Sunday musings - November 5, 2023
As is true with a large percentage of the population of the world, I am acutely aware of the violence we humans daily inflict on each other. From domestic violence to terrorist attacks to mass shooting, to oppression based on religion, political beliefs, or other social constructs, we invent reasons or excuses to feed our denial that all on this planet thrive together or all perish together. On a purely scientific, logical level violence makes no sense. It makes no sense on any level. Science and history repeatedly remind us that violence feeds violence.
As the theologian and Episcopal priest, Bonnie Thurston recently reminded the congregation at St. Matthews in Wheeling, the teacher Jesus and many other wise men and women have reminded us that love for the “I am” - the god of our understanding - is evidenced by how seriously we do our best to love ourselves and love our neighbor as ourselves. One might suggest that this teaching includes all of Mother Earth. Science again tells us that how we treat the earth either feeds or kills us. We cannot claim to love while doing all we can to poison the air and the water. Yet, we humans seem all too ready to hide behind the lies; the lie that violence bring long terms peace; that manufacturing and selling goods which we do not need and which damage the air and all the earth is good for the economy and thus good or all that inhabit the earth; that it is better to use anger and vengeance to mask our fear of facing the log in our own eye than it is to lovingly and humbly face our human pain and limitations.
Most of us can understand the desire to avoid facing the fear that we are not enough; the fear that the gas chambers will be relit; the fear that some other religion or culture is going to strip away the seemingly safe cocoon of our social and cultural constructs to reveal wider visions and possibilities; the fear that if we do not destroy those who seek to destroy us they will kill us, our partner and our children; the fear that if one removes the cloak of toxic masculinity which often leads to emotional and physical abuse one will cease to exist; the fear a vengeful, narcissistic construct of God will punish one if one does not allow every potential sperm and egg to create a person who may or may not be healthy, wanted or needed; the fear someone else might speak a larger truth; the fear that if we face our fear and honor the fear of those we would call our enemy we will cease to exist; the fear we will anger the God of our understanding if we honor the desire to love and be loved regardless of gender.
Since we humans emerged from the primordial cave some few have been the misfits who have dared to love; who have dared to dream; who have dared to see the kinship of all of life; who have torn down the socially constructed barriers which create loneliness which leads to fear; the fear that leads to the label of enemies which leads to violence which leads to retreating to the cave too afraid to take what Soren Kierkegaard and others have called the leap of faith.
In the Christian church one often hears the word Grace which many understand as unconditional love. If the members of Hamas had the courage to love the Jewish people unconditionally; if the Jewish people had the courage to embrace the Palestinians including the members of Hamas; if members of any oppressed culture had the courage to love instead of hate it would be literally disarming - not immediately and not without some short term risks, but the result would echo the actions and words of Bigger Thomas, the chief character in Richard Wright’s Native Son . Bigger says to the police person, “You can’t do nonthin to me but kill me and that ain’t nothin.” Bigger knows that this life journey lasts but a second; that all that counts is to stand proud and strong refusing to respond in hate.
There are many who follow the example of Bigger Thomas. There have been, for years, many Jews and Palestinians meeting together in peace. Long before civil rights legislation there were those of many backgrounds who worked, loved, and lived together. There are many who have been abused who refuse to pass on the abuse. All of us can choose to be part of that many; to make manifest the spirit of Jesus, Bigger Thomas, Martin Luther King, Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, Sister Theresa, Bonnie Thurston, and many others.
I am again reminded of the engine who could. I believe, barring mental illness (dysfunctions of the brain), we are all engines who can. We can and we must if we are to survive and thrive.
Written November 5, 2023
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
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