Superiority? Really? Let's Think This Through

For reasons I don’t understand I’m called to look back into history in order to try to discern how and why women became regarded as property and of value only to the extent men wished them to bear children.  I am not a feminist (but do not begrudge them at all) but a soul who finds great distaste in any form of oppression of souls condemned to be lesser by those who foist themselves up as greater.  Call it a character flaw if you will but it discomforts me greatly to see such a long history of abuse that is still often perpetuated today.  In History as a Weapon by Howard Zinn, you can see in the United States at least in its very early beginnings, the dismal manner in which women were treated merely because they were women.  Then a quick glance around the internet and we see that many women around the world throughout history were great leaders.  A quick excerpt of many of them can be found at http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/rulers.html.  So I wonder, why, why were women treated so horribly?  Why were women singled out to become mere property and other too dismal to expand upon objects? It’s really a question there is no answer to other than in my own opinion, fear and stupidity.

In my querying I mean to position neither of the sexes as superior to the other but to point out that mistreatment based on sex alone, religion alone or culture alone is of the same ilk…fear and stupidity.  I usually keep my opinions to myself but I’m bothered by mistreatment of any class for any reason.  The depth of which this subject bothers me is I see it in the world, I see it in my own neighborhood and I hear it on the news which I try hard not to watch (but since others do and talk about it, I still must hear the horrors perpetuated by the unaware and woefully unawakened).  As much as it disappoints and even at times causes me much pain, I cannot sink to the same level as those who created the problems to begin with.  I will not hate.  It’s just a personal commitment I have made to myself.  I will become not one bit a part of the problem but I cannot stand by and watch it consistently perpetuated and have no feelings either - I think.  I can pray or join an organization and stand with greater voices and numbers to help decry the wrongs and strive to help put them right through education but never ever could I engage in the violence so many choose when feeling as I do just now. 

I see the reports of youth carrying out random acts of violence based solely on color of skin or choice of romantic entanglement and it makes me want to cry.  Why do we raise a whole generation of children perpetuating even more fear and loathing of our racial, religious, sexual or political differences?  We could accomplish so much more in this world if we stood together side by side in the one manner that unifies every single one of us on the planet.  I refer to us all being members of the human race.  If we stood together unified, without any fear of each other or without the need for control by the men declaring superiority over the women, or the white declaring supremacy over the black or the perfectly religious over those wrongly considered mere and vile pagans, we might be able to help each other through this thing we call life.

I realize that the incredulous feeling that rises within me is merely yet another message from me to me for me to figure out and better understand. I have great capacity for understanding both the oppressors and the oppressed but where does that leave me other than greatly conflicted as I read of or learn about the latest heinous activity committed during the day?  Why can we not have a society in which everyone has a better and more equal role?  We are so smart and resourceful today.  Why can we not find a way to use the strength of that intelligence and resourcefulness to teach our children to choose love over hate, to stand up for what is morally right, to live in this world giving their best to contribute to the human race as a whole rather than to just a select few deemed worthy only by a select few who claim worthiness to determine worthiness?

I grew up very poor in the welfare system.  My parents were uneducated and unable to cope with the intricacies of the workings of the world in which they found themselves.  They were looked down upon by others because they were good looking people but were so very poor.  Under-performers were they judged and maybe that was so but they had a right to be respected as human beings.  So does every poor person, every homeless person, every addicted person, every soul who has had to steal to feed their families and even every criminal who is acting out the perpetual cycle of victim turned villain by pain and abuse.  If we could stop this cycle of fear and hate maybe the pain would finally end.  But that is my very human side that cries out in pain for all of those who were wounded and thrown away.  My heart will always ache for them but then again,  maybe not all is horribly and irretrievably lost.  

Maybe if we were to pay attention to the themes and roles that are occurring right now at this point in the history of this planet and see how it has repeated in nearly all societies throughout the civilized history of this planet, we might just learn something.  If we could look to the good and focus on creating more of that and if we could look to the bad that hurt those societies and brought them crumbling to the ground and then refused to engage in or perpetuate that, maybe life could be better on Earth.   Maybe Pollyanna is my twin sister huh?

I’m afraid I have no real answers, just a heavy heart this morning seeking broader resolution that may never come.  It may never come because I live in a framework not designed to resolve these dilemmas of thought I’m choosing to assign emotion to in this moment.  In a single moment I can dispassionately re-review history, I can re-review the news reports and see everything as if it is a book of lessons from which we are all given the opportunity to learn and I mean really learn.  As with all students, some will take a class and pass, get the lesson and move on to their next class thus achieving the goals of their lesson plan overall.  Some will take the class, miss the concepts the lessons were designed to teach and be doomed to fail the class thus having to repeat it or give up altogether on the goal of mastering their education.  I’ve referred to this place, this beautiful planet in our Milky Way Galaxy as the Earth School and I do so on purpose.  Perhaps I am but learning one of the hardest lessons of this place and that is that it just is what it is concerning prejudice, judgment, hate, idiocy, stupidity, pain, suffering and missing opportunities out of nothing but fear.  

The only choice that I can find the courage and strength to muster is just to love all whether or not I understand the reasons why they do this or that or not do this or that.  Women are not lesser beings than men.  Black men are not lesser beings than white men.  Gay, Lesbian and Transgender human beings are not lesser than heterosexual human beings.  Members who choose one form of religious expression are not lesser than human beings who choose other forms of religious expression or no religious expression at all.  This I understand and must still love all regardless because that is who I am.  I must realize that I stand in a framework here that I do not totally and completely understand and my role is not to turn the tides on everything wrong in this place but to seek to understand it and learn from it.  At some point, perhaps, I’ll stop grieving for those I see so horribly mistreated and realize that they may just be the bravest and most amazing souls that ever existed because of the sacrifices they selflessly made so that those of us watching would learn and see.  My deepest respect goes to them all throughout all time past, present and into the future.  

I can share nothing else with these series of thoughts anything other than a hope.  My hope is for greater compassion in each human being on this planet, greater understanding and love to eradicate fear and greater tolerance and understanding to end the suffering of those who are different.  Realizing that in this world where my true power to affect change lies is in one place and in one place only…within me, I now understand there is much I can do.  I can change my thoughts and how I assign emotion.  If I can heal from the pain I see in this world, I know that I can create the energy and a path for others to follow.  If I can learn, hold compassion, love and understanding, I can create a pathway for others to follow, just as I have followed the path after those who learned before me.  I need more coffee and a moment of silence in the stillness of this cool summer morning to appreciate all that is and all who have lived and do live here in this framework today.  Oh, and one more thing, on the men versus women thing (and this may certainly have broader applicability to all the other better than issues I have cited), I truly believe we each have strengths and weaknesses.  I believe truly that when we come together we all gain from our strengths.  One sex is not better than the other but when both sexes work together in love, harmony and respect...great and amazing things come.  That's it for my morning caffeine induced ramblings.  ~May the Source bless each and every one of you with courage and strength, much love and healing light.  Have a blessed day.

(c) 2013 Jaie Hart (the photo is of Anne Hutchinson that I found randomly on the internet.  You can read more about her here:  http://www.annehutchinson.com/anne_hutchinson_biography_001.htm)



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