Through the Looking Glass: From Orange County to Mindfulness
“Some people concentrate on style too much
But I think I just force myself to smile too much
And that should soon end for the best
I wanna live my life with no stress
Love life and feel blessed”
UNO
Rex Orange County
The wise words of a lyrical genius, Rex Orange County, but how did this indie pop artist from Grayshott, England, get his stage name? Real name, Alex O’Connor, coined his name in grade school when a teacher began to call him ‘The O.C.’ because of his last name. As a child he fantasized over this, he loved being affiliated with this hip and posh area of Southern California. As an individual from Orange County, let me tell you, it’s not as great as it’s made out to be. There is a scary truth hidden behind all the palm trees and designer stores. A scary truth behind all the flashy outfits and fast cars, a narrow-minded brain. The inability to see beyond the superficial and recognize the underlying truth. Life is not about the material it is about the immaterial. This has not been my mindset my entire life, not even half my life, nor was this a conclusion I reached at a single point in time.
Shivers, the homeostatic response by the thermoregulatory system to maintain the core internal temperature of the body. Then we have this similar experience called chills, a much, much different response, a subconscious release of the stress hormone, adrenaline. This can be brought about through a sudden robust change in emotion. I experience this rather frequently, reading a sad story on the news or listening to a keynote speaker giving a motivational speech on systematic subordination, whatever the case may be I live for them. The Hindus, have a word for this, the Kundalini experience, a subtle and coiled primal energy, that allows us to let go of our egos. To lead us down the right path, the path of mindfulness and understanding.
What can I say, I’m a chiller, we should all be chillers.
The event that sparked this sudden interest in this specific chemical response was moving from Orange County, California to Corvallis, Oregon. It was the first time I was on my own and the first time I was not surrounded by sheltered, power-hungry, selfish, materialistic individuals, I was officially free of the toxic OC bubble. The hardest challenge in this experience was making a sad realization about how self-absorbed some people can be, including me. In high school every minor inconvenience was the end of the world, it was all about me. In life the older you get the harder the problems become and that is why it is so important to challenge yourself and expand your knowledge on the human experience. Challenge yourself not to dichotomous think, dehumanize, or be so quick to judge.
I didn’t realize it at first but there was a reasoning behind me not wanting to go to school in California. As corny as this sounds, Oregon was calling me, her whimsical forests, laid back culture, and her population of people that actually cared about the world going on around them. She was beautiful. Moments after being on my own, I noticed a severe change, almost like a blossoming. I began to acknowledge and appreciate the importance of immaterial things.
The society we live in has an extreme bias towards material objects, the world of matter. If we cannot see it, if we cannot touch it, we find it extremely difficult the mark it as real. As such, immaterial things emerging from complexity, like culture, are seen as less meaningful than matter. Culture may not be palpable, but it impacts matter in a way that is. Life is about immaterial things like; ethnicity and traditions, kindness and morality, love and community, hope and innovation, curiosity and philosophy. Knowing this helps me relate and empathize to people who are not like me and share indifferent experiences. It teaches me to appreciate diversity and to be gratified.
By no means am I saying that we cannot have nice things or that those nice things cannot make us feel good. Fashion is one of my favorite things in the entire world, it is an expressive art style that I am extremely fond of. However, I ask that you understand, that the road down materialism is a rather dark one. We fail to see how our thoughts and actions uphold someone else’s marginalization.
The real currency of life is life’s itself.
Consider these statistics by, the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
The average American spends the following annual sums on these leisure items: Tobacco $280, Alcohol $565, Personal Care Products $707, Clothing $1,803, Entertainment $2,913, and Transporation $9,049. Not even realizing that by donating $200 a month to organizations like RedCross or UNICEF they can save the lives of countless amounts of people in extreme poverty. I understand, that not everyone can afford to give away $200 a month, however, the ‘average middle-class’ family that resides in Orange County most definitely can and should grapple things like kindness and morality, love and community.
I count my blessings every day. I smile when the sun comes out to play even if it is only for a moment. This piece is to remind you mustn’t have your mind too full to be mindful. For the most part, I would say everyone reading this woke up today with a roof over their head and with the access to food, clean water, plumbing, filtration, clothing, technology, and most importantly education. I challenge others to practice this form of dialectical humanism because it gives way to a powerful sense of double-consciousness, mindfulness, and a whole lot of happiness.
