The world we live in operates with short periods where things are peaceful then tumultuous. There are times when you see people show great compassion for one another and times when the seething darkness embedded in the human soul completely takes over.
These are tough times, hard times. The times you feel utterly helpless or extremely enraged far beyond anger. For me, it does not matter if the issue directly affects me, what matters is that things are set straight, that truth is told, that people treat one another with love and kindness and that justice is met.
Values embedded within my own soul guide me to what is right and wrong and what is harmful or helpful. What I myself stand for, with and behind, in solidarity, usually has nothing to do with me directly, except for, and most importantly, my role as a human being.
Our world is a dangerous and beautiful place. This is the light and dark at play.
However, I cannot nor will I even attempt for one moment to know exactly what it feels like to be repeatedly raped as in sexual trafficking, to have a different skin color and be condemned and killed for it, to be jailed for my beliefs, to follow a faith that directs me to hurt and judge anyone, as well as be abused for my faith, and carry myself as if I know what any of that feels like. I don't. I only know what I have experienced.
Yet what I feel is horror and hope, simultaneous. I am unable to control any government, nation, any political or religious organization and any group of people that have power and control in the name of fear, which equals hate.
What I am able to control is myself. That I am 100% accountable for.
As a human being, I stare out at this world, our world, sometimes fully engaged, sometimes as an observer, and always, in utter confusion wondering how people do not know how to be kind. Take that a step further and witness people being outright hateful. Another step further and witness murder, beatings, rape and abuse.
What am I to do?
A hell of a lot, that's what.
I stand in solidarity. I do my best to not project negativity, and in the very least, use my voice as one of reason to say, This is wrong. I am with you. You are not alone.
Sometimes that is not enough. Sometimes this world needs a good shaking up. Sometimes it takes going through the deepest, most frightening tunnels in order to get to the other end where there is light. Sometimes it takes upheaval of all that is in order to retain some sort of balance. Sometimes.
No, I cannot nor will I ever claim to know what it feels like to be anyone but myself. What I can claim is that I am a rational thinking, extremely empathetic human being that cares for the rest of our race, the human one, as a whole. Not just a skin color, a sexual gender, a faith, a group, or a nation.
All of us.
I ask please when you open your eyes everyday to in the very least try and put yourself directly into the shoes of another human being that experiences existence much differently than you do. It makes a difference. It helps to take away some of the hate that is rampant in all societies. It helps you to understand what others are going through. It helps you to connect to your own town, city, state, nation and the world. It helps you to connect to other people. It helps you to connect to yourself.
Make all kinds of friends, learn of other cultures, sexual genders, faiths and ethnicity. Expand your mind so far and wide that you cannot even conceive of allowing hate to settle within your bones for a solitary second.
As Leonard Peltier wrote in Prison Writings: My Life is My Sun Dance -
"“I don’t know how to save the world. I don’t have the answers or The Answer. I hold no secret knowledge as to how to fix the mistakes of generations past and present. I only know that without compassion and respect for all of Earth’s inhabitants, none of us will survive – nor will we deserve to.”
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