Every Sunday morning at 7, I call into a spiritual group and we support each other. As I listen to their kindness, commitment, empathy, care, watchfulness, and contribution, I realize this is what most of us need to move forward.
Calling each other stupid isn’t cutting it. Always believing in scarcity is what it is:
Not enough for all of us.
A couple of years ago, I met my birth father for the very first time. I spent the day with him and his lovely wife. Then, I flew home. After settling in, one of my partner’s first words were, “What are their political views?”
I looked at him just a little surprised and said, “I don’t know.”
We talked about the values that exist above politics. At that moment, I realized how much I craved that kind of world. It is one where we respect each other’s beliefs, values, and outlooks. Of course, some of you are already feeling cynicism and contempt over this message. But, the real purpose of cynicism and contempt is to kill off change.
At the very least, I had to let go of cynicism and contempt and replace those filters with humility. It isn’t the brand of humility that requires falling to the ground and berating myself; it is the commitment of openness and receptivity to growth.
Much of my adult life was spent getting rid of the white-male-pissed-off God of my childhood. Today, when someone prays, I know he or she is praying to my entity.
During my first book tour, an evangelical radio station kept bringing me back for more interviews. One morning, one of them asked me to describe my spiritual philosophy. I respond, “My outlook is that I cannot differentiate my ass from a hole in the ground.”
Einstein used to stand in the front of a classroom, and he drew a circle on the chalkboard. Inside it, he wrote the word “known.” Outside the circle, he wrote the word “unknown.” Then, he drew a much larger circle with the same terms and pointed out that every time our circle grows, we become more aware of all that we don’t know.
When we protect our circle of “known” no matter how small it might be, we will never know just how big we are.
Thanks for that parable, David. I too am looking very closely at the world above politics, having been immersed, perhaps a bit too deeply for my own good, in it for the last 4 years. So I welcome any words of hope and descriptions of that world above politics, because that’s where I want to be now.