A Change for Humanity

I met someone who was once beaten to a pulp and lay in a hospital with “eyes like plums” he describes it, broken nose packed with cotton. Who does these things? I’ve met people who have been raped; people whose parents and grandparents have physically or sexually tortured them; people with parents who abandoned them or raised them with such neglect the thought of human connection is foreign. I have read case studies that left me shaking and crying. Victims have no choice but to dissociate, as many as 70 million people learning to function with splits in their consciousness; with lack of awareness about the Dissociative Disorders most never get the help that they need. So much of the damage is done behind closed doors, evidence of the loss of deeper connection between families and communities. Neighbors and family members turn a blind eye, often too damaged themselves to step in and advocate for the innocent.

But, I am blessed to live in a country where when the secrets bust loose, when kids are old enough to report, when wives or husbands are brave enough to leave, there is a place to go; there are services available to help. I live in a country where we can speak our minds and practice any religion we choose. We can celebrate our government or criticize and protest. 

Yet, by and large, we are consumers, striving for more things outside of ourselves to fill up the unnamable, confusing emptiness inside of us - slow to eliminate plastic, to recycle and compost, to eat healthfully, to break habits that pollute our ocean, skies and bodies. For this reason addiction is rampant. We are willing to turn a blind eye to preserve what we consider is safe and easy. We think it’s okay to frack and build pipelines that carry tar sands oil despite what happened to the Kalamazoo River. That could NEVER happen to us. But it has happened to us. We are one. Every tragedy is personal. I live an hour from where the Aurora shootings occurred and one of my daughters was at the Batman midnight premiere. There but for the grace of God goes she. We mourn the news, yet we are detached. The top 1% has a carbon footprint the equivalent of a small country - all of our footprints are too big. We are afraid of what we don’t know and hesitate to venture outside of our box. The computer culture is detaching us from our actual lives – we are beginning to lose sight of what is actually present in our immediate environment.

All that being said, I believe in people.

What’s the answer? Tell personal stories to feel less alone. Be discrete about the stories you retell. Listen. Create a culture of service. Pray. Focus on the positive. Be accountable. Listen. Reach out. Be tolerant. Stand up for the innocent. Get out into Nature. Dance. Leave your comfort zone. Be an example of love and peace. Seek and receive help. Forgive. A lot of forgiveness which means searching your memories, plumbing the depths to forgive as far back in time as even your ancestors can remember. Every action, every prayer, every example you set of tolerance and love is a step closer to change for humanity. God Goddess Big Beautiful Universal Loving Energy, please bless us all!

For information about Dissociation, please read Dr. Marlene Steinberg's A Stranger in the Mirror: Dissociation - the Hidden Epidemic.