Corners inspire action. Is it claustrophobia? The breathlessness that urgently builds up to an explosive inhalation? Knocked back to consciousness to forcibly smell the coffee. Is action inevitable? How far must one be pushed? How far can one be pushed?
Is revolution realized when people awaken to the fact that it is no longer death that they fear but life?! For death is a swift truncation leaving little in terms of residue but memory that fades in and out of consciousness to eventually become a numb and distant recollection. Living, on the other hand, is constantly facing your demons, be they within and/or without. Living is constantly having to acknowledge your condition and perpetually keeping up your defenses as others paint you less-than, in an attempt to facilitate the planted self-destruction that constantly threatens to slowly and painfully obliterate you.
Living forces self-awareness and self-awareness fosters communication. And in a way, communication is vulnerability. For when the truth is opened up, it is unleashed with no holds barred. As it comes rushing out, in all directions, attempting to permeate all matter, it will inevitably enhance clarity of vision. And in really looking, often shown are the things that we would not have seen. But then it’s too late. The truth is out. And we must live its consequences every day. And death is tempting… but cowardly…
We are not oppressed so that we may literally die. In a way, oppression is opportunity, forcing us to innovate, to grow. A part of us dies to create space for new creation. We have to transcend the stigma of our chains — denounce the small-mindedness of those who would ridicule and hate us with such passion. We have to look past the frowns of our fathers and those who had plotted paths for us. Each person’s journey is their own and in their actualization shall they find resonance with all who strive to really live. Chains and bars do not death sentences make. They are merely challenges to live. and that is our purpose. The meaning of life is living… and is so often taken for granted.
Those who pity the persecuted are blinded to their own subjugation and are destined to stagnation. Those who embrace their situation find in it the seeds of determination to flourish.
The unlikely victors are those who turn their obstacles into aids.
Saturday, April 01, 2006
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7 comments:
Love your blog! You always take it to another level. I note the play on words with HIV/AIDS - was that intentional?
Well, it's a blog entry about triumph over oppression, in all its (many often disguised) forms. I think ignorance and (the usually associated) social stigma are perhaps the most covert yet most deadly of those forms. Silent killers if you like… The word play wasn't initially intentional–a mixture of appropriate coincidence and the realisation that the subject begged for it!
I agree - ignorance & social stigma are a dangerous combination! In the resource-poor settings the two are locked in a vicious cycle that has only one unfortunate outcome. However, you and I live in a time and place where armed with knowledge and freely available resources we can 'triumph over oppression' regardless of starting point Spread the word!
Word! And now we really need to start doing it! I think sometimes we really underestimate the potential of our reach. On an individual basis especially. I get riled by the prolific pessimism, especially with us younger generations, over possibilities for action and change. Do we have it so good that we see nothing that deserves a stand? You would almost think so. Reminds me of that poem, and excuse my poor memory that tends to butcher otherwise profound messages!!! Something about, cycles of persecution and how, no one stands in support of the persecuted and at the end of the day, it's you who is being persecuted and because you did not fight to help others, there is no one left to fight for you!
We could go into long debates (and perhaps we should!) over what went wrong and where… have we become so individualistic that we cannot fathom that there is a stronger connectivity at work here? Between ourselves, between us and our environment, between everything we see and things more intangible and ethereal?
I think this is the poem you are talking about:
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
Pastor Martin Niemöller
yes that's the one! cheers.
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