Good morning. Happy Sunday.
My mind is numb with the strange happenings of the world. The people around me...the country I live in...
Everyone is stuck in their story. I am too.
We live in an ego driven world and our culture is extremely predatory. It would seem that most people are content in their consumerist and materialistic lives, but even those who step outside of that mindset do so only for the briefest of moments before they fall back into the same old ways of dealing with each other and the world. Predatory.
This week we have been exposed to the "torture reports" or the details of the CIA interrogation techniques to try to get information out of supposed terrorist suspects. It doesn't work, but the torture continues. I have to ask, collectively, are we even human? Is it human nature to hurt others? I suppose it is, really. It seems a lot of folks get a lot of joy or hidden satisfaction out of hurting other beings.
There comes a time when you have to rise above the tendency to disregard other life as you live your own. If we are to evolve spiritually we must rethink our behaviors and our thought patterns. We have to change the paradigm.
On a personal level, this is a difficult task for me as well, as am caught up in my own story as so many people are.
Some of the nation is reacting to police brutality by protesting in the streets of major cities against the grand jury decisions not to indict two police officers who killed two unarmed black men. Regardless of their alleged crimes, these two black men did not deserve to have their lives taken from them in such a manner. It draws our attention to the fact that the police officers of this country are individual people too, with issues of their own. Sometimes better judgement is lost in moments of fear, and sometimes people are just downright wrong in their actions. I am proud some people of this country are standing up to this injustice. That is the way it should be. The voices of the oppressed should be heard. Those lost lives should be acknowledged. They matter.
Our country has been on track to becoming a police state for some time now. The injustices perpetrated against the unarmed black men on the city streets are not uncommon. In fact these incidents are more common than not and becoming the norm for people of color, including Latino and Native American as well as African American. I am a white woman, and I am afraid of the police. The men and women behind the badges are unpredictable. We all have a right to be cautious.
I fail to understand the racist side of this argument. I fail to understand the "cop" side of this. It would seem to me that when the police shoot first and ask questions later, they are indeed playing into some vigilante method of justice that is supposed to be illegal in this country. Therein lies the problem. This country has not been a democracy based on freedom of the people for a long time. Slowly those freedoms are being eroded in the name of fear and progress, and people are becoming pawns in this country, and perhaps even in the world, as the people in higher positions of power move the sheeple around to fit their own needs and ends.
We are not in control anymore, if we ever were. We live under the delusion that we have some kind of say in how our country is run. We don't really. The people with the badges have the authority to gun us down in the street. This authority has been given to them by a higher level of corruption that we can't even begin to understand. What is the outcome of this evilness, this vile behavior to prey on the people of the world?
By not seeking to examine the individuals who are responsible through their very actions for torturing and killing unarmed human beings, are we not essentially telling ourselves and the rest of the world that this behavior is okay? I only include myself in this because ultimately we are all One, and your behavior is my behavior. It makes me sick inside to think of these ego driven people who seem to have no connection to their soul, what-so-ever, these people who hurt others as their chosen profession, these people who explain their actions away for whatever reason. It is a disease of a very sick ego driven and predatory world.
I want no part of this. None. So when a member of my family disowns me because I choose to stand with the oppressed people, it makes my heart ache inside. I don't understand how someone could align themselves with a pattern of thinking that allows the killing of unarmed people to be dismissed as legitimate behavior. But, it is what it is. Where do we draw the line? Where do I draw the line? How can I pretend and be civil in the face of blatant racism? How can I pretend this isn't happening?
And when another member of my family attends a family function of people who refuse to even acknowledge that people of diversity exist (including me), how can I pretend it's okay? How do I close my eyes to the blindness of society that says in most moments people can be excused for their unthinkable behaviors because they do not know better.
"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do," said Jesus.
I am not religious by any means. But most of these other people are -- these people who go to church and then come out of those doors full of righteousness; Those people who kill other people in the line of duty; Those people who treat others who are different as less than human.
If I do not stand up and say ENOUGH, am I not the same as them? Am I to sit idly by as these "good" people destroy humanity and the planet we live on? And if these people are my "family" does that mean I am required to be quiet and play along in the name of politeness? As long as we don't talk about anything meaningful, then we can go on pretending it isn't happening and that our own behaviors are not contributing to the problem. NOT.
I have been "feeling" a lot this week. The voices of the spiritual world are constantly reminding me that we live in an ego driven world of hypocrisy. I know I live there too. I am having the hardest time not judging those who are controlled and driven entirely by their ego story as I watch civilization crumble around me.
I am trying hard to remember that the world is my mirror and all of this horror exists within me and reflects outward into my reality.
I don't have much to say about how to deal with this because I am at a loss. I offend those around me by speaking out against the horrors I see. No one wants to take responsibility for their own part in this mess. As I speak out, so then I judge. But how can I not speak out? How can I not judge?
And they too are me.
My mind is numb. I can only seek to separate myself so that my vision remains clear. As I meditate and find love within for those parts of me that are in pain, that love will begin to heal.
Love. It is of a higher vibration. It is what holds the Universe together. It is the energy underlying the rest. It is Creator/God/Goddess. Love.
Let us take a deep breath of unified love and settle into a moment of peace. We must remember. We have to rise above our stories and our egos and vibrate on a higher level if we are to create lasting change.
Let us help each other to remember. Each day, all we can do is try again.
Love to all.
~Rev. Kerry
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