"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience." ~Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
This what's wrong with the world today: so many among us seem to have forgotten this truth we came into this world knowing. We've become so focused on the packages we each reside in, our skin color and ethnicity. There are lines of division being 'drawn' everywhere we look, particularly by the Hollywood elites and main-stream media. In this mindset, the world cannot help but be perceived as a series of slights, rooted in past wrongs which true racism will never allow to be forgiven. If we willfully close our eyes to the progress we have made in so many areas, we become pawns in a larger political agenda --us against THEM-- instead of the truly liberated beings we were meant to be. Beings who control their own destinies, thoughts and dreams, beings on a quest to reconnect with the spiritual nature of our true being. And counter-intuitively, it is forgiveness not condemnation that holds the key to our liberation. We must forgive, so that we in turn may be forgiven. Otherwise, we will remain grounded beings, trapped in a repetitious cycle of human failures, incapable of hope for a vision of an even brighter future, a future in which we have an active hand in shaping our own destinies and creating a better world for our children and our children's children after them.
"What man is a man who does not leave this world a better place?" I would wager, the man who sows division is the antithesis of the latter. And the man who teaches his children division digs an even greater hole for his children to climb out of, in terms of spiritual enlightenment which in the end is the point of this shared journey, LIFE, we are on. Open your heart and let it begin to engage your mind.
To the Professor, Ekow N. Yankah, who has sadly concluded, in his "New York Times" op-ed, "I will teach them to be cautious, I will teach them suspicion, and I will teach them distrust. Much sooner than I thought I would, I will have to discuss with my boys whether they can truly be friends with white people." I have to say, how sad for your children, Professor Yankah. By your proclamation you have already closed doors to your children, doors that may have truly expanded their way of thinking and the people they are ultimately capable of becoming. By your proclamation, your children will now have to work that much harder to get closer to a spiritual version of truth. How close-minded, to paint all 'black' people with one brush and all 'white' people with another, when the truth lies somewhere in between. There are good 'black' people, just as there are good 'white' people. There are bad 'black' people, just as there are bad 'white' people, both historically as well as in more modern times. But the spiritual truth is that we are so much more than 'black' and 'white'. I happen remember my first best friend, at the impressionable age of 4 years old, the same age as the son of NYTimes op-ed author. My first best friend was a beautiful little African-American girl, named Kimberly, but I never saw Kimberly as being any different than me. She was my best friend and we had hours upon hours of endless fun together until I moved away a year later. Children don't see 'color'; they are taught to see color. And nothing in this world will ever truly begin to change until we, as grown-ups, parents, educators and mentors pledge to stop teaching our children to divide up our world by color. It's that simple. Perhaps the change starts with you, one ever-widening ripple in the pond of human consciousness?
My thoughts after reading "Can My Children Be Friends with White People?"
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