Mad World - Are We Listening?

We hear only what we are listening for...
We hear only what we want to hear...

Does this mad world have a voice in your world?

Can you hear the voices coming at you everyday?

Can you hear this still small voice of madness within?

All of life is our teacher but can we hear?

It is there. Are we listening? Do we want to hear?

Or are we turning away, day by day?

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for the daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere

Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head, I wanna drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow

And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I'm dying
Are the best I've ever had

I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles it's a very, very

Mad world, mad world

On the turning away
From the pale and downtrodden
And the words they say
Which we won't understand

Don't accept that what's happening
Is just a case of others' suffering
Or you'll find that you're joining in
The turning away

No more turning away
From the weak and the weary
No more turning away from the coldness inside
Just a world that we all must share
It's not enough just to stand and stare
Is it only a dream that there'll be
No more turning away?

As I lay in bed, snug and warm and comfortable and secure,

the world passes me by. If I close my eyes, I won't see.

If I plug my ears, I won't hear. Why would I want to?

I know that most of the world now and throughout history

has been poor, struggling to survive, disabled, or oppressed in some way,

... even in America.

An honest look at this mad world makes obvious

that absurdity rules, especially for those that are drowning

in their fight for survival. Losing this fight is felt day by day.

It is a matter of time before they go under.

Down deep I know this. We all know.

So I don't look. I don't listen. 

It hurts too much and I don't like pain.

Why would I want to feel their suffering? hear their despair? see their pain?

If I get out of bed, I stand and stare...

If I catch a glimpse, then I destroy any compassion within me 

with finger pointing and blaming;

blaming them for being oppressed, for being disabled, for being poor... 

for being lazy and dirty and repulsive and different than me. 

Disparaging them for their own pain, suffering, and despair. 

I stand and stare... gawking in disgust.

Damn them!!! It is their own fault.

They are speaking a language I don't understand, won't understand.

That's why I listen to TV that tells me this is true. They even call it news!

How great is that?!?!? This is truly a great country.

Out of sight... Out of mind. Out of mind... Out of heart.

I live in a nice world with all of the worldly comforts I want 

and far more than I need.

I have the privilege of choice every day: 

my home, my neighborhood, my church, my country.

What's wrong with that? Why would I dare step outside of my world

with all of its safety, comfort, security, and certainty?

Isn't that some sort of crime? I'm no idiot! 

As long as all I see are people like me, thinking like me, voting like me, being me; then I know I am safe and secure. 

And isn't that what life is all about?!?!? 

Living a life that comforts me, confirms my biases, and leaves me alone.

Don't talk to me! Don't look at me! Don't touch me! 

And heaven forbid, don't have conversations about things that matter with me. Because I know that you speak in a language I can't understand.

Heaven forbid that I hear you.

Heaven forbid that I feel your pain.

“Those who do not weep, do not see.” (Victor Hugo, Les Misérables)

“It remains an experience of incomparable value that we have for once learned to see the great events of world history from below, from the perspective of the outcasts, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed and reviled, in short, from the perspective of the suffering.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

“The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.” (Mahatma Ghandi)

We must learn to See through the eyes of the brokenhearted.

We must learn to See with our own eyes of brokenheartedness.

The Cocoon

“Humanity has been sleeping — and still sleeps — lulled within the narrowly confining joys of its closed loves.” (Pierre Teilhard de Chardin)

Each year we live, layer after layer of conditioning creates a sort of cocoon where we see only what we are taught to see, hear only what we are listening for, the echo of our own voice; where we insulate and isolate ourselves from discomfort, insecurity, uncertainty, reality, truth, and the vulnerability of relationships as we sacrifice our own authenticity, identity, and integrity. After a while, we know nothing beyond our little cocoon. But that’s OK because it is safe and warm and predictable… and sleepy. We hang a sign on our cocoon, “Do Not Disturb!”

Meanwhile, “in the cocoon there is no idea of light at all, until we experience some longing for openness, some longing for something other than the smell of our own sweat.” (Chogyam Trungpa, Shambhala; the sacred path of the warrior)

 

Afterthought: Not everybody is going to be able to change their lives so abruptly and so drastically if you have not spent your life mindful of the 'other', of those that are different, with a worldview that includes all and envisions a world that works for all. Too many people have closed themselves off from  the reality of this world that we live in and have isolated themselves in their own bubble or echo chamber, fabricating an imaginary world of comfort, security, and certainty. Apart from truly immersing oneself in this life as it is, the least a person can do is to open your mind, heart, and will, expanding one's worldview to include all people, and becoming willing to become aware that the world does not revolve around you. You are a grain of sand on the beach of this world thinking you are the whole beach. Can we become aware? Can we pay attention? Can we learn to listen? Can we become human? Can we learn to have compassion for all? Unconditionally?

Caring Too Much

 

What Do You Do When You Care Too Much?

What do you do when enough is enough?

The time has come to choose the good, the human, the humane.

I can no longer identify with perversion, corruption, deception.

The Christians I knew when I was young,

the leaders, the role models,

used to care about all people

without a derogatory word to say.

It was called unconditional love, the mark of a Christian.

Has Christianity changed? Or just the powers of persuasion and politics? 

So what do I do when I care too much about people to fit in anymore?

What do I do since I care too much

as I become more and more

of an outcast and misfit???

I care too much about people to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about the poor to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about the disabled to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about the “least of these” to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about the alien to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about the stranger to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about all people to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about inclusion to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about acceptance to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about decency to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about dignity to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about respect to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about honor to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about integrity to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about truth to be a believer anymore.

I care too much about facts to be a believer anymore.

I cannot in good conscience and decency identify myself with the hypocrisy of such fake and empty systems of belief that focus more on exclusion than inclusion, more on being right that being righteous, more on judging others than on being kind.

No more Hypocrisy.

No more Meanness.

No more Cruelty.

No more Hate

No more Lies

No more Fear

No more Name-calling 

No more Labeling

No more Judging

No more Stereotyping 

No more Bullying

No more Violence

From what I see, Christians can’t bring themselves to appreciate the beauty of God’s creation

Beauty in nature

Beauty in people, all people

Beauty in diversity 

Beauty in difference

Beauty of all races (color of skin), all ethnicities, all immigrants,, all classes (rich and poor), ages (young and old), 

Beauty of all political beliefs, religious beliefs, lack of belief, lifestyle diversity.

I can no longer tolerate the toxic atmosphere that modern American Christianity constantly produces; spewing stereotypes and deception, diminishing and degrading fellow human beings.

Leaving me feeling like ... "I CAN'T BREATHE!"

I can no longer tolerate the mean, meaningless, thoughtless labeling and name-calling.

I’m not a liberal. What does that even mean?

I’m not a leftist. What does that even mean?

I’m not a left extremist. What does that even mean?

I am no one’s label, except for my own.

I’m a human being that cares about all people.

This is what I know for sure.

I am never the labels and stereotypes you decide that I am.

I am only the names and labels that I say that I am.

Just ask. You do not have the right to define me.

I understand the compulsion to be better than others, 

to put others down in order to build oneself up.

I understand the constant striving to be right.

But with those overbearing drives come

The compulsion to make others wrong

And the constant striving to be right.

All the time!

I know what this is like.

This was me for 50 years. 

Those chains have been broken.

I am free to be me and to treat others the way 

they want to be treated.

Instead of the way 

I decide by judging and labeling them.

What happened to love?

Love no matter what

Love no matter who

Love no matter if they are the enemy

Love no matter if they are different.

Honor and respect each and every person.

All life is precious!

I do not use the descriptions of “fake” and “hypocrisy” lightly. 

I know it is me that has lost my empty religion.

But it is the Christians I see that have lost their faith and love:

Without faith and love, religion is empty.

James 2:15-17 Suppose a brother or sister does not have any clothes or daily food and one of you tells them, “Go in peace! Stay warm and eat heartily.” If you do not provide for their bodily needs, what good does it do? In the same way, faith by itself, if it does not prove itself with actions, is dead.

James 2:26  A body that doesn’t breathe is dead. In the same way faith that does nothing is dead.

1 John 3:17-18 Now, suppose a person has enough to live on and notices another believer in need. How can God’s love be in that person if he doesn’t bother to help the other believer? Dear children, we must show love through actions that are sincere, not through empty words.

Matthew 25

41 ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

The Greatest Commandment to all Christians is to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. When Jesus was asked, who is my neighbor? His response was the parable of the good Samaritan concluding that our neighbor is anyone anywhere that has a need, again, unconditional.

 

Compassion First

Compassion First???

A requirement and priority for being human 

as well as a test of the authenticity of all the religious as well as the nonreligious.

It seems we have forgotten.

We must remember what we’ve always known.

If we are to live together as human beings, then we must learn to put love central to our politics and our religion.

As the Dalai Lama says,  “My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.”

"Rather than take religious views and teachings to be ultimate statements of absolute truth, they might be better understood as skillful means to liberate the mind. Instead of pitting one view against another, we might let go of rigid attachment to any view, and ask the very pragmatic question, “Is this teaching leading my heart and mind to greater wisdom and peace, to greater kindness and compassion? Or does it lead to more divisiveness, to more selfishness, to more violence?” ("Mindfulness, Compassion & Wisdom: Three Means To Peace" by Joseph Goldstein)

“A compassionate city is an uncomfortable city!
A city that is uncomfortable when anyone is homeless or hungry.
Uncomfortable if every child isn't loved and given rich opportunities to grow and thrive.
Uncomfortable when any group anywhere in the world is marginalized or oppressed.
Uncomfortable when as a community we don't treat our neighbors as we would wish to be treated.”
(Karen Armstrong, Charter for Compassion)

All Lives Matter?

Of Course All Lives Matter. But that’s NOT the point!

Actually, it belittles and nullifies the point of Black Lives Matter.

When you say, “All Lives Matter” then you are protesting against those that are protesting for “Black Lives Matter.” What you are saying to them is, “No, Black Lives Don’t Matter” because they all matter. Put your sign away and go home!

Of course, all lives matter. 

That’s a given and has been a given all of my life.

There is no need to protest or contest that. There is no need for a movement for that.

But there is a huge need to support BLM as human beings, and especially as Christians.

Of course, being the white guy that I am, so often blinded by white privilege, I forget that when BLM first began, my first response as a good Christian was, “Well Jesus died for all lives so why doesn’t your sign say that?” But I was fortunate to be living in a home with three of us old farts where the other two were black guys that have advocated and fought for human rights all of their lives. It didn’t take long for me to see the light, believe me. But it also didn’t take long for me to forget. Because one of the main privileges of white privilege is that I can forget. I can not talk about it for years, especially if I isolate myself in a bubble of sameness like so many Christians and Americans do. I am so grateful that I kept pushing myself to cross boundaries everyday. I refused to live, work, raise my kids, send them to schools, or worship in segregated settings. Of that, I am so grateful. And I am so grateful to my kids for reviving this critical conversation with me again, as they recognize the richness they have gained being immersed in diverse settings. And as they are finding ways to become better allies and to become active in advocating for oppressed groups, which many of their friends are members. And as they too are struggling to understand their own privilege and oppression, being mixed race.

https://dbaronirvine.wordpress.com/2014/06/29/boundary-spanning/

The issue is this: can we be allies and support those that have been hurt in so many ways? Or is our privilege and need for dominance going to get in the way? Being allies means we must follow their lead. Part of the privilege that I couldn't see for a long time is that I always felt that if I'm really going to be "all in" then I have to take charge. My ideas and strategies have to dominate because that's how I have always made my best contribution. But NO. That's the last thing that is needed. To sustain change it must be authentic which means it has to be grass roots and led by the people that are the focus of the advocacy. It is them that are breaking the chains of oppression, not me. It is not about me!

One BLM leader in a large city said that their biggest barrier has been well-meaning while liberals. That sort of speaks for itself. In Detroit, I read an article where they were considering asking whites to not not be involved unless invited for a specific event. I'm glad they didn't have to go that far because there is a lot more power with more people, especially when we learn how to use our privilege for something bigger than ourselves. As allies, the main thing we must learn is to get out of the way. And that starts by listening to those that matter and be a resource, but stay out of the way and let them lead. There was a local startup movement in my city, Poor People's Movement, something that has been around in different forms from the time of Martin Luther King Jr. I was asked to be on the planning committee. I saw up close and personal what happens when someone tried to get involved without understanding what it means to be an ally. We never did get it started because that person would not get out of the way and kept trying to take charge. It was very sad to watch. What a waste.  

For more, see Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack of White Privilege

And Becoming Trustworthy White Allies by Melanie Morrison, both of which are so basic that they are profound and transformative for me at least.

House on fire analogy: breaking it down in very understandable terms and pictures.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/kristatorres/burning-house-black-lives-matter?fbclid=IwAR03JC0PfkyT6XN0UloUQW8MNGD8D_hG5m2zOyd9W0lvfVfuIVfXW4NqJUo

Video: https://www.tiktok.com/@giv.sharp/video/6832735871846993158

It is like walking up to someone that believes that abortion is wrong while they are picketing and saying, "All Live Matter." "There is no need to stand up against abortion. Go home!"

It is like going by a table that is raising money for breast cancer and saying, “but all cancers matter.” “You can’t just raise money for breast cancer, what about all of the other types?”

From my experience, it is mostly Christians that I know that are contesting BLM with ALM. What they seem to miss is that they are undermining one of the central messages of Jesus and the bible. How can we be a defender of the oppressed if we are Christians?

Does this matter? What would Jesus do? What did Jesus say? How did Jesus live? What does your God say? What does the bible say?

In Jesus' parable, people were classified as sheep or goats, separated according to whether they fed the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, visited the prisoner, etc. Those that did not align themselves with the least of these and provide them with what they need were cast into hell. (Matt 25:32-46)

 

BLM is the same thing except that it is not just a matter of hunger, thirst, and prisoners, it is a matter of life and death for people because of their skin color.

I am sure that if Jesus were here, he would align himself at least with the least of these, and probably do a lot more.

All lives can’t matter unless Black Lives Matter.

Grounded in Groundlessness

Simplicity on the surface has to do with consumer choices of clothing or food or shelter.

But in a deeper sense, true simplicity must begin within.

This simplicity begins with uprooting and ungrounding the ego; seeing and letting go of assumptions.

Simplicity requires the inner work of seeing with clear perceptions and understandings, pure integrity and authenticity;

And doing the inner work of sorting through the trash and treasures, the clutter of conditioning lodged deep within.

Stillness: learning to sit and feel and see…

“And sitting lets us begin to do that. It doesn’t do it right away, because what we first are confronted with is just the assault of the amount of thoughts and the mixed messages that just inhabit our body and our mind and our experience on an ongoing basis — that when we sit, the first thing we’re met
with is not quiet or calm or peace. The first thing we’re met with is, ‘Oh, my God. Who is in here, and why won’t they shut up? How do I get them to stop?’ And not only is something and someone and everyone speaking to me, it’s mixed messages. Things don’t agree with each other. I don’t agree with my own truth. I’m having arguments in here that are not my arguments, they are someone else’s arguments. They’re my parents’ arguments. Sitting lets us just, first of all, recognize that we are this massive collection of thoughts and experiences and sensations that are moving at the speed of light and that we never get a chance to just be still and pause and look at them, just for what they are, and then slowly to sort out our own voice from the rest of the thoughts, emotions, the interpretations, the habits, the momentums that are just trying to overwhelm us at any given moment.