Them-ing

I have tripped over paint – I swear it was really thick – and have only owned a handful of high heeled shoes as walking agilely atop them has always been out of my reach.  Graceful of body I am not. Never have been – and now have a disease that assures I never will be. In the traditional sense of walking in heels with a book on my head.  C’est la vie.  We all have our weaknesses. And our strengths.

I aspire to be graceful of mind and spirit. To achieve elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, oration.  At least sometimes. Here – and if my Muse joins me — elsewhere too.  To lace the page with words that will show all of us a reflection upon which to grow.  To remind ourselves that even though current societies are intent on ‘them-ing’ people, that we are all God’s children and thus share the grace that is humanity.

I’m embarrassed to say, and I don’t think I’m alone here, but my first reaction to the horror that was the shooting at the Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood airport earlier this month was relief. Relief when I learned that the perpetrator did not have a Muslim name.  This is one of the effects that the au courant ‘them-ing’ has had on me.  Fear. Fear that takes me out of the moment of horror and into the fear that it might lead to a backlash of hatred, bred of fear, that will lead to more violent outbursts of frustration that provoke more fear, which leads to more ‘them-ing’.

I’m scared that the rise in school bullying since the presidential election will continue. And worse, I fear that it will be normalized in my divided country… which will lead to more ‘them-ing’ which will breed more division leading to more fear, to the backlash that such fear creates … and come full circle back to the isolation and the violence it gestates.

All of us – and them – are God’s children.  Let’s focus on the individual foibles that we hate – the SOB, regardless of race, creed or color, who took the last parking spot at Costco.  Let’s worry about the individual we know – and hate or fear for good reasons – not the potentially bad Skittle seeking a shot at the American Dream.  All of us – and them – are human beings.