As I look back on the last year or so there have been times when I felt the full brunt of hate- either for my religion, political views, my color, my sex, my status in life, my art, etc...
This actually is not new to me as when I lived and grew up in Hawaii in the 60s and 70s- I was introduced to hatred, fear, and persecution in the local public schools. I had blond hair and white skin. "
A haole."In the 20th Century, in some schools in Hawaii the last day of school was called "Kill Haole Day" when they were teased, called names or beat up.[1] This is the life I lived from 1968-1976.
Apparently the tradition still lives:
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?294d9da5-dbb5-40e9-8f94-13712a73408cIn Elementary school I was placed in the back of the school room in the last row in the corner - in front of me was a sea of dark haired children that ostracized me because of my race. In junior high I was bullied and never went to the bathroom for fear of my life from gangs of girls toting numchucks and knives- these "children" a combination of Samoan, Hawaiian , Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino, ruled the schools with terror- the public school system there at the time was no better than any poor inner city school in America. High school was no better -drugs and alcohol were everywhere along with the violence.
Now days people ostracise and persecute for even more reasons
or no reason at all. You can find it even within your own church--- any church, mosque, or temple. It is even prevalent in the vocation of pursuing art.
Some of the deeper teachings of my faith teach me to to radically forgive people and to pursue a life of obscurity and humbleness- to
not cry out even if they are wrong -to show nothing but love even up to death.
I realize this is a great painful truth and yet if I embrace it- I am greatly consoled. Freedom within this practice brings peace.
It saddens my spirit deeply to see this world in every corner and dimension so polarized - so ready to argue and fight, backstabbing and employing subterfuge to obtain superiority only to realize that it is elusive.
I constantly wonder when accosted by this hate- where does this come from?- what have I done? I would gladly make amends for peace if I knew how I might have offended these people. It occurred to me that I don't need to know for the reasons are sometimes not even known by these people. Ultimately I am the same as them: a sinner like all
Ecclesiastes Chapter 1
1 1 The words of David's son, Qoheleth, king in Jerusalem:
2 2 Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!
3 3 What profit has man from all the labor which he toils at under the sun?
4 One generation passes and another comes, but the world forever stays.
5 The sun rises and the sun goes down; then it presses on to the place where it rises.
6 Blowing now toward the south, then toward the north, the wind turns again and again, resuming its rounds.
7 All rivers go to the sea, yet never does the sea become full. To the place where they go, the rivers keep on going.
8 4 All speech is labored; there is nothing man can say. The eye is not satisfied with seeing nor is the ear filled with hearing.
9 What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun.
10 Even the thing of which we say, "See, this is new!" has already existed in the ages that preceded us.
11 5 There is no remembrance of the men of old; nor of those to come will there be any remembrance among those who come after them.
12 I, Qoheleth, was king over Israel in Jerusalem,
13 and I applied my mind to search and investigate in wisdom all things that are done under the sun. A thankless task God has appointed for men to be busied about.
14 6 I have seen all things that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a chase after wind.
15 What is crooked cannot be made straight, and what is missing cannot be supplied.
16 Though I said to myself, "Behold, I have become great and stored up wisdom beyond all who were before me in Jerusalem, and my mind has broad experience of wisdom and knowledge";
17 yet when I applied my mind to know wisdom and knowledge, madness and folly, I learned that this also is a chase after wind.
18 For in much wisdom there is much sorrow, and he who stores up knowledge stores up grief.
Posts
