Imagine...Just Imagine

Oh, my, I just realized how long it has been since I've posted
anything on this blog of mine. It's not because things haven't been
happening or because I haven't had any thoughts on all the personal
and national and world events, but perhaps just because I have had
so many...too many, it seems, to be able to put them in some
coherent form to share with others. And I find this happening more
and more these days. Events foment around me, entering into my
headspace, into my heartspace, and so overwhelm me with emotions
and thoughts, with pictures and images, that I find it very difficult
to put it all into words.


*The American political scene, with all of the nastiness and back-
biting, with statements being made by candidates which seem too
bizarre to be real or taken seriously- but which are, by so many
people. To say I am confused would be a humongous understatement.


*The worldwide refugee crisis, with YouTube videos of the endless
stream of humanity on the move, to escape war and violence and
hunger, people willing to risk everything to reach a place of safety
and hope, while I sit here in my comfortable house, trying to decide
what I will make for dinner, not if there will BE dinner.


*The on-going, difficult, and dismaying level of confrontation between
my African-American sisters and brothers and the law enforcement
community, those commissioned to protect and serve- ALL people, it
seems to me.


*The continuing demonization of the LGBTQ community by some who
use the Judeo-Christian scriptures as a battering ram to hammer
home their own interpretation of those less-than-clear passages, all
the while seemingly-ignoring the very clear mandate of the one called
the Christ to love our neighbors as ourselves- and to love our enemies.
(Admittedly, I have a lot of trouble with the last part.)


*The increasingly-nasty rhetoric regarding Planned Parenthood, a
service which has done incredible good over many decades, and is,
in many cases, the only health service available to poor women, to
women without health insurance, to women who are on the fringes
and forgotten by the rest of society.


*The mystifying battle over gun control and gun "rights", when we
are being faced over and over and over and OVER again with tragic
school shootings. And in the midst of all the brouhaha, the issue of
mental health care continues to loom large, like the elephant in the
room that seems to be ignored by so many, but will not go away.


*Oh, and lest I forget, the incredible attack on voting rights in so
many places, including my own North Carolina, threatening the
disenfranchisement of racial minorities, the poor, the old, and the
young.


Add to all this, the personal and professional questions and problems
and joys, all of the family "stuff" which fills much of my days, and
I guess it is no wonder that addressing the whole miasma of life
right now is increasingly difficult. I can only say- right at this very
moment- that I am tired of the fighting, tired of the name-calling,
tired of the walls of separation and difference which are being
erected, ugly brick by brick, in the name of nationalism and
patriotism, in the name of religion and ethnicity, in the name of an
"I am right, so you must be wrong" mentality.


In this most glorious season of the year here in the northern
hemisphere, in this time of cooler days and crisp clear nights,
in this time of brilliantly-colored leaves and scurrying squirrels,
in this time of harvest and giving thanks, can we not- each and all
of us- take the time to look- really look- at one another...take the
time to realize that, under the skin, beneath the labels, in spite of
the ways in which we seek to separate ourselves one from the
other- we are all... each and every one of us...human beings, created
(according to my spiritual perspective) in the image of a God who
loves, a God who IS Love...a God who shows no partiality, a God who
welcomes and accepts each and every one of us as beloved children.
In the words of one of my favorite songs,
     You may say I'm a dreamer,
     But I'm not the only one.
     I hope some day you'll join us,
     and the world will live as one.
After all, I can dream, can't I?



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