Blog 364 – 08.03.2016

As I begin this piece I am thinking of the poem:

“He drew a circle that shut me out
A heretic a thing to flout
But love and I with a will to win
We drew a circle that took him in.”

Love, the Universe, God, the higher self or whatever name you chose to describe deity, creator, or first cause is a circle big enough to include everyone and everything. All efforts to exclude are efforts to limit and judge the worthiness of others and claim superiority for me and mine. There is a great line in the book of James where he writes, “God is not a respecter of persons.” We on the other hand often are and the behaviors associated with discrimination are seldom if ever worthy of our higher and best selves. We in the United States often point to South Africa’s Apartied or India’s Caste system as examples of discrimination gone wrong but we don’t need to look so far or so far back to see it close to where we are. Women in the U.S. are still not paid what men are for the same work. A recently nominated Vice Presidental candidate and Governor of a midwestern state has announced publicly that he thinks public businesses have a right to refuse service to people based upon their sexual orientation. That just seems like bad business to me. The cash register does not care with whom you sleep or who populates your fantasy life. The Black Lives Matter movement is perceived as a threat to a society still too directed by a white male mindset that sadly still in many instances views women and people of color as second class citizens.

On Facebook recently a well meaning person posted a picture and short piece about a young black man helping an older white woman into her car. He opened her car door for her and helped her with her packages. This was intended, I think, to show that all young black men are not gangsters or cop killers. Still someone felt obliged to express another type of prejudice. They wrote, “He must have been a Christian.” Like Muslims, Buddists, Jews, Druids, etc. are incapable of acts of kindness and helpfulness I presume. It is sad when we think our club, our party, our church are the only “good guys.”

I was for many years a member of a church that called itself Christian and they were no better or worse than average. Still like most groups they thought the were “chosen”, “smarter than the average bear”, “keepers of the flame”, and possessors of “the truth.” I am sorry but I just can no longer buy the party line that any group has a corner on truth or special access to the divine.

We are each of us children of the Universe and are therefore of infinite worth. All life matters and shame on us all for acting in a way that anyone or group feels excluded. Yet, still people seriously talk about building a wall to keep the “bad guys” out. If our red brothers had built a wall or failed to help the first English colony survive that first winter in New England what a different turn history might have taken. But they drew a larger circle that included the white pilgrims. How big is your circle?

Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White