Feb. 16, 2026
Re How do we cope with all of today’s stresses & strains:
Should we continue to take just the short views of all the myriad problems of modern life … or can a longer view … with deeper perspectives be helpful … especially when determining strategies for coping with all the stuff going on right now?
Are we really locked-into only what we are at this moment?
… Are we locked into the cumulative sum of choices we have made? … Are our stories already written? … Are we locked into the agendas of big corporations? … Are we locked into the agendas of corporate oligarchs and political-elite oligarchs ?…
Are we locked into the agendas of our seemingly-beneficial communities large, and small … including the tyrannies of the isolated bubbles & isolated silos of little Liberal communities’ echo-chambers of group-speak & group-think … the tyrannies of silos & echo chambers of Leftist communities … or Right wing’s group-speak & group-think ?
Are we locked in? … Are we too rooted? … Too stubborn? …
Too old to change? …
… Is change still possible?
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We have been facing includes the end of innocence …
“… What is happening right now is the end of a certain kind of innocence. Not the innocence of children …“
“I mean the innocence of a civilization that believed its institutions were what they claimed to be. … The innocence of trusting that the architecture of governance, of medicine, of justice, was fundamentally oriented toward the common good.“
“That innocence is over. And its ending is not gentle.“
“If you are horrified by what you’ve seen, that horror is not weakness. It is evidence of what you are made of.“
“If you are shattered by cruelty, you are structurally aligned with life.“
” A scale of predation and complicity that makes the mind recoil because the mind was not built to hold it. “
” … The depth of your horror is the measure of your beauty. “
” This is the Lotus Principle:
The lotus does not bloom despite the mud — it blooms through it, because of it. The roots require the dark. The filth is not an obstacle to the flowering; it is the medium from which the flowering draws its life. And the deeper the mud, the taller the stem, the more luminous the blossom. “
Photo credit: David Chen
Author’s Note re “Sayer Ji’s” Quotations in Italics:
And yes, I have wrestled with all the ideas presented above and below, for years … Yet, the author “Sayer Ji” just yesterday captured some of my key thoughts, and expressed them so beautifully, that I include them to help readers understand. “Ji’s” metaphysical approaches to things are so very different from my factual, scientific & biological approaches, yet, even through his different perspectives, he reaches many of the same conclusions.
https://sayerji.substack.com/p/the-fold-a-valentine?utm_source=direct&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&fbclid=IwY2xjawQAH6xleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETJsUm5acjNCb0xLVnMyRnlPc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHheXyLex_DdrtYTbRnX9vOotG8Yga6MblimtjqokkCW6RdCgqvCnFlhV-fnJ_aem_6xwKOta8iUpJl4ZCDPWBqQ&triedRedirect=true
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Let’s Go Back to Long Term vs. Short Term Factual & Scientific Perspectives:
We each & all have roughly 2 million years of shared-roots as upright-walking, talking, fire-using primates – surviving by living communally … in small groups of 7 – 15 individuals for our first 1,990,000 years. … Notice how this sets up our emotional-communal brain wiring & skills to fit with handling the problems of our group of 7 – 15 individuals, along with 2-3 neighboring groups of similar size …. programs us for bonding with *our* ~tribe~** …
1,990,000 years of simultaneous emotional & social programing that enables us to deal with the problems of only the 30 individuals in “our” tribe… or possibly … and certainly not more than 75 – 100 individuals in “our” tribe.
In that realm … we’re programmed to care … a lot … when it’s someone in “our” tribe …. and similarly programmed to not~really~care when it’s some stranger … who’s ~not~ part of *our* tribe.**
Given those 2 million year old personal emotional coping skill sets, combined with our 2 million years of tribal-strategies & capabilities, consider the effects of today’s internet & TV news bombarding us every hour with the ~very worst~ of what’s happening to at least 3 billion people.
Consider … How we’re impacted when some Mom (who looks like “us”) … a Mom struggling with postpartum depression while living over 2000 miles away from us … falls into the trap of scalding, abusing or even killing her baby … as we now hear about it. … Consider when some single Mom who’s struggling to pay bills, struggling to juggle the Liberals’ even though we’re 2,000 miles away ….
Consider today’s societal expectations of being a ~single~ parent, super-woman, working-Mom, raising 3 kids with no man in the picture, while working 40+ hr weeks at a “satisfying, fulfilling career” … a Mom who then snaps, puts the kids into the SUV on a lake*bank slopes, puts the SUV into Neutral, and releases the parking brake … (and yes, since 1980, 65% of USA’s worst child-abuse resulting in ER visits or death has been committed by Moms).
or… When some far-off tin-pot dictator or some meglomaniac with a big army … abuses an entire nation on another continent … yet we hear & see it ALL … all the gory details … in vivid colors … on the daily internet & TV.
What should we expect from a an emotional-coping skill set from 2 million years ago, designed to cope with the problems of 15 – 75 people … now daily facing official violent police actions flowing into our living rooms … whether the video feeds are from Minneapolis or Tehran … as we get bombarded yet again … and again … and again … with the literal worst of everything in the USA, Iran, Ukraine … from 10’s of millions of Heat*or*Eat post*BREXIT UK souls … from Europe, and even from Canada’s latest rounds of Mass Shootings …
“Modern World” Effects:
Many people imagine we’ve been growing & changing to accomodate all the changes of modern life: Humans driving, humans flying, humans going to the MOON, humans killing 60,000 a pop in nuclear blasts … emotionally shrugging-off USA*nians murdering over 1 million innocent Vietnamese civilians as “collateral damage” … emotionally shrugging-off USA-nians murdering another 1 million innocent Muslim civilians … as “collateral damage” in the Bush-Obama-Biden Wars on TERROR .. !
Why Care?
**Tribalism? … I recently have been struck by so many Americans’ recent vehemence & emotional explosions over the tragic deaths of 2 White Minnesotans … Meanwhile, those same individuals are simultaneously totally diffident .. totally intransigent … totally un~feeling & un*caring … when told that Obama casually murdered over 4,500 innocent Muslims at family parties … Obama’s “collateral damage” from his 512 Kill List Drone Strikes with no formal investigations, no due process firing missiles in FAMILY parties in Obama’s 512 attempts to kill 1 “terrorist” per Obama Drone Strike … as all 4,500 murders of innocents are *shrugged~off* by today’s Liberals & Leftists … the same individuals who place incredible value on 2 innocent White lives lost due to Trump’s ugly choices
… yet they care ~nothing~ about the 4,500 casually murdered innocents due to Obama’s choices …
Why?
**Tribalism: Because Obama is “our guy” … and because Trump is “their guy” …
~ Notice how today’s Liberals’ collective un-feeling intransigence to Obama casually murdering over 4,500 Muslim innocent yet total strangers as “collateral damage” … is almost predictable due to our last 2 million years of tribal-programming …
where Obama is part of “our tribe” ;
… and Alex Pretti & Renée Good are part of “our tribe” … while Obama’s murders of,4,500 innocent Muslims with no due process does not matter;
~ because 4,500 murders is too much for our 2 million yr old emotional coping skill set …
and
“those” 4,500 Muslims are not part of “our tribe”.
Meanwhile, that same 2 million yr. old emotional coping skill set is ~perfectly programmed~ to react strongly to just 2 deaths … of White individuals … who happen to look like “us” … and happen to have the same values as “us” … => “Our” tribe!
/cont.
Next … Pull the lens back – to recognize the additional consequences of our 2 million yr old biology … running headlong into the last 75 years of Atomic Bombs, Red Menace, Yellow Peril, Fascist Nazis, Shoah (holocaust), Vietnam War, brutalities against 3 generations of Civil Rights protestors, Black Lives Matter issues & the tribal backlashes to Black Lives Matter, 3 MASS SHOOTINGS every 2 days under Biden … and all of Trump’s awful cruel pronouncements…
In the face of the onslaught of all these decades of overwhelming tragedies … pumped daily, pumped hourly into our lives … every day for decades … it means that modern people’s immune systems & stress coping systems are literally on the verge of overload …
Are we coping?
… Have we evolved to deal with all the changes brought on by cars, planes, computers, Social Media, 24-7-365 minute-by-minute TV news … plus a century of Industrialized Wars with industrial-level killing of literal millions per war … not to mention Biden’s 3 Mass Shootings every 2 days …
Science offers some answers …
Since the time our Homo Sapiens branch diverged out of the bush of human evolution about 300,000 years ago … (a bush including 7 kinds of humans: Denosovans, Neaderthals, Florisienses, Heidelbergensis, Naledis & Erectus … ALL existing “together” in that same time window) … we’ve had only roughly 11,000 generations pass in our time on earth as Homo Sapiens.
11,000 generations really is quite short in genetic-evolutionary time … so … Us “modern humans” really have the same basic underlying emotional programming & community skills … as those early Homo Sapiens … and we still really do share so much programming in common with even our forebears of 2 million yrs ago when they first “got fire”, bigger brains & language.
There really has been nowhere enough time for “us” as a species to evolve & cope with all the hourly and daily cumulative challenges, horrors & stresses of modern life.
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Next: Consider the modern biological consequences of us really being physically programmed to … be physically active every day, bending, stretching, lifting, reaching, chucking spears, digging out tuber, reaching-way-back into the berry bushes … and sleeping for hours & hours when it’s dark out every night …
Then consider how your lymphatic system has NO PUMP, so it relies on MOVEMENT … squeezing of big muscles … where our hourly-daily stretching, bending, reaching, lifting & straining are required to move critical hormones, to silently move OUT metabolic waste products, to silently MOVE in key immune components like B-cells & T-cells through our lymphatic system.
Then consider how everything in that key lymphatic system stagnates (metabolic waste products, key hormones, immune system compunds all ~stuck~ not-moving) … when we sit at desks, sit at computers, sit in cars, sit in front of the TV …
Then consider our most basic Fight-Flight-Freeze reactions & systems … including adrenaline & especially cortisol (the stress hormone that is helpful for brief times, but so harmful when we maintain sustained high cortisol levels) … where mid-ranking babboons who are always running high cortisol (stress hormone) levels … because lower ranking males are fighting to take their mid-level positions, and higher ranking males are just one trigger away from giving the mid-ranking male a beat-down … and not even the females are interested in mid-level males … daily non-stop stress & high cortisol levels which result in LOTS of premature deaths from heart attacks in the mid-level baboon males…
Then consider how our high sugar & high fat diets (and low activity) triggers our … “Time to store fat, during these feast times” metabolism changes … leading to historic record levels of obesity, diabetes & immune system problems.
In other words, our 2 million year old emotional coping skills … paired with 2 million years of TRIBAL programming … plus 2 million years of biological physiology programming … have ~especially~ been on near constant OVERLOAD since COVID disrupted our lives.. .
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Is the answer “kindness” ?
… Is the answer “self-care” ? … Is getting high “the answer” ? …
Is escaping into religion “the answer” ? … Is “circling the wagons”, closing ourselves off from everyone who doesn’t meet our tribe’s litmus tests … “the answer” ?
… Is reacting-to, getting angry, or blocking anyone who tells us inconvenient facts … “the answer” … ?
Before reacting .. before judging … before gossiping with your tribe members in your group-speak, group-think personal echo-chambers …
maybe … Is it instead time to slow down … slow your roll … choose daily activities that develop & build internal quiet, activities that build focus on what’s important, activities that nourish & enrich our interior lives … activities that increase our flexibility … stretching, bending, reaching, lifting & exerting ourselves to keep our lymphatic system & immune systems in peak shape … ??
Notice how each of these positive proven-effective solutions are empowering … not depending on others … ?
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Next… for people living in democracies … is it time to begin depending less on political elites & oligarchs?
Is it time to finally start to take back a little of our power back, by pushing and WORKING to elect only NEW competent candidates in our upcoming 2026 & 2028 Primaries?
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or …
Should we just continue to play out our 2 million yr old tribal dramas … emotionally reacting without thinking … nipping, snapping & biting without considering why we are reacting … as most people now just react, without considering the facts, nor considering what the other person is going through? 😉
Seriously, what’s on your list of daily, nourishing, enriching regimens ?
…
Can those daily regimens include recognizing when we’ve stopped thinking … and stopped caring … and are only reacting with 2 million yr old tribal instincts, being driven by 2 million yr old tribal motivations … where 2 lives lost tragically from “our” tribe, are somehow supposedly much more important than 4,500 lives of innocent Muslims?
Are we really locked-into what we are at this moment?
… Are we locked into the choices we have made? … Are our stories already written? …
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Possible daily regimens?
… Here’s one group’s Feb 2025 advice for individuals who were struggling with 2025 Trump’s actions:
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Feel free to copy while giving proper attribution: YucaLandia/Surviving Yucatan.
© Steven M. Fry
Read on, MacDuff.
Surviving Yucatan 