There’ s a great story about a man who was walking down the street at night, and saw a guy on hands and knees searching for something under a street lamp. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “I dropped my keys” the other guy said. So our hero got down and started searching with him. After ten minutes he said in frustration: “are you sure you dropped them here?”
“Oh, no,” the searcher said. “I dropped them across the street in the vacant lot. But there is no light there.”
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Lots of reports of truly venomous words and actions over the last week. Eventually someone will tally them and come to some conclusions about who and what side and where and so forth are “more responsible.” All good. Throwing lots of light on the subject. But right now, what you can do is to remember that attacks are defenses, that anger is fear. Even the nastiest of these people thinks that they are doing good from their twisted perspective. And if you look deeply enough into your own actions of violence, cruelty and anger you’ll find the fear at the base, even if you give it a name like “frustration”, “anxiety”, “resentment” or whatever.
There is nothing new here: this is what has been lurking under the flat rocks. Fear and perceived power can flip those rocks over, but if you’re surprised, you haven’t been paying attention. Now you are. Pain can wake you up. That’s why it hurts. Its up to you to STAY awake, and keep your own fear from clouding your mind or searching for easy answers. There is no “them”. There is only “us.” Any answer that doesn’t involve self-examination is looking where the light is, rather than where you dropped the keys.
Namaste,
Steve
