Thanks Kanye West, for saying that 400
years of slavery "sounds like a choice".
It is. As surely as those souls who
during 9/11 chose falling to their deaths free from being burned
alive.
But yeah, they made a choice.
It seems very appropriate to me that
someone not facing incineration, lynching or such imminent threat
should point this out. Especially now.
We are living in a time where with
little, direct contact with others, we can dismiss their stories,
struggles and the weight of changing human beliefs that mold,
imprison and persuade us depending upon where we are on the timeline.
Thus we can feel (falsely) justified and satisfied to judge others
and their choices without having ever even having asked them about
the paths they have trod and why.
Eckhart Tolle once said in addressing a
person whose spouse seemed deep in projecting pain, "No one
consciously chooses to be in pain." I love him just for
that. It puts in perspective for me, all the self-righteous bullshit
about needing to be responsible to self and others. You can't do what
you can't do! If you can, it's not your will that achieved, it's the
Collective Universe supporting you.
But without knowing this, ancient Coach
Joe Paterno can be hounded to his death for not dealing with his
experience of youth abuse then, the way we would NOW. And all the
response to the issues that civilized society sees more clearly now,
becomes retroactively the standard for those who couldn't see so
clearly then.
Prejudice is out, we say. But is it?
Maybe you believe it should be, but that doesn't change the fact that
it is not. That others haven't had the gift that your insight and
experience has lifted you to see is apparent. "Oh, but they
should see it this way, because it's evident to me that it's not
right." Is it any wonder Trump is president right now. He speaks
to millions of people who not as civilly enlightened as us, are upset
about living in a society that measures them by what they should see
instead of what they do see. Do you see the importance of a
conversation of discovery here?
If I were God I would use reincarnation
to place everyone in the next life in the probability that their new
life would force & allow them to experience the need for the
compassion and understanding they denied others in their last life.
Yeah ... slaves to slave owners, slave owners to slaves ... till we
get it.
Blame and protest adds nothing. Only
love and the exploration of understanding and acceptance of another's
path and their experience of it, can triumph.
We had best hope that the children and
grandchildren of those facing the consequences from what we are now
sculpting in present world culture, come to a wider understanding and
compassion for us, and the times and the beliefs that have limited us
in seeing it.
Otherwise how will we explain our
participation in such enterprises as choosing to support the
compulsivity of entertainment and data screens over exploring what is
before us. What will we say to our replacing real, live, authentic
communication with the preference for "tweeting" and other
social scripting. How will we justify numbing out from our social
conscience, allowing our leaders to make a joke of our nation,
turning lying into an art form and denial into a legitimate way of
expression. And most of all, what do we say when our more civilly
aware offspring ask us how we as a community could have ever
idolized fandom over a few billionaires in the midst of billions
crying out for our help to survive. My hunch is our response will be
the same as before us, "It seemed like the way to go."
Well, when the debts come due for the
ways we have chosen, we like Papa Joe, the slaves & slave owners
and Kanye West too, will each speak of how we honestly made the best
decisions we could, seeing barely between a rock and hard spot and we
will be telling the truth, YES we will be telling the truth, our
truth. Hopefully those who then see wider than the narrowness of our
sight will have been raised into the wisdom, humility and compassion
to recognize and love the true cost and the full vitality we paid in
faith of a better view.
Yes, it sounds like a choice ... and it
is. And gratefully Kanye, it was a choice others made for us.
