The real poverty of the times is our inability to look into the eyes of another human, and understand s/he is afraid, too, and offer any compassion.
Obviously, the cultural value of "we love money more than life" is becoming more naked. And we have choices along the way, every day, to drink or not drink the hate Kool Aid, to continue to hold to this value.
Where will we be when this is over? Either we evolve or not. The cultural breakdown is necessary because we are living unsustainably. We have a lot more to learn if we are to ever unify as one tribe only. Do we have time enough as a species to become humane, and not just human?
You cannot find one example in history where a country or empire built on hate did not fall. Tim, has their ever been a culture built on anything else? I do not know, but you might.
Please, no rants here on what "they" are doing. I'm well read, and very aware of the inequities and horrors that are being wrought. Of course, I am angry as well, and do my best to use that anger as fuel to do my due diligence as a citizen.
This is all getting more and more complex even as it gets simpler. The paradox of life itself in our times.
I turned on Fox last night to see what they were saying. And, barring some difference in education, I could have been listening to a left-leaning newscast. Those of us who lean left are being seen as violent and as haters, and I think their observations may not be true, but they are accurate.
I have no answer for anyone but me. And we have to all muse on this.
Words hurt, and words heal. Can we let go of our own fears enough to see the soul in life itself? There is one, you know.
And when we forget to listen to the voice of life itself, which in nature supports interdependence and diversity, we become more and more isolated.
There is a difference between what I call "fierce love" and love as an emotion. Fierce love resonates to the essence of nature, which is the expression of cooperation and unity. We are focusing on money inequalities because we must, but what undlies this? Food, shelter, health care -- all necessities for everyone -- are now seen as bargaining tools to acquire more for them that's got. Money, we think, makes us safe. Of course, it does in a culture where money is valued more than life. And we are fearful of being poor because we know the poor are discarded, and are seen as commodity.
Don and I are NOT poor in our house in love. Worn, battered, yes, but love lives here. We may lose our house in this war we are all fighting, this great turning. But I refuse to lose the love.
And I realize I am an entirely privileged person because I am white. If you look at slavery as the ideal expression of the cultural truth of "we value money more than life" than we can see that is an expression of that value.
We live unsustainably in the largest and smallest ways.
Those who are wrapped in their millions and billions really DO BELIEVE they will be protected because of it. This explains the lunacy. Money is more important than air, water. It explains the avarice, greed and cruelty, and that must be challenged. We cannot understand this level of cruelty, and yet we all, in addition to being individuals, are a part of this culture, know we must acquire money to survive. It is survival of the financial fittest.
When humans do not see themselves as one species among millions that are essential, this is the result. Or one of the results. We have all participated if we are white Amerciana. We have to lean into the truth of this. I have a mortgage I can lose mostly because I am white. I have a privilege because of my genes.
We are, each of us, being tested and shaken to our core to discover what IS at our core. Do we learn to resonate with our souls, our vital essence, or do we reject our true north? Every minute of every day. If we are not careful, in the end we will have become the very thing we were fighting against.
So complex and fraught with paradox, yes? Writing about any of this is as gooey and sticky as trying to use caramel as ink for my pen.