I am in despair
I find it incomprehensible that a child born, no matter the pigment of their skin, the endless possibilities of their skills, gender expressions, abilities and background, is considered an abomination by anyone.
The miracle of life, still beyond the capacity to fully understand, is that. A miracle.
Every time.
If there is a fractal of the divine, it is a new child born.
Or a baby animal. A rosebud bursting to bloom.
Birth is the miracle.
Yet we insist that the child born, even with their particularities and uniqueness, intrinsic to them, conform to our defined image of right and good. If they do not, they are discarded.
This was the way of the Nazis. The Aryan ideal. Perfect. Conformist. Fitting the tight box of stereotypes. The Nazis took it one step further. To the death camps. The medical experiments. Not just Jews. Roma. Gay people. The disabled. Any person who did not fit the Aryan idea.
This horrid, inhuman idea has not gone away. It shows up in different cultures and religions, not just the Western Christian expression. It is there in the Taliban. The Caste system in India. Within elements of Israel.
Perhaps it lies like a poisoned snake in the hearts of many of us. The shadow that rises when those in power give it oxygen. That deep longing to be superior. Right. Dominant. Exceptional.
It rises today. It is fed by the media. By politicians who have sold their souls to the highest bidder. By fear of the immigrant, or the other. By stories written thousands of years ago expressing rights to something at the exclusion of others.
I am in despair.
I believe the rise of this hate has crossed the Rubicon of no return.
I wonder where our compassion has gone.
Our humanity.
I see only a terrible breakdown as the way through.
Where those who have, live the pain of losing everything.
This is how we learn compassion. By being broken.
I hope I am wrong.
Yet unless we can find our way back to humanity, to compassion, for all life, then it is not a world I want to live in.
Photo January 27th, Article written January 27th, 2025.