We all value honesty. It is a universal higher ideal, we encourage our children to be honest, we shame or even punish lies. Does anyone enjoy being lied to? Nope. Not much.
What about being honest with ourselves? Therein lies the slippery slope. Why is it so much easier to lie to ourselves? Probably because we want what we want when we want it. We do not like to go without, to give in or to be uncomfortable. It is easy to lie to ourselves to hear what we want to hear. Self talk is a powerful tool. It can, and does, shift the energy and draw towards us what we want or don’t want.
Culturally we wanted to celebrate the recent national holiday with our families and friends. We wanted to travel and go somewhere else, to be together, to get away from our day to day lives. Many many people obviously did. Crowded airports, crowded stores, crowded tables.
If we are being honest with ourselves we can perhaps acknowledge the lie we told to get there. The lie this virus is not a big deal, it’s not killing people, we are not at risk. The lie it’s going to go away on its own, without effort on our part, the lie of denial.
Honestly, I don’t get it. Then again I do. It is human nature it runs deep in our DNA it’s as natural as telling a small child not to put their hand on the hot stove then watching them get burned. People do not like to be told what to do. They rebel and they lie.
The human mind has an uncanny ability to justify. We are a nation divided in so many ways, but this divide over denial of a global pandemic and the affects it is having on our lives? In all honesty this is a divide which just might break us. The divide over social justice and inequality on so many levels is bad enough. The divide over guns, politics, ideology all really painful, dangerous, and distasteful. But this divide over the stark reality of the pandemic? Honestly.
I did not celebrate Thanksgiving this year with my family. Even though I work with my daughters everyday we all ate separately. Just me and my partner, in front of the TV like every other night. Why? Not because I am scared or trying to be a hero, but because I value and believe in the the spirit of cooperation, caring for one another. The good of the whole. We over Me. When I see the footage of holiday travel, and hear of large family gatherings it makes me despair. To witness the national lies and the resulting suffering all because we don’t like to be told what to do? We can’t sacrifice for each other? Honestly, it hurts my soul.
What exactly is modern about a society who cannot do this? Who argues over every little and big thing? Who kill one another not only with guns and violent intent but through lies and selfish behavior? We are all connected and we are hurting one another with our personal choices.
There is still hope, there is always love, we can turn this around by admitting to the lie and making a different choice. We can rescue ourselves. A large part of the divide knows this and is embracing it. We can save businesses, jobs, the economy, our homes our lifestyle. But we have to work together. No more denial and continuous justification of what may serve me in the moment but has a chilling retroactive effect on we.
This situation is arguably the largest bit of surrender we will ever face. Surrender to the honest truth of this thing. It is killing people. It is causing vast suffering and pain. It is not business as usual. There are bodies on ice, hospitals and staff overwhelmed and hurting, dreams lost, vast unemployment, hunger, destruction and real pain.
No one likes to be caught in a lie, but admitting to one, apologizing and striving for honesty the next time is growth. Growth equates to living, cause if we are not growing we are dead, honestly.