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Jan 04, 2023
I know that everyone's experience differs a bit, it's just that I was never great at history. Somehow, along the journey from grade school to high school to where I find myself now as "middle-aged-man," the blame seems to easily fall on my 4th grade history teacher. That's right, shame on you Mrs. B. Afterall, someone has to be responsible for "history" sucking the joy of life from our very soul. History always seemed so boring. I mean seriously, it was yesterday, hundreds of years before I was even born.
I was Luke Skywalker, always interested more in what was down the road - what was yet to come. I suppose if I had been more self-aware as a kid back in 1980, I would have realized that history greatly influences the future. When Yoda spoke those words to Luke - it was as if though he were speaking directly to me. "All his life has he looked away...to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was - what he was doing." - Yoda
Funny, how history, even if it occurs a year ago, a month, a week, or even yesterday - gives huge clues and evidences as to How We Got Here! I also find it ironic that it is so easy and commonplace to blame someone else for our own inability to take responsibility to DISCOVER what TRUTH we can on our own initiative. Sorry Mrs. B.
The other night, a friend and I were speaking of the toxicity that has somehow poisoned our nation when an unchecked media and an apathetic populace wield a freedom to speak without responsibility.
Again, it would be easy to cast blame on the growing rise of social media over the past 20 years from MySpace to Facebook & beyond. These platforms initially meant to draw people together globally - to provide connection. Somehow, it seems that that connection has become fractured though. Anyone can offer an opinion, or have a voice to share their experience - which at first seems inviting...to find a voice, to speak something into this world of globally connected friends, families, and neighbors from afar. But all too many nights I come to the close of the day bombarded by an abundance of opinions, to mis-information, to careless words, to hate, to outright lies. And by the end of the night it seems as though every moment is saturated with messages that fill up our lives until our eyes are nearly swollen shut from soaking up ever last bit of...well, whatever it is that you and I ingest until we fall asleep - only to lather, rinse and repeat the following day.
Last time I wrote something significant - it had to do with Toilet Seats and Love and Wonder. In that particular piece I asked the question, "How did we get here?" Somehow, I came to the conclusion that maybe that isn't the right question. Perhaps the better question at this point is "How do we get somewhere else?" Maybe there is a place where we notice people as people and care for someone as a person, regardless of their current background or story.
Maybe you're like me. Have you ever wanted to see people treat one another with respect and dignity? I hear myself talk about that in so much of what I have written and spoken over the years. But what does that really look like?
I too would love to see a sense of making our country great again. But maybe it never was. "Greatness" as it goes, seems to be defined in so many different ways. Where one person's understanding of greatness is found in a wake of power and control, another's is found in meekness, humility and kindness. At times I struggle to find the words that are compelling me to move forward...and to actually LIVE those words. For even in these thoughts written in ink to paper (and keystrokes to a digital library), I know that were I to put them on particular social platforms - 1 person would agree wholeheartedly, while 10 others would find the one phrase that irked them to an angered frenzy - only to have the very wrath of hell descend upon me in a ridiculous demonstration of how we treat one another as an object of wrath, with no consideration to "person".
If you haven't encountered this - you probably stay away from social media. Spend 5 minutes on Twitter and it won't be difficult to see how people tear at each other, even in the best intentioned posts.
Words are a catalyst. Words are powerful. Words can build or destroy.
I suppose that I could go back and retrace the history of how this toxicity has come to reside in our culture. Maybe with an intention to learn from the past, to change the future...but it seems a bit late for that now. How do we get somewhere else?
I'm open to suggestions. For now, I would love to simply say something that matters. In a storm of both encouraging and disparaging words, in a culture that is divided and fractured, I hope to encourage both myself and you to LIVE a life watching the WORDS that we say. It's easy to blame someone else for how we got here. And honestly, there are lot of people speaking words that seem worthless, destructive and degrading.
It seems that it may take a great amount of INTENTION to get somewhere else.
Sometimes I like to be humorous.
Sometimes I like to be awed by the Wonder around me.
Sometimes I speak what's heavy on my heart.
Thanks for taking the time to listen today (and this is one of those heavy on my heart days) - Kevin
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