Tilting and Drifting and Practicing

Here’s an interesting fact from Wikipedia:

According to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale’s rules, for a flight to compete for a round-the-world speed record, it must cover a distance no less than the length of the Tropic of Cancer as well as cross all meridans and end on the same airfield where it started.

My son and I crossed the Tropic of Cancer in early May on our drive from Tepoztlan, Mexico, where I live (18° 58'), to Austin, Texas, where he lives (30° 17'). As we sped north on the autopista, past the sign marking our movement from the Tropics to the Subtropics, I rattled him a bit when I suddenly shouted Stop! Go back! We have to take a picture!

There was an intuitive sense of significance. I had crossed this invisible line many times on winter flights from Boston to Costa Rico in years past, and when I flew to Chiapas last spring on a Global Exchange study tour of the struggle for indigenous autonomy there; and again, driving with friends from Austin to Tepoztlan last November. But this time I am made acutely aware of the territory I am crossing. Here was a sign.

I remember my father saying to me once, "We want to give you latitude, but you have to be willing to accept responsibility." This was a discussion about my perceived lack of the latter. Now I’m wondering how the word latitude came to be both an imaginary line noting distance from the equator, and a permitted freedom. Perhaps it has to do with the idea of limits and boundaries.

I was crossing the Tropic of Cancer, and I was happy. Is it because, as Martín Prechtel might say, at last I sat down in reverence for the Great Mother who nourishes me and wept and wept the beautiful song of praise? Is it because I remembered that I am accountable for my own happiness and responsible for my own change, for achieving it or giving up on it, or drifting, unaware or deluded, into a life that defines me, incompatible with my true self? Or worse, breaks my spirit?

In The Art of Happiness, the Dalai Lama teaches that happiness is a state of my own mind, and I can change my mind through practice. In fact, my mind can only be changed by myself…no condition or miracle is going to do it. In retrospect, I can always see how my self-absorption has taken happiness hostage, but when I’m in it, I can’t see a thing but what's wrong. That’s the value of practicing meditation …I gain awareness of these negative thoughts.

So right now, I'm not drifting. I seem to have shaken free from the painful blow to my self esteem via a spirit-breaking relationship and come up for air. I've made up my mind to be happy. I have signed a lease on my little casita in Tepoztlan and see what it brings."Freedom," psychoanalyst Allen Wheelis says in his provocative little book How People Change, "is the awareness of alternatives and the ability to choose."

Or maybe it’s a simple matter of balance. Throw out some heavy baggage and my little life tilts into the Hemisphere of Happiness.

Speaking of drift, I read that the two Tropics are currently drifting toward the equator by about 15 meters (49.21 feet) a year, explained by the fluctuation of the earth’s tilt as it encircles the sun. That’s a shrinking band of 98 feet all the way around the world! Right now the Tropic of Cancer lies at 23°27' north of the equator.

Here’s what worries me. I know that the coca tree only grows within 20° either side of the equator. Is this drift going to affect my access to dark chocolate?

Oh, no problem. When I read further, I see that the drift occurs between 22.5° and 24.5° on a long term cycle of 41,000 years.

Whew!

http://www.shamanchocolates.com/

http://www.globalexchange.org/

http://www.floweringmountain.com/