The Human Race
Today I am grateful for soothing colors, like gray tones, that we have in our house. I am also grateful for my five senses and how they can help calm me through things like hearing bird song, feeling a light breeze, tasting my first sip of coffee.
Fear has loomed large for months on our planet, as the COVID-19 pandemic has spread and touched each and every one of us in numerous ways. The last week has multiplied the fear and unsettling feelings, with widespread unrest and violence.
I struggled on how to write about this all, and the answer came as I scrolled through some news coverage. The line on a sign read "We are all one race. The human race." We seem to have utterly and completely lost this idea. Difficult times and injustice bring out both the best in us, and the worst. None of us can sit by and let this unfold without offering to be part of the solution. But how does that look?
At the risk of oversimplifying, it can look as easy as "We are all one race. The human race." We all smile and laugh and love in the same ways. We all want health, security, happiness, meaningful work, and freedom for our family, friends, those we care about. Why do we put up obstacles, walls, hatred?
There is enough to go around; if we share, care, support. Problems come in when power is misused, abused, made to be the prize. The storms of a pandemic and racial unrest didn't start just a few months ago.
I can succumb to the fear, uncertainty, hopelessness--and for moments and hours I do--or I can do my little part from my little part of the world. Today's "Word for the Day" seems to be a good starting place for us all, and end point for this post:
Fear has loomed large for months on our planet, as the COVID-19 pandemic has spread and touched each and every one of us in numerous ways. The last week has multiplied the fear and unsettling feelings, with widespread unrest and violence.
I struggled on how to write about this all, and the answer came as I scrolled through some news coverage. The line on a sign read "We are all one race. The human race." We seem to have utterly and completely lost this idea. Difficult times and injustice bring out both the best in us, and the worst. None of us can sit by and let this unfold without offering to be part of the solution. But how does that look?
At the risk of oversimplifying, it can look as easy as "We are all one race. The human race." We all smile and laugh and love in the same ways. We all want health, security, happiness, meaningful work, and freedom for our family, friends, those we care about. Why do we put up obstacles, walls, hatred?
There is enough to go around; if we share, care, support. Problems come in when power is misused, abused, made to be the prize. The storms of a pandemic and racial unrest didn't start just a few months ago.
I can succumb to the fear, uncertainty, hopelessness--and for moments and hours I do--or I can do my little part from my little part of the world. Today's "Word for the Day" seems to be a good starting place for us all, and end point for this post:
For us to transform as a society, we have to allow ourselves to be transformed as individuals. And for us to be transformed...we have to allow for the incompleteness of any of our truths
and a real forgiveness for the complexity of human beings.
(Angel Kyodo Williams)
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