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Kenoli and Paul,
<p>I thank you both for sharing your posts on the listserve. I have
been enriched and inspired.
<p>Kenoli wrote>
<br>We are all living in a world that has failed us. And we are each
others hope. We are each others relief from pain, but not a relief
that shields us from our grief, but rather a relief that can be with us
in our grief. We need to face and hold the truth. We need to
be willing to suffer, to hold our grief, to be willing to take actions
that heal, not actions that deny and perpetuate the very conditions that
support suffering. This is my truth.<
<p>My response to the above quote is that WE are the world and we are co-creating
a world where we fail ourselves and each other on a regular basis.
In shielding ourselves from our own grief and that of others (all the while
using various substances and processes to numb ourselves so that we can
do this - alcohol, drugs, $$$, TV, sex, rigid religiosity, etc...) we rob
ourselves from the authentic feeling that might give rise to a 'No more
suffering, please!' sentiment and motivation. The only way out is
through.
<p>Paul wrote>
<br>The human condition arises from the fact that we aren't fully conscious
(see next paragraph) but think we are.<
<p>I totally agree - and would add that, in some cases, we do not see the
value or importance of becoming conscious. In other cases, we are
afraid of what we might become conscious of - afraid that we are bad, not
good enough, etc...
<p>Paul wrote>
<br>America is for the underdog. Look at our movies, how they portray
the Horatio Alger story all the time. All the Rocky movies, the Karate
Kid movies, all portray the underdog who triumphs in the end. It's
our archetypal story. The only time when societal opprobrium will
be heaped on your head is if you stop trying. That's the great archetypal
sin in America, not to try.<
<p>Paul - I do agree that the 'underdog triumphing' story is an archetypal
pattern in the US. There is much power and hope in this story,
as in the US.
<br>Work with story is my primary business - so I will comment here.
If this is the only pattern - or the predominant one around which much
else is organized - then the US is exceptionally vulnerable in the following
way. The underdog is the victimized good guy and in order to triumph
there must always be a perpetrating bad guy. The polarity that is
activated here is self-fulfilling. The US, as you know, has created
its own 'bad guys' on numerous occasions - only to have to topple them
later. In mythic and psychological terms, this suggests an adolescent
stage of development. In the next stage, good and evil are much more
ambiguous - in fact, this notion is both included and transcended (both/and).
<p>Paul wrote>So, we do have faults, we do make mistakes, but we have the
biggest heart of any nation on earth. I believe earlier in the OSList
there was the editorial
<br>from Canada about who rushes to all the disasters of the world.
The US. Who
<br>rushes to our disasters. Virtually no one.<
<p>Paul, I am curious as to why you felt the need to assert that the US
has the biggest heart of any nation on earth! Ouch!!!
This creates, for me, an artificial boundary - I am surprised...
It seems a justification or defense when I don't think either are required.
The US and its people are like the rest of us - suffering, human, gloriously
flawed and doing the best they know to date. The real issue for me
is - As a world, is our current best good enough?
<br>As for the idea that no one is rushing to aid the US in its disaster
- I have 2 things to say:
<br>1) Please visit the following website for pictures of people from many
countries mourning for and with America:
<br>My own fear is that this sentiment of empathy and compassion was devalued...
the message was 'We feel your suffering. We know suffering too.'
<br>2) The US is the richest and strongest nation on earth... despite
this, I personally know several Canadians who 'rushed' to NY to offer their
crisis intervention and disaster relief skills - at personal expense, both
financially and emotionally.
<br>
<p>Paul wrote>
<br>So, we should begin to forgive ourselves and others, work on our own
consciousness, and try not to project our inner hostilities onto other
systems, peoples and governments.<
<p>Yes, of course. We 'should' also own our own 'top dog' ways -
make peace with them, if you will. In this way, we will be relieved
of the need to make the 'other' into one. The way to undo projections,
is to own them. Compassion for self is critical here and, in my experience,
once this is achieved I am motivated not to repeat the pattern but to transcend
it.
<p>Kenoli wrote>
<br>If we have to keep playing the game that we are better than everyone
else how will we ever become the country we truly want to be? It
is not in anyones best interests
<br>to "need" to see ourselves as "right". What is all this disgusting
talk of "good" and "evil"? We need to remove this vocabulary from
our language. It is not a matter of good and evil. It is a
matter of looking at what is happening and making conscious and
<br>participatory (remember open space) choices carefully chosen to create
the kind of world we want to live in.<
<p>Kenoli - I agree wholeheartedly. I am including a passage from
Arundhati Roy's recent article (The Guardian - Oct. 23/01) that I think
is most apropos. I would be happy to forward it, in its entirety,
to anyone who requests it.
<p>"Unknowingly, ordinary people in both countries share a common bond
- they have to live with the phenomenon of blind, unpredictable terror.
Each batch of bombs that is dropped on Afghanistan is matched by a corresponding
escalation of mass hysteria in America about anthrax, more hijackings and
other terrorist acts....
<br>There is no easy way out of the spiralling morass of terror and brutality
that confronts the world today. It is time now for the human race to hold
still, to delve into its wells of collective wisdom, both ancient and modern.
What happened on September 11 changed the world forever.
<br>With all due respect to President Bush, the people of the world do
not have to choose between the Taliban and the US government. All the beauty
of human civilisation - our art, our music, our literature - lies beyond
these two fundamentalist, ideological poles. There is as little chance
that the people of the world can all become middle- class consumers as
there is that they will all embrace any one particular religion. <b>The
issue is not about good v evil or Islam v Christianity as much as it is
about space.</b> (emphasis mine) About how to accommodate diversity,
how to contain the impulse towards hegemony - every kind of hegemony, economic,
military, linguistic, religious and cultural."
<p>peace, love and best wishes to all,
<br>glory
<br>
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