Tag: humanity

Power

“Learning about it reminded me of my regular talking point — a sad irony of our world — that the people who fight the most are always the most similar. The Israelis and Palestinians, the Ukrainians and Russians, the Catholics and Protestants, the Indians and Pakistanis, etc.” – Isaac Saul, about experiencing the bitter divide between two ethnic groups: the Collas and Cambas in Bolivia, when he was on a trip/motorcycle adventure there recently.

It’s a strange irony, isn’t it? Even in the most dangerous neighborhoods in our country and around the world, the murders are typically done to neighbors, right inside of those same neighborhoods. Why is this? Some say that we disown our own worst qualities and project these qualities onto others. Perhaps the people closest to us are the easiest targets for our projections and mistrust. Also, power struggles are part of the human condition. We falsely believe that if we have power and control, then that equates to security. The need to dominate often stems from deep-seated fears of change, abandonment, and of perceived lack. But unfortunately, power struggles will not cease to exist, in situations where one person or group feels mostly powerless and dominated. So again, the irony is, until the need for peace is greater than the need to control, power struggles continue on into perpetuity. To end power struggles, empathy must be employed by both sides. Both sides need to be vulnerable enough to express their own fears and their emotions and their insecurities, and also to have a willingness to compromise, and to respect boundaries. Both sides have to trust that the other side is capable of this empathy, understanding, and the belief that the desired outcome is the same outcome for all: Peace. Power struggles stop when both sides drop the rope and become a team against “the problems” that continually hurt both sides. We see this phenomenon occur in science fiction movies, or even in real-life wars, when once fighting factions are able to unite against common enemies, such as invading aliens. Power struggles are part of our relationships and our humanity and our societies, but they are also able to be overcome with authenticity, empathy, tenacity, vision, and faith.

Do you have any power struggles going on in your life? With family? Friends? Co-workers? Why do you feel the need for power in these situations? What is similar in yourself, that you dislike in others? What is similar to yourself that you do like in others? Does your opposition have valid points? What do you fear about others? Why? What are your greatest fears? What empowers you?

“All struggles are essentially power struggles. Who will rule? Who will lead? Who will define, refine, confine, design? Who will dominate? All struggles are essentially power struggles,and most are no more intellectual than two rams knocking their heads together.” – Octavia Butler

“At the root of every tantrum and power struggle are unmet needs.“ -Marshall B. Rosenberg

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

1336. What is your favorite part of the day? (besides reading my blog, of course. 😉 )

I Do

We just arrived home from the wedding which we had attended last night. I’m tired, but happily so. There are few experiences in this world that are more beautiful, hopeful, earnest, and comforting than weddings. How lovely it is to see two people commit to be there for each other, in full support of each other throughout their shared journeys throughout their lifetimes. Many wedding traditions have changed throughout the ages, and it is true that not all marriages last, but during the celebration of the uniting of two people, the whole space around them is elevated. We attendees to the wedding are all delighted to witness a couple of our fellow human beings bare their souls to each other, and also to say to all of us who care about them and to Creation, “I’m going to take care of this human. I’m going to be there for this human through it all. This human is very special to me.” And we all feel happy that there is another twosome in this world that have committed to having each other’s backs in the most intimate, devoted, exhaustive way that it is not possible to do for everyone who we each know and care about. Marriage elevates us. It elevates our world. And you see a microcosm of this in any wedding event. You look over the sea of beaming faces and you see the elderly, and the youth, and everyone in between, and you realize that marriage is a huge part of what has made our humanity what it is today. Our biggest celebrations and traditions in life are always about love. Weddings encapsulate the act of love, not just the feeling of love, but the act of committing to actually being love in one of its most gracious forms, as a caring, dedicated, devoted spouse of another being. Weddings are wonderful.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

1863. What song would you say best sums you up?

Monday – Funday

Credit: @woofknight, X

Isn’t the cooler weather wonderful?! After such a hot summer, it’s like diving into a cool, refreshing, clear pool of water.

How’s everyone doing? This was a tough weekend. I’m feeling that universal, low-lying, but seeping in kind of stress in the air, like we had when the pandemic first started. And when you have that kind of permeance of uneasiness, swirling all around you, it sort of punctuates your own individual stresses, doesn’t it? Whatever helps you with stress and concern in your mind and in your body and in your spirit, is your own “toolbox.” Don’t forget to open your toolbox, and to use and to utilize your own helpful “tools.” (exercise, prayer, meditation, music, friendships, nature, healthy, wholesome meals, crying, release, easy chores, funny shows etc.) Also, use this as a time to find and to test new, healthy tools to help ease your stress during eventful times.

“Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.”
– Carl Sagan

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” – Mother Teresa

“For me, forgiveness and compassion are always linked: how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed?”– bell hooks

“Humanity is good. Some people are terrible and broken, but humanity is good. I believe that.” – Hank Green


“We cannot despair of humanity, since we ourselves are human beings.” – Albert Einstein

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” – Mahatma Ghandi

“During bad circumstances, which is the human inheritance, you must decide not to be reduced. You have your humanity, and you must not allow anything to reduce that. We are obliged to know we are global citizens. Disasters remind us we are world citizens, whether we like it or not.” – Maya Angelou

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

We All Fall Down

“We see these athletes do superhuman things. They are still just human.” – Adam Rippon (discussing Simone Biles, choosing to pull out of the Olympics gymnastics finals)

“As much as I’m disappointed, I know that when I step on the track I represent not only myself, I represent a community that has shown great support, great love … I apologize for the fact that I didn’t know how to control my emotions or deal with my emotions during that time.” She added, for her fans, “Don’t judge me. I’m human, I’m you. I just run a little faster.” – Sha’Carri Richardson, runner who was disqualified for the Olympics due to failing a test for marijuana in her system

“I know it might not make sense that someone who writes for a living, literally, could find herself so unable to say what needed to be said. But that’s the truth. I was wounded, & I waited too long.” – Best-selling Christian author Shauna Niequist, answering critics as to why it took her a long time to speak out about her father having to step down from a Chicago mega-church, due to many allegations of sexual improprieties

Shauna is human, too. We are all human. That doesn’t excuse or explain away our mistakes. Most of us ended up paying some sort of consequences for our mistakes. And the truth is, most of us are so much harder on our own selves than anyone else is, when we disappoint ourselves and we disappoint others, by not living up to the standards which we have created for ourselves. Mistakes are part of being human. Imperfections are part of being human. Falling down sometimes is part of being human. Not living up to our own, or to others’ expectations all of the time, is just one part of our being human.

Not being able to finish the Olympics, dashing the hopes of yourself and so many others, or not being able to even attend the Olympics and represent your country, due to an emotional slip-up, or being a wordsmith and yet not being able to find the right words to say about your father (and pastor) being publicly disgraced by his own egregious misdeeds, are all tough, “on display” events that most of us will never, ever, even come close to experiencing. The old saying goes, “The higher you climb, the harder you fall.” The most amazingly talented people among us, have put fear aside, to see how far they can climb with their passions and their abilities and their aspirations and their strengths and their powers, and we are so inspired by them. Yet we also put them on these gilded pedestals, as if they are emotionless statues of perfection. Still at the same time, how quick we are to judge these colossally talented people, and to deride them when they fall down from their great heights, and lie broken. We forgot that they were never statues. They are humans.

Perhaps it is easier for us to see wildly successful people as other-worldly superheroes. “I’m not that talented. I could never do that.” “He was born with all of that ability. It’s easy for him.” “She had a leg up. She’s naturally beautiful, or a genius, or from a rich family.” Schadenfreude is the German word for pleasure felt when someone else experiences misfortune. Don’t worry or be ashamed about having felt schadenfreude. Everyone has felt schadenfreude one time or another. It’s only human to do so. Sadly, we most often feel schadenfreude towards those who have roused us to our own great heights, by being amazing examples of all that humans are capable of doing and of being.

Perhaps what we are mostly upset about when someone doesn’t live up to “the hype”, is the very real reminder that we are all human, even those humans among us who seem more like other-worldly superhumans. Maybe that scares us or disappoints us about ourselves. Maybe when the mighty fall, we have to come to the realization that perhaps we ourselves are just too scared to test the heights of our own strengths and powers. When we see that someone is human, by having fallen down, we also realize that it was this very same human who did some incredibly amazing and difficult achievements, in the first place.

We will all fall down at times, and we will rise again. It’s the human in us. We all have our own unique abilities that we get inspired to explore, and to grow, and to hone, because of the others who have shown us the way, by making the utmost of their own special skills and talents and gifts. As humans, we have a choice, we can sneer at the fallen, or we can offer a hand of compassion, to pull them back up. Our deepest shared humanity is always inclined to extend a hand.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.