One Truth: We Are All People
It's been over a year since I last posted on this blog. So it is probably safe to assume that the three or four of you who had been following this are gone and I am writing to myself.
But hey, that's what writers do ... at least for the first draft, or six.
In any case - short version - my mother's dementia has gotten worse and she has moved in with me. So I have been blogging on a caregiver's website instead of here, since most of what I have had to say has been about her and her illness and the struggle to manage that and a full-time job.
That's not what I want to talk to you about today however (aren't you relieved? C'mon be honest).
What I want to talk about tonight is a simple, old phrase worn out by time and for many no longer containing any meaning: why can't we all just get along?
I have started reading an interesting couple of books. Bigger Table: Building a Messy, Authentic and Hopeful Spiritual Community and Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion and Sensitivity. These two books make a person think. As well they should. I'm not very far into the first (4 chapters) and haven't actually started the second but I do follow the author on Facebook.
ANYway, the point is.... I have long wondered why people hate/fear "the other".
This is something that has haunted humanity since the beginning of time. We built fires to keep "others" at bay in the night. Built walls, set up watches, established armies to protect ourselves from others not like us. This hate/fear has worked its way into the fabric of society and we have seen its ugly face howling at us for some time now. It surged forward during the 2016 presidential election and shows no sign of going away.
Unless we fight it.
When you look something in the eye and name it, you can begin to control it. You can fight. You can resist. You can stand up and make life better. Look the hate/fear in the eye, name it for what it is and fight it: ignorance.
We are products of our environment. Basic. Simple. Truth. But we aren't doomed to be stuck in whatever environment we were born into.
Here's what I know (and why such hate/fear confuses me): we are all people. We are all God's children no matter what the color of our skin might be, whatever language we (or our parents) speak, wherever we were born, whatever our sexual identity,how we address/embrace religion, etc. The ONLY thing that matters, really matters, is that we are all people.
I like to think that travel broadens the mind, that reading does as well. But you don't have to read every book in the library or travel the world to embrace that truth: we are all people. There really truly aren't any "others" once you accept that truth.
John Pavlovitz the author of Bigger Table has me yelling "EXACTLY" on several occasions in just four chapters. One such passage: "One of the biggest, most damaging mistakes too many Christians so willingly make is assuming that God is as much of a judgmental jerk as we are." I believe, I know, He is not.
There are a few things I live by more so than anything else:
Think about the above quote - do you really want God to be as judgmental as you are? Where did you ever get the idea that He was? That he hated people of color, immigrants - illegal or not, LGBTQ, Muslims, Jews, liberals... take your pick. There's enough hate to go around. But why?
Why is there hate? And why don't I feel it?
I probably should if I let my environment define me. If my mother had let it define me. By all rights I ought to be mired in hate/fear of the other. After all, I wasn't exposed to other-ness until college and even then that contact was marginal.
I grew up in a small community within a medium-sized city; 99% white in the small community (not the larger city), mostly blue collar, Christian, pretty average by most standards I suppose. Raised Catholic (still practicing) by two women - mother and grandmother - no males in the household. Grammy was French Canadian, Mama a single working mother when this was not common. Grammy made a lot of my clothes. Mama didn't know how to drive until she was 25. Before that we took the bus. You see, in Portland Maine you didn't need a car in my family, you walked or you took the bus. I didn't have a conversation with a black person until college; college that I put myself through. I recognize that white privilege exists and that as a white person I have/do benefit from it.
But I wasn't afraid, black people weren't, and still aren't, "others". They were/are people who happen to have darker skin. And I want to know more, to understand.
As a child I read everything I could get my hands on about other cultures, mythologies, spirituality, you name it. Maybe that helped. Maybe my curious mind helped. Maybe Grammy speaking French helped. Maybe I was "other" myself.
In my grade school class I was the only one who didn't have two parents. I had asthma and couldn't play the way other kids did. I was a nerd, geek, theatrical. I had a strange issue with my knee that required surgery in 6th grade. Oh sure I was picked on (as we called it then), horribly sensitive and felt I was on the outside looking in but I had a small circle of friends from the neighborhood and we were fine. I studied theatre in school, never bothered by friends who were gay. These things never bothered me. I never saw anyone as "other". I have never been afraid. I have stated that I don't like people - mostly because of how they (we) treat each other.
I've traveled since college. Been to Japan (love it) several times, France (love it) and am desperate to go back, Australia (love it) and I want more. I want to see Egypt, Rome, Greece and much more. The more I learn about other cultures, other people, the more I want to know and the more I discover that we are the same more than we are different. My horizons extend beyond the town, the neighborhood, the religion I live in.
I went to a Catholic high school, studied world religions. Went to a private Christian high school again studied world religions. Been on field trips to Buddhist temples, Jewish synagogues, Muslim mosques, other Christian denominations ... nothing pulled me away from the faith of my birth, it actually made my faith stronger. None of these encounters made me think the people of these other faiths were "others" to be hated/feared.
This is a wonderful world. Full of so many wonderful places and people.
Why then in today's America do we see hate on every corner? Why do we see a man mock the disabled, brag about molesting women, call anyone who doesn't agree with him names and so much more? And then we elect this man President. Somehow this gives those who are afraid, who do hate the permission they need to hate and express that hate.
And it has to stop. We're better than this, as a people, as a nation. We are better than this. We CAN get along. We can embrace the other. Because there are no true others. There is just us, one people. That is the one truth: we are all one people.
#Resist. #ChooseLoveNotHate
But hey, that's what writers do ... at least for the first draft, or six.
In any case - short version - my mother's dementia has gotten worse and she has moved in with me. So I have been blogging on a caregiver's website instead of here, since most of what I have had to say has been about her and her illness and the struggle to manage that and a full-time job.
That's not what I want to talk to you about today however (aren't you relieved? C'mon be honest).
What I want to talk about tonight is a simple, old phrase worn out by time and for many no longer containing any meaning: why can't we all just get along?
I have started reading an interesting couple of books. Bigger Table: Building a Messy, Authentic and Hopeful Spiritual Community and Building a Bridge: How the Catholic Church and LGBT Community Can Enter into a Relationship of Respect, Compassion and Sensitivity. These two books make a person think. As well they should. I'm not very far into the first (4 chapters) and haven't actually started the second but I do follow the author on Facebook.
ANYway, the point is.... I have long wondered why people hate/fear "the other".
This is something that has haunted humanity since the beginning of time. We built fires to keep "others" at bay in the night. Built walls, set up watches, established armies to protect ourselves from others not like us. This hate/fear has worked its way into the fabric of society and we have seen its ugly face howling at us for some time now. It surged forward during the 2016 presidential election and shows no sign of going away.
Unless we fight it.
When you look something in the eye and name it, you can begin to control it. You can fight. You can resist. You can stand up and make life better. Look the hate/fear in the eye, name it for what it is and fight it: ignorance.
We are products of our environment. Basic. Simple. Truth. But we aren't doomed to be stuck in whatever environment we were born into.
Here's what I know (and why such hate/fear confuses me): we are all people. We are all God's children no matter what the color of our skin might be, whatever language we (or our parents) speak, wherever we were born, whatever our sexual identity,how we address/embrace religion, etc. The ONLY thing that matters, really matters, is that we are all people.
I like to think that travel broadens the mind, that reading does as well. But you don't have to read every book in the library or travel the world to embrace that truth: we are all people. There really truly aren't any "others" once you accept that truth.
John Pavlovitz the author of Bigger Table has me yelling "EXACTLY" on several occasions in just four chapters. One such passage: "One of the biggest, most damaging mistakes too many Christians so willingly make is assuming that God is as much of a judgmental jerk as we are." I believe, I know, He is not.
There are a few things I live by more so than anything else:
- "Judge not, lest ye be judged."
- "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
- "Forgive us our trespasses as WE forgive those who trespass against us." and
- "Do not harm."
Think about the above quote - do you really want God to be as judgmental as you are? Where did you ever get the idea that He was? That he hated people of color, immigrants - illegal or not, LGBTQ, Muslims, Jews, liberals... take your pick. There's enough hate to go around. But why?
Why is there hate? And why don't I feel it?
I probably should if I let my environment define me. If my mother had let it define me. By all rights I ought to be mired in hate/fear of the other. After all, I wasn't exposed to other-ness until college and even then that contact was marginal.
I grew up in a small community within a medium-sized city; 99% white in the small community (not the larger city), mostly blue collar, Christian, pretty average by most standards I suppose. Raised Catholic (still practicing) by two women - mother and grandmother - no males in the household. Grammy was French Canadian, Mama a single working mother when this was not common. Grammy made a lot of my clothes. Mama didn't know how to drive until she was 25. Before that we took the bus. You see, in Portland Maine you didn't need a car in my family, you walked or you took the bus. I didn't have a conversation with a black person until college; college that I put myself through. I recognize that white privilege exists and that as a white person I have/do benefit from it.
But I wasn't afraid, black people weren't, and still aren't, "others". They were/are people who happen to have darker skin. And I want to know more, to understand.
As a child I read everything I could get my hands on about other cultures, mythologies, spirituality, you name it. Maybe that helped. Maybe my curious mind helped. Maybe Grammy speaking French helped. Maybe I was "other" myself.
In my grade school class I was the only one who didn't have two parents. I had asthma and couldn't play the way other kids did. I was a nerd, geek, theatrical. I had a strange issue with my knee that required surgery in 6th grade. Oh sure I was picked on (as we called it then), horribly sensitive and felt I was on the outside looking in but I had a small circle of friends from the neighborhood and we were fine. I studied theatre in school, never bothered by friends who were gay. These things never bothered me. I never saw anyone as "other". I have never been afraid. I have stated that I don't like people - mostly because of how they (we) treat each other.
I've traveled since college. Been to Japan (love it) several times, France (love it) and am desperate to go back, Australia (love it) and I want more. I want to see Egypt, Rome, Greece and much more. The more I learn about other cultures, other people, the more I want to know and the more I discover that we are the same more than we are different. My horizons extend beyond the town, the neighborhood, the religion I live in.
I went to a Catholic high school, studied world religions. Went to a private Christian high school again studied world religions. Been on field trips to Buddhist temples, Jewish synagogues, Muslim mosques, other Christian denominations ... nothing pulled me away from the faith of my birth, it actually made my faith stronger. None of these encounters made me think the people of these other faiths were "others" to be hated/feared.
This is a wonderful world. Full of so many wonderful places and people.
Why then in today's America do we see hate on every corner? Why do we see a man mock the disabled, brag about molesting women, call anyone who doesn't agree with him names and so much more? And then we elect this man President. Somehow this gives those who are afraid, who do hate the permission they need to hate and express that hate.
And it has to stop. We're better than this, as a people, as a nation. We are better than this. We CAN get along. We can embrace the other. Because there are no true others. There is just us, one people. That is the one truth: we are all one people.
#Resist. #ChooseLoveNotHate
Comments