Crawling out of LA in slow traffic and heading up the coast, there was a road sign to the Museum of Tolerance. We didn’t go because… the queues, the screaming, ice-cream kids and their pushy parents….intolerable.

Tolerance is there to be tested – the very word implies how much stress can be, well, tolerated. We have already touched on the idea of this year as a potential arena for tangible change and the last week has brought one or two headlines that touch an already raw nerve.

But are we going to join in the Haz and Megs post-Oprah post-mortem? I think not. What I will say, though, is that a couple of years ago you would have seen me losing a fight with a stingray on Butterfly Beach in Montecito, CA and the next thing you know….boom! H&M have gone to live there. I know, right? On the one hand, it is entirely logical that they should follow in my regal footsteps, but on the other, it is a bit suspicious. And there we pause, not wishing to fall down any conspiracy rabbit holes or samsæri kanínugat, as they say in Reykjavik.

Such is the ongoing, dismal and distracting state of play in the news coupled with the buttock-straining mediocrity of mainstream entertainment, that I sometimes find refuge in grim Nordic noir dramas – just to take my mind off things, you understand. While I have no interest in police procedurals, I find the Scandinavian landscape appealing and, curiously, some of the languages. Current faves are Swedish and the rather scary Icelandic – home to the sullen puffin and an unpronounceable word for police station: lögreglustöð. Need cheering up or confusing? Pop that little beauty into Gaggle translate, click on the audio button and try to make sense of what comes out. Hours of fun. Possibly. But, goodness knows I digress yet again. Or do I?

The British police have also been in the news this week, and for the worst reasons: their insensitive mishandling of the protest in the wake of the appalling abduction and murder of a young woman walking home, by one of their own. While there’s little surprise in Meg’s accusation of racism at the Palace – as anyone who’s met Prince Phillip will tell you – there are many shocking aspects to the murder. It shines a harsh light on the safety of women, male violence, the media and the breakdown of trust in authority. 

The question of race equality has been white hot (can I say that?) since George Floyd last summer, but the safety of women in public – in general – has, quite rightly, come to the forefront. For both women and people of colour, casual abuse or unwanted attention in some form is pretty much a daily given. Sadly, this is all very old news but what is beginning to change perhaps, is the context. Such stone age behaviour appears to be somehow without its viable backdrop. There has been a cognitive revolution in recent decades, but it has taken time to filter through the bedrock, as these things do. Like much else, it’s coming to the surface because it’s time.

You might say that the dark ages were dominated by male energy. Now, as we contemplate emerging into the dim dawn of a new era, we can begin to see the unacceptable outlines of that which was not so visible before and what needs addressing. This is only to state the obvious. Ultimately a co-operative balance is required, a prerequisite of which is a serious recalibration of attitude on all sides, and especially from those who have had the power. As history shows, requests for the redistribution of power are not well-received by those required to relinquish it. This stuff runs deep because it is deep and in our minefield times there is a need to step lightly and respectfully.

In sacred geometry, it is held that the fundamental building block of creation is the vesica piscis, the two overlapping circles better known as a Venn Diagram. The overlap is the interface, it’s where the action is, and where exchange takes place. Ideologically speaking, what appear to be forming now are two independent echo chambers that do not touch but seek only confirmation bias: those who want to preserve the past at any cost and those who want to tear it all down. They are more similar in approach than either would dare or care to admit, and neither can work. Whatever you want to call it, trying to force acceptance of your ‘rights’ or position on others is still the stuff of the dark ages. Stoning anyone and everyone who doesn’t agree with you serves no one (except perhaps our friends at the top).

Meanwhile, back at the Museum of Tolerance, there are two doors inside the entrance. One is marked Prejudiced, the other Unprejudiced (not Pride, unfortunately) and you have to pass through the one which you think applies to you. That’s all fine, except that the one marked Unprejudiced is locked. And there’s the human condition, right there. No one is as clean as they like to pretend, and no one has the high ground however loud they shout or offended they choose to be. If we ever knew it we have forgotten it.

Us, the societies we have made and the current unfolding situation are infinitely complex and require, deserve and demand a far more nuanced approach than they are getting. And unless we (or the majority) at least try to find that middle ground it’s just going to be more of the same old same old until we do get the message. We are disoriented, the pull of the Ring is strong and the shadow of Mordor, long.

As discussed, like it or not, consciousness on this planet is embarking on a serious upgrade. Waves of all kinds are flooding the planet. So if we do feel a certain instability or sense of change in our own lives, that is all par for the course and in the service of progress. Likewise, if there are disruptions, socio-political or otherwise, that is to be expected too. The question is whether or not to join in. We know what the higher option is. Love is not emotion/you may seek but you won’t find/because it glows behind the consciousness/that animates your mind.

Speaking of disruption, the good people of Iceland have lately had their sleep disturbed by ‘tens of thousands of earthquakes’ and experts are expecting (expercting?) any number of lava eruptions from just about any old crack in the ground. The locals claim to be ekki hræddur, bara þreyttur – not scared, just tired. Let’s hope they don’t literally end up going with the flow. The puffins declined to comment.

Meanwhile, what is to become of the good people of Sussex – suddenly without a Duke and therefore vulnerable to attack from their Kent and Hampshire neighbours? Exactly. There’s much to wonder about; and wonder I do.