Our roots go deep
The values we commit to are these: radical compassion, radical humanization, radical inclusion, radical care.
There are times when I despair, playing the “if…then” mind game. If Congress doesn’t pass this law, or if it repeals that one; if governors repeal mandates, or if they reduce restrictions; if no one is held accountable for violent attacks, on the people in Congress or on the people in a grocery store or the people in an Asian spa or the people under a knee or the people walking down the street, then… and my heart blocks my throat, stopping the words.
This morning, though, I remembered that all these “ifs” and “thens” and the “them” I want so badly to act are also kind of a fiction. Or rather, a lure, a temptation to give my power away, sit back, anguish at the state of things, and excuse myself from action.
What can I do, if they won’t? my mind pleads.
Well. Political power is real, and can be used to heal or to harm. But it is not the only kind of power. And every moment of every day, we choose where to stand in relation to it, and to one another.
The revolution of values does not start or end at the doors of Congress, or state houses, or city council chambers. It must enter these places, and it must not shrink from the work of structural change. At the same time, we must not shrink from our own ability to contribute to change day by day, moment by moment.
I occupy such a privileged position. My skin color, educational background, income, working conditions, all create ease in my life. If I cede my own voice to those in the halls of power, if I wait for them to make decisions, what can I say to the members of my community whose positions do not have such ease?
There will be many losses, votes cast against progress, or not cast at all. If these losses change the core values on which we stand, then perhaps we were not on solid ground to begin with.
The values we commit to are these: radical compassion, radical humanization, radical inclusion, radical care. These are not of the “left” or “right.” They are radical because they come from the root of being a species that has evolved to be unable to survive alone.
To the insistence that some are more worthy of inclusion in decision-making, more valuable than others, we resist. Our beliefs, skin colors, ages, work, education, location, migration, self-expression, cultural expression, gender expressions, do not categorize us as “more” or “less.” We do not fear that which we cannot pin down with a label, never to change. We resist the desire, familiar in all of us, to push others down in order that we might believe, falsely, that we stand taller than they do.
Votes taken (or avoided) will not change this ground in which we are planted. Buffeted by the winds above, below our roots grow deep and strong.
As always, I appreciate your company on this journey, and hope that you do what you can to nourish your roots.