and shown as a toy. Calvin's Dad sees Calvin and Hobbes as one agent of responsibility. Calvin sees Hobbes as a separate agent even though he clearly cannot keep straight who did what, and thus neither can Hobbes.We are all like this and sometimes it is difficult to keep straight who is supposed to be who.

I do not think this is a bad thing. Somebody said, I think it was Alan Watts, that we have a "cult of the individual" in our society. We spend tons and tons of energy maintaining it. We have to know exactly who is responsible, good (Ooo! me! me!) or bad (Um... him.) In fact we usually spend more time figuring this out than dealing with the actual situation. Really the most expedient thing to do is go along with G.K. Chesterton who answered a question from a newspaper about what was wrong with the world and so only wrote two words: "I am." Take the blame and do what needs to be done. We, as Thich Nhat Hanh (man three greats in one paragraph! I am on a roll.) likes to say: "inter-are" and the only way to go forward is to know it, to put all differences aside not merely of belief, but of identity for the moment and be together, act humanity, not merely human. For as Krishnamurti (grand slam!) says, we are the world and the world is us. So who is to blame? Who can tell? Who cares!

Now who is up for a round of Kumbiyah?
I'll bring the cymbals.