Wow! Two years. I should say something profound. I have achieved enlightenment. I am one with the world. I hate humanity. Something profound. Well, none of those.
I've written in past posts about what I've learned on this journey. My observations. My adventures. I guess that there are some other things I've discovered.
I have discovered that I can be friends with people who hold vastly different beliefs than mine about the meaning of life, justice, and faith. People I would never have sought out to be my friends. They're nice people. Some of them are even relatives.
I've discovered that regardless of political, religious, and personal beliefs, most people are nice people. There are some who simply hold so firmly to hatred that you can't get to the nice part, but even these have some aspect of love and kindness for someone. I've stopped demonizing people. I just take them as they come.
Fundamental to these discoveries is the discovery that we human beings are capable of holding two or more conflicting beliefs and ideals at the same time and adhering to them equally. Me, too. In the midst of a divorce, I honor no ideal more highly than the love of my wife and child. It's the way we are.
We can expound on patriotism and honor for our soldiers while flying the flag of a defeated enemy of the United States. We can denounce government or church interference in what goes on in the privacy of a bedroom between two consenting adults and demand that the government invade the privacy of individuals to regulate how they keep their guns in their homes. We can espouse love for all humanity, hatred for our enemies, concern for our environment, and denial of global warming at the same time.
We humans are masters of believing whatever we damn-well please and ignoring that the pink blouse simply doesn't go with the fuchsia pants.
We are fundamentally driven by greed. Whatever is good for me at this time is what is right and everyone should adhere to. We are more human than ever before in history.
I have found as I've traveled around the country that we like to erect monuments to events and that those monuments inherently defeat the purpose that we declare for them. The 911 Memorial does less to honor the brave men and women who lost their lives in self-sacrifice to save trapped people that it does to keep alive the hatred for people who caused the event. The Rebel Battle Flag does less to honor brave men who fought for what they believed than it does to keep alive divisive issues that continue to separate north and south. The longest undefended border in the world is not between The United States and Canada, but between The Union and The Confederacy. We memorialize the holocaust to increase division between Jews and the rest of the world, not to honor people who lost their lives. We memorialized black lives in order to demonize police and honor police in order to demonize the media.
It makes no difference whether we are liberal or conservative, Democrat or Republican, Christian, Jew, or Muslim. We will continue to support the social, political, and religious leaders who give us an outlet for our hatred, a reason that we are suffering, a scapegoat for our pain. We will continue to base our allegiance on anecdotes, soundbites, and slogans.
We will continue to believe that one person's honor, conviction, courage, love, or evil invalidates another's.
That doesn't seem like much to have learned in the past two years. In fact, it seems like I should have learned it in the previous sixty-four.
But I'm only human.
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