How does a country heal from gun violence, COVID-19, physical and mental assault, relationship dysfunction, and even self-sabotage? How does anyone heal anything? Love is the only answer for every problem, every time.
The answer is simple, yet profoundly difficult to achieve, like most worthwhile endeavors, such as alcoholism – stop drinking, weight loss – stop over eating, quit smoking – stop smoking.
What does it take for some police to stop killing black and all non-white people in the streets of our nation? What does it take to competently address addictions in this country? What does it take to get rid of COVID-19, not just live with it forever? Is there a common denominator that will heal self-sabotage we are all victim of from time to time?
LOVE IS THE ANSWER.
It is a simple, yet profound principle that makes for the best motivation in any kind of healing. Right now, we are a grieving nation from blatant cruelty from the trigger of guns, drug and alcohol addictions, and millions of deaths of our loved ones who died from the deadly pandemic sweeping the world. We are still trying to solve the best way to help asylum seekers seeking safety at our borders, reuniting children with their parents.
Calling things what they are, rather than hype up language with a cause, such as calling asylum seekers violent criminals, will defuse many situations. Uniting, rather than dividing, is the suggestion here.
Individually we can tackle each problem with a different set of solutions. Yet the bottom line for all these problems is love. The kind of love I am addressing here is agape love, brotherly love.
This is different from the selfish love, me-first love, only taking care of me and my-own love.
Genuine empathy, compassion, and love needs to infiltrate our hearts. This requires love without measure.
We are all in this life together, regardless of personality likes and dislikes, abilities and disabilities, class distinctions, and personal gifts and attributes. A deeper understanding of our shared human condition will lead the way out of the dark, self-serving and self-sabotaging agendas of political and religious leaders.
Now is the time to begin again applying the Gold Rule foundation for decision making in all areas. This works in the arenas of justice, immigration, and every other area of life we can think of. Acting in fair and equitable ways is not a push over. It just makes things more human. Let us all begin again, right where we are, to treat others the way we wish to be treated.
No one person or group is better than any other group. We have pride in our heritage, but ours is not the only heritage there is, obviously. We can get along with our neighbors, even globally. There is a way to communicate with those who do not agree with us without violence.
War is not a communication skill.
If we all chose the path of least resistance, we would find our problems would be solved easier. Ramping up violence, ramps up violence. We see this in the world, our politics, and even our families.
Creative problem solving requires innovative minds. Get more sleep. Eat good food. Exercise the body. These sound like simple things to start with, but they work. Many problems do go away with a good night’s rest.
Namaste