Sunday Musings – January 23, 2022
What we learn versus what we know.
Beginning when we are very young all of us learn how to view and interpret the world. We learn things about our body and its relationship to other people, places and things. We learn how to use our bodies to navigate, feed ourselves and, if lucky, protect ourselves. We learn language and how to label things, body parts, and other people. Eventually we learn concepts and constructs. Concepts such as buildings or fruit allow us to identify groups of objects which have some commonality. We learn terms such as gender, race, and perhaps cultural and/or religious identify.
If we were very lucky, we learned that truths or facts are relative; that the current understanding is A, but we used to think it was X and before that humans thought it was M. Most of us are not that lucky. We learned there are certain facts which cannot be questioned. We heard such “facts” over and over again and were taught to use those facts as guideposts for navigating this life journey. We may have learned that certain people had certain characteristics or habits of behavior. For example, we may have learned to make assumptions based on gender, skin color, size, religion, cultural background and host of other constructs and surface appearances.
Increasingly, in the age of the internet we have access to variety of opinions and beliefs about the world. If we have learned to view people and situations through a particular lens, we may automatically tune in to those who reinforce the view through a similar lens. Words or labels such as skin color, government, bureaucrat, wife, husband, school, lawyer, or teacher may evoke a host of labels which masquerade as facts about individuals, groups or other parts of nature. One may have heard such “facts” so many times that one’s reaction to them has been built into one’s muscle memory causing one to react in a way which has nothing to do with one’s current beliefs. We may or may not have learned to question our thoughts or actions. If we do question, we may be able to identify the internalized “facts” which prompted the action. We than have the opportunity to question those and other “facts”. If, for example, we have learned to judge people based on perceived race, we may find we are racist. If we examine those beliefs and know there is no scientific reason to judge someone based on perceived race, we are racist but not a bigot. We will have to be intentional about correcting the information we have stored in our brain.
For many years, I have been intentionally attempting to identify the truths I have learned and which often direct my muscle memory to issue certain commands to my body. Although I have made progress in changing some of those “truths”, I still find myself thinking or feeling based on the lies I learned when I was a child. The lies we internalize contribute to shaping the life of the body politic – the community, state, nation and the universe.
On this Sunday, which for some is the sabbath or a day of reflection or meditation, it is, I believe, a moral imperative to make an honest effort to identify those lies or half-truths we have attributed to the God of our understanding; lies based on gender, sexual orientations, race, religion, cultural background, political affiliation, sexual feelings and behavior, chosen people, and a host of others. One might also consider it a moral imperative to identify the ways we use titles, positions, and other labels to further separates us into “us” and “them”.
I remarked to someone this morning about the difficulty in uncovering the lies I have told myself or accepted from others; the lies which want me to believe that my stories are “the stories” detailing my behavior as a husband/partner, father, son, sibling, friend and neighbor.
The goal is not to judge myself or others but free ourselves from the tyranny of lies of the absolutes which separate us from each other and mother earth and, thus lead to our dis ease and eventual destruction.
Written January 23, 2022
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
.
What we learn versus what we know.
Beginning when we are very young all of us learn how to view and interpret the world. We learn things about our body and its relationship to other people, places and things. We learn how to use our bodies to navigate, feed ourselves and, if lucky, protect ourselves. We learn language and how to label things, body parts, and other people. Eventually we learn concepts and constructs. Concepts such as buildings or fruit allow us to identify groups of objects which have some commonality. We learn terms such as gender, race, and perhaps cultural and/or religious identify.
If we were very lucky, we learned that truths or facts are relative; that the current understanding is A, but we used to think it was X and before that humans thought it was M. Most of us are not that lucky. We learned there are certain facts which cannot be questioned. We heard such “facts” over and over again and were taught to use those facts as guideposts for navigating this life journey. We may have learned that certain people had certain characteristics or habits of behavior. For example, we may have learned to make assumptions based on gender, skin color, size, religion, cultural background and host of other constructs and surface appearances.
Increasingly, in the age of the internet we have access to variety of opinions and beliefs about the world. If we have learned to view people and situations through a particular lens, we may automatically tune in to those who reinforce the view through a similar lens. Words or labels such as skin color, government, bureaucrat, wife, husband, school, lawyer, or teacher may evoke a host of labels which masquerade as facts about individuals, groups or other parts of nature. One may have heard such “facts” so many times that one’s reaction to them has been built into one’s muscle memory causing one to react in a way which has nothing to do with one’s current beliefs. We may or may not have learned to question our thoughts or actions. If we do question, we may be able to identify the internalized “facts” which prompted the action. We than have the opportunity to question those and other “facts”. If, for example, we have learned to judge people based on perceived race, we may find we are racist. If we examine those beliefs and know there is no scientific reason to judge someone based on perceived race, we are racist but not a bigot. We will have to be intentional about correcting the information we have stored in our brain.
For many years, I have been intentionally attempting to identify the truths I have learned and which often direct my muscle memory to issue certain commands to my body. Although I have made progress in changing some of those “truths”, I still find myself thinking or feeling based on the lies I learned when I was a child. The lies we internalize contribute to shaping the life of the body politic – the community, state, nation and the universe.
On this Sunday, which for some is the sabbath or a day of reflection or meditation, it is, I believe, a moral imperative to make an honest effort to identify those lies or half-truths we have attributed to the God of our understanding; lies based on gender, sexual orientations, race, religion, cultural background, political affiliation, sexual feelings and behavior, chosen people, and a host of others. One might also consider it a moral imperative to identify the ways we use titles, positions, and other labels to further separates us into “us” and “them”.
I remarked to someone this morning about the difficulty in uncovering the lies I have told myself or accepted from others; the lies which want me to believe that my stories are “the stories” detailing my behavior as a husband/partner, father, son, sibling, friend and neighbor.
The goal is not to judge myself or others but free ourselves from the tyranny of lies of the absolutes which separate us from each other and mother earth and, thus lead to our dis ease and eventual destruction.
Written January 23, 2022
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
.
RSS Feed