On the Human Spirit: Inspired by Josephine Baker

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Finding the Human Spirit during the American Election

The Human Spirit is something to be recognised. It is something to behold. Examples of it can be found in the most unlikely of places. Yesterday morning I watched the entertaining anchors on CNN attempt to bruise each other’s egos during their coverage of the American election. I wondered at the skill it took to maintain the tension during the agonisingly long build towards the eventual Biden win.

Whilst waiting, and browsing the never ending expanse of Tweets, I came across something about Josephine Baker. I had not heard of her before. I read her Wikipedia and watched a couple of old documentaries on YouTube and I was inspired. It was the character of her life, the fullness which impressed me. This for me, is someone who embodies the Human Spirit.

A very short synopsis

She started out as pretty much a street child of disadvantaged colour in a poor neighbourhood in 1920s America. She became a successful dancer and entertainer, moved to Paris, was a spy during the war, then entertained troops, owned a Chateau, and had many lovers, male and female.

At one point she came close to death following a complicated miscarriage and after the war ended up involved with the civil rights movement and Freemasonry. She also adopted and raised eleven children, converted to Catholicism in later life and she received full French military honours at her funeral.

The Vastness of the Past

What it made me think is that history is so rich and deep, full of millions upon millions of biographies. Not all of them are as remarkable as Josephine’s, but each of them represent the existence of something more than just matter in motion. These life histories are altered by time to be narratives passed on to those who follow.

Naturally, the many narratives of human lives are fascinating and taken as a whole constitute what can be known as Humanity. Each of them is a set of stories that one can think what it would be like to be that person. Indeed, consciousness itself has been defined by Thomas Nagel as being present if there is something that it is like to be that organism.

There are numerous, countless human histories that have given rise to the present moment we find ourselves in. Spread across all the environs of the Earth, human beings find themselves in the perpetual present moment. Taken together with those who have come before us we form a constellation of selves that stretches back to the emergence of consciousness.

Vicarious Human Spirit

This is the Human Spirit. I can not know what it was like to dance the Charleston in a Paris night club at the height of the 1930s Jazz scene. I’ll bet it was fun though, I’ll bet it was a riot. I can not know what it was like to flirt with enemy generals and then travel as a performer with invisible ink on music books hiding their secrets. I’m thinking it was intense though, I’m thinking it was a thrill.

What I am trying to say is that reading of the life and times of Josephine Baker reminds me that the world is rich with experiences to be had. That life is a feast to be savoured. It is a full three course meal with a cheeseboard and hot coffee to follow.

The tales of Josephine’s life warm me up with their promise, they lift me out of the mundane. Although as people we may be very different in many ways, I can consider what it would have been like to walk in her shoes. It is only natural to learn from and be led by those who have come before us.

Trapped in the present

Her life story speaks to me on a deeper level as it is a tale of triumph against hardship, overcoming the odds, and the importance of persistence. It is all very well being able to live vicariously for brief spells, but what about the longer term? How can a recognition of a collective Human Spirit help with deeper rooted personal issues?

As mentioned, we are each living in the present moment and our subjective experience of time is just a sort of mental placeholder. We use this to delineate the brief spell of ‘life’ within the endlessness of eternity. On the practical level of existence, we have to do this to make sense of the world around us. As part of differentiating our own past actions from intentions.

Yet in actuality we are no more separate from time than we are from the physical world. There is no need for ego, no call for separation of the self, no ‘I’. Rather we can each feel that we are part of a phenomena greater than our own psyches. We are each transcendent in our own right.

Human Spirit without a Self

To draft in some Buddhist doctrine;

Suffering alone exists, none who suffer; the deed there is, but no doer thereof; Nirvana there is, but no-one seeking it; the path there is, but none who travel it.

– Visuddhimagga

There is no blower in the wind, no aggressor in the storm, but there is a driving force within us all. We are each the same as one another in our capacity for consciousness and this is our strength. To recognise that we are driven by intentions that are part of a collective Human Spirit (and therefore a phenomena just as natural as the elements) is to know that we can be at peace.

There is no place for anxiety when you comprehend that we are each part of a greater picture. There is no room for depression when you reinforce that your experience is worth as much as every single other beings. I am not suggesting severe mental issues can be resolved in the blink of an eye. Far from it. Yet with persistence and a positive belief structure, all manner of problems can be overcome.

Final Thought

Know that you are valid, know that you have purpose. Such is the Human Spirit. Be sure that there is love and hope available for you. You can always work towards a better life for yourselves and others. Just like my newfound heroine Josephine did.