Modern Day Abolitionists

I recently enjoyed dinner with my step-daughter, Julia. She and her boyfriend, together these last six years, might appear to the world as a interracial couple. He was born in Seoul, South Korea, while Julia was born in Concord, Massachusetts. He was raised in Concord; she grew up in Carlisle. They've known each other since high school, and became a couple sophomore year of college. In all of their time together, the notion of being part of an interracial couple never occurred to Julia. "Well, I love him, so I just see him," she explained.

In fact, the realization only arose when one of Julia's friends said, "You'd have beautiful babies together, if you ever have kids." And, at that moment, she realized that their children likely would not look like her, in the carbon-copy way she resembles her own mom. This presented no concern, just a moment of awareness. Julia further pondered what it would be like for her mom or dad to tote around a grandchild with strong Asian features. "Hmmm... who cares?!"

This blindness - the lack of consciousness about the external differences - I believe resides at the heart of a modern-day abolitionist movement. In today's world, that blindness could abolish racism, gender bias, religious compartmentalizing, ageism, and a cornucopia of other prejudices. Because this blindness sees into the heart, mind, and spirit of a person, rather than the packaging. It reminds me of a beautiful video I saw a few years ago about love (click the photo to the left to view).

It means each person begins with a baseline of respect and inherent acceptance. With more information about a particular individual, that respect might bloom into a deep and abiding love, or shift into a distaste for the behaviors and attitude someone projects into the world. I think it's okay not to like everyone, and the only way we can actually know who we like (and who we don't) is to learn about each unique being personally.

Over the last couple of months, I've read a couple of books referencing Charles Darwin's, "On the Origin of Species." The premise of evolution, based on situational conditions and the need to survive, has been evidenced in all living things. It's why there are so many kinds of Finches, or mosses, or colors of humans. Each represents an adaptation of the same species, brilliantly altered to survive.

On the topic of people evolving, activist, Jane Elliot said it beautifully, "There's only one race; it's the human race." Everything else is a construct, built out of fear. Fear that there will not be enough, so someone else must be suppressed. Fearing, "if only the strong survive, I must prove my superiority." Fear based on an incorrect assumption: anyone who is different poses a threat. But what if none of those beliefs is true? What if we are simply continuing to expand and evolve as a species? What if the scarcity of our minds keeps us small, and sharing the wealth, the burdens, the joys, and our humanity allow us to experience a depth of harmony, not yet experienced (at least in my life time)?

Although Elliot's work focuses (watch the Frontline documentary) on the culture of black and white "races," the principle far exceeds those limitations. How I treat someone else, particularly if all of my friends treat that person the same way, will impact how that person enters the world. I've witnessed this in a variety of circumstances.

I know a woman, so elevated by the people she surrounds herself with, she's lost sight of her own human frailties (the aspects of her requesting more self-love and honest reflection), seeing solely the reflection of her circle. Likewise, I've seen a brilliant woman - incredibly judgmental of herself - because she adopted the reflected tenor of both the family she grew up in and the community feedback received as an adult. Neither of these reflections is reality! And yet, when an entire culture participates, we believe what we're taught...we believe what we think...we forget that each of us is a spark of universal energy - here to contribute what only that one being is capable of offering in such a unique way. When we lose sight of the divinity in ourselves; we lose sight of it in others. When we lose sight of our own humanity; we lose sight of that in others.

So, perhaps a step could be to adopt Julia's blindness. When we see ourselves from the inside out, with that baseline of respect and inherent acceptance, we begin a ripple. With that absence of judgment, a space opens for the human and the divine to meet and coalesce. This blending honors the wholeness. It allows for both science and spirituality. There's room for every individual at the table to be fed, clothed, and respected as a contributing member of the community, even when we can't see what that contribution is! Because, maybe it's not about something tangible. Maybe that person's contribution is to teach others about compassion, and the only way for the community to learn, is through the experience of having compassion for that person. If we then, consciously see the person before us, whether at the check-out counter, in the neighboring seat at the movie theater, across from you at the dinner table as a human/divine being, how would you treat them? (S)he does not represent all others of the same race, gender, age, sexual orientation, culture or religion. (S)he, like me, like you, represents a single drop in this vast ocean of beingness.

Dr. Brian Weiss

In July, I participated in a five-day professional training with Dr. Brian Weiss. He is one of the premier past life regression therapists of our time. What he's learned, and teaches, is this: "Only Love Is Real" and earth is one of many schools for the soul. While we inhabit these bodies, we learn, evolve, and take the soul lessons with us to other dimensions and other lives. In this way, we come back to learn again and again, so if we rape and censure in one life, we will likely experience those traumas in another - to gain perspective and compassion for the next go around. Are there really past lives? I have no idea! If the magic of that work supports healing, I don't think it matters.

Near the end of the training, Brian shared a beautiful metaphor that came to him in a dream. The excerpt below is the essence of this metaphor, borrowed from an interview he once gave at the Omega Institute. The italics portion is directly copied. The non-italics comes from my memory of what he shared.

"We seem separate from other souls, even though we are really not. That's the grand illusion. Everything is emanating from one source. We are like ice cubes. One tray may appear perfect. No bubbles, no chips, all the same size and shape, with edges exactly even. While another tray is filled with cubes of different sizes, cracked, and lots of apparent imperfections. They look separate, but if you heat the ice cubes, they melt into an indistinguishable puddle. Keep heating them and they become steam and disappear, but they're all still hydrogen and oxygen molecules. Like those molecules, we are all connected, even though we appear different."

Julia's boyfriend may appear to be without bubbles or chips, while Julia may seem to have cracks and imperfections (or vice versa). The beauty of Julia's blind eye: she only sees the puddle. I am a part of that puddle, just as you are.

Perhaps together, we might become the modern-day abolitionists. Hopefully without the kind of violence perpetrated upon our beings, as those who fought to abolish slavery suffered. Through our commitment to see each individual - with their combined humanity and divinity - might arise a season of peace, the likes of which has not been seen for lifetimes. May we each begin with that divine human in the mirror.

With love,

Joanne Lutz