A Perspective(from FB note 4/1/2010)

It is an interesting thing today to look at the world around me. A world of machismo and self righteous auras of blamelessness that permeate our society about as thoroughly as a skunk smell infests everything in the general area when one's flattened on the highway. It bugs the living hell out of me, to say the least. But that's not really why I'm writing this now. I'm writing this because of how points of view relate to this. It gives us a very, from my point of view, false point of view on the nature of what these ideals mean and the calling I think this age is giving to us. What do they mean to us? Strength. Power.

But this is wrong, utterly. Instead it is the opposite, it is weakness, pure and simple. The strong is not the person who shrugs off others, who seems to stand unassailable by blame, who pushes their point of view across at the expense of all others, because they're not. They are not immune to blame, they are instead just dodging it. It is weakness to be unable to help shoulder the feelings of others and feel their pain, let it pierce them as powerfully as it stabbed the person who's hurting. It is weakness to close your mind to that which you should let in to broaden your understanding of the rest of our world and society. The strong is the one who stands arm and arm with another when they feel pain and pulls them back up to their feet, the strong is the one who stands with their head held high and says "i was wrong". It is the strong who puts their own ego aside to take a minute and just sit and listen to what the other side has to say. The people who do these things, who shoulder others' pains, who listen and who take blame as well are strong because these people carry many burdens. They are strong because they do it believing no more than it is the right thing to do, and they do it for relatively nothing in return but the satisfaction of having done the right thing.

Why else do I say it is weakness to be self-righteous and avoid feelings and emotion? Because doing such things are products of fear, of course. It is because those who prescribe to this are afraid to accept it, to accept the pains of others and the humiliation of blame. Afraid to accept the possibility we are in fact wrong, or in the wrong. This may perhaps make us the weakest society on the face of the earth. No wonder we're declining. Really, we're little more than a decadent, festering former power so wrapped up in ourselves we can hardly acknowledge anything outside our own minds anymore. Most of us no longer have our own principles, we adopt them from another to ease our own minds and then if it's wrong you still have someone else to blame. I am not this, and proud to be. Instead I question, everything. I question the motivations of my government in all things, as much as I question those who oppose it. But I question not out of suspicion, but out of a desire to know, to know why all sides are doing what they do. I am there for any who ask my help, and I give it gladly knowing I am a good person for it. I always leave room for the fact I may be wrong, and can do wrong, for I am human and thus fallible. I have made many mistakes, and fully admit them, and have no reason to believe I'll stop making them.

That is my message to you all. Be strong; stand with one another and share their pains. Think outside yourself and express tenderness for another human being in a way that goes beyond your own self interests. We are only as strong as we are together. Enough of this petty infighting that divides us and weakens us. Enough of this pulling into ourselves and denial of the very emotions that make us human and strong. Those who believe such things are desirable qualities are are not to be revered or respected... but pitied. Pity those who cannot or refuse to feel such things as another's emotions. Pity those who live wrapped in their own self righteousness afraid of failure and their own humanity. Read these words here and question yourself, what kind of a person am I? Am I strong, or am I afraid? From my point of view, I am strong. Who's with me, and for those who aren't, who'll join me?