Going back to normal isn't an option. It's not what we want as a collective anyway. We can do so much better than before. But right now I'd say we're doing worse than before, and if this world continues with the shaming, blaming and hatred, I doubt we'll ever find anything better than we had.
We were doing so well: educating each other, helping unravel past traumas by sharing and talking about it, giving permission to speak about history and opening up about social, ecological and economical disparities. We were on our way to reconciliation, to forgiveness, to allowing humans to be faulty and move towards healing.
It was all too positive and well-meaning. Not enough fighting. Not enough war-like mentality. We were treading the language of love and well-being, and we can't have any of that. It wouldn't represent us as a culture. We sure couldn't step up and out of our old patterns and ways of interacting with each other to form a better, more beautiful world ... no. We had to find people to blame for our discomfort, for the difficult feelings we experience because we live in a paradoxical world right now, in between stories of old and new, instead of continuing to talk to one another and learn. Grow, with the accompanying growing pains.
...do we remember why we're fighting?
We picked up our weapons so long ago we may not remember why we came out to the battlefield in the first place. Is it time to re-evaluate what ground we stand on, why we took our stance, where we'd like to be now? Look around; has progress been made amongst it all? Did we choose our weapon, or were we given a weapon and told using it was the only way to win this battle?
