Listen to this post:
I see They are at it again. I take a quick peek at social media, and an old friend is shouting from afar, to anyone who will listen, “How can you see what They are doing and not be frightened?” My answer is that They are doing Their best to scare us.
Whoever They are, it’s a given that They are up to no good. We have known each other for a long time and made fond long-ago memories together, and now here They are to destroy everything that made those memories possible. They are insidious in every way, and how could we not be frightened?
My question is: Why do They want us to be scared of each other? Who benefits when we are at each other’s throats and frightened to risk living in peace and love with one another? Can we stop long enough to see through this induced hatred and fear and reach out to understand each other?
Rage and fear take a lot of energy, and if we give it a rest, we might find peace in our hearts. Peace is not an absence; it is a fullness. Peace is the default. When we are not quarreling and throwing epithets and stones and bullets at each other, we are buying and selling, and talking and sharing, and playing and working together. Only when the agitators and activists hurl their insults and their anger into the center of things, only then is the peace disturbed. The raging ones have been at it for so long that we forget peace is the default, and we forget that we have more in common than differences. They — whoever They are, and They come at us from all sides — exploit our differences to drive a wedge.
In the fullness of peace is a calm, gentle, patient, kind reality. If there is true fear anywhere, it is the fear in the hearts of these agitators that they might lose control of their narratives and we will stop being afraid of each other.
“How can I not be frightened?” Oh, sometimes I am frightened, because I can see the fear that grows when these manufacturers of fear relentlessly bang the drum that demands we be terrified of The Other. You know the word for those who want us afraid, don’t you? Terrorist. I am wary of those who worship at this altar of Fear and Rage and Anger, but if I yield to the impulse to be terrified, then the terrorists have won and they will rule the day.
No, my choice every morning and, as much as I can manage, every moment, is to love and live in peace with everyone I meet. When we find ourselves at the precipice and about to jump into the pit of fear and rage, let us talk each other down from the ledge and seek understanding in a spirit of love. Let us love and laugh and reason together until the fear mongers give up in frustration.
