Yesterday, was a yang yin day. Light then dark, all in a span of a few hours.
Waking up to hear of Georgia's victorious win for Reverend Raphael Warnock brought a sense of joy and confirmation that this IS a new year and it will be better than 2020.
When a black man rises above all odds, makes history, and proves that anything is possible, this is marked as a day of celebration to honor him for his accomplishment.
Rather than stay focused on this historic victory, our attention was redirected towards a familiar chaos from last year. It was a jolting reminder that we live in a white America where the white man can take power and seize control any damn time he pleases.
The chaos at the capital was not exactly a shock, but I definitely felt an array of emotions ranging from anger, disgust, fear, anxiety, outrage to disappointment, shame, embarrassment and deep sadness.
Then the thoughts came: 'Is this for real?', 'America has now become a live version of Maury Povich', 'And we call ourselves a first world country?'
Circling back to my emotions, the one that stuck around was surprisingly compassion. I found myself feeling compassion for all of the lost souls in America who seem to believe that their soon to be former leader actually cares about them and their well-being.
Compassion for those lost souls whose behaviors are fueled by feelings of insecurity, fear, anger or greed. People who have felt inferior or less than throughout most of their lives and seemed to have forgotten or never been taught that people are people. That all human beings have a birthright to be treated with kindness and respect and given equal opportunity
The Americas were first inhabited by humans who did not look white, act white, or follow Anglo traditions and beliefs. But for some reason, in the unfolding of history, people have honored the fair skinned as being better than, just for the simple fact that it represents goodness, purity, and innocence.
As one of the founding fathers of America, Thomas Jefferson was said to have believed that the Native Americans were a noble race, equal in both body and mind to the white man, and endowed with an innate moral sense and marked capacity for reason. Despite these attributes being acknowledged as valuable and worthy of their dignity, he also believed that Indian lands should be taken over by white people because the Native Americans were culturally and technologically inferior.
The question to ask here is: inferior to whose standards?
One might say that the white man’s relentless struggle to remain powerful and in control is rooted from feeling inferior with no cultural logic. Even so, Indian removal was passed by Congress in 1831 and here we are now in 2021 with the same kind of distorted beliefs running our nation.
This morning I listened to NPR's The Takeaway and then stumbled upon a video that my passionate, political friend (also white woman) posted on instagram. She made some valid points that stirred up discomfort, sadness, and lastly anger. The one that really hit home was that if yesterday’s chaos would have involved a mob of men from any race other than white, those men would have been beaten or worse killed by police. Yesterday's madness could have resulted in a horrific blood bath. Since the invasion was made up of mostly white men, they were not only pardoned, but also consoled by their leader who is blind to see and truly understand the magnitude of crazy that he breathes and breeds in others.
I tried using my anger to fuel a sense of empowerment and think thoughts that better days ARE ahead.
Then I called my friend and extended gratitude for her having the courage to be vulnerable, speak up, and share her truth on social media platforms for anyone to see. The words you see written above in color are what I said to her before reminding her that the path to healing this country is through love and offering compassion to the people who are blind, ignorant, misinformed, wounded, or insane.
Just after the 2016 election, I wrote a blog post on Vulnerability because this was the emotional state I was experiencing. Most of my clients then were in a similar boat. It is 4 years later, not much has changed, and we are barely hanging on by a string or at least it feels that way on most days. We all are tired of feeling helpless and hopeless.
On the flipside, there is hope. Each one of us can make a choice to help in the movement towards real equality and social justice. No matter our race, color or background, we are people. We do have the power to make a difference and create change through our hearts and minds and more importantly through TAKING ACTIONS.
As for myself, I choose to stay positive and believe that this will pass and that we as a country will recover. We will continue to make progress. Progress is progress regardless of whether or not it is slow, even if it ebbs and flows. Let's acknowledge the ebb of the last 4 years and set our sights on a flow for a more just future.
insights for the year 2021
It's a wonderful thing to be optimistic. It keeps you healthy and it keeps you resilient.
~ Daniel Kahneman ~ Psychologist-Nobel Prize Winner
Amidst the confusion of the times, the conflicts of conscience, in the turmoil of daily living, our faith becomes an anchor to our lives.
~ Thomas S. Monson - 1927-2018, American Religious Leader