The Hard One…

I have not felt well at all this week. Tired and nausea. After waking to THE news, I hid away totally and completely yesterday. I did not even touch FaceBook. Because two minutes of it was enough to send my stomach into a churn worse than the North Sea that Sven, Mikael and Bjorn fish. But it was NOT the Donald that had me upset. After the shock of Brexit some months ago, I had almost come to expect it. What had me upset was the fear and hatred…on BOTH sides.

Mind you, I had long ago sussed out that fear and hatred were the driving forces for many people. What shocked me though was to see it reflected back on those people by ones who had previously taken the moral high ground.

The truth is…we are ALL afraid.

The world is changing and shrinking faster than our brilliant human minds can imagine. The challenges we face seem larger and more widespread than ever before. And we are afraid that we are not up to them. That we will fail.

And we look to others to save us.

Politicians with angry rhetoric…or just as futilely idealism that is impractical at its roots. Some look to religion or their gods.

Either way in the end it always comes down to this…

You think the only people who are people are the ones who think and act like you…

It is us against them. Because that is how politicians win and how preachers/rabbis/monks/or whatever get your money and devotion.

But whatever aisle of this debate you fall on…here is some news for you…hatred won’t work. It will not save you. It won’t keep your jobs or send your children to good schools and it sure won’t put food on your table or clothes on your back in hard times.

No, in these dark hours, we need three things…

Duty…Honor…and most of all…LOVE.

These things though are in short supply…two minutes on FaceBook was enough to tell me that. Do you know why though?

Because they are things that we can’t look to any politician to give us (beyond inspirational rhetoric anyway). Over a decade as a Pentecostal preacher’s wife taught me not to even expect some far off god to impart them to his children.

No, the problem is that those are things we have to do for ourselves. We have to reach deep inside of us. Stare the ugliness of our soul, its failures, flaws and past in the face. And make the hard choice to do better. To be better men and women.

And yes, to do our best…our duty…even if we do fail.

To hold onto our honor…to keep our word, be that to our neighbor, our boss, our children or most especially ourselves.

And to practice love…not just for those who are like us. Who share our world view (even if we are right and they are wrong…lol). No, even that bible extols us… But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; (Matthew 5:44 King James).

Dems is HARD words to live by though.

But if we want better for ourselves, our children, this world then we must all stop looking to politicians…even gods…or anyone else to save us. We have to save ourselves…then in love, out of duty, and with honor we must reach our hands out not just to our family, friends or neighbors…but those ‘enemies’ that we are lamenting on FaceBook. Only then do any of us have a chance.

I can’t make that choice for you. I can’t even make it for PanKwake. I can only model it for her. By keeping word in the small things as well as the big. So after my first 3000+ word in so long that I cannot remember…I am off to get ready and take her to the pool.

I don’t want to.

You see what I don’t share is that one of the things which makes me a decent writer is the fact that I am an empath. I can feel the emotions of others. Sometimes as this week to the point of physically making me ill.

So I really don’t want to leave this refuge and fortress of love that Cookie Monster has crafted for me and that I do my best to maintain and nourish in duty, honor and love. I don’t want to feel the fear and hatred of thousands of strangers or see it written in all its ugliness on social media.

But I will and I do because that is my part…taking PanKwake swimming…feeding and massaging Cookie…and writing my heart out whether anyone ever reads a word of it or not.

It is not about winning or losing. Not about failing even. It is as simple as doing your best with what you have out of love.

May my goddess of love or your Jesus, Buddha or Muhammad…Freyja or Fate…whoever or nothing as the case may be…bless, comfort and protect you and yours in the dark days that try the souls of man.