I have not written lately; I have not been able to find my words. I simultaneously feel like I have an obligation – and no right at all – to speak. I feel ignorant and naïve about the depth of the pain that has swirled around me. And I feel lost; I barely recognize my world anymore.
The endless drone of falsehood and hate; the path designed to wear us down.
Each day obliterating another norm of decency and democracy. How did we come to the point of such divisiveness? Or was it always there and I just did not see?
Life lives in the gray; I heard that phrase today.
The black and white heart is a dangerous thing. Forcing sides into unyielding chambers will always fail to reveal understanding and truth. The rigidity in our thinking is frightening; the encouragement to embrace this path, alarming. We cease listening, we stop learning, empathy is forgotten, and we arrive at a place where we are seemingly incapable of resolving our differences. If you are right, then I must be wrong.
I thought, naively so, that we were grounded in a belief system that honored truth, dignity, and fairness. That has been upended. For too many, it never existed. We have moved beyond the ideal of a melting pot to a boiling simmer.
This moment is full of danger and fear, but also a chance for change…if we can only listen. I hope it is not fleeting.
“That peoples can no longer carry on authentic dialogue with one another is not only the most acute symptom of the pathology of our time, it is also that which most urgently makes a demand of us.” ~ Martin Buber (1878—1965)
