I grew
up in a small town in Wisconsin, married a Canadian when I was 21 and moved to
Ontario where I've lived for the past 23 years. I have siblings who are
gun-passionate NRA members, innumerable friends-of-friends are hunters, and my
father was a sharp-shooter during the Korean War. (He refused to have a gun in
the house - EVER - by the way.) I grew up in a place where I knew everyone in
town and could frequently be found wandering the country roads alone,
exploring, as a child by the age of 10. We never, ever feared for our safety.
But this is a vastly different world we live in, I'm deeply sorry to say. And ever since 9/11 my husband and I have noted a remarkable difference in the Americans we know and love. It's astonishing for us to cross the border now and immediately see billboards for "Guns Galore" or the opportunity to hire a "bodyguard" with his vast array of weaponry to protect you on 8 Mile in Detroit. The fear is palpable (and yes, in my perspective it's terror).
I was working in an office when I first came to live in Canada and made a "joke" that I had better get a report done for my boss or he would shoot me. My co-workers glanced at each other in bemusement and then one said, "you Americans are so violent, Becky - all you ever talk about is shooting each other." It stopped me in my tracks. I've always prided myself on being a peace-loving person and anyone who knows me knows guns are as far from my reality as possible. And here I was - someone who didn't even like stepping on insects inadvertently! - so immersed in that culture that I didn't even REALIZE when I was mentioning a violent act. That was the day I started living truly consciously and paid attention to what I was saying.
I don't know what the answer is for Americans. I see them self-destructing in so many ways lately. They are vicious with each other during elections, they delight in the argument and striving to "win" and could care less about solutions, they isolate themselves from global perspectives and make up stories about each other that others willingly believe without checking facts. They kill themselves with massive workloads and don't get ahead in their debt repayment, crack under the stress they place on themselves and then scoff when others try to offer assistance or show them that there IS a different way. Guns are just the tip of the iceberg. If you want us to pry it out of your "cold, dead hands" so be it ... but do you understand that there may be nothing BUT cold, dead hands by the time you're all through proving your points?
I'll leave you with this lovely little gem I came across recently. You may say it's irrelevant to this conversation, but I don't think so. I think this is where it starts.
"I was recently told of an African tribe that does the most beautiful thing. When someone does something hurtful and wrong, they take the person to the center of town, and the entire tribe comes and surrounds him. For two days they’ll tell the man every good thing he has ever done. The tribe believes that every human being comes into the world as GOOD, each of us desiring safety, love, peace, happiness. But sometimes in the pursuit of those things people make mistakes. The community sees misdeeds as a cry for help.
"They band together for the sake of their fellow man to hold him up, to reconnect him with his true Nature, to remind him who he really is, until he fully remembers the truth from which he’d temporarily been disconnected: 'I AM GOOD'."
But this is a vastly different world we live in, I'm deeply sorry to say. And ever since 9/11 my husband and I have noted a remarkable difference in the Americans we know and love. It's astonishing for us to cross the border now and immediately see billboards for "Guns Galore" or the opportunity to hire a "bodyguard" with his vast array of weaponry to protect you on 8 Mile in Detroit. The fear is palpable (and yes, in my perspective it's terror).
I was working in an office when I first came to live in Canada and made a "joke" that I had better get a report done for my boss or he would shoot me. My co-workers glanced at each other in bemusement and then one said, "you Americans are so violent, Becky - all you ever talk about is shooting each other." It stopped me in my tracks. I've always prided myself on being a peace-loving person and anyone who knows me knows guns are as far from my reality as possible. And here I was - someone who didn't even like stepping on insects inadvertently! - so immersed in that culture that I didn't even REALIZE when I was mentioning a violent act. That was the day I started living truly consciously and paid attention to what I was saying.
I don't know what the answer is for Americans. I see them self-destructing in so many ways lately. They are vicious with each other during elections, they delight in the argument and striving to "win" and could care less about solutions, they isolate themselves from global perspectives and make up stories about each other that others willingly believe without checking facts. They kill themselves with massive workloads and don't get ahead in their debt repayment, crack under the stress they place on themselves and then scoff when others try to offer assistance or show them that there IS a different way. Guns are just the tip of the iceberg. If you want us to pry it out of your "cold, dead hands" so be it ... but do you understand that there may be nothing BUT cold, dead hands by the time you're all through proving your points?
I'll leave you with this lovely little gem I came across recently. You may say it's irrelevant to this conversation, but I don't think so. I think this is where it starts.
"I was recently told of an African tribe that does the most beautiful thing. When someone does something hurtful and wrong, they take the person to the center of town, and the entire tribe comes and surrounds him. For two days they’ll tell the man every good thing he has ever done. The tribe believes that every human being comes into the world as GOOD, each of us desiring safety, love, peace, happiness. But sometimes in the pursuit of those things people make mistakes. The community sees misdeeds as a cry for help.
"They band together for the sake of their fellow man to hold him up, to reconnect him with his true Nature, to remind him who he really is, until he fully remembers the truth from which he’d temporarily been disconnected: 'I AM GOOD'."
No comments:
Post a Comment