Change is scary.
Doesn’t matter who you are or what you believe, change comes with a fear of the unknown.
Some changes are easily undone while others are permanent. (I’m thinking of a song from The Ruff Ruffman Show on PBS Kids that includes the line: You can’t untoast the toast.)
If you don’t like your haircut, in the short term, you’re stuck. But your hair will grow, and you can try something different when it grows out.
You make a mistake in a knitting pattern. No problem. Just frog it (rip it) and start again.
Don’t like the color of paint on your walls, invest in a little primer and a new color and your problem is solved.
But sometimes it’s not that easy to go back to the beginning and start again.
Once a cake is baked, it’s too late to go back and include the once forgotten ingredient.
You can’t un-hardboil eggs.
You can’t unshrink a wool sweater.
And you can’t take back words that have already been spoken. Or relive your life. Or bring a loved one back from the dead.
You may not be able to take already spoken words back, but new words can be uttered. Forgiving words. Apologizing words. Words of reconciliation. Relationships are too important to let words spoken in haste and frustration to have a lasting impact.
We all have such different ideals and beliefs that we can’t always agree on the tough topics, like religion or politics or social justice. But I hope we can agree on compassion, empathy, and respect.
You support one political candidate. I support another. That’s okay. We each have our reasons. What is not okay is questioning someone’s sanity because of their politics. I have done that and it’s not fun to be called on it
You follow Mohammed. I follow Christ. Another follows the Buddha. That’s okay. What is not okay is judging and condemning someone who believes differently than you. I follow Christ. Do I want others to have the salvation I believe I have? Absolutely. But it’s not my place to pronounce everlasting damnation on someone who chooses to follow Buddha. I think we’re all going to get to whatever afterlife we believe in and be totally surprised by the message God gives us once we reach heaven or Nirvana or enlightenment.
Some fellow Christians may condemn me for uttering such heresy. That’s okay too. No one KNOWS for sure about everlasting life until he or she reaches it. I believe I am right. Muslims believe they are right. Atheists believe they are right. We all can’t be right, can we?
Everlasting life is available — or it’s not. Being reincarnated in life after life until we reach enlightenment may or may not be true. Dissolving into worm food and having nothing to look forward to after death could be exactly what happens. But those aren’t the things we should be debating.
Helping each other, respecting each other, supporting each other — those are things we can agree on.
What do you think would happen to a community that believes everyone in it is a vital part of it? What would happen if neighbors looked out for neighbors? Do you even know your neighbors’ names, much less their struggles? What would happen if we acted without fear of looking like a fool? If we stepped forward and stood up for those who are marginalized? If we realized that everyone has a place and a purpose and a reason for being here?
Show me a community like that and I’ll show you a group of people who are thriving.
We can put down our prejudices and preconceived ideas and reconcile. Black, white, young, old, Muslim, Christian, Jews and gentiles.
Remember Hands Across America from 1986? I remember my husband’s grandmother wanting to stand in the middle of a street in Waldo, Ohio, hoping to be part of one long line of Americans holding hands across the country. I worked for the Marysville Journal-Tribune then and took a photo of Grandma Riley holding hands with people she didn’t know. She was grinning from ear-to-ear.
The line itself didn’t actually cross the country like organizers hoped, but it did remind us that we are all in this thing called life together. We can’t make a go of it without each other.
Do you think we could make Hands Across America II? Or are we too polarized to even consider such an event?
I pray it’s not too late to remember we live in a global community and we need each other. We need to give each other a chance to prove that we can be the change.
Until next week,
Susie from Stix-N-Stonez