It is interesting and enlivening to the mind, soul and community to step into our mundane, quotidian lives, for which neatly defined categories are no longer tenable and be left with the potential to be transformed into something ennobling, worthy of our human existence and the earth that houses and nurtures us along one part of our journey. The beloved Martin Luther King, Jr understood all too well the power of love, of community, of hope…and- difference: multilayered, manifold- POWERFUL in its ability to heal and destroy.
There was a time I desired to eschew all sense of particularity (gender, ethnicity, religious affiliation, national identity, etc) in favor of a more universal conceptualization of a human self. Aspiring to transcend those identities, in retrospect, may have been a way to extend a more gentle encounter with forms of “difference,” within less integrated aspects of my own self- and others-that touched at some form of unfamiliarity/mystery/judgment/discomfort.
The universal “transcendent” conceptualization still has its place in my life, but it is no longer borne out of some of the confusions I experienced in yesteryear: It flows unobstructed in the quietude of the enduring inner self. The truth she speaks, touches and delights me in moments of oneness, interconnection, flow, non-cognizant of an iota of race, creed, age, gender, sexuality, national origin-self!
We have no power to behold these moments; they behold us and in doing so provide succor and courage to journey farther, wider and deeper into areas of the unknown, of difference...of pain, suffering, loss and longing, for ourselves and others. Human life at our best and worst...
As I journey to understand myself as a particular being, with an identity, a story, family background, gender, sexuality, religion, generation, etc., these experiences within categories and commitments based upon rational choice-are also robust, full-bodied, deeply meaningful. At their best-they extend a way to engage, love, and try to understand compassionately people that hold different identities, different understandings, different commitments both within and outside my own categories. The rational choices made are not static. They can- and may well change- as I do, as I engage in relational spaces and encounter difference.
As society has progressed to the point of greater fluidity and awareness, we rightfully critique the idea of “tolerating” differences as flimsy and unhelpful. We find good work/dialogue in communities (inter-religious, inter-racial, for example) that are demonstrating how differences can be catalysts to living the virtues through the combination of the faculty of reason (understanding the role of rational choice, questioning assumptions), life of the heart (with its beauty, its inexplicable vigor and messiness at times) and taste of spirit (our felt sense of interconnectedness). Traversing the web, university campuses, houses of worship, private homes, basically anywhere, may all be domains for mind, heart and spirit to engage full force.
Undoubtedly, MLK Jr. who we honor today, Mother Theresa, Gandhi, for example were all moved by particularities (spiritual/religious philosophies, generational, ethnic, etc) that informed their understandings,and translated to a vision of society, which goaded noble actions in service of the truth of a “universal self.” They also held individual challenges that invite us to see that our own individual challenges/shortcomings need not excuse us from rising to express our best selves…however fleeting they may seem. This reminds me of a story I heard-and I'm paraphrasing- When Reb Zusya reached the heavenly gates, he was not asked why he was not Moses, he was asked why he was not Reb Zusya. Difference invites the living out of our own Reb Zusya (being oneself, however we may not conform to an expectation) and learning to let differences linger in the background as they do when we meet spirit to spirt. Then, take what's learned to forward social justice...
There was a time I desired to eschew all sense of particularity (gender, ethnicity, religious affiliation, national identity, etc) in favor of a more universal conceptualization of a human self. Aspiring to transcend those identities, in retrospect, may have been a way to extend a more gentle encounter with forms of “difference,” within less integrated aspects of my own self- and others-that touched at some form of unfamiliarity/mystery/judgment/discomfort.
The universal “transcendent” conceptualization still has its place in my life, but it is no longer borne out of some of the confusions I experienced in yesteryear: It flows unobstructed in the quietude of the enduring inner self. The truth she speaks, touches and delights me in moments of oneness, interconnection, flow, non-cognizant of an iota of race, creed, age, gender, sexuality, national origin-self!
We have no power to behold these moments; they behold us and in doing so provide succor and courage to journey farther, wider and deeper into areas of the unknown, of difference...of pain, suffering, loss and longing, for ourselves and others. Human life at our best and worst...
As I journey to understand myself as a particular being, with an identity, a story, family background, gender, sexuality, religion, generation, etc., these experiences within categories and commitments based upon rational choice-are also robust, full-bodied, deeply meaningful. At their best-they extend a way to engage, love, and try to understand compassionately people that hold different identities, different understandings, different commitments both within and outside my own categories. The rational choices made are not static. They can- and may well change- as I do, as I engage in relational spaces and encounter difference.
As society has progressed to the point of greater fluidity and awareness, we rightfully critique the idea of “tolerating” differences as flimsy and unhelpful. We find good work/dialogue in communities (inter-religious, inter-racial, for example) that are demonstrating how differences can be catalysts to living the virtues through the combination of the faculty of reason (understanding the role of rational choice, questioning assumptions), life of the heart (with its beauty, its inexplicable vigor and messiness at times) and taste of spirit (our felt sense of interconnectedness). Traversing the web, university campuses, houses of worship, private homes, basically anywhere, may all be domains for mind, heart and spirit to engage full force.
Undoubtedly, MLK Jr. who we honor today, Mother Theresa, Gandhi, for example were all moved by particularities (spiritual/religious philosophies, generational, ethnic, etc) that informed their understandings,and translated to a vision of society, which goaded noble actions in service of the truth of a “universal self.” They also held individual challenges that invite us to see that our own individual challenges/shortcomings need not excuse us from rising to express our best selves…however fleeting they may seem. This reminds me of a story I heard-and I'm paraphrasing- When Reb Zusya reached the heavenly gates, he was not asked why he was not Moses, he was asked why he was not Reb Zusya. Difference invites the living out of our own Reb Zusya (being oneself, however we may not conform to an expectation) and learning to let differences linger in the background as they do when we meet spirit to spirt. Then, take what's learned to forward social justice...
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