Meditation for March 27th
The Security Blanket
We live with something in our lives that we need to feel safe, and we don’t want anyone to take it away. We picture Linus from Peanuts, with his blue blanket, sucking his thumb, and getting mad at Snoopy, who takes it from Linus all the time. When we need comfort, we go to our security blanket, wrap ourselves up, and let the scary things pass in the night.
For some of us, the security blanket is something physical, but for most of us, it’s usually a personality trait we won’t let go of for fear of being naked to the world. Maybe we play the asshole or the joker, or maybe we play meek or too good for others—anything to keep us from getting hurt.
If you have a security blanket, let it go. It doesn’t help you at all. You are once again relying on a myth to make you feel better. Nothing gets you like tough times more than just time and death. You either die from it, or you get through it. No security in the world will actually help you. It’ll comfort you, but it’ll slow down the healing. If your car breaks down and you walk away, when you walk back, it’s still broken down.
We latch onto quotes, books, TV shows, teddy bears, movies, guns, cars, and whatever else we put too much meaning into to help us feel better. When that comfort is threatened, we put up a fight, but at the end of the day, it is just a thing. A lot of us cling to a time before when we think things were better, but nostalgia is no better than a fentanyl addiction.
Guns are a security blanket. People hold their rifles while sucking on their thumbs. They feel safe and secure, but there is no likely threat. They cuddle that firearm in fear of burgers, biker gangs, a race war (Helter Skelter), or the government. They think that Glock is going to stop the federal government from taking our rifles away and make us pay our taxes.
Self-improvement is a security blanket; a gluten-free lifestyle is a security blanket; running is a security blanket; movie nostalgia is a security blanket; reading the news is a security blanket; and ignoring the news is a security blanket. People clinging to the idea that Eastern religious, non-Judeo-Christian meditation will keep them safe and healthy is a security blanket. Judeo-Christian faith is also a security blanket.
All of these things that we stand behind are crutches. They don’t help; what really sucks about life is the fear of losing what you have or not getting what you need.
The unfortunate thing is, we already have what we need a lot of the time, so we build self-fortresses to get what we want. We need food to survive, but we want GMO labeling. We need shelter to protect ourselves from the elements, and we want the right to kill someone who touches our shelter. We need warmth to survive, but we want the weather to be good year-round. We need to feed our children, but we want a giant SUV to take us miles and miles away from our excessively large house in the suburbs. We work in the city, and we don’t want to pay for that gas. We need the roads we drive on, and we don’t care that acres upon acres of forest were destroyed so I can have a place between the city and the country, I can have a little safe and isolated community to hide from the roving gangs of the city and the redneck militia in the countryside. I sometimes secretly agree with the rednecks while pretending to want to help the roving gangs, but again, I don’t want to pay the taxes that might make the community a better place, but I’ll vote for the person who talks about raising taxes to help those roving gangs.
Security blankets are like talismans that we keep to ward off evil. We might be logical in all other arenas, but not in the one where a certain item is used to keep us safe and comfortable, even though it really does neither.
Prayer
Green Man,
I sit here posting positive quotes on my Facebook wall,
making myself feel better about myself,
without actually doing anything at all,
except for occasionally going to a yoga class.
I drink matcha tea,
I smoke American Spirits,
I ride my bike,
I vote democrat,
But I may be a libertarian,
because I’m a selfish piece of shit.
I pretend to be a productive member of the community,
But that’s just to get laid,
I pray that I’m doing all the right things.
Green Man,
I need a sign that I’m not doing all of this for nothing.
Mars,
As I clean my AR-15,
I want to give you a shout-out,
To protect me from my enemies, known and made up.
I will not let anyone get me and mine.
I deserve things, goddamnit.
Technically, I didn’t work for any of it,
But I deserve it because I’m American.
This AR-15 will not only keep me from my nightmare of the Purge (a movie series where the government tries to alleviate the violent crime rate by allowing all crime one night a year. Idiots get caught out in the night while scary people in masks creatively kill for the pure enjoyment of it.) being real.
It will keep the government from taking over our land,
Even though I think that the technology the military has is a little better than a semi-automatic rifle shooting 5.56 X 45 rounds.
Drones are like the precursor to Skynet, man! (This is a reference to the robot uprising in the Terminator movies, where the human-looking robots are sent back to the 80s and 90s to kill John and Sarah Connor so that the human resistance never takes place – because all the other humans will just be fine being wiped off the face of the earth by evil AI robots)
Amen.
Craft
Making a talisman.
If you really need something, let’s start evil; first, let’s take it with magic.
First thing you will need is an object. It should have a little weight to it and be processed by human hands, so that it can store less magic. Also, iron will not work. Iron kills magic. A rock, a precious stone, or a carved amulet is an example.
You will need to be specific about what kind of protection you need. A talisman can’t be an all-purpose talisman, so you will need to be specific about your biggest threat.
Build an altar to a god or goddess that best protects from that threat. Make it somewhere secluded in nature.
Meditate with your object with the protection you need and leave it on the altar for four days.
Come back on the fourth night.
Smoke PCP, eat a cat and scratch yourself bloody.
You’re protected and ready to be the biggest, greatest.
Goal
It is nice to have something to turn to for comfort, but if your something is being threatened to be taken away and you are ready to fight to keep it, then you are putting too much emotion into something that isn’t needed. Let go of those things that get in the way of being a truly brave person. A brave person doesn’t need a security blanket, a non-BPL water bottle, or a Smith & Wesson ACP to face their fear.
Be brave, little camper.