Where Do We Go From Here?

The news is filled with the death of a dictator, gridlock in Washington, GOP contenders running for President, world economy on the brink of catastrophe, millions of people out of work, foreclosures and abducted children. Our lives are filled with worry, challenge and heartbreak. We are starved for good news, for hope that things will get better. So where do we go from here?

What’s next depends on each one of us. We just have not realized it yet. It is so easy to blame external forces, people or groups of people for trouble in the world. What we just don’t get…yet…is that each of us has the power to create our own reality. Each one of us has the power to change that reality. Each one of us is not only connected, but a part of the Whole of what Is. No more and no less than each microscopic cell is a part of our body as a whole.

So many of us live our lives as if there is no connection. We live our lives in isolation, in separation from our fellow human beings. We live in a world of “not enough.” We come to believe that there is only so much love out there. There is only so much money, so much food and water, etc. From the moment of birth, we perceive our lives as a race to get… enough. Our fellow humans are seen as competitors for those resources. Once we feel we have enough, we race to get more than enough. Having more seems to give us power over those that have less. “I have mine…now you go scramble for yours!”

Having and not having allows us to judge our fellow humans. We assign worth and value based on what we have or don’t have. It is so easy, if we see ourselves as separate, little islands in a sea of humanity. If I have more than you, then I must have worked harder than you, making you lazy, less valuable, less worthy. I must be more blessed by God than you because… I have more. Once I judge you as less than me, it becomes easy to treat you differently. We are no longer equals.

As we accumulate resources in this perceived “race,” we seek allies. We seek out those that have our similar values and levels of power, influence, status and ideology. We invent “Us” and “Them.” We label people as liberals, conservatives, Christians, Muslims, Jews, blacks, whites, gays, any one of a number of groups and sub groups. Labels come to define the group.

Once we have “Us and Them,” it becomes easier to value one group over another. It can ultimately allow for one group to enslave or oppress another. In its extreme, it can lead to humans torturing and killing their fellow human beings. It can lead to war between nations, murder and mayhem. It only requires one group, one nation or one person to see the other as…less than human, worthy of atrocities and death. The Holocaust is only one recent example of man’s continued inhumanity to man over human history played out on the world stage… time and time again.   

Mankind is at a crossroads, as I see it. We can stay with this ancient model that has not served man well at all, or we can choose a new path, a new vision, a new reality. Will that vision allow us to see ourselves as connected and a part of the whole of humanity? Will we see a world of plenty rather than not enough where cooperation and sharing is valued over having more than others? Will each of us reach a hand down to pull our fellow humans up? Man is so ready, so close to the next evolutionary leap that many of us can feel it. We must first understand our relationship to one another and our relation to the Whole of Existence.

Where oh where do we go from here?

Food for THOUGHT…