“Some would rather be ruined than changed. They would rather die in their dread than climb the cross of the present and let their illusions die." - W.H. Auden
I can't tell you how many times I've felt like looking two adversaries right in the face and reminding them... “you know... you're going to die! Is this argument truly worth it!?" I did, in fact, do that once, after listening for too long to two full grown adults arguing over their place in a line! In front of their children, no less.
So many times, after reading the headlines, I go back to that famous question of the “red pill" or the “blue pill" that was put forward in the still very relevant movie of our time “The Matrix"; to let illusions go, or maintain a status quo that steels your ability to feed your soul. Here is a quick and easy test to recognize if, on a daily basis, you are feeding your soul (the red pill definition), or not (the blue pill definition): all things that foster INCLUSIVITY through understanding a deep foundational truth, feeds the soul, and all things that foster EXCLUSIVITY and tear apart through conflict, don't!
That doesn't mean that differences of opinion are bad. It means that you can be OPEN to understanding and seeing that while violence, whether physical or verbal, may sometimes appear to do some good, that “good" is temporary; the evil it does is permanent. Especially in the headlines of the past two years, we have seen and continue to see, so many cowards, because cowards are incapable of exhibiting love. “Love is the prerogative of the BRAVE" as Gandhi famously said. And he is right. How do I know he's right? – it requires inclusivity to express love, and so, it feeds the soul. Approaching an opponent with a desire to understand and a recognition that they too require love is the bravest act imaginable, approaching them in anger is not.
Once again – the job of the funeral director provides a constant and humble reminder of this. Yes, it's been a busy week!
This month happens to be pride month, but for every celebration of any kind of inclusivity that sprung from hardship, there is a part of me that holds sadness within the joy. Inclusivity should have been there right from the start if the general population had managed true bravery. But I suppose in the divine economy of grace, hurt and trauma become the redemption experience. That can be seen for a whole whack of history making movements worldwide, and personal revelations of death in your own living room.
Many people have some sort of mania for a personal order, of how their lives are to go, and when unmet, lash out at anything and anyone for blame in it not being so. Stop it. Be “brave" not cowardly. If we're looking for some sort of control all of the time, some sort of order, some kind of, “the way things should be" reality - we will never be happy. Acceptance, love and compassion work! They make us happy. We can certainly understand the commonality of EVERYONE wanting to be loved, can't we? Life is filled with mentally unstable people, irritable people, LGBTQ people, Indigenous, black and white people, different customs, different languages, different traditions - it is wise to be get comfortable with diversity. It is, after all, the only world there is. After reading the headlines and deeply knowing all of us will die...it is rather amazing to me that we can miss or deny or ignore what is in plain sight.
RED PILL / BLUE PILL
