Self-Reflection
“It
is always our own self that we find at the end of the journey. The sooner we
face that, the better.”
Ella
Maillart
I began
this morning’s search looking for quotes about loving-kindness, and instead was
led to ones about self-reflection. I’ve been doing a lot of that lately, for myself
and for America. Between our response to the pandemic, especially in this red
state where I live, where still only 33% of eligible people are vaccinated
against a deadly disease, and my personal experience of trying to do business
with a major American corporation, I am truly and deeply concerned.
I read
an article this morning about an interview with Retired General Wesley Clark,
who in the late 20th Century was supreme commander of NATO. He said
that the Taliban’s speedy take-over of Afghanistan in mere weeks of the American
troop pull-out was, “the result of 20 years of American misjudgments, of poor
prioritizations, and failed policies.” When an American general says that
of the organization he led for years, something is truly wrong.
What I
think is this: we have refused for too long—actually, for as long as we’ve been
a country—to self-reflect. From the beginning, we have felt entitled to move
into an area—whether the continental US or Afghanistan—and take it away from
the people who live there. We have found it conscionable to enslave other human
beings and treat them like farm animals. When it was inconvenient to deal with First
Nation citizens, we herded them hundreds of miles to land no one wanted and
then broke every treaty we made with them. And even now, we don’t want to include
any of this in our history books, as if by not admitting it, it will just go
away.
There
is so much that is right with America, but there is so much that is wrong, too.
We must be willing to look at ourselves. We must open our eyes to what is
happening in this country with our fractured politics, our systemic racism, and
our greed. This is the time to self-reflect—to be open to admitting our
failures, as well as celebrating our successes. Fortunately, more and more of
us are coming to this conclusion. We’re starting to simply ignore leaders who want
to take us in the wrong direction for their own selfish reasons. We’re putting
our trust back in science instead of lies and conspiracy theories.
Here is a quote that gave
me hope. It is by Alex Gray, an incredible American visual artist. He said, “The
cosmos is evolving toward greater self-reflection, allowing us to open the eye
of spirit and see our source.” I believe him. We must look squarely at
ourselves to find the truth of who we are, and then decide who we want to be
going forward. If we open the eye of Spirit, and look to our Source, we will
get there. May it be so.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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