Better
Part of Wisdom
“Wisdom
requires that we relax our hold on our picture of how things ‘ought’ to be and
learn to make peace with how they are. We can only do this moment to moment,
here and now, by responding with open hearts and minds to the changes that occur.”
Ram
Dass (Still Here)
I once
did gymnastics; could do a head stand from prone position. I once could swim a
mile before breakfast. That was then, this is now, and I can’t do those things
anymore. Learning to accept the limitations that aging has brought is
frustrating at times, but my happiness at still being alive to tell the tale more than compensates. I wonder whether you feel that way too.
Making
peace with what is rather than yearning for what once was is a national challenge
as well as a personal challenge. Especially for white people, who for so many
thousands of years did not have to concern themselves with injustice or contemplate whether
society was fair. That has changed. Now we are called upon to share the wealth,
share the land, and share our lives with people who do not look like us but are
none-the-less, our peers. Moreover, we now must look at how we have structured
society to benefit ourselves at the expense of so many others. And not only
look at it but find ways to change it. Some of us are having a difficult time
getting on board with this new reality.
We are
now having to grapple with the fact that after four-hundred years of presence
here on the north American continent, the ancestors of people from Africa,
brought here through the slave trade have equal rights and benefits as any
other American. They can no longer be considered “not quite American,” nor can
our indigenous people be confined to reservation and out of mind. Our day of
reckoning is here. So, what are our options? We white folks can either fight
it, and attempt to continue life as usual, or we can figure out ways to live
together as equal partners and peers. I prefer the latter.
How
hard can it be to say, "I was wrong." I was oblivious of being part of an
oppressive culture that systematically harmed others, in truth, because I had
the privilege of being oblivious. I was ignorant of white privilege, but now I’m
not. Now I see how inequality happened; how people of color have been systematically
prevented from acquiring homes, and quality education and jobs, and bank loans, and how
our white mind-blindness has preserved institutions of injustice. And now
that we know, the system must change.
In so
many ways, white Americans are ready for this change. There has been a climate
of unrest here for such a long time—a paranoia that something is wrong yet we’re
not quite sure what to do about it. It’s like having a ghost always hovering in
your background—there but not there. Change is hard, but change is also
reality. We will be a stronger, better, and more prosperous country when all
our citizens are allowed and encourage and enabled to rise to their highest potential.
All of us will benefit. Change is good because it indicates life; change is how
living systems evolve. As Ram Dass said, we must relax our grip on what was,
and open our arms to what is.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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