I think a recent cancer diagnosis has put me in a reflective mood. It will all work out, thanks to math and science. But I find myself, in the quiet times, thinking of really deep questions. Like, why do the Eagles suck so much? Did Jim Morrison and the Doors open up an interdimensional portal to absolute crap, making all music that followed worse just by the influence of that horribleness? Why, for the love of the sweet baby Jesus, isn’t there an advance green going south on St. Joseph at the Lindsay Mall traffic light?

In psychology, getting exhausted by your mind churning with such existential questions is called rumination or intellectualization, where the brain treats every abstract thought as an urgent puzzle to solve right now. Buddhism has a better phrase to describe this: monkey mind.

From Buddhism, Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn normalized mindfulness in Western medicine and psychology. In his seminal 1994 work “Wherever You Go, There You Are,” Kabat-Zinn defined the concept as the intentional act of observing the present moment without judging it. This is now routinely used to treat chronic pain and depression relapse.

The concept has been expanded to the social sciences. Lama Rod Owens advocates mindfulness as a tool for marginalized people (like the LGBTQ+ community) to process the trauma of systemic oppression, while people holding prejudice must use it to interrogate their own internal conditioning.

I tried using this knowledge last month at the amazing Kawartha Lakes Pride at Victoria Park. I walked around the smiling, diverse crowd and just breathed it in. I looked up at the trees and thought: Nature is gay.

Seriously, while not completely gay, there are at least 1,500 animal species in every geographic region that exhibit same-sex behaviour. This includes mammals, birds, reptiles, fish and insects. Countless species change sex for environmental or social reasons. Hell, there is a mushroom called the splitgill (Schizophyllum commune) that has more than 23,000 distinct sexes.

There is only one species that shows hateful prejudice and violence to these facts of nature: Homo sapiens.

And it was that sad fact that was highlighted to me when many friends, family members and colleagues volunteering at Pride wore lanyards identifying themselves as security. When I asked about it, I was told the organizers had to be ready for protesters at the event. This had happened in the past.

In psychology, getting exhausted by your mind churning with such existential questions is called rumination or intellectualization, where the brain treats every abstract thought as an urgent puzzle to solve right now.

I can only try to imagine how that makes the LGBTQ+ people in my life feel. All I can do is be an ally. I was ready to wave my cane, straight-white-old-man style. Thankfully, it didn’t come to that.

I expressed a hope that any loser who would even think about protesting such an amazing event uses mindfulness to deal with their disgusting homophobia. And perhaps, instead of going to the library to protest a drag queen event, they might actually start checking out books.