(Image from Conscious Spirit Oracle Deck)
Whenever I think or start to talk about this I somehow start feeling silly or naïve but one thing that I’m trying to do here is lean into the discomfort and say the things that make me uncomfortable. So here we go. I look at the world these days and the news and protests and women’s rights and gay rights and wars and I genuinely don’t understand it. I don’t understand how it is so easy for so many people to look at someone who is different than them and rather than thinking “we’re different but we are both human and so long as they aren’t hurting me or someone else they can live their life.” There are so many people in the world who can’t do the bare minimum of common decency. I think about trans rights and how simple it is to change pronouns and a name. It takes the most minimal effort but for the person receiving that respect what you’re actually doing is sparing them suffering. Isn’t that what we all want? I don’t care of you understand or agree or think it’s right, in some ways none of that matters, if someone stands in front of you and says “it’s painful for me when I am called this name” there is only one word for a person who won’t respect that small request. Asshole. If we were talking about physical pain. If someone said, “hey, when you stomp on my foot like that it really hurts. Please stop.” If the other person just kept stomping on their foot and said, “what are you talking about, this doesn’t really hurt. Besides, my religion (that you don’t practice) says that it couldn’t possibly hurt.” No one would support that.
I’m not following the news in Iran and much as I feel like I “should”. I feel like that suffering should be documented, shared, and stopped. But In this world we all have to take care of ourselves too. Women are being murdered (and often raped because it is a sin to kill a virgin) for not being modest enough according to their religion. I saw a video earlier tonight a young girl screaming for her mother who had just been shot in front of her. How? How can anyone allow their religion to get to that point? How can you see something like that and still think what you’re doing is right? How does your heart not break?
And the United States. There is a movement in this country that wants to basically be just like Iran except it will be a Christian country instead of Muslim. They want to control what people can and can’t do based only on their religion. They want to control people’s bodies and families and love and sex and clothing and I’m not okay with that. I got my tubes tied because I saw this coming and I’m lucky to currently be married to a man and I’m white. But I’m not straight and I’d say at least half of my friends aren’t straight or cis. Hell, not one of our grandkids identifies as straight and one of them is non binary. Not only will I suffer but people I love will suffer even more. That is unacceptable.
I think about the slew of entitled Karen videos that you can find easily online. Women who are angry at people for parking or walking or having a barbecue or existing. I see how service workers are treated like dirt both in retail and in restaurants. How exactly does your job make you stop being a person? During COVID when restaurants were just starting to offer some service one of the high end restaurants in our town put a note on every table basically saying don’t be an ass because one of their servers was spit on for asking a person to put on a mask. What in the actual fuck?!
But I’ve drifted from the point. The other night I ran to the grocery store late and it was raining. A (likely) homeless man was standing in front and asked for money to go get a piece of pizza. I didn’t give him any because I didn’t have any cash, but it bothered me that I didn’t. It’s cold and rainy and he just wanted a hot meal and to be able to sit out of the rain for a little bit. It would have taken so little for me to ease is suffering even if just for a moment. (This is why I will never be a billionaire, I would end up giving too much away.) Everyone I meet, everyone I interact with, everyone I see, I see their humanity. I see more of how we are alike than I see how we’re different. A few times almost as a thought experiment I’ve tried to hate people (when you spend a lot of time sick in bed you find interesting ways to entertain yourself) and I really can’t hate anyone. Maybe I’m more Christian in practice than many Christians. So many people see a homeless person and sees it as a moral failing and wants them to just go away or be arrested for the crime of not having money. I see a homeless person and know that in at least three times in my life if I hadn’t had a caring family that would have been me. I see a human who is having a hard time and can’t get access to the help they need. How could you not?
If I had a magic wand laying around the house (because that’s my organizational habit, it would not be put neatly away) I would force everyone on this planet to see all of their similarities before they saw their differences. I would bless everyone with the ability to see everyone else as human regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, religion because none of that really matters in the ways the people make it matter. Maybe then some healing would be possible and huge amounts of suffering would end.
Screaming in the Dark 