But Are We Human

In a world that seems to have turned upside down and has a massive and ugly dividing line between so many people, perhaps it is helpful to look both backward and forward.

Did you know that America was entirely up in arms about the possibility of a Catholic being elected for office back in 1928? Horrible things were said about the candidate, Al Smith. The same kinds of things we hear today about other religions and nationalities.

As a country, we Americans have not shown ourselves to be tolerant. However, Americans are not the only ones. Humans acting like humans do terrible things to each other.

But are we human?

Do we have to only see ourselves as human? Can’t we see ourselves as more than that? And if we did, couldn’t the human response of fight or flight which unchecked can grow into greed, hate, and selfishness, be overridden, dissolved, forgotten, vanished into the past and never seen again in the future?

In spite of the massive thunder of discord that reverberates throughout our world, there is also something else going on that is much more powerful.

It’s expanding, flowing, and infiltrating even the darkest spaces.

Let’s turn our attention to that. Give it our full focus and all our support. Instead of repeating the nasty things that fill the airwaves, we can do something about the cruelty and intolerance it promotes. We can stop giving hate and greed power.

One of my favorite authors, Kurt Vonnegut, gave us a solution.

“Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let the pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.”

Be soft. Be kind.”

Instead of the habitual fight or flight response, we can see ourselves as part of something above that behavior. We can override our human heritage. We can choose to live our true identity. Our identity of children of the One.

In this identity, there is nothing to separate us. No religions, beliefs, creeds.

In the awareness of our Oneness, we find only love. Be soft. Be kind.

Instead of fight or flight, we can embrace the movement of tend and befriend. It springs from the understanding that we are not separate. We rise and fall together. This awareness breeds kindness. It reminds us that to befriend is our true nature.

We tend. We take care of each other, of our planet, of our neighbors, friends, and strangers.

We befriend what needs to be befriended.

We let ourselves be tended to and befriended when we need it.

We quash any desire, conscious or unconscious, to express disdain whether in person or within social media. Trolls are not us. We only tend and befriend.

Over a century ago, Indian Guru, Sai Baba, gave us a formula for choosing kindness. “Before you speak, ask yourself: Is it kind, is it necessary, is it true, does it improve upon the silence?”

Human habits can be challenging to overcome. Personality attachment can be hard to release, but the reward for acting from our true spiritual identity and treating others the same way will far outweigh the work that goes into making this shift.

It’s never too late.

But it’s never too early either.

The time is now. Choose friends, family, tribes, groups, churches, governments, and media that supports tend and befriend.

Whether you are the one standing in front of the crowd, or the one supporting it all behind the scenes doesn’t matter. We each have our role. And we each have the strength and the wisdom to fulfill our purpose.

Tend and befriend. It’s simple. All truth is simple. Love has no boundaries or rules.

As our granddaughter and her friends say,

“It’s 2018, people. Love is love.”

Amen to that!

Let’s close with another Kurt Vonnegut quote.

“Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you’ve got a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies-“God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.”