Synkroniciti is delighted to welcome writer Vali Hawkins Mitchell of Hawaii with “Monkey #37,” an uplifting zuihitsu meditation on how behaviors move through society and how consciousness ripples outward through all of us. Vali gives us hope—and reminds us that hope requires our participation.
A zuihitsu is a classical Japanese literary form defined by drifting, associative movement: a gathering of observations, memories, facts, and reflections that follow the mind’s natural currents rather than a strict linear argument. It is a form that honors permeability, intuition, and the way thought actually behaves. Monkey #37 inhabits that tradition beautifully.
“I don’t remember how I got the copy of The Hundredth Monkey, by Ken Keyes, Jr. (1982). It tells of Japanese macaques. When enough learned to wash sweet potatoes on one island, monkeys on distant islands began doing it too, as if the habit ‘jumped’ once a critical mass was reached. Keyes saw it as a model of collective transformation: if enough humans awakened to compassion and cooperation, the shift could ripple through us all, not by words alone, but through some invisible field linking living beings.
On the day I read that book, I had an aspirational thought: ‘If I work at it, perhaps rather than living in fear, I can be, oh… maybe at least Monkey #37. A contributor to higher consciousness.’”
Jung held that the individual is the seed of societal change, which is why he placed such importance on individuation. A society composed of aware, attuned individuals becomes more capable of compassion, creativity, and collective wisdom. In true zuihitsu fashion, Vali braids together Keyes, Jung, religion, science, nature, and ghosts in a spirit of wonder to remind us that we are not separate islands of mind but participants in a shared field of becoming that permeates and extends beyond the world we see.
The movement toward a gentler, kinder world is already in motion, its currents around us, within us, and beyond us. If we want a world that nurtures life, we need to be in step with it rather than supporting the status quo or regressive behaviors.
Read “Monkey #37” in Synkroniciti’s Audacity issue, Vol. 8, No. 1, available here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Vali Hawkins Mitchell, PhD, writes from her office across the street from the Honolulu Zoo, with morning backdrop vocals from monkeys, elephants, and tigers. She is an award-winning artist and has been published in numerous trade, professional and literary journals. She has authored cross-genre books including Emotional Terrorism in the Workplace, #Many Women: Many Voices, Adjusted Parkour, and Quantum Poetry for Trauma Management. Her prose and poetry have been published in journals such as Sky Island Journal, Spank the Carp, of Rust and Glass, Star82Review, Heartland Society of Women Writers, Zoetic Press, Welter University Literature, and more. She has two free weekly email journals: 52 Weeks of Well-Being, and 52 Weeks of Affirmations, available at http://www.eapacific.com and her other website is: http://www.valihawkinsmitchell.com.