Being
Rooted
“Only when diverse
perspectives are included, respected, and valued can we start to get a full
picture of the world.”
Brene Brown
We’re
going through a time of social change. The dominant culture is experiencing an
influx of other voices with criticisms, ideas, and demands, and those voices are
louder and more insistent than ever before—and there are more of them. It’s a
crossroad where the future will be different from the past and even from the
present. I think this is producing anxiety in the majority culture and leading
to the white supremacy rhetoric and militia action. Are we afraid of being
supplanted, or are we afraid they will treat us, the white majority, as badly
as we treated them? It’s a good question to ponder.
The
world is no longer white Anglo-Saxon Protestant. This group may still control most
of the wealth, but that is also changing. There’s an old saying, “You catch
more flies with honey than with vinegar.” We would be smart to expand our
community of friends and allies rather than to make more enemies. That is true
for us as a nation, and for us as individuals.
Every time I notice my own
tendency to withdraw and isolate, I remind myself that we humans are tribal
animals. We need other people around us. We are not and never have been solitary
beings. It is not healthy to withdraw from society even if you are the
iconoclast who disagrees with everything it stands for. When you feel that way,
move toward people, not away.
Dan Rather praised his
parents for one thing they gave him: “It was a strong sense of being rooted.”
Being ensconced in a community, in a sheltering, caring circle of people, is
how we put down roots. We need that at every stage of life. When we don’t find it
in a positive group, we will find it in a negative one. We will find our sense
of belonging in gangs, or militia, or religious cults.
As mammals, we need community.
One way to be certain that you and your loved ones belong to a positive, caring
community is to provide it yourself. Invite. Welcome. Be kind. Be grounded.
Provide care and listen. Diverse perspectives are important. Everyone in the
world is not like us, but we all have one thing in common—we belong to each
other.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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