it is our choice: fear or love, Peace or Hate
I was writing a response to my dear friend Jerene and one of her posts was so timely with the things that have been rattling around in my brain these past few days.
I have been consumed with tenderness to the problems we face in the world recently. Murder, rape, violence for thrills, war, religious hate and discrimination that justify violence, it all is making me sick. I am sick in my heart of the inhuman way people treat each other. We have the answer to fix all the suffering. There does not need to be hunger, war, killing, or violence and it all stems from fear and hate. We as a people are divided. The media and the power elite sell us our values and beliefs to divide and conquer us. Television pervades our culture with commercials that feed our greed. Teens upload videos to youtube that show them kicking the snot out of their rivals. Violence is glorified in films and video games. We need to unplug from the pipeline of crap that is being fed to us.
My heart aches because of the cruelty I see. My heart is also boundless in love. The systems of this world are like a giant machine running over many people and affecting their lives. Is it any wonder that people who are caught in the cycle of poverty turn to crime? The prison system only churns around making a person hard and bitter, without any hope, which is what motivated their behavior in the first place.
My personal solution, just to save my mind from becoming consumed with the darkness of this world, is to find some time everyday to read a spiritual book, pray for peace, as we Quakers say hold in the Light, meditate and have positive thoughts. I must replace the negatives with positives.
We need to realize the path of love and grace. We need to think for ourselves and wake up from the nightmare that is controlling our thoughts. We have a choice between fear which brings hate and destruction and Love which brings understanding and peace. Like William Penn has stated " Let us then try what Love will do: For if Men did once see we Love them, we should soon find they would not harm us. Force may subdue, but Love gains: And he that forgives first, wins the Laurel, If I am even with my Enemy, the Debt is paid; but if I forgive it, I oblige him for ever." We need to learn to feed each other as this beautiful story explains:
Heaven and Hell, The Real Difference
By Ann Landers
A man spoke with the Lord
about heaven and hell.
The Lord said to the man,
"Come, I will show you hell."
They entered a room where a group of
people sat around a huge pot of stew.
Everyone was famished,
desperate and starving.
Each held a spoon that reached the pot,
but each spoon had a handle so much
longer than their own arm that it could not
be used to get the stew into their own mouths.
The suffering was terrible.
"Come, now I will show you heaven,"
the Lord said after a while.
They entered another room, identical to the first -
the pot of stew, the group of people, the same long-handled spoons.
But there everyone was happy and well-nourished.
"I don't understand," said the man.
"Why are they happy here when they were miserable
in the other room and everything was the same?"
The Lord smiled.
"Ah, it is simple," he said. "Here they have learned to feed each other."
I have been consumed with tenderness to the problems we face in the world recently. Murder, rape, violence for thrills, war, religious hate and discrimination that justify violence, it all is making me sick. I am sick in my heart of the inhuman way people treat each other. We have the answer to fix all the suffering. There does not need to be hunger, war, killing, or violence and it all stems from fear and hate. We as a people are divided. The media and the power elite sell us our values and beliefs to divide and conquer us. Television pervades our culture with commercials that feed our greed. Teens upload videos to youtube that show them kicking the snot out of their rivals. Violence is glorified in films and video games. We need to unplug from the pipeline of crap that is being fed to us.
My heart aches because of the cruelty I see. My heart is also boundless in love. The systems of this world are like a giant machine running over many people and affecting their lives. Is it any wonder that people who are caught in the cycle of poverty turn to crime? The prison system only churns around making a person hard and bitter, without any hope, which is what motivated their behavior in the first place.
My personal solution, just to save my mind from becoming consumed with the darkness of this world, is to find some time everyday to read a spiritual book, pray for peace, as we Quakers say hold in the Light, meditate and have positive thoughts. I must replace the negatives with positives.
We need to realize the path of love and grace. We need to think for ourselves and wake up from the nightmare that is controlling our thoughts. We have a choice between fear which brings hate and destruction and Love which brings understanding and peace. Like William Penn has stated " Let us then try what Love will do: For if Men did once see we Love them, we should soon find they would not harm us. Force may subdue, but Love gains: And he that forgives first, wins the Laurel, If I am even with my Enemy, the Debt is paid; but if I forgive it, I oblige him for ever." We need to learn to feed each other as this beautiful story explains:
Heaven and Hell, The Real Difference
By Ann Landers
A man spoke with the Lord
about heaven and hell.
The Lord said to the man,
"Come, I will show you hell."
They entered a room where a group of
people sat around a huge pot of stew.
Everyone was famished,
desperate and starving.
Each held a spoon that reached the pot,
but each spoon had a handle so much
longer than their own arm that it could not
be used to get the stew into their own mouths.
The suffering was terrible.
"Come, now I will show you heaven,"
the Lord said after a while.
They entered another room, identical to the first -
the pot of stew, the group of people, the same long-handled spoons.
But there everyone was happy and well-nourished.
"I don't understand," said the man.
"Why are they happy here when they were miserable
in the other room and everything was the same?"
The Lord smiled.
"Ah, it is simple," he said. "Here they have learned to feed each other."