Happy New year all! May 2013 bring you cheer, comfort, love and prosperity. But may the biggest of them all be love.
With such a political climate swirling among us during this post election year, I wanted to address some of my personal thoughts about acceptance. Not just about the hot topic of gay rights but the acceptance of general screw-ups and shortcomings that make us so perfectly imperfect. With that said, I solemnly admit to being a former bigot. Against whom, is irrelevant.
I'm not proud of my past thoughts on the subject, not at all. It actually brings alot of shame to me when I think of it, hence why I often keep it to myself. Me being a believer in the magic of transparency, however, decided to be more vocal about how I used to think, how I think now, and what made me change. Everyone deserves a chance at grace. Even myself.
The biggest impact might have been when I looked into the history of blacks in America. The book "To be a Slave" (I forget the authors name forgive me) had several sample pieces of literature depicting blacks as "lazy, brutal, promiscuous, incapable of thought" as well as "formidably strong, fruitful, having poor kidneys resulting in putrid smell". These were written by Thomas Jefferson himself who also goes on record as treating his slaves the worst of all slave-owning Presidents and sleeping with his slave-women. Ratchet. The freedoms I have in the country can never be accounted for due to those before me that chose to risk everything for the future generations to be judged by character and not color. With that resonanting in my mind, it dawned on me "Who am I to assume anything about anyone...for anything?"
I implore you to ask yourself the same whenever you begin to assume about an individual. Black, white, gay, straight, poor, rich, old, young. Does it at all matter? The emotions tied to not being accepted for something you can't help are devastating, why put another person through that for the sake of righteous indignation? There is absolutely nothing righteous about exclusion and judgement. Jesus washed the feet of whores, killers, thieves and the infected out of Love; are we anymore righteous than Him? All the mistakes and bull we put ourselves through, we have no right to assume, to pass a single judgement. Mistakes will be what it may, but they are temporary. The past makes us but will never break us, so leave the past of others behind you and look forward to hope.
Praying for a compassionate world.
Namaste.
