Smile on Your Brother
When unconscious anger is allowed to fester in the hearts of men and its fire is fanned by the bellows of ignorance and prejudice, a senseless and dangerous hatred arises. An unconscious hatred that distorts the mind and clouds the heart seeks to injure and to hurt, and has a will to subjugate because it mistakenly believes that’s the only way it can alleviate its own suffering.
To judge, to blame, and to lash out against other people based on circumstances beyond their control is baseless and immature. No one chose the time, place, family, culture, ethnicity, religion, or body into which they were born. We do have a choice, and I would argue a sacred human duty, to critically evaluate our perspective - especially with regard to those things we do not understand, we fear, or we cannot control. To compare this with equal measure with what the heart feels and with what the gut knows. No one is born with hate in them. Like an illness, it is acquired as an attitude. Left untreated it starts to affect behavior and if left for too long becomes a condition of debilitating ailments - indecency, unkindness, narrow-mindedness, and a propensity for violence.
The protections ensured by the First Amendment are meant as a safeguard to democracy, not as a justification to parade intolerance or incite fear into fellow citizens. I am a firm believer that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Even if you believe any of the racist, prejudiced, or nationalist ideology, it still holds that it is better to be kind than to be right. As for race, we would all do well to remember that there is only one - the human race - and if we want a chance to share what is good and beautiful in this world with the generation behind us, we need to start working with each other, not against each other.
Come on, people now - smile on your brother...
Why The Tortoise Wins
Aesop’s fable about a tortoise who challenges a boastful hare to a foot race has several interpretations. Some consider the negative consequences of overconfidence, others the virtue of perseverance, and others still that speed and haste do not always yield victory.
I was recently in the Columbia River Gorge on a trail that was leading up to the mouth of a waterfall. There is an epic beauty to the glacially carved stretch of that river and a deep sense of geologic time. Being there affords a natural shift in perspective.
At one point I stopped along the wall and watched a tiny caterpillar effortlessly descend a vertical route that would be impossible for most other creatures. As it moved, every segment of its body unfurled like a wave in perfect coordination, each point of contact from its many legs perfectly positioned to continue the descent. There was no haste.
It reminded me of the Somato-Psychic Wave of Network Spinal Analysis and also of the tortoise, but with a new interpretation. The tortoise wins the race with the hare because by moving at his natural pace he has already won. His competition is not with the hare, who he cannot possibly beat in a race, but rather with himself - “because he competes with no one, no one can compete with him.” I believe the tortoise wins because he knows his true nature, lives in congruence with it, and because he undoubtedly stops to smell the succulents.
