05-30-2020, 07:58 PM
I live in Louisville, Kentucky, one of the areas where recent protesting turned destructive the past couple of nights. Emotions are particularly high here in Louisville because a woman was recently murdered by police officers who were executing a no-knock raid on the wrong residence. So far, no one has been held accountable for her death. It is a heartbreaking situation.
In grappling with my own catalyst and emotions in the situation, I find awareness centering on the same theme of catalyst that has been ever-present in my mind these past few years: the social discourse. Of course, I am absolutely heartbroken by the violent deaths that seeded these protests. But it seems especially challenging to me that not everyone is heartbroken, that not everyone tries to understand the anger and pain of the black community, that everyone is not on the same page. It feels so obvious to me.
But that is my own reality, and I also realize it is not realistic to expect everyone to experience the same reality as us. One thing that really hurts me is that there is such a lack of an attempt to understand among the social discourse. Witnessing arguments and discussions that play out over social media, it seems to me that most everyone already has an opinion and is simply engaged in a battle to allow their opinion to reign victorious, rather than a conversation. Typical internet discussion feels like it is devoid of compassion.
What I’d like to do with this thread is offer a space for a couple purposes:
1) Discuss how compassion might be offered during times of high emotion and social strife, like now, especially when engaging in discussion with those we disagree with.
2) Share our feelings about the current strife, whether it’s specific to the ongoing protests or just the general social strife in our culture that seems to be ongoing. I encourage a focus on claiming ownership of our feelings and discussing our internal world with an angle of desiring to use this as catalyst to increase our capacity to love.
I would like to request, with all of my heart, that the energies of debate and argument be set aside for this thread. I would like to focus on the compassion element – if you feel the desire to prove a point, to refute a claim, to engage in debate, I ask that you instead ask yourself, “How can I compassionately engage in an attempt to understand?”
(I’m not saying that debate, argument, and disagreement have no purpose. I am asking that this thread not be the space for that.)
I share this with love for you all, and with prayers for healing all divisions present in our society.
In grappling with my own catalyst and emotions in the situation, I find awareness centering on the same theme of catalyst that has been ever-present in my mind these past few years: the social discourse. Of course, I am absolutely heartbroken by the violent deaths that seeded these protests. But it seems especially challenging to me that not everyone is heartbroken, that not everyone tries to understand the anger and pain of the black community, that everyone is not on the same page. It feels so obvious to me.
But that is my own reality, and I also realize it is not realistic to expect everyone to experience the same reality as us. One thing that really hurts me is that there is such a lack of an attempt to understand among the social discourse. Witnessing arguments and discussions that play out over social media, it seems to me that most everyone already has an opinion and is simply engaged in a battle to allow their opinion to reign victorious, rather than a conversation. Typical internet discussion feels like it is devoid of compassion.
What I’d like to do with this thread is offer a space for a couple purposes:
1) Discuss how compassion might be offered during times of high emotion and social strife, like now, especially when engaging in discussion with those we disagree with.
2) Share our feelings about the current strife, whether it’s specific to the ongoing protests or just the general social strife in our culture that seems to be ongoing. I encourage a focus on claiming ownership of our feelings and discussing our internal world with an angle of desiring to use this as catalyst to increase our capacity to love.
I would like to request, with all of my heart, that the energies of debate and argument be set aside for this thread. I would like to focus on the compassion element – if you feel the desire to prove a point, to refute a claim, to engage in debate, I ask that you instead ask yourself, “How can I compassionately engage in an attempt to understand?”
(I’m not saying that debate, argument, and disagreement have no purpose. I am asking that this thread not be the space for that.)
I share this with love for you all, and with prayers for healing all divisions present in our society.
_____________________________
The only frontier that has ever existed is the self.
The only frontier that has ever existed is the self.