Responding to the Epidemic of Fear,
Ignorance, and Violence
These are frightening times. What we are witnessing is the undeniable rise of fascism, white supremacy, and fundamentalist Christian nationalism — all of which is unleashing an epidemic of fear, ignorance, and violence.
We see this in the ongoing attacks on immigrants, Trans people, Black people, and many more marginalized communities. It manifests in book bans and the assault on education and the tidal wave of dangerous disinformation. Poisonous polarizing propaganda disempowers us and turns us against one another as a distraction from the true roots of our suffering. The normalization of late stage patriarchal, neoliberal, predatory capitalism locks Americans and the planet into a system that is fueling crushing poverty and death, endless wars, and the destruction of Earth's biosphere. Systems of caste perpetuate and remain at the heart of racism, inequality, and harmful belief systems which we've so often unknowingly absorbed into our bodies like the air we breathe. Doubt and denial about our warming planet continues to be fueled by fossil fuel companies and pathological greed and those whose bottom line matters more than sustaining a habitable planet — including for their own children and grandchildren — and even in the face of ever increasing, relentless, and catastrophic floods and wildfires, devastating droughts and crop failures, hurricanes and typhoons and tornadoes, melting glaciers and rising seas, and the sixth major extinction... the first in all of history to be human caused. And the list goes on.
Yet, how many of us are researching and learning and talking about all of this? How many are turning away, silent, and even in the face of the looming threats of destroying the whole of Earth's ecosystems and the ultimate extinction of most life on our precious Earth Mother? How many of us are too frightened to truly look deeply into the reality of our peril and, in some ongoing way, act? And at what cost?
I've been there. There is much humility and compassion that comes with recognizing how many delusions have felt so real to me. Today I can fully own that I've lived so many years of my life with layers of indoctrination, ignorance, and illusions. I am also now aware that shedding what I have absorbed in my family and our culture that has been limiting and harmful is an ongoing and lifelong process. It takes courage and commitment, community and support, openness and resilience, imagination and vision, humility and dedication to truth, and Grace and Love.
I imagine a world where more and more of us will grab onto the thread which leads us into ever growing consciousness and truth, compassion and caring, purpose and clarity of our part in our own healing and that of us collectively, and courage and wisdom and love. Just imagine if our numbers grew and grew who were simply speaking the truth about both the perils of our time and the incredible beauty and deepest needs of ourselves, of all of Earth's inhabitants, and a vision for what is possible. Imagine if we were to come together and allow our breaking hearts to inspire us to channel our grief, outrage, and fears into actions that are in the highest good for us all. Just imagine if more and more of us found our thread and didn't let go. Just imagine.
* * * * *
The Way It Is
There’s a thread you follow. It goes among
things that change. But it doesn’t change.
People wonder about what you are pursuing.
You have to explain about the thread.
But it is hard for others to see.
While you hold it you can’t get lost.
Tragedies happen; people get hurt
or die; and you suffer and get old.
Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.
You don’t ever let go of the thread.
— William Stafford
* * * * *
The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives might be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
— Wendell Berry
* * * * *
This is a dark time, filled with suffering and uncertainty. Like living cells in a larger body, it is natural that we feel the trauma of our world. So don’t be afraid of the anguish you feel, or the anger or fear, because these responses arise from the depth of your caring and the truth of your interconnectedness with all beings.
If
the world is to be healed through human efforts, I am convinced it will
be by ordinary people, people whose love for this life is even greater
than their fear.
Of all the dangers we face, from climate chaos to permanent war, none is so great as this deadening of our response. For psychic numbing impedes our capacity to process and respond to information. The energy expended in pushing down despair is diverted from more crucial uses, depleting the resilience and imagination needed for fresh visions and strategies.
The heart that breaks open can contain the whole universe.
— Joanna Macy
* * * * *
William Stafford, Wendell Berry, and Joanna Macy are just a glimpse into the many wise human beings who have had a deep, lasting, and sometimes profound impact on me and my life.
Who inspires you? I believe that no two lists would be the same for any of us. Some lists would be small, some large. Some of us also may not yet have considered who we have turned to, or might yet seek, as teachers, mentors, inspirations.
For me, I can't even begin to remember all of the authors and activists, poets and artists, visionaries and spiritual teachers, truth-tellers and wisdom-keepers who have played a part in my awakening and the ongoing shedding of many layers of harmful belief systems that I have absorbed in my family and our culture. That said, I do keep a running list, which currently looks like this:
Pema
Chödrön, Riane Eisler, Joanna Macy, Jane Goodall, Mirabai Starr,
Naomi Klein, Amy Goodman, Arundhati Roy, Isabel
Wilkerson, Maria
Ressa, Vandana Shiva, Alice Walker, Maya Angelou, Angela Davis, bell
hooks, Nikole
Hannah-Jones, Toni
Morrison, Roxane
Dunbar-Ortiz, Angeles Arrien, the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers, Joanne
Cacciatore, Joan Borysenko, Rachel Carson, Dorothy Day, Hannah
Arendt, Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Emma
Goldman, Eleanor
Roosevelt, Michelle Alexander, Jane Mayer, Marian Wright Edelman,
Frances Moore Lappé, Terry Tempest Williams, Margaret Mead, Melissa
Harris-Perry, Christiana Figueres, Malala Yousafzai,
Greta Thunberg, Sir David Attenborough, Howard Zinn, Martin Luther
King, Jr., James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Langston Hughes, Desmond Tutu,
Nelson Mandela, Cornel West, Bernie Sanders, Rabbi Michael Lerner,
Noam Chomsky, Chris Hedges, Gabor Maté,
Bessel van der Kolk, Dan Siegel, Henry
Giroux, Jeff
Sharlet, Jeffrey
Sachs, Norman Solomon, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna
Pressley, Rashida Tlaib, Jeremy Scahill, David Sirota, Daniel
Ellsberg, Father Daniel Berrigan, Michael Parenti, Paulo Freire,
Chalmers Johnson, Timothy Snyder, Jason Stanley, Bill Moyers, Albert
Einstein, Carl Sagan, James Hansen, Bill McKibben, Michael E. Mann,
Dahr Jamail, David Korten, Bryan Stevenson, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ibram
X. Kendi, Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Jelani
Cobb,
Resmaa
Menakem,
Michael Meade, Joseph
Campbell, Carl
Jung, Frank Ostaseski, Francis Weller,
Johann Hari, Fred Rogers, David Bedrick, John Welwood, Jeff Brown,
Thích
Nhất Hạnh, the Dalai Lama, Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Judith Duerk,
Rachel Naomi Remen, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Sharon Salzberg, Brené
Brown, Tara Brach, Kristin Neff, Charlotte Kasl, Mary Oliver, John
O'Donohue, Rumi, Hafiz, William Stafford, Wendell Berry, Peter
Levine, Kahlil Gibran, Joy Harjo, Naomi Shihab Nye, Amanda Gorman,
Chelan Harkin, Jack Kornfield, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Matthew Fox, Robert
Beatty, Doug Pullin, my three sons, my loving husband Ron Matela,
many beloved and wise friends, our Earth Mother, and the list goes on
and on...
* * * * *
It is not easy to be human. And perhaps especially during these times when so very much is at stake. It is my belief that we all need each other, that we are all in this together, and that facing the perils of our times is not anything that we can do alone or in isolation. Yet, it is so important to not turn away. The pain, horrors, and heartbreaks of what we see can push us down and paralyze us in depression and despair. Or we can turn away and stay unaware and silent and numb. Or the great challenges of our times can inspire us to —
- seek in an ongoing and ever expanding way our individual and collective healing, transformation, and awakening
- discern the integrity and commitment to truth in all of our resources of information
- expand our circle of caring
- lessen our isolation and find and grow our community
- strengthen our voices and share what we are learning
- strengthen our hearts and our spiritual practices
- refuse to be part of or collude in the propaganda of polarization, othering, demonetization, and hatred
- remember that if we are less ignorant and more aware than some others, we are blessed; not all have our degree of resilience, courage, healthy community, and strength of heart and grace
- take action in whatever ways that we can — remembering that activism is the antidote to despair
- hold compassion for all beings as best as we can — remembering that we all carry some degree of trauma, grief, and loss
- seek to Do No Harm
- embody a profound commitment to Truth and Love
This is but a partial list. We can all make our own. Intentions are powerful. And we each have our own unique ways to be part of the great universal struggle for a more just, sustainable, peaceful, and loving world.
With heartfelt blessings to all,
💗 Molly
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