I have to be careful, as I do not necessarily want to judge those who are judgmental because that would be silly and problematic of my end goal…which is to be less judgmental; sort of. So I will start by apologizing for my judgments of arrogant, hateful, fear based, power whores dressed as intelligent, adult humans.
I am in a bit of a mood these days…but why not.
I made the mistake of listening to Hunter S. Thompson recently. He was spouting off about Nixon, fear and the state of American politics in the 90’s based on the previous sixty years of fear and hate based politicking. He has the ability to stick with me like a heavy pasta and I miss his uncanny ability to put a point on such things as we are facing today.
I am also sorry for those of you having to live in a constant state of fear and loathing of all things contrary to your way of life and the preservation of that life. These haughty ways, which so obviously are working as a global solution to every global problem we have ever had, are having and will eventually have.
You have done it. You have so forcefully effected change, I have no words…
Cultural bigotry? Maybe…
Racial bigotry? Maybe as well…
Sexual orientation bigotry? Sure to some extent…
Honestly it is a fear of anything and everything not of our own conception and understanding. Fear of all, which we are ignorant of…
Whatever it is, it is a problem that stretches far beyond any one country’s borders, religions or political ideology. There is fear and then there is fear turned outwards into hate mongering, racism, and essentially isolationism by the people who can help from those who need it.
And in our case it seems the fear is blind to culture and exists across the board. Each of us simply deals with it differently.
We are most certainly caught in a cycle, which stretches backwards almost infinitely, of trying to solve problems with one variation or another of the same broken thinking because we are afraid to take some relatively calculated risks. We imagine these risks make the possibility of terror greater than if we hide our faces behind a seemingly reasonable rhetoric -- never once imagining that the “reasonable rhetoric” may have actually contributed to the terror on some level. Not that one justifies another because that is absurd, but these matters are all connected now whether we want to admit it or not.
I will not mince words here; the question of closing our borders to those in need is absolute bullshit and I am happy to live in a country, whose lead politician has agreed to help and be a part of a future solution that is not fully mired by past politics and agendas. I do not know if Trudeau is the right person overall, but in this circumstance, he is being a human being and doing what is right despite what may be popular or convenient.
The very notion of safety and security is an illusion regardless of the choice we make today. The scariest part of all of this for me is that we are all willing to treat other human beings with such blatant disregard and callousness to potentially save our own necks. It says so much about the condition of our spirit that I am afraid to comment on it. I do not mean spirit as it may or may not be related to some body of religious belief, but instead that part of us which makes us human beings.
This idea goes well beyond religion or works of fiction or nonfiction. The human part of our being or the being part of our humanness. For generations it seems that within it has been birthed and nurtured children of fear; fear of losing what we have and terribly afraid of not getting what it is we want. Whether we happen to know what that is or not, is of seemingly no consequence. We simply do not want to let it go because like spoiled children, it is ours and ours to keep.
This is the tiniest fear being used by the ego, which turns a tiny morsel of far off possibility into a harsh reality just around the corner from this one, monumental decision. The ego tells us that it is not a small fear in fact, but a whole truth wrapped in prophecy and every one is doomed unless they too climb on board the “self-preservation” train.
But what exactly are we preserving?
Never mind that for now…
Let us climb on board the ego train of those who are desperately afraid and are also in positions to spread the message of fear or love on the largest of scales, in the cleverest of maneuvers, these individuals are able to convince even the brainiest of us that fear and isolation is the answer over love yet again.
I do not know what the right thing to do is...no, yes I do. At least from my perspective. It is not based on some easily interpreted/miss interpreted Bible, Koran, or other fantastic piece of literature. Or at least I do not think my thoughts and fears come down to a completely inadequate understanding of world religions and their often limited explanations provided by wholly inadequate individuals that everyone seems ready and willing to listen to. This includes fear mongers who claim no God or faith. The zealots are zealots and sometimes they wear secular robes.
What has come about is a culture where we are supposed to listen to nothing but fear and hate or we are considered weak, stupid, and ill-informed…balderdash! To steal a word from an old favorite author, absolute balderdash!
Apparently, I am not in support of my country’s troops if I don’t support more war?
This is not only absurd, but offensive to me on so many levels. I understand that when and where isolated, small groups of fearful and hate minded individuals carry out criminal acts of extreme violence there needs to be justice. I fully grasp this as I am a human being and want justice…but I want justice for all people,
not just Judaeo-Christian westerners who “supposedly” think like I do.
I want justice for the women, children and even the men, whether fighting age or not, of Africa, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria et cetera et all. There is no person on the planet who has the inherent right to determine which lives matter and which lives do not. However, we sure have allowed ourselves the luxury of thinking we can and should determine what is right for the rest of the world.
Balderdash!
The very notion that religion, or lack there of, is actually behind all of the blood shed is like suggesting all people with mental illnesses will become violent at least once in their life. Or maybe suggesting that not saying prayers in school has led to school shootings or the lack of a bible in school is to blame for…well anything. Let’s be serious and not tell each other simplified lies that somehow fit into our preconceived notions of how life should be.
We are all grown ups or at least we pretend to be most of the time when on our soap boxes, preaching to the belittled choir through social media or mainstream media channels about what to think this week versus last. Seeking our likes, shares and positive, affirming comments that tell us all how right we are and how wrong anyone who disagrees with us is.
Our problems as a human race do not come down to a lack of belief. Most of them come down to a lack of flexibility over our beliefs. Those both shared and not shared. The actual ideas or beliefs are irrelevant, yes, I said irrelevant ☺ However you wish to look at the details of religion or the merits of Atheism, a general lack of flexibility and acceptance, on both fronts, is where the majority of these “ideological” differences create very real, physical problems.
But I will go a simple step forward here and tell you what I really think.
I do not attribute belief or lack of belief to any of what is happening. It is greed and it is fear. The greed of wanting more and not wanting to share and the fear of losing what small amount of safety and security most of us feel on a daily basis.
The most obvious truth to me is that most of us want to control every circumstance in our lives, whether it is reasonable to control these things or not. Or we simply avoid all circumstances, which we cannot control. There are obvious flaws in this thinking because the majority of situations and circumstances we worry about, fight about, fret about, are beyond our individual control.
It makes sense that the most popular politicians represent, not our hopes, but our deepest fears in the form of the egotistical, megalomaniacal, overgrown children who claim they can save us from the aforementioned “probable” futures of deplorable conditions. I understand that the merits, intentions, and motives of politicians are always in question, as they should be, due to the lack of credibility most still have by the time they run for those highest offices.
If it is weak, stupid and ill-informed to be kind, loving, trusting, and accepting of others…then I don’t want to be strong and above that I do not want to be considered a part of a world where only the arrogant, afraid, and powerful make the most important communal decisions. In some way, these narrow minded individuals believe they represent all of the loving, compassionate, and tolerant people who simply don’t scream and yell their opinions. Truth is often whispered in a steady, calm voice through daily acts of continuous kindness towards others.
…I am sorry for your fear, yes, you read that correctly. For your fear. I have nothing figured out and certainly cannot be identified as someone having it all together, but I want to love. I want to do better than my last and the only way to do that is to step beyond all of my old, broken thought patterns which only lead me backwards.
I am afraid like most people and the world seems to be getting scarier every day.
I am going to choose to address this fear with love today. Admittedly, something I know very little about, but just the same I am going to try. I am going to embrace, as best I can the inner child of me and love of all my fellow human beings.
I am going to try and go back before all of the hurt began. Before the darkness I became so accustom to settled in.
I want you all to know that I do understand, despite my ranting, about fear and living a life based in it. Hence my pity for us. I know the abyss in which you speak and live from. The only way out of that abyss however, is not from the same old solutions. It is in finding a new way to be. A new way to think, speak and treat others.
This is not an easy task, no one said it would be. But the same mentality which created the schism cannot undo it. I say this next part with a heart full of love and joy.
I do not wish to live in a world that continues to segregate based on race, religion, financial status, fear, or other differing demographics.
I would rather die.
I would rather leave this world knowing that at the least I embraced togetherness and made the mistake of trusting not hating or fearing. It is not much of a world, despite all of the technology, comforts I share, and warmth I can hold onto if I refuse to help others because I do not understand them.
Yes, I could be inviting disaster, but I would rather die than leave other humans dangling in the winds of uncertainty knowing there was something I could do.
And there is something we can do.
There are small and large things we can do to invite people into our world of comfort and warmth, but we have to be willing to get hurt, to even die for what is right. Like so many of our citizens before us, who sacrificed their lives so we could then live nobly and perhaps do the same. What is right is not always what we are used to or what we have convinced ourselves is true. Sometimes what is right, is the very opposite of our rigidity, whatever that might be.
If strangers were to rise up and attack us, I will pick up a rifle and fight alongside my brothers…but what if they do not? Do I take their lives through inactivity and ignorance because I am afraid they might rise up against my way of life? I cannot do this. I cannot do what is so strikingly an act of cowardice. I would not honor those who came and gave before us is I reacted this way.
To turn my back on people in need…I would rather die.
I beg you to take my life for my inability to turn my back.
For my inability to remain silent.
Do what must be done, as when I face my creator one day, there is little I want beside my name. There are no letters or dollar signs I will brag about. But I want to be able to look my creator in the eye and say, without reservation, that I tried to love. I tried to break free of fear, hate, and the status quo.
I tried.
Although I was grossly imperfect, I tried.
When I saw the light, I wanted to give my all for my fellows because there was nothing more that was needed. All of my fellows, not just those I gathered with. I wish to stare lovingly into my creator and know that despite my failures, my heart was at the least known for not being afraid of what I do not understand.
That once I saw the light, so to speak, I did not make every decision out of fear of what I might lose or what I may never get.
That instead I made the choices out of love.
A desire to further our species and not limit the growth for future generations, whatever those generations may look like. And that if those generations were to look different than ours today, how wonderful that might be for generations to come thereafter.
When I speak to my nieces and nephews, I will be able to say that we helped when we could. I will be able to say that we did not sit idly by and watch as thousands of strangers die because we were afraid. We tried, I will tell them, we tried.
I do not want people coming to our lands of freedom abandoning hope; my dreams are that we will share the hope we are so blessed to live in every day.
David Lewry
I am in a bit of a mood these days…but why not.
I made the mistake of listening to Hunter S. Thompson recently. He was spouting off about Nixon, fear and the state of American politics in the 90’s based on the previous sixty years of fear and hate based politicking. He has the ability to stick with me like a heavy pasta and I miss his uncanny ability to put a point on such things as we are facing today.
I am also sorry for those of you having to live in a constant state of fear and loathing of all things contrary to your way of life and the preservation of that life. These haughty ways, which so obviously are working as a global solution to every global problem we have ever had, are having and will eventually have.
You have done it. You have so forcefully effected change, I have no words…
Cultural bigotry? Maybe…
Racial bigotry? Maybe as well…
Sexual orientation bigotry? Sure to some extent…
Honestly it is a fear of anything and everything not of our own conception and understanding. Fear of all, which we are ignorant of…
Whatever it is, it is a problem that stretches far beyond any one country’s borders, religions or political ideology. There is fear and then there is fear turned outwards into hate mongering, racism, and essentially isolationism by the people who can help from those who need it.
And in our case it seems the fear is blind to culture and exists across the board. Each of us simply deals with it differently.
We are most certainly caught in a cycle, which stretches backwards almost infinitely, of trying to solve problems with one variation or another of the same broken thinking because we are afraid to take some relatively calculated risks. We imagine these risks make the possibility of terror greater than if we hide our faces behind a seemingly reasonable rhetoric -- never once imagining that the “reasonable rhetoric” may have actually contributed to the terror on some level. Not that one justifies another because that is absurd, but these matters are all connected now whether we want to admit it or not.
I will not mince words here; the question of closing our borders to those in need is absolute bullshit and I am happy to live in a country, whose lead politician has agreed to help and be a part of a future solution that is not fully mired by past politics and agendas. I do not know if Trudeau is the right person overall, but in this circumstance, he is being a human being and doing what is right despite what may be popular or convenient.
The very notion of safety and security is an illusion regardless of the choice we make today. The scariest part of all of this for me is that we are all willing to treat other human beings with such blatant disregard and callousness to potentially save our own necks. It says so much about the condition of our spirit that I am afraid to comment on it. I do not mean spirit as it may or may not be related to some body of religious belief, but instead that part of us which makes us human beings.
This idea goes well beyond religion or works of fiction or nonfiction. The human part of our being or the being part of our humanness. For generations it seems that within it has been birthed and nurtured children of fear; fear of losing what we have and terribly afraid of not getting what it is we want. Whether we happen to know what that is or not, is of seemingly no consequence. We simply do not want to let it go because like spoiled children, it is ours and ours to keep.
This is the tiniest fear being used by the ego, which turns a tiny morsel of far off possibility into a harsh reality just around the corner from this one, monumental decision. The ego tells us that it is not a small fear in fact, but a whole truth wrapped in prophecy and every one is doomed unless they too climb on board the “self-preservation” train.
But what exactly are we preserving?
Never mind that for now…
Let us climb on board the ego train of those who are desperately afraid and are also in positions to spread the message of fear or love on the largest of scales, in the cleverest of maneuvers, these individuals are able to convince even the brainiest of us that fear and isolation is the answer over love yet again.
I do not know what the right thing to do is...no, yes I do. At least from my perspective. It is not based on some easily interpreted/miss interpreted Bible, Koran, or other fantastic piece of literature. Or at least I do not think my thoughts and fears come down to a completely inadequate understanding of world religions and their often limited explanations provided by wholly inadequate individuals that everyone seems ready and willing to listen to. This includes fear mongers who claim no God or faith. The zealots are zealots and sometimes they wear secular robes.
What has come about is a culture where we are supposed to listen to nothing but fear and hate or we are considered weak, stupid, and ill-informed…balderdash! To steal a word from an old favorite author, absolute balderdash!
Apparently, I am not in support of my country’s troops if I don’t support more war?
This is not only absurd, but offensive to me on so many levels. I understand that when and where isolated, small groups of fearful and hate minded individuals carry out criminal acts of extreme violence there needs to be justice. I fully grasp this as I am a human being and want justice…but I want justice for all people,
not just Judaeo-Christian westerners who “supposedly” think like I do.
I want justice for the women, children and even the men, whether fighting age or not, of Africa, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria et cetera et all. There is no person on the planet who has the inherent right to determine which lives matter and which lives do not. However, we sure have allowed ourselves the luxury of thinking we can and should determine what is right for the rest of the world.
Balderdash!
The very notion that religion, or lack there of, is actually behind all of the blood shed is like suggesting all people with mental illnesses will become violent at least once in their life. Or maybe suggesting that not saying prayers in school has led to school shootings or the lack of a bible in school is to blame for…well anything. Let’s be serious and not tell each other simplified lies that somehow fit into our preconceived notions of how life should be.
We are all grown ups or at least we pretend to be most of the time when on our soap boxes, preaching to the belittled choir through social media or mainstream media channels about what to think this week versus last. Seeking our likes, shares and positive, affirming comments that tell us all how right we are and how wrong anyone who disagrees with us is.
Our problems as a human race do not come down to a lack of belief. Most of them come down to a lack of flexibility over our beliefs. Those both shared and not shared. The actual ideas or beliefs are irrelevant, yes, I said irrelevant ☺ However you wish to look at the details of religion or the merits of Atheism, a general lack of flexibility and acceptance, on both fronts, is where the majority of these “ideological” differences create very real, physical problems.
But I will go a simple step forward here and tell you what I really think.
I do not attribute belief or lack of belief to any of what is happening. It is greed and it is fear. The greed of wanting more and not wanting to share and the fear of losing what small amount of safety and security most of us feel on a daily basis.
The most obvious truth to me is that most of us want to control every circumstance in our lives, whether it is reasonable to control these things or not. Or we simply avoid all circumstances, which we cannot control. There are obvious flaws in this thinking because the majority of situations and circumstances we worry about, fight about, fret about, are beyond our individual control.
It makes sense that the most popular politicians represent, not our hopes, but our deepest fears in the form of the egotistical, megalomaniacal, overgrown children who claim they can save us from the aforementioned “probable” futures of deplorable conditions. I understand that the merits, intentions, and motives of politicians are always in question, as they should be, due to the lack of credibility most still have by the time they run for those highest offices.
If it is weak, stupid and ill-informed to be kind, loving, trusting, and accepting of others…then I don’t want to be strong and above that I do not want to be considered a part of a world where only the arrogant, afraid, and powerful make the most important communal decisions. In some way, these narrow minded individuals believe they represent all of the loving, compassionate, and tolerant people who simply don’t scream and yell their opinions. Truth is often whispered in a steady, calm voice through daily acts of continuous kindness towards others.
…I am sorry for your fear, yes, you read that correctly. For your fear. I have nothing figured out and certainly cannot be identified as someone having it all together, but I want to love. I want to do better than my last and the only way to do that is to step beyond all of my old, broken thought patterns which only lead me backwards.
I am afraid like most people and the world seems to be getting scarier every day.
I am going to choose to address this fear with love today. Admittedly, something I know very little about, but just the same I am going to try. I am going to embrace, as best I can the inner child of me and love of all my fellow human beings.
I am going to try and go back before all of the hurt began. Before the darkness I became so accustom to settled in.
I want you all to know that I do understand, despite my ranting, about fear and living a life based in it. Hence my pity for us. I know the abyss in which you speak and live from. The only way out of that abyss however, is not from the same old solutions. It is in finding a new way to be. A new way to think, speak and treat others.
This is not an easy task, no one said it would be. But the same mentality which created the schism cannot undo it. I say this next part with a heart full of love and joy.
I do not wish to live in a world that continues to segregate based on race, religion, financial status, fear, or other differing demographics.
I would rather die.
I would rather leave this world knowing that at the least I embraced togetherness and made the mistake of trusting not hating or fearing. It is not much of a world, despite all of the technology, comforts I share, and warmth I can hold onto if I refuse to help others because I do not understand them.
Yes, I could be inviting disaster, but I would rather die than leave other humans dangling in the winds of uncertainty knowing there was something I could do.
And there is something we can do.
There are small and large things we can do to invite people into our world of comfort and warmth, but we have to be willing to get hurt, to even die for what is right. Like so many of our citizens before us, who sacrificed their lives so we could then live nobly and perhaps do the same. What is right is not always what we are used to or what we have convinced ourselves is true. Sometimes what is right, is the very opposite of our rigidity, whatever that might be.
If strangers were to rise up and attack us, I will pick up a rifle and fight alongside my brothers…but what if they do not? Do I take their lives through inactivity and ignorance because I am afraid they might rise up against my way of life? I cannot do this. I cannot do what is so strikingly an act of cowardice. I would not honor those who came and gave before us is I reacted this way.
To turn my back on people in need…I would rather die.
I beg you to take my life for my inability to turn my back.
For my inability to remain silent.
Do what must be done, as when I face my creator one day, there is little I want beside my name. There are no letters or dollar signs I will brag about. But I want to be able to look my creator in the eye and say, without reservation, that I tried to love. I tried to break free of fear, hate, and the status quo.
I tried.
Although I was grossly imperfect, I tried.
When I saw the light, I wanted to give my all for my fellows because there was nothing more that was needed. All of my fellows, not just those I gathered with. I wish to stare lovingly into my creator and know that despite my failures, my heart was at the least known for not being afraid of what I do not understand.
That once I saw the light, so to speak, I did not make every decision out of fear of what I might lose or what I may never get.
That instead I made the choices out of love.
A desire to further our species and not limit the growth for future generations, whatever those generations may look like. And that if those generations were to look different than ours today, how wonderful that might be for generations to come thereafter.
When I speak to my nieces and nephews, I will be able to say that we helped when we could. I will be able to say that we did not sit idly by and watch as thousands of strangers die because we were afraid. We tried, I will tell them, we tried.
I do not want people coming to our lands of freedom abandoning hope; my dreams are that we will share the hope we are so blessed to live in every day.
David Lewry
