Closer Than We Think

"Choose being kind over being right, and you'll be right every time."       - Richard Carlson -

The last three or four weeks have been the beginning of a slightly new direction for me spiritually.  It's a little hard to explain so maybe I should just start at the beginning.

I recently posted a new status on my Facebook page that resulted in a response I hadn't expected.  It clearly offended and even angered some people I respect and whom I consider to be friends.  It was a post of a religious/spiritual nature and, as usual, was meant only to invoke thought and reflection.  It did much more.  Not long ago, I would have dug a trench, stood my ground, and defended my position as "right".  This time I did something different.  I offered an apology and deleted my post.  I spent two days agonizing over backing down like I did.  It seemed to be the right thing to do, yet it was not part of what has historically been my nature.  I think that's changing.  There's more.

I remember distinctly the day I "became a Christian".  The details of that time aren't nearly as important as the change it initially brought about in me.  During that time, although it wasn't always comfortable, I professed my new-found faith and tried to convert non-believers with my "testimony".  After all, my way of belief was "the way" and I felt it necessary to share that with others lest they spend eternity in hell.  I also remember the period of time when I began to study about world religions and physics, thereby casting doubt on my faith.  The details, again, aren't so important.

In my journey from Atheist to Agnostic to Christian, back again to Agnostic and "finally" to  Gnostic, I have also tried to share my new discovery and "knowledge" with others.  I've argued against the religious establishment and pointed out what I felt were inconsistencies in religious dogma, etc.  I felt like it was my duty.  I felt like it was wrong for people to live, what I believed, was mythology.  I see now just how arrogant that stance was.  But wait.  There's more.

A couple weeks ago I went with Linda and a friend to see an independent film, The Nature of Existence, by Roger Nygard.  The web site is worth checking out and I actually recommend the film.  http://www.thenatureofexistence.com/.  Again, details aren't important.  Roger traveled the globe over a period of 4 years and interviewed a variety of people regarding the nature of our existence.  He asked people on the street, scientists and religious "gurus" a series of 85 questions regarding God, religion and our existence.  The film was interesting, but it was what Mr. Nygard said after the film during a question-and-answer period that caught my attention most.

After being asked how making the film might have changed him, Roger replied, "I think it's made me more tolerant of other's beliefs."  He went on to say the thing that has started my transformation.  He said that whether or not you believe we were created by God (a la Adam and Eve) or a cosmic miracle of stardust that began with the Big Bang, we can surely agree that we were "created".  I've thought about that comment a great deal, and I can't find a loop hole.  Christian, Muslim, Jew or Gentile, surely we can agree that by SOME event, we were indeed created.  And that's when I realized that for me, it's not so important that I'm right about my beliefs or that you're wrong.  What's important is that we find common ground as humans.  I can take it a step further.

We both pray.  You may actually call it prayer and I may call it meditation or "sending positive vibes to the universe", but the word "prayer" works fine for me.  I'm actually not doing anything much different than I did as a Christian.  I just call it something different.  We both believe in God.  You're specific about yours and even His name and I see things on a more cosmic level, but the term god works for me.  Higher Power, Universe, Supreme Being, Yaweh, Lord, Alien from another galaxy.....makes no difference to me.  It's someone or something greater than us.  On that we can agree.  Let's call it God.  Works for me.

As it turns out, if you really take liberty with the definition, I'm religious.  You go to church and may even follow a specific doctrine.  You may identify yourself as Catholic or Protestant, Lutheran or Follower of Allah.  I adhere to no specific doctrine and don't go to church, but I see the world and people as my "church".   You might say that the fact that I follow no religion IS my religion.  We can agree on that, right? 

So there you have it.  We were both created.  We pray.  We believe in God and follow a religion.  I'd say that's a pretty good start.  We have alot more in common than we think.  And in the end, isn't that really all that matters?  It doesn't matter so much who's right.  What's important is that we hold hands while we're all finding our way on this tiny little planet which couldn't even be considered a dust speck relative to the 100 million galaxies in our universe.  We're the same.  Sure we differ in some details of our beliefs and we look different, but we're all humans. We're all brothers and sisters.

I think there's still great potential for Peace, Love, Joy and Harmony.  I believe we're alot closer than we think.



 

A Perfect Storm

"War does not determine who is right - only who is left."   -Bertrand Russell-
 
"Sometimes when things seem to be going wrong, they are going right for reasons you are yet to understand."    - Alan Cohen-
 
"Love ultimately proves its reality."     - Alan Cohen -
 
"Force always breeds resistance."   - paraphrased from the Tao Te Ching -
 
The City of Dallas recently hired a new Chief of Police.  As you can imagine, being the top cop for one of our nation's largest cities is highly visible, highly political, and undoubtedly, full of pressures from both within and without.
 
Shortly after our new police chief took office, one of the most bizarre set of circumstances I've ever encountered took place in a nearby city....a "suburb" if you will.  Our police chief's son was involved in the fatal shooting of an innocent bystander and then a Lancaster police officer.  The chief's son was then gunned down by local police.  Let me make this clear for you.  The top-ranking police officer in one of our country's biggest cities had a son who killed a fellow officer, and THEN the boy was killed by other police officials. 
 
I don't care how you spin this.  My heart goes out to that chief.  I don't know what kind of father he is.  I don't know what kinds of issues he had with his son.  I don't care about anything involving his parenting.  HIS son is dead.  And he was killed by fellow police officers acting in a way they are trained to do.  To make things so much worse, his son was a murderer and a cop killer.  I can't even begin to imagine the turmoil and grief that must be crushing the very soul of that chief.  His son did the unimaginable......and now he's dead.  Try trodding through THAT emotional and political mine field. 
 
It gets worse.  On the day of the son's funeral, a Dallas Deputy Police Chief called for on-duty officers to aid in the escort of the funeral procession because he felt public safety was being jeopardized.  It was a split-second decision based on what he felt was best at the time.  When the public got wind of what happened, they called for the Deputy's head on a platter.  How dare he use on-duty cops to escort a cop killer?!  It was the final clap of thunder in a perfect storm.  But I'll get back to that.
 
Rewind two weeks to a dinner I had with my daughter.  At that dinner, I was able to pick the brain and listen to the wisdom of a teenager filled with visions of world peace.  She spoke of how she wants to grow up to write peace treaties and help the starving children of third-world countries.  She doesn't want to be in politics, but wants to share the message of peace and forgiveness.  She wants to be an ambassador of freedom and good will.  And then she said something that made me almost choke on a cheesestik.  "I know what the terrorists did was terrible and wrong", she said.  "But what would have happened if we'd just forgiven them?"
 
Now rewind almost nine years to that fateful day in September of 2001.  A terrorist attack on U.S. soil killed nearly 4,000 civilians, firefighters and police officers.   Almost immediately, President Bush launched a war on terror;  an action I supported, by the way.  Since that time, nearly 6,000 U.S. and allied troops have died in the effort to stop terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan.  I've already addressed my new position on the war effort so I won't get into that.  But what I do want to make clear here, is that we have lost 50% more people in the war effort itself than we lost in the initial attack.  So what was initially nearly 4,000 dead, is now nearly 10,000.  And we're really nowhere closer to stopping terrorism.  You know it.  I know it.  The pentagon knows it.  Different topic for a different time.
 
So let's get back to my daughter's question of forgiveness and how it relates to our police chief and the war.  What if?  What if the citizens of Dallas could just forgive the Deputy who used on-duty personnel and accept that he did the best he could?  What if the family of the slain police officer could just forgive the chief's son for his heinous crime?  The truth is, the boy is dead.  The ONLY people that will suffer for carrying the hate are the people doing the hating.  What if, (and I know you're gonna blast me here) the U.S. had merely "forgiven" the Muslim world for the act of terrorism carried out by a few?  What if we had simply spent that trillion dollars on education or increased security within our own borders?  Would the body count be 10,000 by using THAT strategy?  I doubt it.
 
I'm trying to get to my point here, but there's more than can be condensed into one meager blog entry.  Where is our spirit of forgiveness?  Even Jesus said, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone."  You aren't perfect.  Neither am I.  We may not have killed a cop or bombed a hi-rise, but aren't we worthy of forgiveness?  Is it possible, just POSSIBLE, that in the big picture, forgiving the unforgivable may be what serves everyone best?  
 
The Tao Te Jing (The Way) and various others have suggested that the quickest way to build resistance is to use force.  Tell your kids they CAN'T do something and they can't wait to try it.  Build a wall along the border of Texas and people will die trying to climb it.  Take your all-powerful war weapon half way around the world and the most "unworthy" opponents will dig in and fight back until it makes you look like you're nothing.  I boxed in only one fight, but I can tell you...every time the guy hit me, I did my best to hit him back.  It's a law of nature.  Use force and resistance will come.
 
I clearly don't have the answers to all this, but I'd like to pose a challenge to anyone reading this.  Ala "Pay It Forward", I'd like you to think of one person you need to forgive, whether you think they deserve it or not.  Now forgive them.  Now ask them to do the same.  And so on and so on.  I think you'll be amazed at how much lighter you'll feel after letting go of the bitterness.  And maybe it'll catch on.  Maybe starting right here and right now we can start a chain of forgiveness, one person at a time, that will change a nation.....that will change a world.
 
To change the heart of a nation, we have to change the hearts of its people.  Let's start today with a spirit of forgiveness.