I haven’t blogged in a while, but the events of the past few weeks have spurred me to add my voice to the mix. In part, I haven’t blogged because I felt like everyone in my “bubble” seems to be saying the same thing… and what would one more voice mean? Would it really matter?
The answer to that came to me last Friday evening, when my Synagogue held a “Solidarity Shabbat” service in memory of the 11 people shot in Pittsburgh. It was an incredibly moving service, attended by several hundred people of all faiths. The sheer number of people there was truly amazing. At one point, I commented to a friend that it felt like I was being wrapped in a warm blanket of support. So yes, voices matter. Every voice matters. Every additional person there just added to the feeling of support.The Muslim woman sitting next to me told me that she didn’t really know why she came – she only knew that she wanted to do something to show her support and just showing up seemed to be the right thing to do. It mattered.
This service was special in that every aspect of it focused on the positive – the sense of community and solidarity that glues us together. There was no talk of “fighting back” or any of the rhetoric that has so dominated the news lately. It was purely a tone of standing tall in the midst of chaos.
Lately I have been imagining a classroom filled with the following students: Love, Hate, Gratitude, Anger, Joy, Sadness , and many others – in my imagination, I call it the “Classroom of Emotions”. If such a classroom existed, could any learning really take place there right now? Or would it all be subsumed by petty fighting and one-upsmanship (as in “my way is better than yours”)?
Recently, I have heard the statement in regard to many of our safe spaces like schools and Synagogues: “Hate has no place here.” While that sounds good on the surface, I wonder if that is really the answer. Because if Hate cannot be there, it will simply go somewhere else to incubate. Can Love co-exist with Hate? What would Love say to Hate in my fictional classroom? Would Love say “You have no place here?” Maybe, though I would hope not. I would hope that Love could find a better way. Perhaps an attempt to understand Hate a bit more would help. Where does it come from? What motivates it? Can it be re-directed in a more positive way? Perhaps we can all band together in hating the forces that threaten to tear this country apart and learn to accept each other’s differences without judgment.
To this end, during the past week, I have been re-training my eyes to look for pockets of Love rather than strife and conflict. I have made it a point to share posts on Facebook that are positive, rather than reactionary. It is just a start, but it feels far more empowering to me.
As I write this late in the day of these mid-term elections, my fervent wish for our country is that somehow we are all able to come together in Peace and find non-violent ways to stop the forces of evil once and for all, not just by banishing them to the dark corners of the country, but by understanding the root causes. If we dig up those roots, then maybe, just maybe, we can make some more lasting changes to this world.
