Big
People
“The
more of the world we can identify with and the wider our field of affections,
the bigger we are and the less we have to try to prove it.”
Gregg
Levoy (Vital Signs: The Nature and Nurture of Passion)
Over
breakfast this morning my son told me of two encounters when he went to get his
covid vaccines. Both times, an older white couple, obviously affluent judging from
their cars and clothing, came into the clinic where he sat waiting for his post-injection
fifteen minutes to pass. They asked for vaccine shots and were asked by the
young female clerk whether they had appointments. The answer was no. When she explained
that they were eligible by age but would have to go on-line and make an
appointment, the man of each couple became argumentative and belligerent. Both
times, they pointed to my son, who is in his mid-thirties, and said “he’s half
our age but he’s gotten a shot.” The clerk explained his frontline profession,
and that he had an appointment, but they weren’t satisfied. The men then made angry
threats that complaints would be lodged and went away. This is one very small
example of what is meant by “white privilege”—they were white men, elderly, well-to-do
and accustomed to being accommodated upon request and without question.
The
world has changed, or at least, is changing. It is moving away from a precious few
having special dispensation to do as they please. Understandably, after
thousands of years of privilege, this is causing tumult. We will feel uneasy,
perhaps even afraid, as change works its way through our culture just as we did
when the Civil Rights marches of the 1960’s shook up the status quo. We have
been through a dark night of the soul for the past four years during which people
marched in protest—for Black Lives, for Women’s Rights, and for the rights and
privileges of white Protestant men, as we saw in Charlottesville. We have watched
Nazis and Klan and militia members violently protesting the changes that are
inevitable. We have witnessed migrant families turned back at the borders,
children taken from parents, and all manner of civil unrest.
A period of chaos is
always precursor to systemic change. Here is how Gregg Levoy describes it: “We
must therefore be willing to get shaken up, to submit to the dark blossoming of
chaos, in order to reap the blessings of growth.” (Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life) Unfortunately, we do not
make big changes without the discomfort brought about by protest. Ask any
company CEO, what is it they fear most, and near the top will be employees
striking. I lived through some of the strikes of medical workers in New York in
the 1970’s and I can tell you that they were not neighborly. They caused a lot
of chaotic violence. I wish that we as a culture had the intelligence and true
heart to make allowances for the inequities that exist, but we usually don’t go
down without a fight. Change rarely happens without “the dark blossoming of
chaos.” I do believe there is a light at the end of this tunnel, but for
now, we are still in the tunnel. If we are able, we must be the Big People. We
must be the light we want to see. We can do it if we support each other.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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