"How is it possible that 6.9 billion people claim to want the same thing (peace, security, opportunity, prosperity, happiness, and love) and be singularly unable to get it?"
For one, we keep doing what we've always done and expect different results. I know you've heard this before. Until we stop and take a look at our beliefs, our "cultural" stories, our history, and whether or not our actions match our intentions - we will continue to get what we've always got.
I was also reminded of an article I wrote a few years ago. It adds more questions I hope you "conversate" with others about. I edited the length.
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Lessons on the Beach
Listening to the waves was nourishing to my body and soul,
digging my feet into the sand connected me to mother earth and grounded me at
the same time. But it was the words I
heard spoken by the friends, intentionally and unintentionally, that I took
home as true treasures. Words I could
feed on and digest and apply to life.
Lessons on the beach.
At lunch with a friend yesterday, these questions were posed
to me: What causes a person to be
civilized? What causes a person to be uncivilized? As I pondered these excellent questions, he
asked, “Well, do you have an answer?”
Yes, of course, love and fear is at the base of every chosen
action or way of being. I am assuming we
are using the same definition of civil, meaning what we in America
consider civil behavior. What other
countries call civil may be viewed as uncivil by our standards. Honor, peace, respect, dignity, and other
sub-definitions of love could be the causes for civil behavior. These same aspects could come from a place of
fear and cause uncivilized actions.
Not much later that day, I witnessed this same enlightened
soul engage in loud, angry, mostly verbal battle on the beach with a complete
stranger. I didn’t, or wouldn’t, believe
that any physical harm was going to result, so I did not intervene. I had a sense that a great lesson was going
on.
When my friend returned to my side, defensive and angry and
righteous, I calmly repeated his earlier questions – What causes a person to be
civilized? What causes a person to be
uncivilized?
As he started in on what she had said and what she had done
and how people should be this way and people should never…I interrupted with
“This isn’t about her. I want to know
what ‘caused’ you to react the way you did?”
It took a very long walk down the beach and back to get to
his underlying personal issues. As we
talked, I recalled the words I heard on another beach with another friend the
previous week about conflict. Her
revelation was “I want what I want.”
And, the other person wants what they want. Too often, all the individuals really want is
to be “right.”
This morning the newspaper ran yet another article on the
conflict between Israel and Palestine . From a distance, we don’t understand why
these two peoples can’t create peace from a place of love. They choose, instead, to use intimidation,
manipulation, threats, and violence.
Both sides believing they are right and acting out of righteousness. This is similar to what I witnessed during
the beach battle. Both wanting what they
wanted, both believing they were in the right.
First they tried intimidation.
Then manipulation. When threats
didn’t work, violence happened.
So, what causes you to be civilized? What triggers you to be uncivilized? Better yet, what do you want as your ‘cause’
to be either? Will it be love, peace,
honor, respect, dignity? Is there a
particular fear you are still holding on to that could cause you to be uncivil?
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Share your thoughts with me, too! Thank you for passing this forward so more can participate in the conversation. Namaste'
