COVID-19 JOURNAL #8 PANDEMIC OF THE SPIRIT
Title
COVID-19 JOURNAL #8 PANDEMIC OF THE SPIRIT
Creator
Lfj Gill
Language
English
Text
COVID-19 JOURNAL #8 PANDEMIC OF THE SPIRIT
The one thing that will make the change …
There is only one thing that will bring about the change for which protestors around the world are calling. All the shouting, chanting, blocking traffic, lying on the ground, fighting, arguments on this side and that, even emerging agreements and amicable accords between opposing parties—and even the institution of new social-economic provisions for equal treatment—will not bring about the ultimate change for which we are crying. Unless, that is, unless and until, we are hooked up with the source of the kind of justice we want—just, caring, honest, compassionate, respectful and democratic treatment by and for every human being, everywhere.
The shorthand name for that source is Love. Unconditional, irreversible, unchanging and implicit love, in and for every human person. Another shorthand name for that source is God. God is love. And the reason for being hooked up to this source is that we are not. Not God. Not Love. Not unconditional. Not unchanging—clearly.
We have had shouting and chanting, looting and non-violent protesting, and great leaders pleading the cause of justice with compassion and integrity before. I was there. I was listening. I heard it with my own ears, huddling around a small TV with a black family in their living room on the 10th floor in “the projects” in New York City’s Lower East Side, August 28, 1963, watching Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking live from the March on Washington:
“One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. . . .
“There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. . . .
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’. . . I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. . . .
“And when this happens, and when we allow freedom [to] ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
‘Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’ ” *
Electrifying truth. Broadcast loud and clear on the National Mall over a crowd of 250,000 people. Now, almost 60 years later, has King’s dream come true? Why not? One reason and one reason only. It is not complicated, though we might like it to be. In spite of decades of endless talk and accusation and guilt and argument and outrage and protest, and the eloquence of many distinguished leaders—where’s the dream? What’s missing?
What’s missing is everyone. Every single person on the planet coming from one core reality. Until this takes place, there is, and will always be, division. A rift. Me vs you. And with that division comes all the ills among human beings all across the world, without exception.
We can, and perhaps should, celebrate our differences—differences in our individual personalities, gifts, ways, humor, service, ideas, creativity, etc., and in our cultures, insofar as those cultures are built upon that core reality (none at the moment are.) But unless those differences rest on the deeper core commitment within each individual soul, the peace, justice, equality and unity we want cannot, by definition, obtain. By definition because universal peace and justice require unity of purpose and action, based on universal recognition of our “created” human equality. And that we do not have.
The slogan “We’re all in this together,” inspired by the global Corona pandemic, acknowledges our unity in the face of a common enemy. We are united in opposition to a deadly, insidiously contagious virus that has already sickened more than seven million people and killed more than 400,000 people on the planet—and continues to ravage the human community.
But the slogan is equally apt for the newly risen global uprising in the wake of the murder of George Floyd—an involuntary sacrificial lamb bringing to the world’s attention the reality of man’s inhumanity to man—in the present case, highlighting the long-standing inhumanity perpetrated upon human beings with skins of any other color but white. The fact that we are all in this state of inequity together means, with obvious logic, that we are all involved in the need to change it. How?
What is the one thing? What is the “core reality?” Not complicated. But perhaps difficult, maybe even excruciating for many, because of the deep internal change required to effect it. In a recent response to the “pandemic of the human spirit,” as he rightly called it, Bishop Michael Curry said the following:
“But there's another pandemic, not of the viral kind, but of the spiritual kind. … It is a pandemic of the human spirit, when our lives are focused on ourselves, when the self becomes the center of the world and of the universe. It is a pandemic of self-centeredness. …
“And that pandemic is the root cause of every humanly created evil that has ever been made. Every war that has ever been fought, every bigotry, every injustice, every wrong that has ever been wrought. Anytime a human being has hurt another human child of God directly or indirectly, explicitly or implicitly, at the root cause is me being the center of the world and you on the periphery. . . . Love is the antidote to that. Love is the cure for that. Love is what can help us remove that way of living and establish a way of life where we find life for us all.
“This past week, we have not only had to endure a pandemic occasioned by a virus, a viral pandemic, but we've had to endure and face a spiritual pandemic. The roots of self-centeredness where one person can look upon another person and despise and reject them, and not even behold them as a fellow child of God. . . .”
The bishop spoke about the killing of George Floyd as “a violation of basic human decency and dignity,” citing the names of eight other victims of police brutality.
“This is a painful path that we have been on for a long time,” he added, observing that despite advances in racial relationships, “this seems not to have changed at all.” He spoke at length about the difficulties inherent in our longstanding system of inequity, but encouraged all to seek to realize what Christ taught. “And this Jesus taught us that love will make a way out of no way.”
“If I make room for you, and you make room for me, and if we will work together to create a society where there is room for all of God's children, where every human being, every one of us is treated as a child of God, created in the image and likeness of God, where everybody is loved, everybody is honored, everybody is respected, everybody is created as a child of God. If we work together to build that kind of society and don't give up, then love can save us all.”**
While there is an almost endless number of issues that must be addressed and rectified world-wide in the coming months (and years), until and unless this necessary condition is met, the rest will never be untangled and set right.
And this condition is a joy—such a joy to experience. The most beautiful moment I have witnessed in these past few weeks of turmoil—a brief but brilliant glimpse I caught on the news—was a scene showing the police in all their blue regalia and the protesters in their jeans and bandanas, everybody masked, dancing together—in perfect unity, fun, freedom, and joy. It happened somewhere in Nebraska.
And it was so obvious, just dancing the Cupid Shuffle (aptly enough)—even if only for that moment—everybody was as one. No concepts needed. No cumbersome belief systems in play, no political machinations going on—just human beings, fully alive, dancing together. That was a moment of exactly what I am talking about. The one thing. The core reality.
The moment everybody in the human community around the globe is in that core reality is the moment when all these issues will be no more. They’ll evaporate just like smoke. Housing will be cleaned up. There will be no more exploitation. No more oppression. Rather than competition there will be cooperation. Rather than destruction there will be creativity and construction. Rather than suspicion and fear and guilt, there will be ease and love and respect. And joy!***
Picture it. Can’t hurt. Might help.
* Martin Luther King, Jr., March on Washington “I Have a Dream” speech, August 28, 1963
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
** Michael J. Curry, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church
https://episcopalchurch.org/posts/publicaffairs/presiding-bishop-michael-currys-pentecost-sermon-live-streamed-service
*** https://people.com/crime/nebraska-cops-do-the-cupid-shuffle-with-citizens-in-the-wake-or-protests-about-george-floyd/
The one thing that will make the change …
There is only one thing that will bring about the change for which protestors around the world are calling. All the shouting, chanting, blocking traffic, lying on the ground, fighting, arguments on this side and that, even emerging agreements and amicable accords between opposing parties—and even the institution of new social-economic provisions for equal treatment—will not bring about the ultimate change for which we are crying. Unless, that is, unless and until, we are hooked up with the source of the kind of justice we want—just, caring, honest, compassionate, respectful and democratic treatment by and for every human being, everywhere.
The shorthand name for that source is Love. Unconditional, irreversible, unchanging and implicit love, in and for every human person. Another shorthand name for that source is God. God is love. And the reason for being hooked up to this source is that we are not. Not God. Not Love. Not unconditional. Not unchanging—clearly.
We have had shouting and chanting, looting and non-violent protesting, and great leaders pleading the cause of justice with compassion and integrity before. I was there. I was listening. I heard it with my own ears, huddling around a small TV with a black family in their living room on the 10th floor in “the projects” in New York City’s Lower East Side, August 28, 1963, watching Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking live from the March on Washington:
“One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. . . .
“There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. . . .
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’. . . I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. . . .
“And when this happens, and when we allow freedom [to] ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:
‘Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’ ” *
Electrifying truth. Broadcast loud and clear on the National Mall over a crowd of 250,000 people. Now, almost 60 years later, has King’s dream come true? Why not? One reason and one reason only. It is not complicated, though we might like it to be. In spite of decades of endless talk and accusation and guilt and argument and outrage and protest, and the eloquence of many distinguished leaders—where’s the dream? What’s missing?
What’s missing is everyone. Every single person on the planet coming from one core reality. Until this takes place, there is, and will always be, division. A rift. Me vs you. And with that division comes all the ills among human beings all across the world, without exception.
We can, and perhaps should, celebrate our differences—differences in our individual personalities, gifts, ways, humor, service, ideas, creativity, etc., and in our cultures, insofar as those cultures are built upon that core reality (none at the moment are.) But unless those differences rest on the deeper core commitment within each individual soul, the peace, justice, equality and unity we want cannot, by definition, obtain. By definition because universal peace and justice require unity of purpose and action, based on universal recognition of our “created” human equality. And that we do not have.
The slogan “We’re all in this together,” inspired by the global Corona pandemic, acknowledges our unity in the face of a common enemy. We are united in opposition to a deadly, insidiously contagious virus that has already sickened more than seven million people and killed more than 400,000 people on the planet—and continues to ravage the human community.
But the slogan is equally apt for the newly risen global uprising in the wake of the murder of George Floyd—an involuntary sacrificial lamb bringing to the world’s attention the reality of man’s inhumanity to man—in the present case, highlighting the long-standing inhumanity perpetrated upon human beings with skins of any other color but white. The fact that we are all in this state of inequity together means, with obvious logic, that we are all involved in the need to change it. How?
What is the one thing? What is the “core reality?” Not complicated. But perhaps difficult, maybe even excruciating for many, because of the deep internal change required to effect it. In a recent response to the “pandemic of the human spirit,” as he rightly called it, Bishop Michael Curry said the following:
“But there's another pandemic, not of the viral kind, but of the spiritual kind. … It is a pandemic of the human spirit, when our lives are focused on ourselves, when the self becomes the center of the world and of the universe. It is a pandemic of self-centeredness. …
“And that pandemic is the root cause of every humanly created evil that has ever been made. Every war that has ever been fought, every bigotry, every injustice, every wrong that has ever been wrought. Anytime a human being has hurt another human child of God directly or indirectly, explicitly or implicitly, at the root cause is me being the center of the world and you on the periphery. . . . Love is the antidote to that. Love is the cure for that. Love is what can help us remove that way of living and establish a way of life where we find life for us all.
“This past week, we have not only had to endure a pandemic occasioned by a virus, a viral pandemic, but we've had to endure and face a spiritual pandemic. The roots of self-centeredness where one person can look upon another person and despise and reject them, and not even behold them as a fellow child of God. . . .”
The bishop spoke about the killing of George Floyd as “a violation of basic human decency and dignity,” citing the names of eight other victims of police brutality.
“This is a painful path that we have been on for a long time,” he added, observing that despite advances in racial relationships, “this seems not to have changed at all.” He spoke at length about the difficulties inherent in our longstanding system of inequity, but encouraged all to seek to realize what Christ taught. “And this Jesus taught us that love will make a way out of no way.”
“If I make room for you, and you make room for me, and if we will work together to create a society where there is room for all of God's children, where every human being, every one of us is treated as a child of God, created in the image and likeness of God, where everybody is loved, everybody is honored, everybody is respected, everybody is created as a child of God. If we work together to build that kind of society and don't give up, then love can save us all.”**
While there is an almost endless number of issues that must be addressed and rectified world-wide in the coming months (and years), until and unless this necessary condition is met, the rest will never be untangled and set right.
And this condition is a joy—such a joy to experience. The most beautiful moment I have witnessed in these past few weeks of turmoil—a brief but brilliant glimpse I caught on the news—was a scene showing the police in all their blue regalia and the protesters in their jeans and bandanas, everybody masked, dancing together—in perfect unity, fun, freedom, and joy. It happened somewhere in Nebraska.
And it was so obvious, just dancing the Cupid Shuffle (aptly enough)—even if only for that moment—everybody was as one. No concepts needed. No cumbersome belief systems in play, no political machinations going on—just human beings, fully alive, dancing together. That was a moment of exactly what I am talking about. The one thing. The core reality.
The moment everybody in the human community around the globe is in that core reality is the moment when all these issues will be no more. They’ll evaporate just like smoke. Housing will be cleaned up. There will be no more exploitation. No more oppression. Rather than competition there will be cooperation. Rather than destruction there will be creativity and construction. Rather than suspicion and fear and guilt, there will be ease and love and respect. And joy!***
Picture it. Can’t hurt. Might help.
* Martin Luther King, Jr., March on Washington “I Have a Dream” speech, August 28, 1963
https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkihaveadream.htm
** Michael J. Curry, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church
https://episcopalchurch.org/posts/publicaffairs/presiding-bishop-michael-currys-pentecost-sermon-live-streamed-service
*** https://people.com/crime/nebraska-cops-do-the-cupid-shuffle-with-citizens-in-the-wake-or-protests-about-george-floyd/
Date
2020-06-10
Location
Hopkinton, RI
Collection
Citation
Becca Bender, “COVID-19 JOURNAL #8 PANDEMIC OF THE SPIRIT,” Rhode Island COVID-19 Archive, accessed July 7, 2024, https://ricovidarchive.org/index.php/items/show/520.
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