Everywhere I look, I notice two different things. Over here are people who are wringing their hands, usually obsessed with their news feeds, and convinced that the world as it is - especially here right now in the US of A - is only getting worse by the day. And it’s not that they’re “wrong,” per se, and I can see the mountain of evidence supporting their claim.
But the other thing I see (and feel much more of, myself) is the polar opposite: an unbridled sense of optimism and joy at how people, typically in the face of immense challenge, get crystal clear on the type of world we want to be inhabiting. If you’re paying attention, I know you see some of this evidence too. People coming out into the streets to support neighbors they’ve never met. People joining hands and singing songs and crying for people they never met. And people connecting with one another, feeling the sense of “we are all in this together” like never before. Not even during Covid.
It’s funny how it works, but it’s predictable as the sunrise: Getting a gigantic taste of something you deeply despise can immediately show you, in sharper image than ever before, what it is that you do prefer. Seeing someone’s pain makes me want to be helpful. Feeling poor makes me want more money. We all have these instincts. These same beautiful, primitive instincts to care for members of our tribe. And while it can appear that we are more siloed, more tribal then ever, we also know in our primitive senses that our true tribe is the entire human race.
We see someone smiling and laughing, and something deep within us can’t help but react with a similar vibe - we smile, we momentarily feel good feelings like that person we’re watching. We can’t help it. It’s only moments later when we may color the experience with our biases, or what we think about a person of that race, or gender, or age, or the way they laughed, or all those judgmental places we humans also share.
The events in Minneapolis and beyond have created a movement that was already in motion before, but is gaining huge momentum right now. And it’s not simply a movement towards the right or left politically speaking. It’s a movement towards each other. Towards realizing that powering over someone is less sustainable than powering with them.
Humanity is leaping forward. We are evolving into our next stage of consciousness, and into our hearts. It’s lovely to see, even though the process of becoming is so excruciating.
So hang in there with me, friends. Keep loving, keep singing, keep your hearts open to others. I took the opportunity to invite my neighbors on each side over for lunch the other day, and it was one of the best and smartest things I’ve done in awhile.
Community is everything. We are in this together. And that’s a beautiful thing.