..Had this nasty cod/flu combo last week...did ya miss me?
When will we learn to love ourselves? I am intrigued by the events of the last week. Not so much for the events themselves but in the reactions they have elicited from people.
Without love, we seem cast adrift on the tide of the masses: action reaction, action reaction. Up the boat goes, down it comes...
Christian, Muslim, bound by the winds of change and the whims of those who would 'lead' us whether we really know how they got there or not..
Bang the drum, rally the masses, wave the flag...
Only through love can you shed your need to be told, for your freedom to know. Only through love can you show the world that acceptance begins when tolerance ends. Should Osama Bin Laden be dead? He is dead, so I guess that is yes. Should you rejoice? If you feel you need to, ask yourself what happens when you're finished rejoicing; what then? Ask yourself how many of the 311 million other Americans are actually dancing in the street with you. After that, consider that the next time you see people dancing in the street in Islamabad how many of the 1.21 Billion people from their country they represent.
If you are off-put by those who rejoice, ask yourself what is in you that is off-put. Not, what is in them that makes them want to. In the still small voice that engages in that discussion, you will find yourself. That is where love resides. It is in yourself, by yourself and in relationship to yourself that judgment resides. When you judge someone else, what criteria are you judging them by? Your perfection or your imperfection? If you are perfect, what difference would it make what anyone else does?
I know these things because I judge sometimes in a knee-jerk reaction and it feels terrible. I used to do it all the time, with all the emotion I could muster and then I felt even more terrible. When I don't judge I am closer to myself than at any other time. Closer to freedom, closer to love. When you practice non-judgment, its a heck of a cool game with a win/win every time. Are you always successful? Yes because the minute you catch yourself judging and put yourself in the other persons shoes you're one step closer to who you want to be whether you realize it or not.
The next time you refer to a Muslim or a Christian as they, ask yourself if you are a 'they'. Perhaps you'll say" if they means a Christian, I guess I am, or, if they means Muslim, I guess I am. Then try saying it without the word I and see how far you get. They don't dance in the streets. A collection of I's do. If not, than they represent you in everything they do.
The world is safer without Bin Laden in it. Not too many people disagree with that. How much safer it is, will have to do not only with each individual reaction to his death, but with each individual reaction to the reaction.
And finally I leave you with this video. A little beauty in a world where choice is as it has always been, right there with you! Stay beautiful. C ya next week.
http://wimp.com/brainautotuned
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ReplyDeleteI don't know why this blog/video has left me in tears today, but here I sit with them streaming down my face. I am an American, yet I do not dance in the streets over the death of another human. I am a Christian, yet I love my Muslim friends and associates. I reject a culture that seeks to put a label on people groups and, by that label, pigeon-hole the masses into neat categories that help rationalize the good or bad feelings one may have associated with each.
ReplyDeleteHave I ever labeled people? Guilty! Do I seek to continue in this practice? I do not! You know, Jesus himself had the most irritating habit to his contemporaries of "hanging" with those that others considered "unworthy". Labeling people groups has been going on for a long time. However, Christ was secure enough in who He was to be able to reach out and love the "unloveable". When we will be secure enough with ourselves to do the same? I will live up to my true identity (and I see that in Christ) or I will live up to what I believe those around me expect. I choose the former.
Maybe these tears come as I realize that I really wanted Osama dead. In the back spaces of my mind, where no one could see, I wanted him to pay for what he orchestrated against my fellow countrymen ten years ago. But now that it has occurred, will his death serve a purpose? I can only hope the families of the 9/11 victims gain some peace of mind and closure on a harrowing chapter in their lives.
For me, it has caused no joy. But I resolve my reaction will be to have a better understanding and a love of those who many consider unworthy or unloveable, or just plain different. That is the real me. That is what my role model did and I want to emulate that with my life.
Thanks for the think tank here, Mark! And, yes, I did miss you last week!
P.S. reposted to correct a particularly outrageous typo. Thank you, Mark, for alerting me!
Great post..I don't have time but I've always been too naturally empathetic to celebrate the violent death of any human. I spend a lot of time sending love to the most hated knowing that if anything can make them become more loving it's not directing more hate at them but directing loving energy.
ReplyDeleteIt is easy to love those who are kind to you. But to love those who would do you harm..that is to be truly god like.
Carolyn