Sunday Musings - September 13, 2020
Not in a vacuum
On the surface it was a very routine week here on Mother Earth. New life appeared in many forms. Human babies were born alongside many other forms of life. There was also death and slowly or quickly the life that was will become part of creation in another form. The planet itself continuously dies and is reborn. .
This week I was again reminded of how difficult it is for many of us to accept the interconnectedness of all that happens. I suppose there is some temporary comfort in thinking that X caused Y which then justified action Z. For example 19 years ago this week - 9/11 - the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked killing many. There was also another plane which was intended to hit other targets but was prevented from doing so. The official response which was shared by many to these terrible and cruel events was that the attacks were completely unprovoked; that the United States had never done anything to dishonor or displease another group of people. In other words we were the victims and those responsible for the tragic bombings were the cruel, even evil, bad people. We continue to hold on to those beliefs and, in fact, to justify holding people in a “detention camp” without a trial. We spend millions of dollars annually to hold on to the myth that we are the justified victims.
We, as a nation, continue in many parts of the world to present ourselves as moral, compassionate and justified in our record of violent mistreatment of others in this country and in many other countries. We also continue to tell ourselves that we are more deserving of the resources of the planet than are others. If another group or country dares to criticize us or hold us accountable, we assure the world that have done nothing to deserve that criticism.
Many of us may “find ourselves” behaving the same in our personal life. We believe we never do anything which leads to unkind or even immoral behavior on the part of others. When others mistreat us it is because they are bad people and we are the good people. Our anger and even our verbal or physical violence is justified because we did nothing to deserve being treated badly.
In my value system bad behavior is always the result of underlying pain which the person has suffered. The pain may be related to the fear that they are not valued by specific people or the community in general. This may be true but the unkind or even cruel behavior was undoubtedly related to some fear or pain. If, for example, all of us could truly accept that all of creation is equally deserving of love, respect and of sharing the resources there would not be anyone to blame for acts of Mother Nature or accidents. No one would expect life to be fair in the sense that only certain people had accidents or were subject to fires, earthquakes, floods and other destructive forces. At the same time there would be no reason for anyone to profit at the expense of another.
It is true that life is unfair. It is true that often, it seems, the minds of us humans take a brief or long term vacation. It is true that mental illness and other illness steals the “rational” thought and thus behavior of many of us. It is it true that every action or inaction (also action) has far reaching consequences. It is true that no one caused the perpetrator of the 9/11 attacks to act as they did. It is also true that we, the United States, have a long history of thinking we know best and we deserve an unequal share of resource; that we are superior. it is true that there was a long history leading up to 9/11. It is also true that there was a long history to the heroic and compassionate actions of the first responders to the events of 9/11. I am not suggesting that it is ever helpful to blame or to rank order “sins” of individuals or collectives. I am not suggesting that 9/11 can be or should be justified. I am suggesting that whether it is my behavior or the behavior of another person or group that I accept no event happens in a vacuum. If we continue to respond as if there we can simply label others as bad and punish them we will continue to perpetuate the cycle of events. If we respond to underlying pain with compassion instead of anger we can do our part in reducing the cycle of pain.
Written September 13, 2020
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
Not in a vacuum
On the surface it was a very routine week here on Mother Earth. New life appeared in many forms. Human babies were born alongside many other forms of life. There was also death and slowly or quickly the life that was will become part of creation in another form. The planet itself continuously dies and is reborn. .
This week I was again reminded of how difficult it is for many of us to accept the interconnectedness of all that happens. I suppose there is some temporary comfort in thinking that X caused Y which then justified action Z. For example 19 years ago this week - 9/11 - the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked killing many. There was also another plane which was intended to hit other targets but was prevented from doing so. The official response which was shared by many to these terrible and cruel events was that the attacks were completely unprovoked; that the United States had never done anything to dishonor or displease another group of people. In other words we were the victims and those responsible for the tragic bombings were the cruel, even evil, bad people. We continue to hold on to those beliefs and, in fact, to justify holding people in a “detention camp” without a trial. We spend millions of dollars annually to hold on to the myth that we are the justified victims.
We, as a nation, continue in many parts of the world to present ourselves as moral, compassionate and justified in our record of violent mistreatment of others in this country and in many other countries. We also continue to tell ourselves that we are more deserving of the resources of the planet than are others. If another group or country dares to criticize us or hold us accountable, we assure the world that have done nothing to deserve that criticism.
Many of us may “find ourselves” behaving the same in our personal life. We believe we never do anything which leads to unkind or even immoral behavior on the part of others. When others mistreat us it is because they are bad people and we are the good people. Our anger and even our verbal or physical violence is justified because we did nothing to deserve being treated badly.
In my value system bad behavior is always the result of underlying pain which the person has suffered. The pain may be related to the fear that they are not valued by specific people or the community in general. This may be true but the unkind or even cruel behavior was undoubtedly related to some fear or pain. If, for example, all of us could truly accept that all of creation is equally deserving of love, respect and of sharing the resources there would not be anyone to blame for acts of Mother Nature or accidents. No one would expect life to be fair in the sense that only certain people had accidents or were subject to fires, earthquakes, floods and other destructive forces. At the same time there would be no reason for anyone to profit at the expense of another.
It is true that life is unfair. It is true that often, it seems, the minds of us humans take a brief or long term vacation. It is true that mental illness and other illness steals the “rational” thought and thus behavior of many of us. It is it true that every action or inaction (also action) has far reaching consequences. It is true that no one caused the perpetrator of the 9/11 attacks to act as they did. It is also true that we, the United States, have a long history of thinking we know best and we deserve an unequal share of resource; that we are superior. it is true that there was a long history leading up to 9/11. It is also true that there was a long history to the heroic and compassionate actions of the first responders to the events of 9/11. I am not suggesting that it is ever helpful to blame or to rank order “sins” of individuals or collectives. I am not suggesting that 9/11 can be or should be justified. I am suggesting that whether it is my behavior or the behavior of another person or group that I accept no event happens in a vacuum. If we continue to respond as if there we can simply label others as bad and punish them we will continue to perpetuate the cycle of events. If we respond to underlying pain with compassion instead of anger we can do our part in reducing the cycle of pain.
Written September 13, 2020
Jimmy F Pickett
coachpickett.org
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