It’s election day in my state today. I voted, got my sticker, took my obligatory selfie, and was reminded of why I love my country. I don’t love it because of how it is now, how it ever used to be, how it began. I love it because of all the ways it got to be how it is today.
And man, is it fucked up. Senseless murders, the wealthy elite using propaganda to try and convince us that our neighbors, our economical peers, are our enemies. They created a tool and named it “race” and artfully used it. They managed to redirect the anger of the lower classes away from themselves, inciting violence among former allies.
But they forgot one thing. The one thing that sets our culture apart. They forgot our history and how we got here. They forgot that eons ago there were oppressed people who escaped war to come here to this land of hope where everyone could get a chance to live their lives as they pleased. It isn’t our biological history that matters. It is our spiritual history.
It’s never worked. It’s never been perfect. Inequality and oppression have always worked their ways into our society. But our spiritual history hasn’t let it continue for long. We have taken steps forward and back, but if we are honest with ourselves we can see more progress than regress. It’s been slow, but it’s been moving.
It’s never going to work. It’s never going to be perfect. Inequality and oppression will find their ways. But we don’t have to sit back. The people are starting to rise. Awareness is amplified via this wonderful tool, the Internet. Every day, more people are starting to realize two things: our enemies have been pretending to be our friends for too long; we need to take care of one another and stop isolating ourselves.
We’re not cowboys. None of us is completely self-sufficient. Every day we each encounter things that not only do we not do, we have no clue HOW to do. Too many people don’t know how to cook or clean or balance their bank accounts. Even more people don’t know how to change a tire or an oil filter. I’m writing this on a computer that I can neither build nor repair, and tomorrow I will drive my car using fuel that I do not transport, process, or drill. I will eat food that I did not grow, hunt, or gather.
We all need each other. If we want to survive, we have to stop thinking only about ourselves. We need to get out of our comfort zones and vote for unlikely candidates, sign unlikely petitions, give help to those who need it (even if they don’t ask), and be always grateful that we can enjoy the parts of life that we’re making work for now.
We need to stand up in whichever ways we can and say it’s enough. Not to sound like another, and super famous these days, Jew, but we can do it together. I’m not enough on my own. I do what I can, but it’s not enough. Even if every person did what he or she could, it wouldn’t be enough. It’s never enough.
Because it will never work. It will never be perfect. But each time we find an imperfection we can stand up and claim our spiritual heritage: if it’s not working, change things and try again.
Our culture isn’t based on isolation or even independence. It’s based in freedom. Not the freedom to be separate from our neighbors. The freedom to join our hands with our human family members and make whatever changes we need to make in ourselves, in our communities, in our country, and in our world.
Kudos
The Flip Flop Ninja 