I have felt for some time now that I am living inside of a fear machine, one that is increasingly difficult to avoid or escape, but is increasingly important to learn how to avoid and escape. Everyone has their own definitions of the elements of the fear machine, some different from mine.

Every day, I am challenged to find my place living around this growing machine. You can live in the world or hide from the world and many days I’m not sure I wish to do either.

There is the political fear machine, the legal fear machine, the culture of warnings and dangers, the government regulation warning and fear machine, the Armageddon warning machine, the cultural Dystopian and literary machine,  the left-right anger and fear machine,  the medical fear machine, the weather fear machine, the media machine, the social media warning and engagement machine (more and more notifications warnings, alerts and messages), the text warning system, the corporate fear and warning machine, the banking and credit card fear and warning machine. The world of text codes, multiple passwords, cover-your-butt regulations and letters, security codes and questions (ok, so who was my best friend in the 3rd grade during the holiday season?), you can pay your bills and check your bank account online, 24/7, and all of the boundaries in your life will vanish. Expect your credit card bills at 7 a.m. Sunday, just as you are getting up to feed the donkeys. There are no days off in the Fear Machine, no breaks in the clouds, no holidays to be  respected.

And then, the biggest warning machine of them all, the growing realization across the spectrum that men are ruining the world, despoiling the environment, ravaging economies, waging war and genocide, awash in greed and violence. We are porous. Fear is a contagion.

A spiritual life depends on space, peace and perspective. Life in the Fear Machine sees all of these things as dangerous, antithetical to profit. See what the Corporate Nation has done to our simplest and purest national holiday – Thanksgiving – turning into a massive and often hysterical bargain hunt right in the middle of a holiday that was sacrosanct even a few years ago. Kids all across the country say Thanksgiving is about buying cool stuff cheap. Nothing is more important than fun. Bring sneakers, ID for hospitals and police, research your bargains, make lists, bring cells to call for help. Life in the hyper nation.

How does one function and go through life in the midst of all of these warnings, arguments?

Fight back.  Build boundaries. Turn off your Facebook alerts. Connect and share less. Run off and buy a farm. Meditate every morning. Brush a donkey once a day. Herd sheep with a border collie. Watch chickens peck for bugs. Take dogs for a walk. Avoid status alerts, nobody needs to know where I am.  Do not have a TV in the house. Avoid tests and pills if possible. Do not watch “the news.” Meditate every evening. Seek love, every day. Do not argue your life, or join in arguments about other people’s lives. Do not judge other people, give unsought advice, or tell other people how to live or what to do.  Avoid anger, in yourself, in the legions of angry children of the modern world. Avoid labels like left or right.

Refuse to believe that money brings security. Follow your heart. Be creative. Take photos. Write stories, light the creative spark.

Small tools, maybe, on a small scale. It’s not a battle but a search for survival.   It’s not about them. It’s about me.