Yesterday, Tuesday, was a real doozy, I’ll tell you.
Before 2020, in the Land of Woo, where people believe in the philosophical, the spiritual, the intellectual and the unknown, many of the Woo-sters were predicting that the year of 2020 would be one of incredible enlightenment. Even the numbers, 2020, suggesting clear vision, made the case.
But then the calendar flipped a page, and 2020 got underway.
Oh. We are becoming enlightened alright. But the word in itself can mean many things. Sure, it can be defined as the “achievement of receiving spiritual knowledge or insight.”
But “enlighten” can also mean “to give someone greater knowledge and understanding about a subject or situation.” The year 2020 has certainly been full of that, if we are paying attention.
Here’s some knowledge, some fact. On this date, in 1942, Hitler ordered that 10,000 Czechs be murdered. Eliminated. In his mind, they were unnecessary.
Certainly, nothing like that would happen in the United States, today, not now, in the 21st Century. Oh, but a few weeks ago, amidst the number of U.S. deaths rising to the 100,000 mark, Trump gave the order that America should “open back up for business.” He said that we will have casualties, sure. Like the old and the weak. I guess he figures those people are unnecessary. We, the people.
But we are back in business as the death toll rises. It hit 100,000 today. And so many of his followers, dig in their heels and dispute this fact. That’s enlightening. I know more about them now.
And White Supremacy marches on. Not too long ago, Ahmaud Arbery was hunted down in the street like some animal. Yesterday, a Minneapolis police officer knelt on the neck of a black man until he ran out of air, and died. Then, in Central Park, a white woman calls the police on a black man, purporting she is being attacked, calling for his arrest. Yes, the hatred marches on. That enlightens me about some other people too.
Yesterday, I was at my rope’s end with all of it. I was angry, I was sad. Disgusted. With this whole world, our supposed leader, the every bit of things. I said out loud, “Why should I even care any more. Why try? Why bother.?” I felt like, and in some ways, still feel like, the bad is outweighing the good.
Sure, we hear the “puff” pieces on the news, of some grade school kid drawing cards for people, or a woman sewing a bunch of masks, or people going out and playing the guitar on a street corner. But for the entire 30 minutes prior to that “feel-good” story, we have seen report after report of the insanity, the disrespect, the hatred.
It is despairing.
About midday, I talked with my sister on the phone. We talked about the all of this. And she reminded me of my belief. The belief that life is eternal.
Yes, I believe that life is eternal. That each one of us has a soul. It is that place where we determine whether or not we are people of goodness and love, or people of hatred and harm. And we act accordingly, no matter what.
I also believe, that when our lives end, two things will happen.
1. Life will continue on this planet without us. We know this to be true.
And,
2. Our life force will continue in a way we do not understand right now. We aren’t smart enough to comprehend the logistics, but after we go, it becomes apparently clear. Our souls will continue. And what we learned here is important. Because that is what goes with us too.
So when I feel like throwing up my hands in resignation, I have to remember this. I can’t change the craziness of the world. It will continue to run rampant. But in my world, in the space around me, I can do little bits of good all over the place. Little tiny bits. One by one. Those “puff pieces” on the news. I can make my own puffiness in this world, in anything I do. Just showing up, with the intention for goodness and kindness. That can be our enlightenment of 2020. That can be the light in our hearts, in our souls.
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“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
― Martin Luther King Jr.,
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“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
― Albert Einstein
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“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
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